
Apple again offers matte screen option for 15-inch MacBook Pro - peter123
http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/09/08/11/apple_again_offers_matte_screen_option_for_15_inch_macbook_pro.html
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martythemaniak
Cool. Even the handsome narcissists like me get tired of looking at themselves
all day long.

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alaskamiller
That's why Apple made Photo Booth and the blue screen backgrounds.

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yalestar
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.

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cesare
Glossy 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.

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pmjordan
It's odd, though - in some European countries, the glossy screens are
considered ergonomically harmful and are therefore banned from the workplace.
So you can't give your employees iMacs, smaller Macbooks, etc. to work on.
You'd think Apple would be a bit keener to sell to businesses.

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electromagnetic
Apple traditionally hasn't sold to businesses due to Big Corporations apparent
desire to quash anything capable of spurring original thought in its workers.

Business is packed full of contradictions from rules they've created for
themselves, like using uniforms and team building exercises to help the
workers feel part of a group, but positively crap themselves at the idea of
their workers unionising due to feeling like part of a group.

Consumers on the other hand are relatively simple, give them something bright
and shiny and they love it. Essentially we shop like Magpies, people
frequently buy the wrong product for themselves because it's the better
advertised and branded product.

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pmjordan
Sure, maybe not large corporations, but a lot of small businesses use macs,
and on the desktop, you currently only have the choice between the Mac Mini
and the Mac Pro, which is definitely suboptimal.

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mcantor
I 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.

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dlevine
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. 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.

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raquo
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.

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jodrellblank
That's an incredibly weak example of a "useful feature or option".

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raquo
Its usefulness is comparable to time and effort required to implement it.
Surely there are other, more useful yet still ignored features, like being
able to set larger font size in Mac OS.

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ahpeeyem
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?

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psadauskas
I 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.

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moe
Tradition. 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...

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figital
The 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.

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Tichy
Actually 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.

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cookiecaper
In what situation would someone prefer glossy? I don't get that. Glossy is
obviously much worse. Can someone explain this to me?

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modoc
I 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.

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cookiecaper
But 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?

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modoc
I 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.

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

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

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

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jpcx01
Even 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.

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jodrellblank
Even 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.

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entelarust
I have so many problems with my matte macbook pro. Dust collection mainly. I
will definitely go with glossy on my next mac.

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baddox
Charging for the option? I fail to understand that, and I didn't expect it,
even from Apple.

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raquo
So now they acknowledge that glossy screen is even $50 _inferior_ to matte.

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mustpax
That'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.

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raquo
Maybe. 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.

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bkj123
I can't believe this post has over 35 comments (+1 for mine)

