[LegionSB]

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 more varied lighting conditions. Too much direct light and a matte screen becomes completely useless.

[SwellJoe]

This hasn't been my experience at all. My previous lappy had a glossy screen, and I simply couldn't use it outside, and it's one of the reasons I didn't buy an Apple laptop when I got a new one a couple of months ago (bought a Dell Latitude with a super bright matte screen that works great indoors and out).

I think saying, "Glossy screens reflect much of that light away, leaving the screen still legible" is magical thinking. The reflected light goes into your eye, just like the light that's coming from the screen.

A sufficiently bright glossy screen and placing the lappy out of direct sunlight could overcome this problem, but I'm pretty darned sure matte screens work better than shiny ones outdoors.

[LegionSB]

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, it turns out, don't come in parabola shapes, and as such aren't reflecting all incoming light to one point) aren't washed out like the matte. There's glare, of course, but you'll quickly see the difference.

Given sufficiently bright direct light, matte glare is MURDER compared to reflective glare. Matte is ideal for office settings, but far inferior in sunlight.

[SwellJoe]

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 memory I'm talking about here. I still own the glossy screen laptop, and I also have a new Mini 9 with a glossy screen, and both can be cranked up nice and bright. I know they're unusable outdoors. And I know that my new laptop is quite usable outdoors even in low-power (dim screen) mode. I just took them all outside for a side-by-side. I mostly see my face and shirt in the glossy lappies, while the matte screen is quite usable.

Neither type of screen is great in direct sunlight, of course, but the matte screen can actually be used even in direct sunlight. The glossy screens cannot. At least not by me...maybe my eyes are worse than most (actually that's not a maybe, I'm damned near legally blind without glasses or contacts).

Anyway, as I mentioned, sufficient brightness can somewhat overcome the problems of glossy screens outdoors. Newer laptops are brighter than older ones, so if you upgraded from a matte screen from a few years back to a newer Apple laptop with a much brighter glossy screen, you might feel like the newer screen is more usable even in sunlight.

But, I'm absolutely certain a good matte screen is better for working outdoors than a good glossy screen.

The good news for you and your glossy screen preference is that since glossy screens are cheaper to manufacture, they are far more common. You will be able to buy glossy screens to your hearts content. I, on the other hand, have to be a bit more selective, and usually spend a bit more (generally only the high end Dell models have the matte option).

[tobyhede]

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

[eggnet]

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.

[carpo]

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.

[antidaily]

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.