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Glossy or Matte MBP?

gadgetgirl85

gadgetgirl85

macrumors 68040
Original poster
Mar 24, 2006
3,805
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I know there are a few threads on this. I've ordered my MBP in glossy but now I'm not sure. I think my Toshiba Satellite has a glossy screen I like that one a lot would the glossy screen on the MBP be the same? I'm not sure what the models were in the shop.
 
It really is personal preference, but I absolutely LOVE my glossy screen MacBook. It is so much richer and clearer than the matte screen I had on my iBook. Again, it's really what you prefer, but I'd say go glossy. There is NOT a glare issue. I tried it under all brightness levels in all kinds of different lighting and nothing. Still easy to view.
 
I've got mine on order as glossy hasnt shipped yet so just wanted to make final decision. As I said I THINK my recent Toshiba I bought has a glossy screen (well looks like it) so I went with the same well hopefully
 
My vote is for matte - the screen still looks amazing, but doesn't show fingerprints/reflections as badly as the glossy one does.

The glossy screen, though, is better for watching movies.
 
viccles said:
I know there are a few threads on this. I've ordered my MBP in glossy but now I'm not sure. I think my Toshiba Satellite has a glossy screen I like that one a lot would the glossy screen on the MBP be the same? I'm not sure what the models were in the shop.
Click to expand...
I just bought a 15" Glossy MBP after having the matte. I really love the screen. Colors are great!
 
viccles said:
I've got mine on order as glossy hasnt shipped yet so just wanted to make final decision. As I said I THINK my recent Toshiba I bought has a glossy screen (well looks like it) so I went with the same well hopefully
Click to expand...

If anything, the MacBook Pro's glossy screen is probably superior to the one on your Toshiba. Apple admitted that they never allowed glossy screens before because the technology was insuperior - now that glossy screens have improved, Apple has adopted them.
 
If colour accuracy isn't an issue, then get the matte finish. I have a matte screen on my MacBook, and I absolutely love it. However, if you're into designing magazines or brochures, playing around with photo editing, or doing video work, you may want to colour calibrate the screen. Glossy screens are way too bright, and definitely oversaturated for that sort of work.

However, that's perfect for regular use and watching movies! :)
 
Abstract said:
If colour accuracy isn't an issue, then get the matte finish. I have a matte screen on my MacBook, and I absolutely love it. However, if you're into designing magazines or brochures, playing around with photo editing, or doing video work, you may want to colour calibrate the screen. Glossy screens are way too bright, and definitely oversaturated for that sort of work.

However, that's perfect for regular use and watching movies! :)
Click to expand...

Yes my MBP will only be for regular use ie uni work/itunes/chatting/net etc :D
 
As usualy I would recommend everyone go out & look at one themselves. Both are great screens. It is not fair to compare iBooks, PowerBooks, etc to MacBook Pro's & MacBooks. The iBook & PowerBooks had really dim screens that suck really badly. Both the matte & glossy screens are great. There is a bit of a glare, but it's not like it is some kind of ... horror. It really is personal preference, because both are great screens.

My vote is matte. It looks like you are looking at a picture of something. The glossy seems to screen-y...

Does that make sense? haha. :)
 
I really like my glossy screen on my MacBook but it's a total ***** to clean, plus it seems to attract more dust.

There is not a problem with glare... at all.
 
AvSRoCkCO1067 said:
...because the technology was insuperior...
Click to expand...

The technology was what?

There are indeed numerous threads on this and look, this one even has a very similar title.

It's worth doing a search.
 
Well I owned a matte Samsung laptopn, the screen was OK, but then when I purchased my desktop, I got an Acer glossy screen and its sooo much better, the screen is vivid and the reflection isnt so bad, you can avoid alot of reflection by making sure theres no strong light sources.
As for the MBP, I used a glossy version of the 17'' and have to say, it looked so much better than the matte and the glare from the store lights wasn't bad at all. I'll be going glossy! lol

Cheers
 
Tried out the glossy MB screen and there is nothing wrong with it. I even angled it towards light and could still read everything clearly. The colours are spectacular! And for those worried about the durability of the screen, as far as I'm aware, you shouldn't be touching an LCD screen in the first place unless its with a cloth for some cleaning.
 
Mac Rules said:
Well I owned a matte Samsung laptopn, the screen was OK, but then when I purchased my desktop, I got an Acer glossy screen and its sooo much better...
Click to expand...

Maybe the matte screen on the Samsung was just older LCD technology. All the screens are getting brighter nowadays.

KingYaba said:
GLossy sucks get mattte. YOu'll hate the glare.
Click to expand...

The glare isn't bad, or non-existent. If there's glare, I haven't really noticed while I was using my laptop. I mean, if I'm concentrating on something on my computer (ie: work, my photos, MacRumours), the glare wasn't distracting enough for me to take notice.
 
Those of you who mentioned glare as a negative for the glossy....

It's not that big of a problem. Yes it does reflect more than the matte screen....duh, but in bright environmets (for example, outside) BOTH matte and glossy screens will look like crap. I work under flourescent lighting all day (ugh), have a glossy screen, and it is fine.
 
I really prefer the glossy. However some people have said that it give inaccurate colors. Even though it's not critical, it would be nice to have accurate colors for when I'm printing photos.

Is it possible to calibrate glossy screens the same way you can calibrate matte screens?
 
I prefer the matte, but the glossy does look better when watching movies. I seriously doubt you'll regret getting glossy if you like the display on a glossy Toshiba.
 
I just ordered my very first Mac, a 15" MacBook Pro.

I went for the glossy screen. Figured if I'm working at home a lot I'm likely to get my self a cinema display, and the glossy screen looks stunning (had a poke in the shop).

Go for the glossy. :)
 
before I purchased my MBP, I went to my local Apple store and compared the matte MBP and glossy MBP... the glare is exaggerated in my opinion. I got the glossy and have never found the glare annoying... and I sit next to a window on a sunny day as I type this.
 
I've used the Macbook and the glare doesn't seem that bad to me.
If you don't have access to an Apple store, why not look through sites such as Flickr for comparisons or examples of it in different conditions?
 
If you have access to both glossy and matte screens here's a simple test to allow you to see the difference in color saturation or contrast. Go to a web page in Safari with a white background and white images. For example, http://www.apple.com/uk/macbook/macbook.html.

This page has a white MacBook on it. Now, look at the page from different angles, above and the sides. I notice on the glossy screens that the white all blends together and the images become far more difficult to make out much more on my glossy MacBook screen than my matte MacBook Pro.

Once you notice the effect of the same colors seeming to blend together on the glossy screen you start to notice it even when you are sitting using the laptop normally. This has really put me off the glossy screens. Furthermore, if you look at the glossy screens with a blue background (say the default OS X wallpaper) you can see some strange diaganol patter that seems to be part of the glass (again, look at the screen from above to make it stand out more).

I say get the matte screen as it's extremely bright, displays more accurate colors and does not suffer from either of the issues I mentioned.
 
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