OK, so I'm definitely SOLD on the new MBP, it's everything I wanted and more, and this is a big shut down for all the forum haters saying it would be a minor upgrade and now saying they're gonna wait for Penryn, or whatever, but can anyone speak to the real glare difference between matte and glossy, because I won't be using it outside THAT much but what's a glossy screen like outdoors and also whats the quality difference between the two in terms of color richness?
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Question about matte vs glossy
- Thread starter hirschab
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m vs g
I bought the glossy and I've never noticed any glare, even in various situations, indoors and out. But I have noticed the matte screens in the apple store seem to look comparitively muddy and fuzzy compared to the glossy. It does make quite a difference to colour purity getting the glossy. Of course this is just my opinion, no doubt lots of people will chime in swearing by the matte screens. At the end of the day you won't go wrong, just go to the apple store and pick whichever appeals to you straight off.
I bought the glossy and I've never noticed any glare, even in various situations, indoors and out. But I have noticed the matte screens in the apple store seem to look comparitively muddy and fuzzy compared to the glossy. It does make quite a difference to colour purity getting the glossy. Of course this is just my opinion, no doubt lots of people will chime in swearing by the matte screens. At the end of the day you won't go wrong, just go to the apple store and pick whichever appeals to you straight off.
life would be so much easier if they forced you to get one. Although it appears most people will argue in favor of matte, its really all up to the individual.
I could waste my time giving you both sides of the case and you still would not make any progress on choosing on or the other.
I chose matte.
I could waste my time giving you both sides of the case and you still would not make any progress on choosing on or the other.
I chose matte.
It depends what you will use it for...
I have a 17" MBP with a glossy screen and photographs look amazing on it. I have only had a couple of occasions when reflection has been a problem.
However if you are going to be using word in a room with lots of fluorescent lights then you will get reflection unless you angle the screen slightly so that the reflection is not directly at you.
So I think it depends what you will use it for...
Photographs/Video and graphic design in an area that is not too bright with fluorescent lights... get glossy
Regular office work using word, excel and safari etc... get matte
I have a 17" MBP with a glossy screen and photographs look amazing on it. I have only had a couple of occasions when reflection has been a problem.
However if you are going to be using word in a room with lots of fluorescent lights then you will get reflection unless you angle the screen slightly so that the reflection is not directly at you.
So I think it depends what you will use it for...
Photographs/Video and graphic design in an area that is not too bright with fluorescent lights... get glossy
Regular office work using word, excel and safari etc... get matte
I'm wondering the same thing, I'm a graphic designer and am buying a new MBP when my new credit card arrives next week (luckily after WWDC just incase anything else changes there aswell) I'm torn between glossy and matte, my old PB was matte but my PC laptop which I've just sold was glossy, I love the dynamic colours of the glossy but am worried about reflection issues, which sometimes annoyed me about PC, is there a reason that apple glossy screens are better?
I was wondering the same thing so went to the Apple Store last night to compare them. Have to say I did rather like the apparent "richness" that the glossy screen gives but there is so much reflection and if you ever touch your screen the fingerprints would be very noticeable.
The matte screen does indeed seem very anti-reflective in comparison so that's the option I'll be going for. I will be primarily using mine indoors but I live in a very bright top-floor flat so reflections WILL be a problem.
Also most of the graphic designers round here will tell you to steer clear of glossy and opt for matte.
At the end of the day though it's your MBP so go and try out both if you can. If you're not a designer and you use your notebook for mostly DVD viewing you might prefer the gloss.
The matte screen does indeed seem very anti-reflective in comparison so that's the option I'll be going for. I will be primarily using mine indoors but I live in a very bright top-floor flat so reflections WILL be a problem.
Also most of the graphic designers round here will tell you to steer clear of glossy and opt for matte.
At the end of the day though it's your MBP so go and try out both if you can. If you're not a designer and you use your notebook for mostly DVD viewing you might prefer the gloss.
sure, but that's only for photographers important. and they are using screens from eizo and not the mbp screen, only for first look.
Glossy screens totally annoy me. I hate them!
When you go to the apple store to compare them, make sure you try the glossy one with a mostly black picture on it (e.g. front row). And see if you can work with that. On a bright white picture it is hard to see the glare.
I personally get very annoyed by all the reflections, I can even see if I forgot to comb my hair in the morning. But I find that some of my friends just look through it.
I for one am very happy that Apple still offer matte screens on the MBP!
When you go to the apple store to compare them, make sure you try the glossy one with a mostly black picture on it (e.g. front row). And see if you can work with that. On a bright white picture it is hard to see the glare.
I personally get very annoyed by all the reflections, I can even see if I forgot to comb my hair in the morning. But I find that some of my friends just look through it.
I for one am very happy that Apple still offer matte screens on the MBP!
So you're saying colour is miss represented on the glossy screens?
Isn't the fact that black is generally richer on the glossy screen meaning it's more like print?
Isn't the fact that black is generally richer on the glossy screen meaning it's more like print?
matte vs glossy
Disclaimer: I'm basing the following on a comparison between the old MBP screens. Also, I have worked with color, imaging, and calibration issues for the past 20 years, so I tend to be pretty picky about displays in general.
Since I'm about to buy a MBP, I wanted to compare the two screen types so I went and looked at the old MBP's next to each other. My first impression was that the glossy screen had deeper color saturation and more detail.
Then I got into a conversation with the Mac person at the CompUsa store I was at, who actually was my age (55) and pretty knowledgeable. He swore that the displays would appear identical if they were calibrated the same. He was basing that on taking light measurments off the screen. I made an appointment with him to do exactly that on the bew machines, but here is the flaw in his argument, which he admitted.
All sensors that would measure the output from the display would be averaging that reading over the area of the sensor. This could give the same measurements for both glossy and matte screens because unlike photos, which rely on reflected light to produce the image, both the glossy and matte screens have the same backlit source that is theoretically putting the same amount of light through the pixels, through the surface and to the sensor. Because the sensor is directly on the surface, minor diffraction around the edges wouldn't affect the reading, and the sensor would capture all other light.
What is measured and what we see is not exactly the same. The surface of the matte screen is not planar, or it would be glossy. The texture of the screen will have a local diffraction effect that will change the light path according to the angle of the surface and the diffraction index of the screen surface, which I would expect would be fairly low, but not completely negligeble or again, there would be no matte effect. So this is going to have some blending effect which will appear to very slightly desharpen the image, even though a sensor reading that averages an area of pixels would be the same on both monitors.
I'm waiting to see the new monitors, (and really to see how the Mac guy intends to calibrate both monitors to each other. Probably trial and error until he gets the same readings, which again works on some levels and not on others). I'm leaning to the matte in general, mostly because if I want to do really critical work I'll use my G5 with a sony artisan monitor, and can't really imagine using a laptop for color critical work anyway. That's why I don't care about the 6 vs 8 bit actual vs promised discussions. I care much more about the evenness of the brightness and color across the screen and I expect the led MBPs to be better than the fluorescent.
If when calibrated the images are pretty close, I'll choose the slight image degradation over the reflection problem, but I might not if it were my only display. Also, the glossy would be much better outside, although that's not much of an issue for me.
Once I see the new machines and run the tests I'll post a followup.
Hope this wasn't to verbose.
Disclaimer: I'm basing the following on a comparison between the old MBP screens. Also, I have worked with color, imaging, and calibration issues for the past 20 years, so I tend to be pretty picky about displays in general.
Since I'm about to buy a MBP, I wanted to compare the two screen types so I went and looked at the old MBP's next to each other. My first impression was that the glossy screen had deeper color saturation and more detail.
Then I got into a conversation with the Mac person at the CompUsa store I was at, who actually was my age (55) and pretty knowledgeable. He swore that the displays would appear identical if they were calibrated the same. He was basing that on taking light measurments off the screen. I made an appointment with him to do exactly that on the bew machines, but here is the flaw in his argument, which he admitted.
All sensors that would measure the output from the display would be averaging that reading over the area of the sensor. This could give the same measurements for both glossy and matte screens because unlike photos, which rely on reflected light to produce the image, both the glossy and matte screens have the same backlit source that is theoretically putting the same amount of light through the pixels, through the surface and to the sensor. Because the sensor is directly on the surface, minor diffraction around the edges wouldn't affect the reading, and the sensor would capture all other light.
What is measured and what we see is not exactly the same. The surface of the matte screen is not planar, or it would be glossy. The texture of the screen will have a local diffraction effect that will change the light path according to the angle of the surface and the diffraction index of the screen surface, which I would expect would be fairly low, but not completely negligeble or again, there would be no matte effect. So this is going to have some blending effect which will appear to very slightly desharpen the image, even though a sensor reading that averages an area of pixels would be the same on both monitors.
I'm waiting to see the new monitors, (and really to see how the Mac guy intends to calibrate both monitors to each other. Probably trial and error until he gets the same readings, which again works on some levels and not on others). I'm leaning to the matte in general, mostly because if I want to do really critical work I'll use my G5 with a sony artisan monitor, and can't really imagine using a laptop for color critical work anyway. That's why I don't care about the 6 vs 8 bit actual vs promised discussions. I care much more about the evenness of the brightness and color across the screen and I expect the led MBPs to be better than the fluorescent.
If when calibrated the images are pretty close, I'll choose the slight image degradation over the reflection problem, but I might not if it were my only display. Also, the glossy would be much better outside, although that's not much of an issue for me.
Once I see the new machines and run the tests I'll post a followup.
Hope this wasn't to verbose.