Comments on: Matte vs. Glossy Debate Heats Up: Are Glossy Displays a Health Hazard?

By: Ken Hampshire

Ken Hampshire — Fri, 04 Feb 2011 20:27:22 +0000

Damn you Apple for forcing these “mirror” screens on us. The machines are great, the screens are awful. How sad.

By: Silvia

Silvia — Sat, 30 Oct 2010 14:25:36 +0000

After buying a new lap with a glossy screen just a week ago, I’m desperate! I love the computer in every other way (Asus) but after 30 minutes on it, I get migraines, nausea and eye pains which I never got on the Matte LCD’s even after 5-6 hours!!! I was worried about reflections but now I’m desperate b/c I feel physically bad using it.

I’m searching for another lap right now with Matte screen.
It’s a disgrace that manufacturers don’t offer the LCD option even for an additional 50$ or so.

By: Vivek

Vivek — Tue, 14 Sep 2010 13:38:50 +0000

Hi, Every one do not have the Same Eyes to feel the Stress, If a very Healthy person Sits before a PC even for 24 hours – he obviously do not feel any Eye strain.

But if a Care free persons like us, who dont care to consume food on Time and just extend our Time on PC, postponing other Health related stuff, then the Kind of Screens will come into Consideration.

Anti-glare Screens like MATTE are far more better for people who are Computer geeks, who take less care of their health. So Matte screens will reduce the Eye stain and other Body movements.

I am a person who takes less care to Timing and consume Healthy food, I many times skip the actually Food time sitting on the PC. So i actually wear Cooling Glasses to Sit every time before my Glossy Screen. All my Friends laugh at me when they see me on the CAM.

But i dont care. And I advice you to If you wanna protect your eyes, you Prefer MATTE, or use Anti Glare Products or Just have Cooling Glasses on your Eyes every time, like ME :)

Regarding the Movies, I dont buy even a single Video DVD to watch movies, I am watching each and every Movie online, through billion of websites. WE KNOW THEY ARE OF LESS QUALITY ONLINE. Who the hell will care – if those less Quality movies are good to watch on Glossy or Matte Screen.

I just want to protect my Eyes, and so you do..!

By: TN

TN — Fri, 10 Sep 2010 22:26:43 +0000

I’m staring at a matte NEC PA271W and and a glossy iMac trying to decide if I send the expensive NEC back. One of the considerations is the matte/glossy issue. I’m in a reasonably dark room with one door to the outside. The iMac faces the door. I have identical images up on the two screens to compare colour/greyscale/image sharpness etc. I don’t really have to think too much about the matte/glossy issue as half the screen on the iMac is covered in refection and I can’t see a lot of the image without moving my head, trying to see around/under the reflection. Sorry glossy screen, you are no good.

One thing I did notice in the “cheap” glossy screen (I could by a brand new iMac 27″ for the price of the NEC) is that at 100% I can see the compression artefacts of the greyscale image, where as on the matte NEC I can’t see the artefacts because the anti-glare or matte coating “disguises” them -they just seem to blend in with the dusty/sparkly effect of the matte. Nonetheless the glare/reflection is worse.

By: Marco Bianchi

Marco Bianchi — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 14:36:34 +0000

I’m ready to switch to Mac and I’m totally in love for Imac but I will never buy it because the glossy screen.
I really don’t understand why Apple doesn’t give the choice (like they do now with the MBP) to buy a matte screen; I would pay the extra money with great pleausure.
With glossy your brian is focused on the text, web etc, but your eyes feels the fatigue caused by the reflexes.
I have an Eizo monitor and it’s a joy for my eyes and the images are fantastic.
Eizo is one of the best monitor manufacturer and they have no (zero) glossy display.

As someone wrote before, mac pros are too expensive, mac mini are not powerful enough; Imac are perfecy, except for the screen.

I would like to have the chance to buy an Imac now

PS. I’m Italian, excuse my poor english

By: Reader

Reader — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 07:35:07 +0000

So, it comes down to this:

“”Consider consultation with a building lighting engineer to determine if overhead lighting can be modified, such as by removing fluorescent tubes”"

Didn’t occur to computer engineers to design screens for humans working in the office?

Didn’t occur to computer engineers that a lot of people use laptops to read substantial amount of text?

Perhaps computers are now designed by marketeers rather than engineers, and that explains a lot.

By: bob

bob — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 18:50:07 +0000

1) CRT’s main issue was with scan rates

2) “eye strain” is typically dry-eye caused by concentrating on something for too long. our blink rate slows dramatically and our tear film dries out. no matter what we are looking at, this can be a problem – the road, a tv, a computer, a book. what we need to do is step back and take a break.

By: Bob

Bob — Sun, 13 Dec 2009 19:31:29 +0000

I’m not a pro, I don’t care about who is “right” in terms of the argument, and I hate gloss. I found out when my brother gave me his laptop, and I was having a lot of problems with it – glare, dust, fingerprints. I didn’t even know there was a gloss/matte dialogue. When I finally figured out what the problem was, I took my “side.” I understand why Apple uses gloss. I just hate it, and will never buy another computer that has it.

By: Paul Freedman

Paul Freedman — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 00:08:13 +0000

I have a 30 inch Sony flat screen CRT HD TV with a glass fronted “glossy” reflective surface–I hate to use it in the day time–not only because Ma always told us we should be outside or reading if the sun was out, but because it is darn distracting to contend with reflections of me and my living room bouncing back to me from the screen. My 24 inch Cinema HD matte display is an alternate to watch DVDs on because I only see the DVD, not everything else in the vicinity. I was personally surprised that the distracting glare and reflections from the new iMac glossy screens is as bad as what bugged me originally about my TV. I would definitely check one of these out in a retail store before buying online. When I check them out in stores I see the store looking back at me from the screen.

By: torked

torked — Sun, 06 Dec 2009 21:17:55 +0000

So – we’ve made our voice heard here, but I haven’t seen any comments from Apple. You’d also think that HP, Toshiba, Asus, Gateway, Sony and other execs looking to expand their sales just might have something to say…….. HELLO? Mr Jobs? Mr Wasniak? Your customer has spoken – are you listening?