Apple again offers matte screen option for 15-inch MacBook Pro - Page 4

I absolutely adore (if such could be said of a computer) my glossy 24" iMac at work, and my 17" uMBP. would never go back to matte.

Great!! Thank you Apple!
I was in Apple Store to see a matte unibody MBP 17 side by side with a glossy iMac: matte is perfect with no reflections and colors are not so differents.
I will go to buy a new MBP 15 inch with antiglare option.
And now, Apple, think about iMac line. I will buy one for my parents.

From: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-reflective_coating

"Many coatings consist of transparent thin film structures with alternating layers of contrasting refractive index. Layer thicknesses are chosen to produce destructive interference in the beams reflected from the interfaces, and constructive interference in the corresponding transmitted beams. "

So you get reduced reflectivity and glare, and increased contrast. Include oleophobic surface and perhaps we could all be happy.

I'm still considering whether I should change my 17uMBP's screen to matte.. decisions decisions..

WELL i never said what makes it fantastic. Jeff at my work where i sell gems tines i have had a 2 to 3 apple laptop rotation going on for ten yrs / from clamshell to black MB to alum g4 /i missed one or two gen before i bought my MBP15
BUT right now i have 3 mac playing media right now . and i don't know why but the NEW MBP 15 is 100x better than alum 12"g4 or 13"BLACK MB
I can not believe how good << 3.10 to yuma >> was yesterday. . I regret if my facts are off but the MBP line of laptops have the finest media playback quality for laptops on the face of this earth /Thank you jeff
>>>>>>>
I was this because MACTRIPPER is acting like a troll with silly statements about how the visuals on MBP are just ok /I have a ten yr viewing show to prove me right
mel gross knows where i work he can visit me and see. Why do i care ?? well after months of glare bitching the option is available . the whiners should say thank you and go buy that mac.
except for mac tripper does not own a mac he owns a hackin tosh .

MACTRIPPER has a lot t o offer AI he should just leave the glossy alone .

not much improved ?? If you owned a mac you would not say that

9

He probably owns a PC then. But it's ok. Since we're on AI, I assume we share a common interest and it is all on Apple hopefully.. I dislike trolls..

Oh brother... This is ridiculous.

You like watching videos on your pc.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iry1a...eature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fzWP4Os2KL8

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GFNQh...eature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=afm0j...eature=related

But I gather you wouldn't get a Mac anyways.

Thank You Steve for bringing back the 15" matte screen option on such short notice.


You might have more in the works, a bit harder to make other machines with a matte option, I know.


Thanks, you really care!

+3 (including my employees). Glossy doesn't work in our office environment, plain and simple. I tried it for a week and it was a rough week.

I cheered when I saw this news. Bravo Apple for doing something right.

I held off on the purchase of a new Apple for years because of this problem. And yes folks, I have used both extensively in different lighting situations. Staring at my reflection and oversaturated colors is far too distracting. I've continued to use a 15" PowerBook G4 with A LINE DOWN THE LEFT SIDE simply because of the beautiful matte screen. I've even been looking at Dell laptops with the "anti-glare" option. Bleh.

There's still an economic downturn and I'd honestly like to see the 13" and iMacs with this option (presumably it would be more difficult to find a supplier), but I won't nitpick. I'll be doing my best to come up with the funds for a 15" MacBook with a matte screen.

Once again, bravo.

It's possible that ol' Steve was sitting outside in the sun trying to do some work on his laptop and it suddenly hit him...

"Wow this glare f***ing sucks! Who the hell made this decision?"

This is silly, and sad at the same time.

So you're saying that after MONTHS we'll learn to accept staring at a mirror for hours on end?

No thanks.

He's trolling, I added him to my ignore list.

Anyone who baits people who have a legitimate problem and fails to be empathic about it doesn't deserve to be heard from anymore.

One day he will have a problem and I will have the solution, but he won't get it from me.

It doesn't pay to be a troll. Be nice and the world is your oyster.

Actually it was a concentrated effort to reach Steve Jobs personally combined with a huge online petition that brought awareness of the problem to him.

http://macmatte.wordpress.com/

Seeing how the 15" matte reappeared quite suddenly (being the easiest to do on short notice), shows Steve really cares about the user experience.

We Mac users have taken years of 'you get what Apple gives you' for the sake of a slim down and highly profitable product line to get Apple on it's feet again.

But now Apple is huge and very profitable, they can afford to begin looking at expanding their product lines for the different needs of different people.

Glare and reflection is a very BIG issue for a lot of people. If Apple sets the trend of having both matte and glossy screen options, the rest of the industry will follow and millions of people will not suffer years of eyestrain and headaches like millions did during the CRT days of old when we had no choice.

The LCD makers are being cheap asses by going glossy, it eliminates a matte film application step, Apples need their parts and is held hostage by the cheap PC industry parts suppliers.

With enough public outcry and pressure from Apple, the LCD makers will have to change course, because millions just won't buy these glare and reflection prone machines.

It's a deal killer if you can't even see the screen to use the computer.

Well then - why did he get rid of it in the first place? Was it because the added glass gave a higher green rating?

I really thing we need to make a big distinction here as to matte vs glossy vs glassy.

Matte: Low to no reflections/glare but diffuses light making the screen appear dull. Film can cause blurriness to text etc as well but fingerprints/smudges etc don't show up at all or very little. Very easy to calibrate and manage in various lighting conditions.

Glossy: Typical glossy is just a screen that looks like plastic without the matte film on it. In extreme cases there can be reflections/glare but mostly controllable. Dirt, oils and finger smudges show up and need to be cleaned much more frequently than Matte. These were found on the older macbook and MBP. Slightly harder to calibrate due to having to raise brightness to reduce glare/reflections.

Glassy: Take the glossy screen and slap a sheet of glass on top. Bonuses are richer colors and deeper blacks but much more prone to show reflections/glare especially in black areas even in light controlled environments (I should know I had the 07 iMac for a year). Hard to calibrate because with more light = more glare/reflections so you have to crank the brightness to compensate which destroys color calibration and burns your retinas. (Okay I embellish a little but I got serious migraines from having to crank the brightness near 100% all the time)

So there are my definitions and why I always choose in this order Matte -> Glossy ------>Glassy. I don't think the trade offs for a brighter/contrasty image but training my eyes (which I couldn't do) to see past my shirt moving while working are worth the hassle so I sold it. (Actually I purchased a 2nd LCD and used that on my iMac until I got my Mac Pro)

I got my company to buy me a 17 inch MBP with matte screen. I loved my glossy iMac but thought since I would be in different environments where I could not control my lighting, I would go with the matte. I started noticing MORE eyestrain about 2 days into using the matte screen. About a week into using it, my co-workers laughed at me because by the end of the day, I was like 12 inches away from my screen.

Bottom line to people out there. Choose VERY wisely and don't assume all this matte talk is the answer. It might be for you.... But then again, it might not. Side by side with my iMac, I prefer the glossy screen.

I smell BS. I used matte screens on LCDs day in and day out for years without trouble like that, and frankly, until now, hadn't heard of anyone complaining about it like you did. Before that, I had gloss/antiglare (but not matte) surfaces on CRTs. I do happen to have a pre-glass gloss MBP (also LED backlit too), which I think is better than having the unnecessary, shinier glass face.


In a case like yours, then how do you really choose? Especially when the computer has a 10% restocking fee to return it if you don't like it? It's not as if you can borrow a unit for a few days, is it?

Sorry, friend. But you smell wrong. My experience has been that the glossy iMac screen is way more vivid and beautiful to look at and easier on the eyes than the Macbook Pro screen. I've used LCD screens at work which were more brighter than the MacBook Pro's screen. Perhaps we can go into the automatic brightness adjustment settings with the MBP as part of the problem. Anyway, the only reason I bothered to respond is this constant barrage from matte enthusiasts putting down the glossy screen.


Hence my point. Choose wisely and don't be pulled into this "matte is for professionals and glossy is for consumer suckers" argument I see littering all these threads.

Desktop screens and notebook screens usually aren't comparable. Desktops can usually go brighter, and if you have the higher end iMac, it's a better panel substrate, whereas almost all notebooks are TN which aren't as good for color quality and viewing angle, among other things. Not an apt comparison.


I still don't get your point. If it's a personal preference, then how is your position really going to be helpful? Let me restate it: to find what is best for a person, they'll need to use both for a few days, right? How can anyone choose wisely without actually using them in person in their usual environment? Basically it looks like a "don't trust them, trust me" or "choose wisely, choose my preference" kind of argument. Even if you're only saying a person should only trust their own opinion, the quandary I give still holds.

You're not comparing like with like. The iMac panel is higher quality, and has a much lower pixel density. It's likely that it was the high pixel density of the 17" MacBook Pro that was giving you eyestrain.

^--- that

It's the 20 inch iMac. First generation. And there was plenty of poo pooing of the screen going around at the time too. To your point that notebooks are not as good for color quality I would simply say a person should definitely think twice then about buying a matte screen for a laptop.


My point is glossy/matte is a personal preference and all this matte-is-better talk should be taken with a grain of salt. I'm not saying to trust me. I simply stated my experience in this heavily one-sided matte-is-better thread.

No matter what your experience... it should be noted that it has been proven over and over and over again that color correction is done best on a matte screen. It is very difficult for the readers to color correct on glossy screens.

I fail to see how you had eye strain on a matte screen 17" laptop. I have a core2duo 2.33 15" laptop with a matte screen. Next to it was a 24" apple lcd that was hooked up to my mac pro. I had to take back the 24" apple lcd because of how much my posture was shifting and how bad i was getting strained. I worked just fine at a normal work posture on that 15" for two years. It is on a Griffin stand, and I'm sitting in a steelcase leap. Now tell me how it is I was moving for the glossy 24" bigger screen but not for the 15". It was all reflection. We even re-arranged the office... was a no go and I took the 10% hit taking back the apple display. I got a HP 24" IPS panel display and couldn't be happier.

I honestly think you were moving closer because it was a smaller screen and much smaller pixel density. It's one thing going to a bigger screen and moving closer, but to a smaller screen and moving closer... I don't think it relates 100% to it being matte. Maybe a little, but keep in mind you went from bigger to smaller. It's just like getting your eyes tested. You read the bigger letters and have a harder time reading the smaller letters.

You know, a higher pixel density might be a part of it. So to might the automatic brightness control settings which dull the screen down in brighter environments (of which I do currently work in most of the time.) The fact that I am not comparing two of the exact machines to me is somewhat irrelevant. A glossy MBP will have bright vibrant colors by definition. A matte MBP will not. So I will simply state it again. With my iMac and MBP matte screen side by side, I regret "upgrading" to the matte screen. Sorry if this flies in the face of everyone's own persuasion here. But then again, that is why I offered up my experience.

Noted. It is true that I do not have to worry about that in my profession.


The bigger to smaller screen is a very relevant point and I do own a pair of aging eyes. With that point in mind however, I would simply surmise that it makes a brighter and vivid, smaller glossy screen, even more attractive then a dull smaller screen.

Anyway, people can take what I said for what it is worth. It was my subjective opinion based on my experience.

Fair enough. Now, if auto dimming is really an issue, then that can be turned off in the display preferences pane.

As far as I know, it's the same panel and same backlight. I don't know if the matte screen surface really dims the screen. It's possible that the diffuse scattering of external lights (incident light) might alter the perception of brightness. The only time it's really been a problem for me is outdoors, but that's a very hard problem, no LCD screen of any kind I've seen can really hold up well, though matte seems to do the worst.

Had a chance to see the new Matte 15" Macbook Pro at my local Apple store today, and its a HUGE improvement over the glossy display... the design looks better than the 17" Matte MBP but its still growing on me, better a display than a mirror! BTW an Apple Rep said that the Matte option is available for all 15" models both in store and online.

Had my iPhone handy so I snapped a pic (not the greatest quality)

Looks pretty nice! Thanks for the pic!

This is great news! I intend to purchase an anti-glare MBP 15" as soon as possible, for color accuracy purposes. I saw the anti-glare MBP at the Apple Store and found the colors and viewing angle to be more accurate that the glossy version, and the computer itself far more gorgeous, though apparently many like the aesthetic of the glossy Macs. The total edge to edge black was a dissapointment for me starting with the glossy iMac reveal. Fortunately there is antiglare again.