The glossy screen is fantastic

[avalys]

My MBP arrived yesterday. I have always chosen matte screens on my previous laptops, because of all the criticism of glossy ones on here and elsewhere, but decided this wasn't worth jumping ship over.

Well, I don't know what the hell I was thinking these past few years. The screen is goddamn fantastic. It's like looking at a photograph. It has bright and clear whites, deep, dark blacks, and rich, vibrant colors. I've spent the past hour looking through my photo library just because they look so goddamn good on this screen. I have a 24", 1920x1200 LCD that I haven't used in two days because I like this one better.

Yeah, occasionally you can glimpse a reflection of something in a dark area on your screen. Big freaking deal. It's not like it obscures what you're looking at - you have to adjust the focus of your eyes to even see it.

As for color accuracy - I'm no pro, but it seems to me that the colors on the glossy screen are better than those on my old matte screen, because there is no matte coating that produces a diffuse reflection from every stray piece of light that hits it.

No way I'm ever going back to matte. I'm eyeing that 24" LED screen Apple is coming out with as well...

The rest of the laptop is amazing as well - it's built like a tank, looks amazing - and there is no more miserable, finicky metal latch.

 

[steve31]

Could not agree more! The glassy screen is great.

 

[bcaslis]

No, no, you can't like it! Everyone here agrees that glossy is terrible!

I agree with you though. I've had almost all the PowerBook/MacBook Pro models and except for resolution, this is my favorite screen by far of any Apple laptop I've had. If it was only 1680x1050 it would be perfect, but I'm happy with it as is.

 

[Lurchdubious]

Loving it here as well. I hate matte screens.

 

[effer]

The glass screen is a vampire. Much better at night! The increased brightness helps in daytime, but you have to be tolerant of glare. Compared to the old MBP, my wallpaper is glowing! It's a nice change.

 

[Sehnsucht]

The screen is goddamn fantastic.

At last...someone who agrees with me!!! My friend's older brother just got his new 15" MBP the other day...and it was hella-f!@#in'-balls-to-the-wall -awesome!!! I thought my iMac's screen was pretty damn sharp and colorful but his MBP whooped my iMac's ass! Sorry to all the anti-glossy Nazis trying to drag Jonathan Ive to matte concentration camp, but matte screens actually produce more glare, I think. With glossy, the reflection of a light source is "localized," meaning I can just move my head in the way to block it, but with matte, the light washes out over the whole screen! Ugh!

Now, about the old MacBooks: Although I like the way the white plastic LOOKS, it FEELS way too freaking fragile. Tried to bend one of the aluminum ones at Best Buy the other day (while a couple of Best Buy employees stared at me as if to say "WTF?!"), and instead of creaking and popping, it was SOLID. Yaaay

 

[Tex-Twil]

I'm glad to read some positive comments about the new glossw screen.

Tex

 

[Jeff Barlow]

I love the screen. Coming from a lower-resolution matte screen, it's like a layer of gauze has been lifted.

 

[prism]

LOL, herd mentality. What's next? The new glossy reflects less than matte?
"Goddamn fantastic", LOL.

 

[pavenger]

Glossy screens are the ****. Agreed they aren't the best to use out doors or in heavily lit areas but other than that they are clearer and more vibrant than any matte i've ever seen. i dont know why some people were ending their relationship with apple over this. maybe their just too pro and im too amateur

 

[Mike-intosh]

I LOVE the screen as well. It is so vibrant and colorful. I would urge anyone not thinking of purchasing one solely because of the screen to think otherwise. It is a FANTASTIC screen on an AMAZING computer!

 

[NATO]

I absolutely LOVE the new glass screen of the MacBook Pro. I had the glossy screen option on my previous MacBook Pro and I thought that was good, until I got the new MacBook Pro... just Wow!

Colours are sooooo vivid, the contrast is great and it's uber-sharp. As far as I'm concerned, keep em coming Apple!

If only the new 24" Display from Apple could be connected to a Mac Pro, I'd have 2 of them ordered before you could say boo.

 

[PDE]

I went to look at the glossy screen and did some quick simple photo editing in the store to see how it felt - at home I have a matte MBP LED. I feel really mixed about it. Obviously, it pops out in a way that is immediately apparent....and striking. It look beautiful with great contrast, pure whites and blacks, even illumination, relatively good viewing angles etc. BUT, the reflection and smudges it gets are horrid. The smudges could have been easily addressed if Apple had been wise enough to leave some sort of edge so that when you grab on to the bezel, you grab metal instead of glass. I understand why they went with the glass-to-edge thing, but it's another style over substance/function decision. On a machine so perfectly made and well conceived, it's a shame that they did this. IMHO.

The reflections, again in my view, are really bad. Even when the background is really bright and I felt that I have no problem seeing what was on the display the reflections are everywhere and get in the way. They're always there unless a) you're in a dark room or b) you have white or light backgrounds on the desktop (which, if you're doing photo stuff, you probably don't or at least can't control). It strikes me as an amazing screen for DVD watching in dark rooms or for showing photos in dark settings, but not a screen I'd want to work on all the time at all, and definitely not a screen I'd want to have any kind of photo presentation on if I couldn't completely control the surround lighting. I say this with sadness, because other than the reflections, the screen is the best I've seen on a laptop (excllent whites, blacks, contrast, illumination distribution, brightness - even viewing angles are pretty good).

I think this will be a big issue for people who do a lot of mobile on-the-go photo editing or presentations. I just can't agree that it was a wise choice to go with a glass surface on the pro machines without at least offering an alternative matte version, no matter how much it 'pops' out as beautiful at first glance. Even the old glossy surface would have been better!

 

[Skyldig]

The new screens are just ok to me. They lack 1680x1050 resolutions to be fantastic. The glossy thing doesn't bother me at all though...

... still waiting on my new MBP

 

[goobimama]

Now this is a thread I can get on board with! I'm tired of people whining about the glossy displays.

 

[pdxflint]

I'm glad the display quality on the new MBPs are as good as you guys say, since I haven't had the chance yet to look at one. I have no doubt for a lot of you it's just the ticket. And, as an Apple fan I'm glad they're making a certain segment of their customer base happy... really. But what's the big deal to you folks who like the new glass screens if some of us prefer a non-glossy display? I don't think anyone who prefers matte is saying Apple shouldn't make glossy, we're only saying that they should keep offering a choice to those of us who just don't want it, like those of us who don't really spend much time watching DVDs on our laptops, and who are in lit spaces all day working on our MBPs.

Let's acknowledge that even though the new glassy display is impressive, the matte LED backlit 15.4" MBP screen is pretty decent in its own right (I'm using one right now,) plenty bright, and many of us can live with it's deficiencies in order to avoid the glassy look. Hopefully, those of you who got what you wanted can at least relate to the rest of us who didn't. We're all Mac users, the last time I checked... right?
Peace.

 

[magallanes]

Now this is a thread I can get on board with! I'm tired of people whining about the glossy displays.

IMHO i don't have trouble with glossy screen but this new mbp is clearly glassy.

http://anandtech.com/mac/showdoc.aspx?i=3435&p=5

glossy vs glassy.

 

[Rilely]

IMHO i don't have trouble with glossy screen but this new mbp is clearly glassy.

http://anandtech.com/mac/showdoc.aspx?i=3435&p=5

[schnipp]
glossy vs glassy.

This is the worst comparison ever. The screen isn't even ON! One person is inside and another person is clearly OUTSIDE... Sheesh!

 

[Gloor]

This is the worst comparison ever. The screen isn't even ON! One person is inside and another person is clearly OUTSIDE... Sheesh!

Lol, someone is definately blind here. He is outside with both of them next to each other when taking the picture. The fact that the screen is off only shows that is the amount of reflection you have to deal with when you turn it on. Reflection won't disappear when the screen is on, it is still there except the light coming from the screen hides it a bit but you still have to deal with it. Try to WORK with that screen for 10+ hours a day and then tell me how your eyes feel.
Glossy is great for consumers and people who spend 2 hours here 2 hours there but for someone who is staring at the screen for 8-10+ hour a day it is really uncomfortable and really hard for your eyes. I get headache and eye pain very quickly with glossy compared to matte and that is the reason why I never buy this glossy (glassy) MBP until they offer matte. Its just that simple

I agree with OP that the picture on glossy is fantastic. I'm glad that you are happy with your choice and it obviously suits your needs. Sadly, it doesn't suit mine so the wait is still on.

 

[emotion]

Glossy/glassy is ok by me.

The Macbook (not pro) is clearly an inferior screen though.

 

[BRB, balling]

LOL, herd mentality. What's next?

LOL at you calling this herd mentality. It's kind of the opposite. 95% of the comments here have been people bitching about the glossy screen when they havent even seen it in person. Now your trying to tell someone who actually owns it that he's wrong, he doesn't actually like the screen and that its all his imagination.

Pretty ****in' funny IMO.

 

[rjp]

I love the screen. Coming from a lower-resolution matte screen, it's like a layer of gauze has been lifted.

That's how I feel too, like a layer of gauze that's been clouding my vision was removed. I like the apple glossy very much because it distorts the image less than matte. Also, reflections are easier to deal with because they are sharp and only at a particular angle rather than diffuse and at every angle, so with glossy I can just move a little to get rid of them. That's been my experience anyway.

 

[Samaritan]

I've been watching the glossy/glassy/matte threads with some interest, and decided to post my own thoughts. Feel free to ignore them as you see fit.

I've got a Matte MBP at the mo - its a first gen, so getting on a bit, and could do with an upgrade. I like the screen, and I really thought I was firmly in the matte camp.

I do quite a bit of photo editing, and a lot of work on images and so forth for work, and I thought matte was the only way.

Then two things happened. Firstly, I got a new laptop at work. It had a glossy screen, and I had no choice. I thought I was going to hate it. But I don't. Yes, the reflections bothered me. But after about a week, I didn't notice at all. I got accustomed to it.

Secondly, I got an iPhone. The glass screen/glossy thing didn't even occur to me. And I love it - its so much better as a phone screen compared to my matte phone screen from before.

And now I'm noticing some strange things.. when I use the matte MBP at home, I sometimes feel that it just isn't sharp enough. Yes the neutral contrast is nice, but actually the colour 'pop' on the glossy at work does give better printed colour reproduction (both are calibrated). Neither are accurate, but the glossy is better for achieving a close 'best fit'. As for the sharpness - well, I find the glossy better for getting the right levels of unsharp mask and as the blacks are blacker, I find the glossy better for setting tone and contrast in black and white photos. Much better.

I can see the virtues of matte screens - I chose that way for a long time. But now I also see the glossy screen benefits, and although at first I hated the idea, I actually find it more usable now. Yes, sometimes the glare annoys me a bit and I have to move a touch, but its very rare these days, and I do it less than the number of times I squint at the matte screen and curse the fact that its not as sharp.

All screens are a trade-off, a compromise. That's kinda the way it is. Same as weight/battery life/power/portability etc.. is too.

Whilst it would have been nice for Apple to give us a choice for matte or glossy, I can understand now the decision to go glossy - it sounds like they had to make a choice either way with the screen construction. I doubt it was cost at all.

It's not going to stop me from getting one of the new MBPs.

 

[macDonalds]

Pretty simple really - glossy looks better... in the right environment. If you're in a typical office with the horrible 'make your eyes' bleed lighting; glossy is going to suck ass. Otherwise, glossy is the ****.

 

[Batt]

Pretty simple really - glossy looks better... in the right environment. If you're in a typical office with the horrible 'make your eyes' bleed lighting; glossy is going to suck ass. Otherwise, glossy is the ****.

I'm sitting in that very office right now typing on my iMac and looking at my glossy screen. Looks great. Nothing sucks. No glare. Glossy is better than matte in every way, and I've had both.