We are given a choice at work
Fortunately, we're given a choice between matt and gloss here at work (we're all developers with 2 or 3 screens).
NOT A SINGLE PERSON (out of 20 or s) has opted for gloss... I think that tells us something. :)
Shiny, shiny! The window's behind me...
For reasons too mundane to express, the location at which I have been currently working comprises two adjacent but separate open-plan areas conjoined by a small office occupied by the departmental boss. The easiest and quickest way to get from one open-plan area to the other is to pass through the little office. In fact, it’s …
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Friday 25th January 2013 16:04 GMT Morat
16:10 please!!!
Widescreen yes - but not the stupid 16:9 1080p sized screens. Sadly people just seem to tick the "widescreen" box without knowing the difference. 16:10 screens are really hard to get hold of now. I'm keeping hold of my old gen Dell Precision laptop because the new ones are all 16:9 :(
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Friday 25th January 2013 19:29 GMT Dave 126
Re: 16:10 please!!!
Likewise my 16:10 1920 x 1200 Dell Vostro, plastic fantastic. The Core2 T9550 and nVidia graphics seem handle everything I come throw at cheerfully enough, so have no immediate plans to upgrade. Maybe by the time I do, x86 laptops will come without screens and will be partnered with hi-res tablets.
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Friday 25th January 2013 16:57 GMT David McCarthy
It's a question of tatse
Personal, that is, not in any other sense.
Bought an Acer Netbook in 2011 - nice shiny screen. Then found unless I wore black and sat against a black background, I couldn't easily read the text. Changing the screen angle didn't make enough difference. Turned the screen brightness up - helped a bit but the battery didn't last so long.
It was close to unusable in all those places away from the office where I had a spare half-hour and wanted to write something.
So I looked up matt overlays, and found a very helpful outfit in Hong Kong (Exim). They have huge range, and when I enquired, yes they had one which fitted.
It was a bit fiddly to install, but made a huge difference. The screen is a little darker, but I was able to use the netbook on my Greek Islands cruise, so long as I sat in the shade.
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Friday 25th January 2013 19:02 GMT Ceiling Cat
Matte vs. Glossy
I currently own 3 matte displays, a laptop with a glossy display, and a tablet.
All 3 Matte displays are used daily. The tablet is used faily often as well. The laptop, for various reasons, has been mostly abandoned to the "oops" pile. The reason :
The Glossy Screen.
The problem isn't fingerprints, or the fact that the screen is 100x easier to scratch when cleaning (even with a microfiber cloth). The problem is that the "Optimal viewing angle" (you know, the one where black looks black, and not kind of brownish-reddish-blueish) and the angle at which there is no glare are so far apart that the display is unuseable when there's no glare, and also unuseable when there is.
The tablet doesn't suffer this problem because it has a very wide "optimal viewing angle", and it's very easy to put myself between the source of the glare and the screen if I can't find an angle that works.
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Friday 25th January 2013 19:51 GMT Mage
Arrgh
Such rubbish.
Obviously never used a proper Anti-glare screen.
Glossy WILL give headaches if the reflections have movement.
Glossy is rubbish for reading and photo editing.
It looks fab in a showroom running a video. Decent matt / antiglare finish is expensive to do, glossy comes for free. No surprise which is promoted and easier to get.
My matt screen is 133dpi and doesn't lack definition.
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Friday 25th January 2013 22:51 GMT bag o' spanners
I'm on a shiny at home, but only so I can admire my gorgeous reflection when there's a dark background colour.
I noticed that a lot of self regarding went on in the reflective screen areas in my last open plan environment. I specifically asked for matte screens when the kit upgrades rolled through, because they don't get so fizzy when you're doing intensive audit log forensics. It took me a while to convince my staff that their eyes would also hurt less if their screens weren't facing the windows. They were more worried about having their unguarded backs facing the door while they were poncing around on the interwebs. Baby steps.
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Saturday 26th January 2013 09:47 GMT Corinne
I'm old enough to have used CRT VDUs with PCs and I remember being automatically issued with an anti-glare device as a health & safety measure, as the reflections off the shiny screen were cited as a major cause of headaches.
Roll on (mmmph to many to want to recall) years and we're back to shiny screens for computer work - is this another symptom of the modern trend of assuming all devices are used for entertainment rather than "real" work?
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Sunday 27th January 2013 16:40 GMT Dave 62
Get out of my head!
It's true, I am in the matte camp!
What's more when I get my films processed I often go for matte.
To be honest I'm not sure it really matters. I guess my TV is matte though.. I think I prefer it that way.
Come to think of it my laptop is pretty matte too. My phone on the other hand is gloss and I don't have a problem with it, but then I don't spend hours on end staring at it.
Are gloss screens really all that ubiquitous? This laptop is all off a year and a bit old..
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Thursday 31st January 2013 01:39 GMT woodelf
Actually, glasses (spectacles) *are* usually "fuzzed up" or otherwise coated (at least in the US). Anti-glare coatings are a standard feature, in order to make driving at night much safer (as well as any other situations where there are bright lights, particularly in the dark). And the coatings they put on eyeglasses are generally optically clear, so it ought to be possible to do something similar on screens, though it might be much more expensive than the coatings they currently use (which are visible, if only barely).
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Biting the hand that feeds IT
