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Apple again offers matte screen option for 15-inch MacBook Pro
- mcantor 17y agoI don't like how the two laptops they're using as examples in the photo at the bottom have different desktop backgrounds and screen contents. They could have at least cleared the desktop and used the same wallpaper.
- cookiecaper 17y agoIn what situation would someone prefer glossy? I don't get that. Glossy is obviously much worse. Can someone explain this to me?
- DannoHung 17y agoThey look nice inside when there's no crap on them?
- stepherm 17y agoIt tends to make the screen look brighter and more vibrant. Most consumers seem to think that means it's a "better" screen.
- CamperBob 17y agoMake your widget look better in the store, and you sell more widgets. A trick as old as TV retailing.
- axod 17y agoBlacks look blacker :/ In the right lighting it looks far brighter with better contrast I think. Just depends on what your lighting is though.
- modoc 17y agoI use my laptop mostly indoors in my home office with controlled lighting. The glossy screen looks better, deeper blacks, more vibrant colors, etc... While I wouldn't use it for photo or pre-press work, I really like it in general.
- cookiecaper 17y agoBut isn't the point of a laptop portability? The glossy screen makes it significantly less portable -- in anything but ideal lighting, everything in front of the screen is reflected in a way that interferes with the intended image. That just doesn't sound conducive to usefulness in a laptop. If you just use it inside your home office, why buy a laptop in the first place?
- tedunangst 17y agoIt can be hard to use a desktop sitting on the couch in your home office. The laptop takes up a lot less room when your home office is also your entertainment room.
- modoc 17y agoI said "mostly". I also use it in my dining room, my media room, out on my back deck, in my yard, at the local coffee shop, on planes (way too much), at client sites, in hotels, at friends houses, at my mom's house, in the car, and so on. The only time glare has been a significant problem is when I'm outside (at my house or a coffee shop) and the sun is in the wrong position (solved this on my deck with a patio umbrella). For what it's worth, the same conditions where the glare is bad tend to make my previous matte 15" mbp totally unusable (washed out). Again, I don't do photo work, but for e-mail, coding, etc... it takes a lot for the glare to get to the point where it interferes, and the matte screen is usually useless long before then.
- bhousel 17y agoI think glossy screens are a lot easier to clean.. I'm pretty picky about fingerprints :(
- prodigal_erik 17y agoIf glare is coming from one direction, glossy can be good or terrible depending on where you point it. Matte is just always equally bad, and turning the brightness up is all you can do.
- martythemaniak 17y agoCool. Even the handsome narcissists like me get tired of looking at themselves all day long.
- alaskamiller 17y agoThat's why Apple made Photo Booth and the blue screen backgrounds.
- dlevine 17y agoIt's interesting how responsive Apple is to customer feedback. A lot of times, customers complain about Apple's new product leaving out some feature, and then the next revision magically incorporates that feature (a good example would be Firewire on the 13-inch macbooks). They aren't at all vocal about this, so people see Apple as being super closed, but I think that they do care a lot about what customers think. They design products that people want for a reason. Sure it involves thinking outside the box and offering products that people never imagined asking for. But it also requires listening to customers' opinions and integrating that into future product revisions.
- mcantelon 17y agoI would say this a good example of them being closed and not appearing to care what their customers think: http://mantia.me/blog/macbook-pro-thousands-of-colors http://mantia.me/blog/macbook-pro-thousands-of-colors And, showing this isn't a one-time thing: http://www.betanews.com/article/Apple-Sued-Over-MacBook-Display-Quality/1179519795 http://www.betanews.com/article/Apple-Sued-Over-MacBook-Disp...
- dlevine 17y agoTo set the record straight, virtually all laptop panels are 6-bit.
- raquo 17y agoThey wouldn't have needed to bring back matte displays have they listened to their users and not removed this option in the first place. __ I don't know why they fanatically remove useful features and options. It's 2009, and I can't even choose a _custom_ color to serve as a wallpaper for Mac OS X, only one of _ten_ colors provided by Apple. It's so unimaginably idiotic to have to create a png file for this purpose.
- andylei 17y agoit's in a post above, but they "removed" this option from their newly designed laptops because it requires an entirely different screen construction. i also don't think the majority of users want matte screens, even if many do.
- gommm 17y agoand I just bought a macbook pro 1 week ago :-( ... hopefully I can return it...
- yalestar 17y agoAmen to this. I've never understood the appeal of glossy displays. To me they're almost unusuable except under the most ideal lighting conditions.
- cesare 17y agoGlossy displays are cheaper to make (since they lack the anti-glare coating). Most consumers even prefer glossy vs matte (especially when they see them side to side at the shop) because the matte coating (obviously) reduces brightness and colors are perceived as less vibrant. Of course, as soon as you have to work with them (apart from viewing a movie in a dark room) you'll regret it. Cheaper + clueless consumer = market trend. The previous generation of MBP had both options. I bought the matte, and the price (IIRC) was the same. I believe that Apple didn't offer this option for these models from the beginning because the screen of unibody machines has glass in front of it and so the process to add the coating wasn't ready yet or it was much more costly.
- aasarava 17y agoIt's interesting that a lot of people feel that glossy screens look better in the showroom. When I'm in an Apple Store or a Best Buy or wherever, the overhead lighting is often so bright that all you can see on glossy laptop screens is glare and reflection. It's exactly because of this showroom experience that I've always avoided glossy laptop screens.
- GHFigs 17y agoWhen you order the matte option, the whole glass panel and bezel are removed and replaced with an aluminum frame like the earlier models. It is not merely a coating applied to the glass, it's a different part entirely.
- cesare 17y agoThanks for the clarification. I didn't know it. So the matte doesn't have the glass? One thing I like of the glass screen is that it is probably easier to clean and in general more durable (except if you drop it on the floor, of course).
- raquo 17y agoSo now they acknowledge that glossy screen is even $50 _inferior_ to matte.
- mustpax 17y agoThat's one way to look at it. Another way would be that lower production volume for matte screens means higher per unit cost, so they have to make up for this with the additional $50.
- raquo 17y agoMaybe. However, before Apple removed the matte option I have never seen a glossy screen on an apple laptop (except in their stores). Sample size is not that big, though.
- kineticac 17y agoThey might have been reluctant to bring back the matte, so they tried to see if they could make $50 off of each one, and it sure did. I wonder what's next, take out the "space" key on the keyboard and charge $10 for it?
- figital 17y agoThe glossy screens are certainly nicer for watching crisp video. I wish I had gotten the matte screen as I don't watch much on my computer. (Glossy certainly looks better in the showroom) I did buy a screen protector at the Mac Store for my iTouch which mimics a matte finish on top of the glossy screen. If I were to buy the upcoming larger-screen iTouch tablet I would highly recommend getting a matte finish to cut down on glare & fingerprints, etc.
- Tichy 17y agoActually I don't like video on my MacBooks glossy screen. The reason is that dark backgrounds make the reflection much more noticeable. While I work, I tend to have a lot of white in the background, and it is very usable. Videos tend to have a lot of dark scenes, so the reflections get very annoying.
- ahpeeyem 17y agoI wish they would offer some decent resolutions as well...the 13" with 1400x900 would be nice (like on a lenovo X301), and 15" with 1920x1050 (like you can get on a dell xps 1550) would be so good! Who wants to lug a 17" lump around to get decent res?
- jacobolus 17y agoScreen resolution increases are blocking on resolution-independent UI. Apple's been actively working on it for quite a while now, and the next OS release changes the UI target gamma, and will need mostly redrawn graphics, so we can only hope that real resolution independence isn't too far away.
- psadauskas 17y agoI think the standard widescreen aspect for the 15" would be 1680x1050. I'm holding off my MBP purchase for that. My current 14" dell has 1440x900, I can't understand why the "better" screens on the MBP's have such poor resolution.
- moe 17y agoTradition. Apple laptop screens have always been subpar. Worse panels, worse lighting, worse resolution than what you'd get in a similarly priced PC laptop. I guess this has to do with the screen being one of the most expensive parts and apple selling smaller quantities than other manufacturers. Better panels would likely eat into their margin significantly. Anyways Apple is not dumb and has long realized that this flaw can be trivially concealed simply by ensuring that your product is never on display side-by-side with competing brands. Hence the apple-isles...
- jac_no_k 17y agoSame here. I'm looking to replace my aging Dell Inspiron 8600, which is a 15.4" display with 1920x1200 matte finish display. A 15" Mac Book Pro is very tempting but I too wish they would offer a higher dot pitch. But my eyes are older and find myself increasing the font size in code as the day wears on. The alternate is to connect to a large desktop display when available. Not having the option to be able to go to an insane dot pitch on the Mac Book Pro is helping to keep my wallet shut.
- entelarust 17y agoI have so many problems with my matte macbook pro. Dust collection mainly. I will definitely go with glossy on my next mac.
- bkj123 17y agoI can't believe this post has over 35 comments (+1 for mine)
- baddox 17y agoCharging for the option? I fail to understand that, and I didn't expect it, even from Apple.
- jpcx01 17y agoEven for something as trivial as this, this is just one of those weird cases where you look around at the world, and want to yell, "what the hell is wrong with you people"? I don't understand why anyone would own a glossy screen.
- jodrellblank 17y agoEven for something as trivial as this, this is just one of those weird cases where you look around at the world, and wonder "Why are you compelled to post that you don't understand something?" People are making, selling, designing, buying owning glossy screens. This means your mental model is way out of alignment with reality. But that's not a problem, there are several explanations in the comments on this very page which you can read and then you will understand why people own glossy screens. 1) That was the only option if you wanted a new MacBook Pro. 2) Even now, it's the cheaper option to purchase. 2) They make blacks look blacker and screens look shinier, which is (subjectively) desirable. 3) Because of this, they're (subjectively) nicer for looking at pictures and movies on. 4) Under many use scenarios, there are no downsides because it's pretty easy to position it so there's no glare. 5) There is no ugly bezel around the edge of the screen as there is for the matte screens so it (subjectively) looks nicer. 6) It's the sort of small thing that can be easily overlooked, or not noticed if ordering online, and someone could end up buying one without knowing in advance that the glare would annoy them, then ignoring it as a minor inconvenience.