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Macbook Pro Anti Glare COATING - potential problems

neondrgns

neondrgns

macrumors regular
Original poster
Jan 28, 2010
162
0
So does anyone worry about the anti-glare coating on a macbook pro screen

I mean does anyone really know what it is?

Like I was saying in another thread, if the mbp anti glare coated screen is anything like glasses then that coating is not permanent
I've been told by people at pearle vision and lenscrafters that the coating after just some normal wear by cleaning it even with a soft cotton which they recommend and the recommended spray, the coating will flake off from 6months to a years time depending.

This could be a huge problem as I've had glasses which look completely scratched up because the coating is coming off...eventually if this problem will be on the mbp screen then its gonna look like someone sanded down parts of your screen
 
From what I can tell, there is no coating on the screen, they just omit the glass from the screen. That is why the matte screens don't have the black bezel the glossy ones have. I could be wrong though.

TEG
 
TEG is right. There is no coating on the matte screen. There are dozens of threads on this.
 
Even if the "coating" on a MBP were to "flake off" (which it won't) compared to your eyeglasses, you're not going to be rubbing on the surface of the display with the same force and frequency.

This is not an issue.
 
Remember, before the unibody MBPs, all PowerBooks/MBPs were "anti-glare" screens. Actually, I think they were marketed as "matte", but they were the same types of screens as the "anti-glare" screens are now.

AFAIK, in all of those years, nobody's ever rubbed any special coating off of them.

Apple Stores clean them nightly with iKlear.
 
neteng101 said:
The glass screen will always be easier to clean - long live GLOSSY!!! :D
Click to expand...

That's not true. Both are easy to clean. Just a damp soft cloth will do the trick. While you may prefer glossy, there are many of us who would never buy a glossy screened MBP. Why do you think they brought back the matte option?
 
alright thanks for the reply guys...

yeah sorry if this was a reup of another thread...I just did a quick archive search and it looked like the last thread is a couple pages deep and I didnt see it
 
IMO, the ones that suck to clean are the MacBooks and Airs -- the glossy ones that don't have the glass on them. There's something about them that can make some smudges exceedingly difficult to wipe off.

Thankfully, when the screen is on, the smudges are hard to see. :)
 
neondrgns said:
alright thanks for the reply guys...

yeah sorry if this was a reup of another thread...I just did a quick archive search and it looked like the last thread is a couple pages deep and I didnt see it
Click to expand...

Searching the forum with MRoogle will usually find answers to most of your questions. Many of us find it easier than the standard forum search.
 
neondrgns said:
So does anyone worry about the anti-glare coating on a macbook pro screen [...]
Click to expand...
Please do yourself a favor and at least take a look at those "anti-glare" screens before making up such an amount of FUD.

"Anti-glare" is not a coating on top of the glass screen. There's no glass at all, it's just normal, non-glossy LCD screens, like they have always been since the the first laptops came out in the 1980s.

There's absolutely nothing to worry about.
 
sth said:
Please do yourself a favor and at least take a look at those "anti-glare" screens before making up such an amount of FUD.

"Anti-glare" is not a coating on top of the glass screen. There's no glass at all, it's just normal, non-glossy LCD screens, like they have always been since the the first laptops came out in the 1980s.

There's absolutely nothing to worry about.
Click to expand...

So please do yourself a favor and look at how apple describes the screens

"If you prefer a display with antiglare coating for a matte rather than glossy viewing experience, choose the antiglare widescreen display."

thats just a asking for problems when they describe it as a coating why not just simply state its a matte screen, unless its really a coating
 
GGJstudios said:
That's not true. Both are easy to clean.
Click to expand...

I've cleaned plenty of matte screens in the past - no way they're as easy to clean as the glass ones on uMBPs. :rolleyes:

Not impossible, but certainly not as easy. Some people make glossy screens sound like the devil was unleashed upon the world. :mad:
 
neteng101 said:
I've cleaned plenty of matte screens in the past - no way they're as easy to clean as the glass ones on uMBPs. :rolleyes:

Not impossible, but certainly not as easy. Some people make glossy screens sound like the devil was unleashed upon the world. :mad:
Click to expand...

I find the glossy screen annoying to clean because of the black bezel. Seems I'm always left with streaks. Not to mention every time you barely touch the screen you've got fingerprints until you clean it again. Neither of these are issues with the matte screen. Can't wait to switch to it.
 
neteng101 said:
I've cleaned plenty of matte screens in the past - no way they're as easy to clean as the glass ones on uMBPs. :rolleyes:

Not impossible, but certainly not as easy. Some people make glossy screens sound like the devil was unleashed upon the world. :mad:
Click to expand...

I've been cleaning my matte screen for over 2 years and it never takes more than 5-10 seconds. It's so simple, even a cave man could do it.
 
The matte screens have a plastic surface. It's not as scratch-resistant as glass, but I don't keep my computer in my pocket, (unlike my ipod and phone), so I've never had a problem with a matte display getting scratched.

I wish Apple made a glossy screen with an antireflective coating. It might possibly be the best of both types of display. In fact, I think the glossy (not glassy) displays on some computers, and maybe even the Macbooks, have an AR coating.

I wear glasses with an AR coating, and after a few years of cleaning them every day, there are only some micro-scratches that are only visible in the right light. Part of that is because I'm lazy and I don't always use cleaning spray when I clean them, and part of it is probably due to occasional exposure to fiberglass dust, which is extremely abrasive (I have to use carbide or diamond tools to cut fiberglass composite). I wipe my laptop screen off less than once a week, so I'm sure an AR coating on there would last quite a while. Apple could even make the glass replaceable, so the screen could be made new again if the glass or the coating gets scratched.
 
sth said:
Please do yourself a favor and at least take a look at those "anti-glare" screens before making up such an amount of FUD.

"Anti-glare" is not a coating on top of the glass screen. There's no glass at all, it's just normal, non-glossy LCD screens, like they have always been since the the first laptops came out in the 1980s.

There's absolutely nothing to worry about.
Click to expand...

If there is no special trick to anti glare, why would it cost more?? In fact, way more...:confused:
 
seventy9ers said:
If there is no special trick to anti glare, why would it cost more?? In fact, way more...:confused:
Click to expand...
According to Apple's presentation of the Unibody 17", all unibody MBPs roll from the production line with glossy screens. Then a person removes the glass, puts in a matte screen and the silver bezel.

But if you ask me:
Chupa Chupa said:
Because the people that want/need it will pay more for it.
Click to expand...
 
sth said:
According to Apple's presentation of the Unibody 17", all unibody MBPs roll from the production line with glossy screens. Then a person removes the glass, puts in a matte screen and the silver bezel.
Click to expand...

:-o no wonder they cost so much if that's the production process. That's also why the processor upgrades are so expensive on the BTO: they *desolder* the old CPU, then hand solder the new CPU BGA package. Got it.
//sarcasm off

AG is a light diffusing coating - similar to most desktop LCDs. It's *not* anti-glare like the optical coatings used on glasses, camera lenses etc.

In fact most glossy panels are optically coated to prevent some of the reflections, this gives a pink or greenish hue when viewed from the side.

Unfortunately the cheapskates at Apple decided not to coat the glass panel in front of the LCD screen - giving an extra two reflective surfaces, (and giving approx. a 10% reduction in brightness due to reflection loss).
 
sth said:
According to Apple's presentation of the Unibody 17", all unibody MBPs roll from the production line with glossy screens. Then a person removes the glass, puts in a matte screen and the silver bezel.
Click to expand...

They don't mean it literally. They said something like "we removed the glass and replaced it with a silver bezel". They are referring to how it was designed, not how it is built in production.
 
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