Photos of the 2010 MBP's. For your consideration.

This is part of a fulfillment of a request in the matte vs. anti-glare thread. makes more sense to just give them their own thread and people can post the pictures of their new MBP's in here as well! below are pictures of the 15" and 17"...both matte and glossy, taken at my local Apple Store. hope they help someone make their decision. And I look forward to seeing some good pictures of your MacBook Pros!

click pictures to see the full-sized versions (3000x2000)

15" matte


15" glossy


17" matte


17" glossy


17" glossy vs. matte (I'm sure you'll figure out which is which. lol)


After asking 5 different people the same question about the displays, they overwhelmingly (4 out of 5) recommended the anti-glare for anyone who cares about color accuracy or who plan on printing. the glossy screen takes liberties with the contrast to create a slightly unnatural look. it also crushes blacks (black hair is lost in a black background, for example).

For your average consumer who likes more "pop" in their movie watching or web surfing it's fine (glare notwithstanding). for everyone else (ie, photographers, people who like accuracy), it's all about the anti-glare screen. I agree 100% with their findings after studying about 100 photos on both screens. the matte screen is exceptional and does not appear "soft" or "dull" in any way. just not as much contrast.

I'd suggest that it's the screen to get. So did 4 of the 5 Apple employees I spent time with. But to each their own. This is all for your information. The only cost was me looking like an idiot for about 5 minutes while I took pictures.

for potential matte owners, know that the edge around the screen looks great with the aluminum finish. the thin black bar is just a thin rubber strip that is on both glossy and matte models that will keeps the lid aluminum from rubbing up against the bottom aluminum.

 

You are a gentleman and a scholar, sir.

edit: is that glossy 15" the regular or high res screen?

 

Agreed, very very nice.

+rep

 

the glossy 15" was the high res. and of course, the matte 15" can only be configured at the higher resolution.

 

I dont know if its just me but I always thought ever since the move to led backlighting the matte screens has a more pop than the glossy screens.

Also I find the matte displays to be brighter.

 

^ I thought it was just me!

I looked at these maybe last year and swore that the matte looked very dull and muted. Now the matte screens look so much better to my eyes now! where last year they seemed unacceptable, now they're great. not sure if that's the led backlighting or the default settings coming from the 330M GPU.

but for those shoppers who like more "pop" in their screen colors...more "vibrance", go glossy. as in, if you like your contrast and color set high on your HDTV and don't really care if it's "accurate" or not (you feel it looks good, anal-retentive color perfectionists be damned), glossy is for you (unless you also hate mirror-like reflections). otherwise, you'll be very happy with matte. of that I am confident.

 

I love you.

 

Still not higher enough for me, i won´t buy a new MBP 15 until it takes 1920 panel.....
Continue with my modded WUXGA MBP....

 

nice. didn't know you could do that.

 

Aesthetically I like the edge-to-edge design on the glossy screen. I wonder if they can use the matte glass instead and retain the edge-to-edge design, using aluminum border seems a bit like older MBPs (it's just me anyway)

 

Better you than me. +rep

Thanks for the photos.

 

I assume they don't have a matte glass? that or they found it reduces the quality of the image?

anyway, it looked good to me. idk.

 

The problem with these sort of comparitive pictures of glossy vs. matte is that you're going to adjust a glossy screen so you don't have reflections. I understand that you shouldn't have to do that, but glossy screen means higher contrast means better picture.

Plus that glass to glass is nice.

 

I like both but I'm more toward Matte screen because my current LG 23" 1080p Monitor matte colors are so rich and perfect black.

I hope that Macbook Pro (2010) matte screen can be comparable to my 23" screen.

AND i hate my HDX16 crappy screen. The colors are all off and when sit it side by side to my 23"... I see big differences.

 

NO.

there is no "adjusting the glossy screen so you don't have reflections."

unless you're working in rooms with black walls and no lights on, you *will* see reflections. the question is how willing are you to try to train your brain to ignore them as much as possible?

because there is no angle in which they go away. and they're murder on dark things. any thing black on your screen will be reminiscent of a mirror.

NO.

higher contrast just means that: higher contrast. it's an exaggerated effect put on screens for people like you (no disrespect) who don't know any better. for people who think retina-burning colors that crush blacks and whites (where details are lost in the contrast) at the high and low ends are "better" than proper, natural color reproduction.

you (again, no disrespect) are also the reason why HDTV resellers put their television on "torch mode" where the contrast is up ridiculously high. because the average passer-by will say, "wow, that sure is vibrant".

I'm about 1000% sure you've never color calibrated a monitor or HDTV. then again, the point is to appeal to the average person who doesn't know any better and are happy with "all dah pretty kolorz" with no regard to the actual quality of their viewing experience or accuracy to the source film material. they play that game well and get their sales. but "better" is not a way to describe it. "wrong, artificial, unnatural, frustrating" might be better.

 

I totally agreed. It looks nice for movies but it's bad enough for those who works in prints that had to deal with CMYK and etc.

Also, true about glossy screen. There is really no adjustment to be made but all you need to do it's to train your brain to ignored it as I did for many months. But it will get irritating if you are outside under the sun...

 

oh I know. I have a glossy-screened Dell E1705. It's nowhere near as glossy as the MBP line...but it's glossy enough for me to have gone through a transition period to get used to it.

but honestly? I've never seen anything as reflective as these MBP's. I couldn't believe it as I stood there in the store and counted the hairs on the head of a woman 15 yards behind me just by looking at the MBP's screen.

when I arrived at the store, I had assumed I would go glossy because my past memory was not that the glossy was great so much as the matte was dull. in fact, these new led-based MBP screens allow both to be equally great. I left much more excited than I was when I went in because a good-quality matte screen is hard to find these days. the Dell XPS 16 has one (at least, I think it's matte?). The Sony Vaio AW line had one (but Sony killed off the line). and now the MBP has one.

anyone having doubts should go see one in person. I promise you won't be disappointed.

 

You are selling me on the matte with each subsequent post! I was wondering if you have ever seen a new(ish) Sony Vaio Z? They have a matte screen as well and would really like to know if the Apple's is similar. If it is I will buy the matte option without hesitation.

 

I haven't, no.

no Sony Style store near me.

I really wish you guys had an Apple Store near you so you could see (and decide) for yourselves.

 

As do I my friend, as do I. Sadly the only experience with I have with matte screens are from the older IBM's/Lenovos which are hideous and quite dark. Apart from the Sony, of course.

edit: if I knew the matte on the mbp was similar to the sony I would order it sight unseen.

 

coming from the Vaio AW 18.4" with the legendary Adobe RGB LED display which received words like,

“The color reproduction on this laptop’s high-definition, Adobe RGB-compatible display is unparalleled,” PCMag.com gushes. And “if you think photos look great on the screen, wait until you pop in a Blu-ray movie.”

...the time I spent with the Apple 2010 MBP matte display made me not miss my deceased Vaio.

take that as you will.

HOWEVER...I'm waiting to find out more about this one:

http://www.engadget.com/2010/03/24/hp-elitebook-8740w-pumped-up-with-intel-core-2010-cpus-ati-nv/

it looks like the Jesus laptop.

only question for me remains how much battery life it gets. If it's above ~5 hours on average, I'll have to bite. The Dreamcolor 2 panel is a true 10-bit panel IPS. it's a whole different level of quality. and a GPU that gets it done.

it's seriously godlike. and HP's elitebooks are built to the highest standards in the industry. this HP with this display can be had for around the same price as the MBP (+- $150).

and HP is also coming out with an Envy 17 that may be a MBP killer.

I'm still not sure what I'm going to do...but figuring it out will be fun.

 

Thank you for the nice pictures.

I don't have any experience of glossy screen (I mean using it for a considerable long time, say hours.) One of my concerns is that will eyes feel uncomfortable after looking at glossy screen for hours.

 

I didn't use it for a prolonged enough time to say whether or not it will be uncomfortable.

but I can fairly confidently say that the Matte was the consensus pick among the employees. My eyes agreed.

do check them out for yourself if you have an Apple Store anywhere near by.

 

ajreynol, you seem to know MUCH more about computers than I do so I have a resolution question for you. As you know I am using the Sony Z, it has a resolution of 1600x900 on a 13.1" screen. How would the size of text, images, whatever appear on the MPB hi-res screen? I assume they will be significantly larger, but just wanted to make sure.