I hate glossy displays.
I really do. Life has gotten a little harder ever since Apple’s attack on matte displays.
I have been using both the glossy and non-glossy displays for quite some time (over two years). At home, I choose to use older Cinema Displays (30″ and 23″) that are matte-coated, however, at work I am forced to use newer iMacs with glossy displays. I find that with the glossy display, I tend to have more eye-strain and difficulty matching colors. While it is true that I can “tune-out” some of the reflection and glare, it is still a nuisance, and I find much more comfort and joy using my matte displays at home.
I also own a black MacBook with the glossy display (albeit not glass like the new ones) and I can feel a difference when I use it versus a traditional matte display. Just recently, I was using a MacBook Pro with the matte display BTO option, and it was much easier for me to focus and read text on it, as well as match colors for a project.
Glossy is certainly great in certain circumstances, such as working outside in the sunlight, watching videos as a consumer, cleaning the screen after kids with dirty hands have touched it, etc., but the overly saturated colors, reflections, and eye-straining contrast are going to prevent me from buying an iMac or new Cinema Displays for doing any “pro” work. I do believe the iMac with the glass-fronted screen would be very convenient in a family oriented or “consumer” setting. It is certainly something I would buy for my family to use.
Part of me feels that with Apple’s new-found popularity amongst the young and trendy population, they have begun to ignore their “pro-users” who use these machines for design, video editing, photography, and the like. Lets just hope that someday Apple will make more displays for pro-users to use to prevent us from having to turn to a 3rd party manufacturer…
I agree. Go matte display! 🙂