HuubL
hunter-gatherer
Another question from a presumptive new laptop/macbook buyer: glossy or matte screen = sharp & contrasty vs. non-reflective. What say you?
You know what, I'll make it a poll.
You know what, I'll make it a poll.
glossy or matte
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C
Charly
Guest
For both screens and paper, my choice is matte. With the Macbook/Pro I suggest you find one locally and make the decision yourself; the glossy is much better than the PC ones I've seen and I think very much down to personal preference.
Bryce
Well-known
Can't say as I've never seen a small, matte screen (i.e. for a Macbook). Mine has a gloss screen and I'm quite happy with it except for some durability issues. These are:
•The screen touches the keys when closed, especially sandwiched between all those books in my pack. So all that finger oil on the keys gets transferred to the screen.
•You aren't supposed to use any kind of cleaning agent on the screen, since (evidently) whatever it is that makes the screen glossy is soluble in anything that will remove oil. So you're not supposed to clean it with alcohol or ammonia based cleaners, just water. Yeah, right...
I'm making it sound worse than it really is, but things are less than perfect for sure. Would a matte screen be better? Wish I knew, and had had a choice.
•The screen touches the keys when closed, especially sandwiched between all those books in my pack. So all that finger oil on the keys gets transferred to the screen.
•You aren't supposed to use any kind of cleaning agent on the screen, since (evidently) whatever it is that makes the screen glossy is soluble in anything that will remove oil. So you're not supposed to clean it with alcohol or ammonia based cleaners, just water. Yeah, right...
I'm making it sound worse than it really is, but things are less than perfect for sure. Would a matte screen be better? Wish I knew, and had had a choice.
Bryce
Well-known
Paper? Matte for unframed prints, gloss for those under glass.
HarryW
Established
Got a new 15" MBP with a Glossy Screen last weekend.
Previously had a 12" Powerbook with a matt screen so this is a big jump in brightness and quality. It would be wrong to judge matt against glossy between these two models however I would say that for me the glossy screen is very good and I'm very happy with my choice.
Regards
Harry
Previously had a 12" Powerbook with a matt screen so this is a big jump in brightness and quality. It would be wrong to judge matt against glossy between these two models however I would say that for me the glossy screen is very good and I'm very happy with my choice.
Regards
Harry
NickTrop
Veteran
color - glossy
black and white - matte.
black and white - matte.
Pherdinand
the snow must go on
i got the macbook which in that time had only glossy option...i was a bit reluctant.
but it's not reflecting so much. I never had problem of seeing myself in it,instead of the image.
The colours are very good. I did do a profiling for it, though, with the spyder thing. The original monitor profile was rather...mundane. Now black is black white is white, and things look pretty good on it.
I have a matte tft at work, running on windows, also profiled with the same device, and both are displaying very well.
but it's not reflecting so much. I never had problem of seeing myself in it,instead of the image.
The colours are very good. I did do a profiling for it, though, with the spyder thing. The original monitor profile was rather...mundane. Now black is black white is white, and things look pretty good on it.
I have a matte tft at work, running on windows, also profiled with the same device, and both are displaying very well.
HuubL
hunter-gatherer
Thanks for your thoughts on this. Two weeks ago I decided to go for the matte screen on my new Macbook Pro and I'm glad I did! This is a wonderful screen, a sort of ultrafine matte, much different from the ones on my recent PC notebooks (Acer, Sony, HP). I'm typing this with my back to the windowpane and there's no reflection whatsoever.
BTW, this is my first Apple PC and as a hard core Windows user, I was rather reluctant to buy it. I did so anyhow after having seen my son's Macbook and I must admit the finesse, speed and user friendliness of the Apple OS is way better than MSW. I now understand why Mac users refer to it with Windoze.
Now I'm searching for a good text editor for HTML/Javascript and a good Photoshop-like program. I'm open to your suggestions.... 🙂
BTW, this is my first Apple PC and as a hard core Windows user, I was rather reluctant to buy it. I did so anyhow after having seen my son's Macbook and I must admit the finesse, speed and user friendliness of the Apple OS is way better than MSW. I now understand why Mac users refer to it with Windoze.
Now I'm searching for a good text editor for HTML/Javascript and a good Photoshop-like program. I'm open to your suggestions.... 🙂
SolaresLarrave
My M5s need red dots!
I thought you meant paper... 🙂 and voted glossy.
I have two Macs now, a fine laptop (Macbook) and a super new iMac with Leopard. The laptop has a glossy screen, but like Pherdi's, I seldom see myself reflected on it.
BTW, I have been always a Mac user, but it was still kinda difficult to move from the old Mac OS 9 to the newer OS (Leopard). I'm amazed at the ease with which one can move from one system to the other, and the speed. It does have its quirks, though... When using Microsoft Word, I cannot print just one page of a document. Whenever I go to the File menu and select Print, the application quits on me. I already received a software update, supposedly designed to prevent this from happening... and it keeps happening. I decided that next year I'll buy a newer version of this software and install it in my computers... but not without asking about this particular quirk in advance.
OTOH, I can always call the Mac people for assistance now... It's just that I keep putting it off.
Welcome to the Mac World! 🙂
I have two Macs now, a fine laptop (Macbook) and a super new iMac with Leopard. The laptop has a glossy screen, but like Pherdi's, I seldom see myself reflected on it.
BTW, I have been always a Mac user, but it was still kinda difficult to move from the old Mac OS 9 to the newer OS (Leopard). I'm amazed at the ease with which one can move from one system to the other, and the speed. It does have its quirks, though... When using Microsoft Word, I cannot print just one page of a document. Whenever I go to the File menu and select Print, the application quits on me. I already received a software update, supposedly designed to prevent this from happening... and it keeps happening. I decided that next year I'll buy a newer version of this software and install it in my computers... but not without asking about this particular quirk in advance.
OTOH, I can always call the Mac people for assistance now... It's just that I keep putting it off.
Welcome to the Mac World! 🙂
HuubL
hunter-gatherer
Thanks Solaris,
I now use the new MS Office for Mac vs. 8 and have no problems with printing, either single pages or whole documents. In fact, only today I hooked the Mac up to the network at my work and was amazed at how easy it was to install network drives and printers. With Windows machines I always had to have that done by the network people, but as they don't support Macs I had to find out myself. I'm a complete convert after just 5 days!
Do you have any suggestions for must have third party OS X software?
payasam
a.k.a. Mukul Dube
Reflections in a glossy screen can be troublesome.
erikhaugsby
killer of threads
From a purely color perspective, I find that the glossy screen tends to cause colors to appear more saturated, contrasty, and crisp (almost to a point of overdoing it if the picture is inherently saturated), whereas the matte finish is more reserved in how it displays pictures.
I prefer the matte screen.
I prefer the matte screen.
SolaresLarrave
My M5s need red dots!
When I purchased mine, I had no option. Probably because it came from the education store.
As for third party software... To be quite honest, I have no clue. I'm planning on purchasing Photoshop Elements, but the latest version for Mac is coming out today (supposedly). I placed an order at our bookstore so I'm waiting for a phone call.
Will keep you posted! 🙂
As for third party software... To be quite honest, I have no clue. I'm planning on purchasing Photoshop Elements, but the latest version for Mac is coming out today (supposedly). I placed an order at our bookstore so I'm waiting for a phone call.
Will keep you posted! 🙂
Cat Face
Established
This may be very late but throwing in what I picked up a few years back, this may be different now but i'm 90% sure you can only get a Macbook in glossy - matte is supposed to provide more accurate colour reproduction though.
This is all pointless if you only edit at home because then of course, you can plug in an external monitor, for example on my PC I run two CRTs
This is all pointless if you only edit at home because then of course, you can plug in an external monitor, for example on my PC I run two CRTs
sniki
Well-known
Paper?
It depends, but you need to have both.
sniki
It depends, but you need to have both.
sniki
sepiareverb
genius and moron
Matte screen all the way. The glossy screen is always giving reflections. I have two friends who got new MacBooks with the glossy screen, they'd been used to matte and wished they had stayed with matte.
I just advised my MIL to get matte- so I'd better be right 😀
I just advised my MIL to get matte- so I'd better be right 😀
Pherdinand
the snow must go on
I am really surprised on the many reactions complaining about the reflections in a lossy screen.
I really have to sit in the full sun, or with lights behind me, to be bothered by any reflections in the glossy screen of my macbook.
And in the full sun, it's still more like a matter of low relative brightness.
I tried now turning the screen in any direction and the only way i can see reflections in it, is if i turn it directly to catch the reflection of the lamp - nothing else is visible in it as a reflection.
I do remember the old days when i had to struggle to avoid seeing all the room behind me in the (crt) monitor, but this just does not happen with the current screen.
I really have to sit in the full sun, or with lights behind me, to be bothered by any reflections in the glossy screen of my macbook.
And in the full sun, it's still more like a matter of low relative brightness.
I tried now turning the screen in any direction and the only way i can see reflections in it, is if i turn it directly to catch the reflection of the lamp - nothing else is visible in it as a reflection.
I do remember the old days when i had to struggle to avoid seeing all the room behind me in the (crt) monitor, but this just does not happen with the current screen.
shimo-kitasnap
everything is temporary..
Try pearl, it's halfway between glossy and matte.
planetjoe
Just some guy, you know?
For me, it depends on whether I'll be using the screen in a glare-rich environment.
As an aside - and for what it's worth - I've been discovering lately that the issue is potentially not glossy-vs-matte, but the technology behind the LCD panel itself. This thread over at dpreview spells it out for Macbooks vs. Macbook Pros. I believe the information is correct.
Most of the popular, inexpensive large LCD screens on the market are TN technology, which use a dithered 6-bit (i.e., ~262,000 colors) display. According to the above source, Macbooks utilize this technology. Some folks maintain that there are significant issues with how these panels render colors, shadows, etc.; furthermore, some claim that calibration is difficult for these screens.
On the other hand, "True Color" S-IPS panels, which use 8-bit color rendering, are usually much more expensive. Macbook Pros and some iMac models use these panels, and produce native 24-bit RGB color the way one would expect.
The problem is, it's often difficult to find these specifications when reviewing a product. Chances are, if the LCD is less expensive than you think it should be, it's probably TN-based. These panels have very fast refresh rates (~5ms) and are good for displaying videos and playing games - both reasons that should explain their rise in popularity. It's up to the user, obviously, to decide whether or not the color issues are real enough to warrant buying one over the other.
Perhaps it's not as large an issue as it seems - the recent class-action lawsuit - that was even more recently settled - brought against Apple over their "millions of colors" claim didn't go very far.
Food for thought, maybe - just wanted to stir the soup a bit.
Cheers,
--joe.
As an aside - and for what it's worth - I've been discovering lately that the issue is potentially not glossy-vs-matte, but the technology behind the LCD panel itself. This thread over at dpreview spells it out for Macbooks vs. Macbook Pros. I believe the information is correct.
Most of the popular, inexpensive large LCD screens on the market are TN technology, which use a dithered 6-bit (i.e., ~262,000 colors) display. According to the above source, Macbooks utilize this technology. Some folks maintain that there are significant issues with how these panels render colors, shadows, etc.; furthermore, some claim that calibration is difficult for these screens.
On the other hand, "True Color" S-IPS panels, which use 8-bit color rendering, are usually much more expensive. Macbook Pros and some iMac models use these panels, and produce native 24-bit RGB color the way one would expect.
The problem is, it's often difficult to find these specifications when reviewing a product. Chances are, if the LCD is less expensive than you think it should be, it's probably TN-based. These panels have very fast refresh rates (~5ms) and are good for displaying videos and playing games - both reasons that should explain their rise in popularity. It's up to the user, obviously, to decide whether or not the color issues are real enough to warrant buying one over the other.
Perhaps it's not as large an issue as it seems - the recent class-action lawsuit - that was even more recently settled - brought against Apple over their "millions of colors" claim didn't go very far.
Food for thought, maybe - just wanted to stir the soup a bit.
Cheers,
--joe.
amateriat
We're all light!
Yep, I thought this was about paper, too...
Briefly, on the subject of laptop displays: I flat-out (ahem) hate glossy laptop screens. Any amount of glare is bad, IMO, and while glossy screens might seem more "sexy" from a first-glance POV, they get in the way of critical viewing. Anyone looking at my home setup, with its two high-end CRTs, would say, "Whoah there, Barrett...those monitors of yours are glass, no?" Indeed, they are...non-glare glass, that is, something not utilized on laptops at the moment (though, for the record, IMO, Apple does a better job here than, say, Toshiba).
About paper: when I was printing with Epson printers (up to their 2200), it was a given that the best results, b/w or color, were with matte papers, especially when Epson moved to pigment-based inks. Lots of people extolled the virtues of printing on matte papers as opposed to glossy or semi-gloss/satin papers. I wasn't quite buying it...I felt the real reason had to do with the limitations of the inks at the time. Once I got hold of a printer that let me print on satin or glossy paper without issues with metamerism and gloss differential (HP's 8750), I dropped Epson like a rogue isotope. A good inkjet print on satin paper, to me, is wonderful, in fact ideal. Being able to print on glossy paper without dealing with artifacts is a bonus. Having either on archivally-stable media? As the slogan goes, priceless.
- Barrett
Briefly, on the subject of laptop displays: I flat-out (ahem) hate glossy laptop screens. Any amount of glare is bad, IMO, and while glossy screens might seem more "sexy" from a first-glance POV, they get in the way of critical viewing. Anyone looking at my home setup, with its two high-end CRTs, would say, "Whoah there, Barrett...those monitors of yours are glass, no?" Indeed, they are...non-glare glass, that is, something not utilized on laptops at the moment (though, for the record, IMO, Apple does a better job here than, say, Toshiba).
About paper: when I was printing with Epson printers (up to their 2200), it was a given that the best results, b/w or color, were with matte papers, especially when Epson moved to pigment-based inks. Lots of people extolled the virtues of printing on matte papers as opposed to glossy or semi-gloss/satin papers. I wasn't quite buying it...I felt the real reason had to do with the limitations of the inks at the time. Once I got hold of a printer that let me print on satin or glossy paper without issues with metamerism and gloss differential (HP's 8750), I dropped Epson like a rogue isotope. A good inkjet print on satin paper, to me, is wonderful, in fact ideal. Being able to print on glossy paper without dealing with artifacts is a bonus. Having either on archivally-stable media? As the slogan goes, priceless.
- Barrett