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Macbook Pro's Glossy Screen soon to be "phased out"?

L

late show

macrumors member
Original poster
Nov 13, 2008
38
0
I called a local non-apple computer store for "professionals" recently and they said almost everyone who has pre-ordered the new 17" Macbook Pro ordered it with the matte anti-glare screen and that the glossy screen was for teenagers not professionals and was eventually going to be phased out.

Your Thoughts?:confused:

I myself will be purchasing the glossy screen and a the 24" LED glossy screen in the next few weeks....I am not a teenager, but I do like rich blacks and the crisp colors of the glossy.
 
Hah, that's the biggest load of crap I've ever seen. The glossy is here to stay, fortunately or unfortunately, depending on what you think about them.
 
Apple has migrated all of their products to the glossy screen, so I really highly doubt that they will get rid of the glossy screen, especially since that is the look they desire for their computers. We may see a return to the matte screen on the 15" Macbook Pro, but I seriously doubt we'll see any further proliferation of the matte screen back throughout the line and as a matte on the 15" is likely itself.
 
late show said:
I called a local non-apple computer store for "professionals" recently and they said almost everyone who has pre-ordered the new 17" Macbook Pro ordered it with the matte anti-glare screen and that the glossy screen was for teenagers not professionals and was eventually going to be phased out.

Your Thoughts?:confused:

I myself will be purchasing the glossy screen and a the 24" LED glossy screen in the next few weeks....I am not a teenager, but I do like rich blacks and the crisp colors of the glossy.
Click to expand...

And the Moon is made out of cheese. :rolleyes:
 
I don't know if I'd trust too much that store has to say.

Apple has NO matte option on any of its current computers aside from the 17" MacBook Pro. This used to be an option, if not a standard (my dad's iMac and my MacBook Pro are both matte). Now, it's as if The Apple decided we would use glossy and like. My uncle's glossy iMac makes me less apprehensive about it, but when I get another computer, I want a matte screen. If it's a $50 BTO option, that's fine with me. I just want that option.
 
infernohellion said:
Apple sets the trend, not buyers or professionals :eek:
Click to expand...

the customers of business professionals don't give a d@mn about the trend - they want results and if matte allows me to put out the best product for my work then that is the way that I will go, regardless of whether Apple releases a product for glossy loving-teenyboppers. Apple pays close attention to the buying trend. the fact that matte has been added as an option to the 17" mbp means something - that there is considerable buying power in offering that option. this is an elementary business model and good strategy if they are to capture a bigger share of the computer market.
 
sehnsucht77 said:
the customers of business professionals don't give a d@mn about the trend - they want results and if matte allows me to put out the best product for my work then that is the way that I will go, regardless of whether Apple releases a product for glossy loving-teenyboppers.
Click to expand...

And professionals who don't mind seeing matte getting kicked to the curb don't mind a bit. Actually, I wouldn't expect "business professionals" to make comments such as yours.
 
late show said:
I called a local non-apple computer store for "professionals" recently and they said almost everyone who has pre-ordered the new 17" Macbook Pro ordered it with the matte anti-glare screen and that the glossy screen was for teenagers not professionals and was eventually going to be phased out.

Your Thoughts?:confused:

I myself will be purchasing the glossy screen and a the 24" LED glossy screen in the next few weeks....I am not a teenager, but I do like rich blacks and the crisp colors of the glossy.
Click to expand...

The way I read this is that you went to a non-apple store, who said that most of their customers pre-ordered the matte, and therefore they would be phasing out the glossy at their stores independently of Apple's decisions (clearly they wouldn't have foresight into Apple's decisions).

It sounds like you just misinterpreted what was said.
 
The other repliers are correct in that there will be no phase-out of the standard glossy display.

Basically, it's good to remember: what Apple does, goes.

Have you ever seen them redesign anything only a quarter of the way into a cycle?
 
late show said:
[...]
I myself will be purchasing the glossy screen and a the 24" LED glossy screen in the next few weeks....I am not a teenager, but I do like rich blacks and the crisp colors of the glossy.
Click to expand...

Last time I saw a black patch on my desktop image, I was using a matte screen on a previous-gen MBP. With the new unibody MBP, where there should be black, I see my sad face or my clothes, including their colour. May be I saw a black region some nights ago, while watching a DVD in complete darkness.

As said in dozens of other posts, the new screen is amazing in dim light environments. In all the other case, at least in my point of view, it is almost unusable.

Look at the attached picture (previously posted). I can see my reflection even on white windows with the display set at maximum brightness. "Glare is not a problem because the MBP is movable": yes, but my desk is close to the window (on its right, as you can see from the direction of the light in the picture) and it's not movable.

Apple can try and make the trends, but if people stop buying at least the 15" MBP due to its screen, they will change. The new screen is much glossier than the previous-gen's one and has much more visible reflections. I received this unibody MBP as an exchange for a previous-gen (matte) MBP that was faulty: I would have never bought a notebook as expensive as this one with this screen. If they do not change, next time I will downgrade to a MB.

The common distinction between professional and non-professional concerning the choice of the screen is ridiculous. The only difference is between who wants rich colours and is willing to live with disturbing glare and who does not care for having rich colours and prefer not to have glare. That's it.

Just to be more precise: the word "professionals" does not necessarily refer to graphic designers or photographers. There are programmers, writers, journalists, teachers, ... who work with their computers for hours. With the new screen I stopped using the terminal with the classic semi-transparent black background colour, I had to choose a clear desktop image and stop using black and white pictures as I used to. With this new screen you cannot work with dark colours in daylight. You cannot look at pictures with dark tones: you see only glare. I am not able to prepare slides with dark colours any more. I changed the colours of my home page, which were dark: not my home page has a white background.

The new screen is terrible with everything but white. And even with white or very clear colours you have problems (look at the picture).

On this forum it looks like MB and MBPs are bought only by professionals working in graphics-related fields.

-- thistle
 

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Apple never discusses their future product plans with anyone. I think this shop is just trying to enforce their own opinions on the matter to yourself.

If I was to make a guess I would say Apple are more likely to offer the Matte option on some more models, but it will never be the default and their designs will keep being made with Glossy in mind.
 
This is great. I was wondering when we would finally get around to a glossy vs matte; noob vs professional debate.

And finally we have it, a string where can voice our opinions.... :rolleyes:
 
stuarthatto said:
This is great. I was wondering when we would finally get around to a glossy vs matte; noob vs professional debate.
Click to expand...

Sorry about that. But after reading several discussions where the distinction was about professionals vs dvd-watchers, I felt compelled to specify that there are a plenty of professionals who do not work with images and for whom excessive glare can still represent a problem.

thistle
 
I love glossy. Apples right, they can beat reflections with brightness. BUT when working on presentations/reports... everything looks different when printed or on a projector screen. Which is annoying when working with colour schemes etc. Stuff that looks good on the MBP doesn't necessarily look good anywhere else.
 
Hot Snowboarder said:
I love glossy. Apples right, they can beat reflections with brightness. [...]
Click to expand...
Apple and a lot of people, including you, keep saying that: beat reflection with brightness (while burning your eyes).

But that it is not true. In fact, as you can see in my picture, the reflections beat brightness (while burning your eyes).
 
Well, it's all inevitable. Apple will do what would favor most of their revenues. And to get real, right now it's normal consumers, for most of its Mac models except the UMBP 17" which more percentage of its users are professionals. That's why they introduce the matte screen option, just because it would favor most of the revenues from this 17" MBP.

Glossy screen to be phased out? I personally don't think it would be anytime soon. The majority of the consumer market which should be more than 80% of Apple Macintosh revenue now are okay with them (or just don't mind, like my sister for example) then it's the way to go. I would say Apple will add the matte option for more and more models and may even include the 30" cinema display as well.
 
i have the glossy screen.
and i work with audio.
i dont give a rats ass about matte screen.

but i know that if i accidently throw a microphone in it while setting up drums the glass will 100% sustain more than glass-less one. :)

and if you quasiprofessionals are cheap enough to work on a laptop screen dont give me ******** about "matte" :D its like i would do a final mix on Earplugs... this goes for both: you can sketch on it. you can do some serious work on it also when you know it enough. but you cannot call yourself pro if you use just that..
 
Tom Baker said:
The other repliers are correct in that there will be no phase-out of the standard glossy display.

Basically, it's good to remember: what Apple does, goes.

Have you ever seen them redesign anything only a quarter of the way into a cycle?
Click to expand...

We all have. Macbook Pro 15" rev A - no FW800. Rev B redesigned logic board with FW800.
 
Don't believe a word of this esp. when Apple have produced glossy only 15 inch MBPs.

The only thing I take from it is that Apple are willing to listen to those people who want a matte screen and provide it as an option. Still can't believe that they charge more for it...
 
late show said:
I called a local non-apple computer store for "professionals" recently and they said almost everyone who has pre-ordered the new 17" Macbook Pro ordered it with the matte anti-glare screen and that the glossy screen was for teenagers not professionals and was eventually going to be phased out.

Your Thoughts?:confused:

I myself will be purchasing the glossy screen and a the 24" LED glossy screen in the next few weeks....I am not a teenager, but I do like rich blacks and the crisp colors of the glossy.
Click to expand...

Classic example of people who haven't got a clue what they're talking about. And did they really say teenagers? Wow! They must be REAL professionals, at the top of their career tree's :eek:
 
Ploki said:
i have the glossy screen.
and i work with audio.
i dont give a rats ass about matte screen.

but i know that if i accidently throw a microphone in it while setting up drums the glass will 100% sustain more than glass-less one. :)

and if you quasiprofessionals are cheap enough to work on a laptop screen dont give me ******** about "matte" :D its like i would do a final mix on Earplugs... this goes for both: you can sketch on it. you can do some serious work on it also when you know it enough. but you cannot call yourself pro if you use just that..
Click to expand...

LMAO - If you work with audo it doesn't matter if you work with or without a glossy screen. Colour accuracy has nothing to do with your profession - so just go with the flow with what Apple tells you to do.

If you 'accidentally' throw mics at a screen, you should be worrying about much more than glossy/matte decision with your oh-so-safe hands lol. :p


I can't see glossy ever getting phased out. I personally would be happy that a matte option remains. Apple can't get too cocky - believing they know more than their portion of their user-base who use their products to make/earn a living is arrogant to say the least... Apple don't owe their customers anything I suppose, and it goes the same the other way. A mutual balance has to occur which will see their already overfilled wallets burst.
 
Matte screen isn't much better in high light enviros. I'm in one now with a matte screen. The entire screen is washed out. There is NO color accuracy at all. This is almost an apples and oranges thing. The matte screen is no better in hi light. But the Glossy is better in low light. I, for one, welcome my new glossy screen overlords and look forward to my 17" MBP arriving next month.
 
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