Glossy or matte finish on laptop screen?

[Butt Craic]

Well, the FBT year is about to roll over again so it's time to replace my 3 year old laptop. Since I last bought one it seems like all the new models are coming out with the glossy screens.

I use Macs at home so I get a choice . . . I've never had a glossy screen and worry that with a 17" widescreen that the glare will be horrendous in anything but low light levels. I appreciate that when I travel and am watching dvds on my computer that they'll probably look better on the glossy screen but most of the time I'm just using it for recording music, editing video, internet, email, etc, etc.

Any advice?

[cmohr]

Yeah, I've got both,

The old laptop has the good old matt screen, great for working on doing text stuff, spread sheets, and the like, no worries on the road or in bright places can always read everything great.

The new lappy, has the gloss screen, and as you say, watching dvd,s and stuff is far superior on the gloss, looking at pics fantastic, you can read text on it fine, and the internet no worries (I'm using it now), but, glare and reflections, yep can be a real bugger, bight windows and if your using it in a car, you get to see whats behind you or beside you half the time. Still I use this one more than the old one, just have to take a little more care thats all.

[Daz7]

The gloss will give you a more saturated image so will look sexier, the matte should give you truer colours but thats only from a designers viewpoint.

I've heard the gloss also has a bit of a problem with fingerprints showing up and has more glare problems too but you'd have to suss that out in a showroom.

Do you currently have a 17" version, just its a big laptop to lug around. I prefer the 15" size and plug into a larger screen at my desk. Although theres only $200 difference between them when you spec to 3gb of ram and the 200gb drive.

[Ben]

I've got a 17" Toshiba with gloss screen, and love it. I use it 9 hours a day, fluro lights above, window to the side and have no real issues at all. I'd definitely go gloss again, everything just leaps out when you're looking at photos/watching DVDs.

[MR EXTREME JEEP]

Go gloss and when you mount it in the car for GPS chuck a filter film over it to "deglare" it..

[Butt Craic]

I currently use a 17" Powerbook G4. I don't travel that much for work anymore and at work I've got a desktopso I generally like the 17" for home because it becomes more of a portable desktop than a laptop. I agree it is heavy and the size can be an issue when travelling though.

I don't use it heaps for photoshop and I'm not a designer so colour matching isn't a huge problem for me. My monitor at work (which is actually my own personal monitor) has a digital input so if I went gloss, I can always use that if colour matching becomes an issue on certain projects.

I was going to be spraypainting this weekend but I've just heard the weather forecast and think that I might head up to Canberra to check out some of the gloss screens in person under showroom lights instead.

[dsmit376]

As a technician at a couple of schools i have put some computers in some really odd places, used laptops inside and outside and i find the screens with glass overlay are the best to use in high light situations. I have a 15.4" widescreen glass covered screen on my laptop and its really easy on the eyes, the reflections are only slight and at the angle you view the screen on you never get reflections right at your eyes.

Ive had a few previous mat finish laptops before my current one and they are not too bad but hard to see outside and don't look as clear.