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

appleinsider.com

51–60 of 66 posts

Re: Apple again offers matte screen option for 15-inch MacBook Pro

#51
post #9

Amen to this. I've never understood the appeal of glossy displays. To me they're almost unusuable except under the most ideal lighting conditions.

Nonsense. You have it backwards. Matte screens really require the ideal lighting conditions. Easy test: take one of each, and go outside. Sunlight washes out a matte screen to the point of being impossible to use. Glossy screens reflect much of that light away, leaving the screen still legible. As someone that used to do a lot of work outdoors on a laptop, there's no comparison. Glossy screens are usable in FAR, FAR…

That's not my experience, either. I just got a new laptop and chose a matte screen because my previous glossy screen was impossible to use on the train as any bit of sun turned the display into a mirror. The matte screen is much, much better.

Re: Apple again offers matte screen option for 15-inch MacBook Pro

#52
post #9

Amen to this. I've never understood the appeal of glossy displays. To me they're almost unusuable except under the most ideal lighting conditions.

Nonsense. You have it backwards. Matte screens really require the ideal lighting conditions. Easy test: take one of each, and go outside. Sunlight washes out a matte screen to the point of being impossible to use. Glossy screens reflect much of that light away, leaving the screen still legible. As someone that used to do a lot of work outdoors on a laptop, there's no comparison. Glossy screens are usable in FAR, FAR…

So in scenarios where you have direct sunlight shining on your screen, glossy is better.

On the other hand a glossy screen is a mirror and distracting compared to a matte screen in all other cases.

I've never been in a situation where I couldn't prevent direct sunlight from hitting my screen. I am in conditions all the time where reflections would distract me and I cannot orient the screen to fix it. This doesn't seem like a difficult decision.

Re: Apple again offers matte screen option for 15-inch MacBook Pro

#53
post #12
post #5

It'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. The…

They 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.

it'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.

Re: Apple again offers matte screen option for 15-inch MacBook Pro

#54
post #5

It'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. The…

I 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 And, showing this isn't a one-time thing: http://www.betanews.com/article/Apple-Sued-Over-MacBook-Disp...

To set the record straight, virtually all laptop panels are 6-bit.

Re: Apple again offers matte screen option for 15-inch MacBook Pro

#55
post #9

Amen to this. I've never understood the appeal of glossy displays. To me they're almost unusuable except under the most ideal lighting conditions.

Nonsense. You have it backwards. Matte screens really require the ideal lighting conditions. Easy test: take one of each, and go outside. Sunlight washes out a matte screen to the point of being impossible to use. Glossy screens reflect much of that light away, leaving the screen still legible. As someone that used to do a lot of work outdoors on a laptop, there's no comparison. Glossy screens are usable in FAR, FAR…

Easy test if you somehow have two macbook pros sitting around... including one that has a matte screen which apparently just became available again today.

Re: Apple again offers matte screen option for 15-inch MacBook Pro

#56
post #21
post #8

and I just bought a macbook pro 1 week ago :-( ... hopefully I can return it...

If you can prove it's <2 weeks old, it's just the 10% or 15% unboxing fee.

Thanks, I'll have to check problem is that I bought it in Hong Kong and I'm in China right now....

Re: Apple again offers matte screen option for 15-inch MacBook Pro

#57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If by "magic thinking", you mean "a basic understanding of concepts like angle of incidence/reflection", then sure, magic. Or basic science. Your choice. Don't go by sketchy memory. Take one of each laptop - borrow a co-worker's, if necessary - go outside, and expose each screen to direct sunlight. Observe how the matte screen diffuses the light across the entire screen surface. Also observe how glossy screens (which…

If by "magic thinking", you mean "a basic understanding of concepts like angle of incidence/reflection", then sure, magic. Or basic science. Your choice. No. Not choice. Evidence says you're wrong. Evidence trumps theory. Them's the rules of science. Don't go by sketchy memory. Take one of each laptop - borrow a co-worker's, if necessary - go outside, and expose each screen to direct sunlight. This isn't sketchy memo…

I'm with evidence. The glossy screen on my new MBP is definitely not as usable as my old matte screen.

Re: Apple again offers matte screen option for 15-inch MacBook Pro

#58

I 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?

Same 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.

Re: Apple again offers matte screen option for 15-inch MacBook Pro

#60

I 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?

Screen 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.
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