The new Macbook - A Reflection

Sorry. Couldn’t resist the title!

Regarding the new glossy screen on the Macbook (optional on 15″ Macbook Pros), John Sircusa offers the following:

Glossy displays have effectively taken over the entire laptop market. Why are they so popular? Here are three possible reasons.

They are better than matte-finish displays.
They are cheaper than matte-finish displays.
People are idiots.

Sounds fair to me.

The guys at Macserendipity disagree:

I have a Sony TFT at home with an Xblack glossy screen and I love it. The colors look vibrant and deep and switching to my Belina screen at work is frankly painful.
…
So maybe not having a choice is bad. People ( that are not idiots) should have a choice as some may not like the Glossy Screen. However some do. Those people including myself are not idiots they just have a preference.

Before I begin, I will say that I am NOT a fan of glossy screens. These “more vibrant colours” that are being spoken about and “higher contrast” make the screen almost unusable for getting an ACCURATE colour representation and are therefore fairly useless to anyone wanting to attempt some colour matching. Admittedly, this is something I do only rarely and is something that most people would not have any want or need to do, but it still annoys me! :-p

Anyway.
I’m sure a Sony XBlack TFT screen would look great in a lot of rooms. After all, indoors in a environment where you can control lighting conditions, a situation which is perfect (nay essential?) for these screens. Most showrooms, for example, are just such environments.

But the Macbook is PORTABLE computer. Thus, it would be preferrable to be able to use the laptop the conditions I happen to find myself, be it on a train, in the park having lunch, whatever…..
I should dictate where I use a portable computer, not the other way around.

As for John Siracusa’s argument about people being idiots, once you eliminate the first two options:
A: Glossy screens are better - Um, no they’re not.
B: Glossy screens are cheaper - Unsure, but can’t imagine there’s much in it. As far as I’m aware it’s only the finish that differs?

there aren’t many options left.
To say that people PREFER a glossy screen is to say that they prefer an inferior product (given A and B above), which isn’t unusual these days. As I’m oft reminded, people are entitled to their opinion, but then again, I happen to think most people are idiots anyway! :-p