Whether glossy or not, what would be really useful in sunny outdoor notebook scenarios is a notebook lid that could be opened on the backside and let the sunlight shine through the tft panel instead of the led/ccfl.
i know, those special platic layers that spread the peripheral light uniformly across the screen would probably mess up the sun illumination of the screen, but i'm sure some smart engingeers could figure out a solution :)
I will not buy another glossy-screen laptop. My macbook air is "ok" as glossy goes (less gloss than the others aparently) but a matte finish like my wife's excellent HP matte finish (prior to HP abandoning them)
I admit glossy screens do look "better." And by "better," I mean looking at the screen while in a black hole. Glossy does look nice when I have good control over lighting, but for the most part, I typically don't, even while indoors.
That's not to say there aren't some somewhat decent-looking glossy screens. Last time I went to Target, I noticed a Sony LCD TV that had a glossy screen, but the glare wasn't quite as bad as the other glossy TVs next to it.
Always been a fan of the glossy. I think they look so much better. The glare doesn't bother me at all. My bigger issue is with the TN sceens that just suck.
I agree that glossy looks best in a super-controlled environment, but, let's face it: only if you live in a cave with no lights will you be able to see anything other than reflections in a glossy screen.
Now... I'm not Gollum...
Even in my matte Sony 52W4000, in dark scenes, I can see my white sofa diffusely reflected in the screen; and I find that pretty annoying: it ruins the image, it ruins the atmosphere, it sucks. (I know, white sofa, I deserve this)
I have succesfully avoided glossy so far, let's hope I have the possibility of keeping that so in the future.
I find these discussions so hilarious. People say they can't work with glossy screens because of the reflections. Then they mention they are a photographer and need to be able to use their screen everywhere. Hello!? Ever seen the completely gray washed out screen of a matte in direct sunlight? If there is anything left to see, it is most definitately not usuable for any photo reviewing or editing. Not for amateurs and certainly not for pro's.
TFT screens, regardless of construction, are barely usuable in bright, direct sunlight. And for anything remotely related to graphics work they are utterly useless in that situation.
I travel and work outside a lot, while I like the richness of glossy screens when I'm not outside/in a bright room, it isn't worth the problems when I am outside/in a bright room!
If I had the choice I would ALWAYS choose matte!!! It bugs the hell out of me that there is almost never this choice.
Somebody else pointed out the irony of purely indoor desktop monitors being mostly matte while laptops are mostly gloss. With regard to the Apple Macbooks and mini-notebooks by any manufacturer; why are only the largest, most-likely-to-be-used-indoors-as-a-desktop-replacement notebooks available with a matte option?!?!?!?
Macbook Air and MBP 13 should have matte option too!!! And every netbook/ultraportable...
My laptop has glossy while my desktop screen is matte. The glossy screen definitely makes movies/video more real. But bright sunshine through the windows at the wrong angle just ruins the picture. Outside, glossy is awful.
So, night-time = glossy!
Daytime/outside = almost always matte
Whether glossy or not, what would be really useful in sunny outdoor notebook scenarios is a notebook lid that could be opened on the backside and let the sunlight shine through the tft panel instead of the led/ccfl.
i know, those special platic layers that spread the peripheral light uniformly across the screen would probably mess up the sun illumination of the screen, but i'm sure some smart engingeers could figure out a solution :)
I will not buy another glossy-screen laptop. My macbook air is "ok" as glossy goes (less gloss than the others aparently) but a matte finish like my wife's excellent HP matte finish (prior to HP abandoning them)
I prefer the matte display. I find I can set the brightness lower on a matte display and save some battery.
The only good thing about glossy screens is you can be pretty sure there are no ninjas sneaking up behind you.
Other than that, give me matte. Better yet, develop a matte with transmission properties as good as a glossy.
I prefer matte.
I admit glossy screens do look "better." And by "better," I mean looking at the screen while in a black hole. Glossy does look nice when I have good control over lighting, but for the most part, I typically don't, even while indoors.
That's not to say there aren't some somewhat decent-looking glossy screens. Last time I went to Target, I noticed a Sony LCD TV that had a glossy screen, but the glare wasn't quite as bad as the other glossy TVs next to it.
Always been a fan of the glossy. I think they look so much better. The glare doesn't bother me at all. My bigger issue is with the TN sceens that just suck.
I agree that glossy looks best in a super-controlled environment, but, let's face it: only if you live in a cave with no lights will you be able to see anything other than reflections in a glossy screen.
Now... I'm not Gollum...
Even in my matte Sony 52W4000, in dark scenes, I can see my white sofa diffusely reflected in the screen; and I find that pretty annoying: it ruins the image, it ruins the atmosphere, it sucks. (I know, white sofa, I deserve this)
I have succesfully avoided glossy so far, let's hope I have the possibility of keeping that so in the future.
I find these discussions so hilarious. People say they can't work with glossy screens because of the reflections. Then they mention they are a photographer and need to be able to use their screen everywhere. Hello!? Ever seen the completely gray washed out screen of a matte in direct sunlight? If there is anything left to see, it is most definitately not usuable for any photo reviewing or editing. Not for amateurs and certainly not for pro's.
TFT screens, regardless of construction, are barely usuable in bright, direct sunlight. And for anything remotely related to graphics work they are utterly useless in that situation.
I travel and work outside a lot, while I like the richness of glossy screens when I'm not outside/in a bright room, it isn't worth the problems when I am outside/in a bright room!
If I had the choice I would ALWAYS choose matte!!! It bugs the hell out of me that there is almost never this choice.
Somebody else pointed out the irony of purely indoor desktop monitors being mostly matte while laptops are mostly gloss. With regard to the Apple Macbooks and mini-notebooks by any manufacturer; why are only the largest, most-likely-to-be-used-indoors-as-a-desktop-replacement notebooks available with a matte option?!?!?!?
Macbook Air and MBP 13 should have matte option too!!! And every netbook/ultraportable...
My laptop has glossy while my desktop screen is matte. The glossy screen definitely makes movies/video more real. But bright sunshine through the windows at the wrong angle just ruins the picture. Outside, glossy is awful.
So, night-time = glossy!
Daytime/outside = almost always matte
Paul
http://hall-for-hire.co.uk