So is the whole Staingate still a thing on these more recent MacBooks does anyone know? Or has apple now fixed this issue… deliberating whether to keep the thing paper between my keys and screen when I close my Mac…
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Is Staingate still a thing?
- Thread starter James Godfrey
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Hard to say. I think Mac screens are like a lottery. Sometimes you win a good screen that has a durable anti reflective coating and sometimes you don’t. I don’t think that has changed.
I think the bigger issue is everyone has a different make up and use. The keyboard is close to the screen when closed. This means there is a high possibility that the oils and whatever other elements that are on your keyboard can be transferred to the screen. If there are any acids combined with oils they could conceivably deteriorate the AR coating.
Apple doesn’t specify what type of AR coating they use or if it is resistant to oils or scratches.
So in my personal opinion I would be cautious. I think the problem with the paper is it is so thin oils could transfer through the paper and you would have to be careful not to accidentally flip the paper side that faces the keys onto the screen.
Personally I wipe the keyboard itself with a microfiber cloth and sometimes add a propylene glycol plastic monitor safe based cleaner to remove any debris and oils that accumulate on the keyboard after each use and close the laptop.
The other problem with cloths beside the paper you are referring to is the thickness of the cloth could cause stress on the hinge or if debris gets on the cloth like dust particles that are abrasive they may actually damage the screen.
It is unfortunately a complicated issue. It would be nice if Apple disclosed what type of AR coating they use. It would also be nice if they used a milspec type coating that would be scratch resistant.
The answer is no one really knows so caveat emptor applies.
I think the bigger issue is everyone has a different make up and use. The keyboard is close to the screen when closed. This means there is a high possibility that the oils and whatever other elements that are on your keyboard can be transferred to the screen. If there are any acids combined with oils they could conceivably deteriorate the AR coating.
Apple doesn’t specify what type of AR coating they use or if it is resistant to oils or scratches.
So in my personal opinion I would be cautious. I think the problem with the paper is it is so thin oils could transfer through the paper and you would have to be careful not to accidentally flip the paper side that faces the keys onto the screen.
Personally I wipe the keyboard itself with a microfiber cloth and sometimes add a propylene glycol plastic monitor safe based cleaner to remove any debris and oils that accumulate on the keyboard after each use and close the laptop.
The other problem with cloths beside the paper you are referring to is the thickness of the cloth could cause stress on the hinge or if debris gets on the cloth like dust particles that are abrasive they may actually damage the screen.
It is unfortunately a complicated issue. It would be nice if Apple disclosed what type of AR coating they use. It would also be nice if they used a milspec type coating that would be scratch resistant.
The answer is no one really knows so caveat emptor applies.
Thanks for the info… I think I will just wipe over the keys with a micro fibre cloth after each use to ensure no debris or oils build up over time and hope for the best, I have considered putting a thin microfibre glasses cloth on keys before closing the lid but hear horror stories of hinge issues or screen cracks etc as the MacBooks themselves are made with extremely tight tolerances.
I have also considered a screen protector but again these can be hard to apply on a laptop and could end up having same issues as stated above.
Spigen one for MBP is great. Moshi (which, historically, has made good screen protectors) has begun selling ones for MBP and for MBA.
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I have had a look on Amazon at Spigen as their iPhone/iPad glass protectors are awesome, but after looking at the review there are quite a few who have had issues with screen protectors on their MacBooks, from cracked screen, to the anti reflective coating being removed when removing the protector and also the laptops not closing fully. So I think I am going to give a screen protector a miss… thanks for the suggestion though
If you've got time would you please post a link to one of those reviews? I'm interested most of all in the 'coating being removed' example? Spigen product doesn't have adhesive on the entire surface -- just around the perimeter. Spigen is glossy; Moshi, they say, is matte. I use Spigen and I'm quite happy with it.
It is real and still a thing, depending on how one handles / cleans the screen. I would keep the thin white sheet between the screen and keyboard.
These are just a few of the reviews on Amazon UK (you need to filter them by 1 star).
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It’s this one here, there are similar issues with the M2 Air version from Spigen also, although there are only 15 reviews of it at the moment on Amazon UK
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Which recent Mac models have you seen this happen to?
I would love to hear about this happening to machines released after 2017. My work has hundreds of Macs and this was a huge problem going back from 2017, but from 2018 and after our internal support team has not seen a single issue.
The watch industry solved this problem ages ago. Yes, you get the best AR effect if you coat both sides but the outside coat always wears out. That's why watch manufacturers almost exclusively only put AR coatings on the inside of the glass. I wouldn't be surprised if Apple has now been doing this too.
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Yeah looking online I haven’t seen any reports of staingate other then 2017 or beforehand, hence why I posted on here to check to see how much protection I need to give to my MacBooks screen…
Keyboard-gate certainly is. If you carry your MB in a backpack prepare for the dreaded keyboard marks. Even a cloth over the keyboard still transfers but at least the screen won't get marred.