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honest feedback from those who have the 2010 15" hi res antiglare screen

O

osmosis

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Aug 13, 2010
2
0
Well first off, Hi everyone :)

Now ive been following these forums for quite some time and basically about to pull the trigger on a 15" macbook pro, from what I gather it seems that there are some issues with the card switching technology that apple has implemented (i.e. freezing and much lower battery life than expected) however these should hopefully be resolved by the (crosses fingers) imminent graphics update. However my question is to those individuals who have bought the 15" hi res antiglare screen: do u feel it was worth it? do u notice the supposed washed out colours? do you envy individuals that have the glossy screens?

I myself am just about to head off to university in october, now some people may argue that why not just get the standard glossy display, but the thing is i see it as though your taking a knock in the productivity of your laptop by not having a matte screen, i mean it allows you to work wherever the glossy screen would have been usable, but it also allows you to work where the glossy wouldnt, when i compared the two in store, yes the glossy screen seemed slightly more popier in terms of contrast but the matte screen allowed you to view the entire screen without any distractions. So basically just wanted CURRENT OWNERS feelings on the issue, do u regret purchasing the antiglare screen, if so why? if not why?

Thankyou for taking the time to read the post, i appreciate that its rather lengthy but this is quite a large purchase for me and i dont want to get something i will later regret :)

regards osmosis
 
I have recently gotten my 15" Hi Res AG. But you'll probably be better at naming the differences, because I haven't actually seen them side by side.

I do realize that the glossy one might have more "Wow factor". But for the lest half year or so, I've been using a netbook with a glossy screen.. And been annoyed with it many times, due to reflections. I was regularly forced to have the screen at all kinds of weird angles to fight them off, just so I could see what I was doing.

So for me it was really a no-brainer, and I certainly haven't regretted it. It's a very nice screen to use.

And regarding the bezel, I was worried that the grey one might look a bit boring.. But I'm quite happy with that too, I feel that the design is cleaner without the black bezel.
 
I don't regret my purchase at all. Every time I use my friends laptop which has a glossy screen it reminds me how glad I am that I paid a bit more for the AG. The reflections bug me a lot and I can't ignore them like some people on here are able to. The colours don't seem washed out at all either. Everyone is different though, you can't beat comparing the two if you have the option.
 
The difference in colour saturation is there, but whether more saturated is "better" is another question altogether. ;)

I have a matte screen, and I wouldn't buy a 15" glossy. It's just not worth it.


I get around 5-6 hours of battery life if all I'm doing is writing reports (whether WiFi is turned on or off). I don't leave Bluetooth on. If I'm sitting somewhere with dim lighting, where you can get away with a dimmer brightness setting and still be comfortable, I can easily get 6 hours with WiFi turned off and at 75% screen brightness.
 
I have often wondered do all you matt screen fans sit in gardens a lot? Or with large windows facing the sun behind your back?

The reason I ask is that I have never been annoyed by reflections with my MBP, but the only window in the room I mostly use it in is in front of me, so it doesn't affect the screen. Considering how much more contrasty the shiny screen is why not, if you ever get reflections just move your chair, or get out of the garden?

doris
 
I recently moved to an apartment, with fairly large windows in most rooms. Reflections have been annoying, but yes they could be bettered by sitting in different places. But it's just an annoyance I'd rather be without, therefore the AG screen.
 
The difference between my parents 2009 15.4 AG MBP my 2010 HR AG 15.4 MBP is big. When you look side by side at them my parents looks like a cartoon. The font sizes and the general size of everything is so much larger on the non HR screen.
 
I love antiglare and that's why I chose it. I never liked glossy displays and none of them my monitors are glossy either.

The high resolution was just a bonus… and I love it as well.

If I were you, I'd go to the Apple Store and use the antiglare model for like an hour. I don't think they'll mind especially if it helps make your decision. That way you can gauge whether or not the high resolution display is for you—if it isn't then antiglare isn't even on the table; if it is good for you, then I can't imagine going wrong with antiglare.
 
doktordoris said:
I have often wondered do all you matt screen fans sit in gardens a lot? Or with large windows facing the sun behind your back?

The reason I ask is that I have never been annoyed by reflections with my MBP, but the only window in the room I mostly use it in is in front of me, so it doesn't affect the screen. Considering how much more contrasty the shiny screen is why not, if you ever get reflections just move your chair, or get out of the garden?

doris
Click to expand...

My previous work MBP had a glossy screen, and after the first few days, I didn't consciously notice any reflections because I got used to it.

When it came time to upgrade, I went for the newest matte screens, and I haven't regretted it. The major pro? The headaches have stopped, despite the higher resolution (and smaller text).

Here's a side-by-side comparison from when I first got this one. I didn't rearrange them in any way to make the older one look worse, although the background color on the older one shows reflections more than in normal use..
 

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The people on here with the AG option, you'll sure have a hard time getting them to admit they're jealous of the glossy owners. :D
 
plinden said:
When it came time to upgrade, I went for the newest matte screens, and I haven't regretted it. The major pro? The headaches have stopped, despite the higher resolution (and smaller text).
Click to expand...

That's actually very interesting. I just received my refurb i5 Antiglare Hi-res screen and while I was doing initial setup I got a mad headache that I actually had to stop using it.
I also tried it the following day and got the headache again. I started digging and it looks like reason for them is that text on screen looks fuzzy to me.
Problem is I don't have anything to compare it to and it might be that my refurb had a bad display. I love the resolution of it but its kind of hard to use with headaches.
Before this one I had 13" glossy macbook pro and 15" glossy macbook pro and never got a headache. So at this point its hard to figure out the cause. I guess I'm going to stop by apple store next week and take a look at another anti glare model to try to figure out what the problem is.
 
I reviewed the matte and glossy side by side in an Apple Store (Vancouver) and I think the matte is by far the better screen, in fact I will buy this one once the next version comes out. Its such a great laptop.
 
doktordoris said:
I have often wondered do all you matt screen fans sit in gardens a lot? Or with large windows facing the sun behind your back?

The reason I ask is that I have never been annoyed by reflections with my MBP, but the only window in the room I mostly use it in is in front of me, so it doesn't affect the screen. Considering how much more contrasty the shiny screen is why not, if you ever get reflections just move your chair, or get out of the garden?

doris
Click to expand...

The OP asked for feedback from the matte screened Macbook Pro owners only so this is not a glossy vs. matte debate thank you. :p


To the OP, I have a new 15" Macbook Pro i5 antiglare model and I will never go back to the glossy Macbooks as long as Apple offers antiglare. I had a 13" MBP and I had such a hard time with reflections from even the slightest vibrations on the table because it would cause the screen to shake slightly and the reflections really caused me a problem. Turning up the brightness did nothing because the bezel is still reflective. Honestly, in the real world we encounter bright lights from overhead, room lighting in the background and sitting by windows so it's just plain stupid to have to adjust your notebook computer's position to accommodate this.

My 15" antiglare has colors that are very natural, I do a lot of creation of brochures using Pages and when I go to the printers my Pages docs print out exactly how they look on my screen so there's no way the colors could be washed out. My old 13" MBP never matched my print outs.

Apple has made matte screen Macs up until late 2006 so this is not new to them, the glossy is new to them so I will say that I felt the same way and didn't know if I should get another glossy MBP or not? You won't regret it getting the antiglare, most people don't. :)
 
Thanks everyone for the replies, well I've ordered the hires antiglare on the base model, should be here by net Thursday, once again thanks for the replies, oh and when I was talking about the graphics update I was refering to the SOFTWARE update that should help smooth out any of the current problems.
 
I haven't noticed any glare problems with my glossy MBP. My iPad, however, is really annoying. Watching a movie on that thing is frustrating, especially during dark scenes. I am considering getting an anti-glare screen protector for it.

I think if the hi-res display had a black bezel, I would have opted for it strictly for the higher resolution, and not because of the glare.
 
I have the 17'' MBP with the anti-glare screen, and I definitely agree with the other posters here who have said that they love the screen. Before I got this computer, I had one of the 15'' glossy unibody models, and I hated the screen. Fingerprints were very noticeable, especially on the bezel, as it has no backlight to drown them out. Also, the anti-glare screen can give you a de facto increase in battery life, as you can use the screen on a lower brightness setting than the glossy screen could be used at in identical conditions.
 
Adidas Addict said:
The people on here with the AG option, you'll sure have a hard time getting them to admit they're jealous of the glossy owners. :D
Click to expand...

That's like saying someone who bought a Porsche 911 is jealous of someone else who bought a Boxster.
 
I was debating the Anti-Glare at first. But I'm really happy with my choice. I feel like the computer looks cleaner with the silver bezel, and I really didn't want the glossy screen. Here's an other picture to help you. :p

macbook-pro-high-res-matte-vs-glossy.JPG
 
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