Gigabyte matte coating doesn't seem to be that great

I had always assumed laptop screens had fixed matte coatings from the lcd manufacturer, but then I realized there were touch and non-touch models of laptops with the same panels, so there goes that theory.

Anyway, I've owned both a Gigabyte P57x and P37x. Neither have unique panels. The former has your typical 60hz LG IPS panel that seems to be in every other gaming laptop with a lower tier IPS SKU. The latter is a 4k Sharp IGZO panel that use to be on the Alienware 17 R3. After owning quite a number of other laptops and watching a million youtube videos on laptops, I've come to the conclusion that the matte coatings on Gigabyte's laptops, including the Aorus line, just look terrible, at least to my eyes, and ruin every laptop they have made and will make.

Other laptops I have seen using the same panels that Gigabyte uses look so much better. Matte coatings are not created equal. MSI and Asus use a rather slick semi-gloss that I prefer far more. Gigabyte's, on the other hand, looks like a thick condom was placed over the screen. Dull and low contrast. Even if the actual measured display specs are good, the perceived contrast/colors just look much worse. The Gigabyte Aero 15, for example, has a condom over it, whereas the Asus UX550 with the same panel looks so much cleaner and nicer. Dito the V17 Nitro to my P57x, or the Alienware to my P37x. You can easily see the difference on youtube videos. The Aero 15 condom is especially prominent. It reminds me a lot of my XPS 15 FHD screen, and I hated the coating on that screen. The P37x with the 4k screen is even more ridiculous, The condom makes the contrast look low, in ADDITION to giving off glare. Kind of defeats the purpose of a matte display.

Now I know some people are gonna say I just don't like matte coatings and that's why I'm complaining about Gigabyte's displays. I'm actually very sensitive to glare and reflections and prefer matte. It's just that the matte coating on Gigabyte laptops are just not good. They aren't matte enough to keep things dark and glare-free, or worse off, can actually create glare when well defined and darker reflections would have been preferred. They aren't slick and shiny enough to give good contrast or make colors pop either. They look thick like a protective translucent film or condom. Gigabyte makes a lot of interesting laptops but until they fix their condom issue, I don't plan on getting another one in the near future.

 

Panels aren't sprayed when they're installed in laptops, they come directly from the factory (LG, Sharp, ChiMei/Innolux, Hannstar, AUO etc) with it already applied. This used to be reflected in the display's model number where you would see a v1 that was gloss and a v2 that was matte, but the rest of the model number was the same. I'm guessing you're either seeing a bad run of panels, a cheaper version of the same panel or something else.