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Comment by axod | Hacker News Reader

I sometimes wonder if this fad of having a massive gloss mark right across screens will pass. It's like they're trying to say "You can be absolutely sure this will reflect everything so that you can't see anything on the actual screen".

When displayed on websites they just seem to take it to extremes. Half the device is black and half is white? :/

Hardware looks quite sexy.

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This is also true of the bezel for flat-panel LCD and plasma televisions. Walk into a best buy and 95% of them have a super glossy bezel.

I've yet to buy a new tv (because I'm too busy reading HN!), but when I finally do, the bezel will be matt black.

They're cheaper to make and they look better at a first glance or when compared side to side with glossy displays.

Of course they look crisper. The matte finish is the necessary compromise to avoid reflections.

Why is a glossy screen considered a "good thing" in the first place? Is there any situation in which a glossy screen is desirable?

If you're in the right lighting conditions, blacks are far blacker, contrast is better IMHO than a matt display. But it's a very contentious issue as far as I know.

having had both matte and glossy macbook pros, my own observations seem to confirm this: colors are richer and display is brighter (across the same model) but glossy screens get smudged a LOT, and reflect just about everything

That's it. If you (the common person TM) are on a shop and look at two laptops side by side, one with a matte screen and the other with a glossy screen, I'm pretty sure that person will be more pleased with the colors on the glossy one.

The problems only appear when you start using it.

The problems only appear when you start using it. <In bad lighting setups>

I love the glossy screen on my iMac at work for one reason: I can see when someone is walking up to my desk behind me. The great expanses of darkness in the empty spaces of my text editor make the screen a gigantic mirror.

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