Glossy screens look better in ideal conditions. The matte screen diffuses the light (that's how matte works) a bit and reduces the contrast and it looks a bit blurry.
On phones, capacitive screens use a glass layer. Apple extended the glass layer to the laptops because it looked better (probably because matte screens looked worse than phones). Before them the screens were matte. Of course, everybody copied Apple and introduced glossy screens, because when looking at a glossy and a matte screen next to one another (in a shop) the glossy will win. And of course, everybody introduced glossy screens without the anti-reflection coating that Apple uses (cargo cult), so it made everything worse.
There was a time period when you had to really search for a non-glossy screen. Now it's a bit better, you can find them, but the touchscreen ones will always be glossy, and I did not yet see an OLED without glossy screen (could be because they are more fragile, although folding OLEDs do exist, so it's not clear).
I've never seen an apple laptop with an anti-reflection coating that worked. I think that's just marketing. Sit in a well lit room and you stare at yourself on anything besides a 90% white background.
Wait, is this why they push minimalist, tons-of-white-space design?
I had a late 2009 MacBook Pro with matte screen, the one with the "ugly" silver bezel around it. It was the last model ever that offered a matte coating. It was fantastic. I used it for over 8 years and even after the first retinas came out I still preferred my old matte screen. Then they reduced the glare but still... I think even better DPI and contrast don't make up for the fact that you're staring at your own face all the time. And it really puts a strain on your eyes as they need to constantly "filter" the focus.
Agreed,I liked that the silver keys, silver body and bezel, almost invisible logotype made the screen the main focus. That matte screen was fantastic. In bright situations, everything around is also bright and reflective, but with matte, nothing reflected in the screen. It was great.
At the time, I was a designer and it allowed for total focus on the work. By far, my favorite laptop experience.
Consumers love glossy displays. Colors look better, the screen looks brighter, and they are easier to clean.
I used to do volume specs of laptops for a big enterprise as a side duty. The glossy displays became a thing ~2005. If you had a spec that incorporated brightness, glossy would always win.
Grousing about Apple is always fun, but I’m sure they would happily charge you $500 for an enhanced matte panel if anyone cared about it... nobody does.
Comments
Glossy screens look better in ideal conditions. The matte screen diffuses the light (that's how matte works) a bit and reduces the contrast and it looks a bit blurry.
On phones, capacitive screens use a glass layer. Apple extended the glass layer to the laptops because it looked better (probably because matte screens looked worse than phones). Before them the screens were matte. Of course, everybody copied Apple and introduced glossy screens, because when looking at a glossy and a matte screen next to one another (in a shop) the glossy will win. And of course, everybody introduced glossy screens without the anti-reflection coating that Apple uses (cargo cult), so it made everything worse.
There was a time period when you had to really search for a non-glossy screen. Now it's a bit better, you can find them, but the touchscreen ones will always be glossy, and I did not yet see an OLED without glossy screen (could be because they are more fragile, although folding OLEDs do exist, so it's not clear).
I've never seen an apple laptop with an anti-reflection coating that worked. I think that's just marketing. Sit in a well lit room and you stare at yourself on anything besides a 90% white background.
Wait, is this why they push minimalist, tons-of-white-space design?
I had a late 2009 MacBook Pro with matte screen, the one with the "ugly" silver bezel around it. It was the last model ever that offered a matte coating. It was fantastic. I used it for over 8 years and even after the first retinas came out I still preferred my old matte screen. Then they reduced the glare but still... I think even better DPI and contrast don't make up for the fact that you're staring at your own face all the time. And it really puts a strain on your eyes as they need to constantly "filter" the focus.
I hate glossy screens.
That model still had the sculpted silver keys? That was, by far, my favorite laptop keyboard: I still have a 15” ‘08 MBP that I boot up occasionally.
Agreed,I liked that the silver keys, silver body and bezel, almost invisible logotype made the screen the main focus. That matte screen was fantastic. In bright situations, everything around is also bright and reflective, but with matte, nothing reflected in the screen. It was great.
At the time, I was a designer and it allowed for total focus on the work. By far, my favorite laptop experience.
I cringe when someone shows me something on their laptop and the screen is imprinted with keyboard finger cheese.
Glossy screens on laptops long predate anything that Apple did.
Here's a group test of glossy screens from March 2007, you know.. before the iPhone was released:
https://www.pcworld.com/article/129979/article.html
Glossy screens became popular for watching DVDs on laptops from the mid-2000s
Lenovo has matte touchscreens. Thinkpad Yoga for example.
OLED is less bright, so it makes sense they would take all the nits they can get by not adding a matte layer.
Generally matte or antireflective screens are easy to find in the business laptop segment.
This seems like a possible explanation of the recent trend away from choices of screen finish.
Not sure why Apple would do this though, since they largely compete with themself.
Another annoying aspect of screens is not bright enough during bright daylight and not dark enough in darkness.
Consumers love glossy displays. Colors look better, the screen looks brighter, and they are easier to clean.
I used to do volume specs of laptops for a big enterprise as a side duty. The glossy displays became a thing ~2005. If you had a spec that incorporated brightness, glossy would always win.
Grousing about Apple is always fun, but I’m sure they would happily charge you $500 for an enhanced matte panel if anyone cared about it... nobody does.