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lexus

macrumors 68000
Original poster
Mar 26, 2006
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There is officially no difference between Glossy and Matte displays except when they are off.

I know it is hard to understand but the color is the same!
And both displays are sharp.

Does anyone else have a glossy and regular display side by side?
 
I'm glad your opinion is officially official.

Anyway, there is a slight difference. It doesn't change colour as much as it just changes the general appearance. Matte finish looks more dull than the glossy (or at least that's the general sentiment).
 
being in the apple store playing on the macbooks, the glossy screen doesnt reflect as muhc as everone makes it out to be. in all honesty its not that bad.
 
Unless the MB is different than the MBP, there is a difference with the saturation of colors. I have a pretty trained eye because of my work... That said I didn't go glossy :)
 
jhipolito said:
Unless the MB is different than the MBP, there is a difference with the saturation of colors. I have a pretty trained eye because of my work... That said I didn't go glossy :)
How big of a difference? Because I cannot see any difference.
 
The screen is definitely glossy and you can see it, but is far less glossy than other screens I have seen. Does it reflect? yes.. is it really that bad? NO. Do you have problems under the sun? Yes, but so does the matte...
 
All I know is that the matte MacBook Pro is incredibly sharp and vivid compared to other screens that I've used.

I don't doubt that the differences between the colours are small between this new matte screens on the MBP and the glossy screens, at least in a dark room.
 
lexus said:
How big of a difference? Because I cannot see any difference.
Since I'm a designer, the color difference was big ... the saturation to ME was different; colors really stood out.. and as you'll read, black looks REALLY black.

Since I'm so picky about color correction and I've been doing this for so long, it's just a habit of mine :)
 
Rickay726 said:
being in the apple store playing on the macbooks, the glossy screen doesnt reflect as muhc as everone makes it out to be. in all honesty its not that bad.

I noticed this also when I was at an Apple Store. For being glossy, they really don't reflect that much light. Of course it might just be the lighting of the store. Using the screen in an office environment may be different. I will say, however, the MacBook's screen is no where near as reflective as some Compaq screens I have seen.
 
How big of a difference? Because I cannot see any difference.

There is a noticeable difference between glossy and matte.
The colour saturation and contrast is slightly higher on a glossy screen. Graphic professionals and photographers (and serious amateurs) always use a matte display... :)
 
There is a noticeable difference between glossy and matte.
The colour saturation and contrast is slightly higher on a glossy screen. Graphic professionals and photographers (and serious amateurs) always use a matte display... :)

++

The Glossy displays have an artificially higher contrast and color level. It is very similar to the way they setup TV's in an electronics store. Contrast and brightness are cranked up. Something about the way the eye/brain perceive color that makes the brighter picture look better. Have that TV professionally calibrated, and the picture will have much less contract and brightness, but the image will be accurate.

Glossy displays are perceived to have abetter image because of this contrast and brightness, but they are not as accurate. Whether or not this matters to you is where the choice comes in. For someone who uses ColorSync and needs accurate colors, matte is the way to go. if you don't need professional color accuracy, and say watch a lot of movies, surf the web, and do word processing, you might like the higher contrast.

Bottom line - check them both out side by side in the Apple store, and decide for yourself...
 
Glossy displays look so much better than matte. Finally blacks are black and not grey.
 
I even made my MacBook's screen matte (with anti-glare film) and to me the screen feels like any regular matte screen now and better.
I just like matte better.
 
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