Matte or Glossy?

Haruka

Ascalonian Squire

Join Date: Feb 2009

Which is better for games? Which do you prefer?

I have an old computer + monitor (at least 8 years old), and people around me have newer stuff (glossy), so if I compare them, of course things would look better on their laptops/computers. So I wanna know what happens if we compare modern matte screens to modern glossy screens (same vcard). How's the image sharpness compared to the glossy screens?

Bob Slydell

Forge Runner

Join Date: Jan 2007

Well in all fairness to your old LCD, its probably worn out after 8 years of having to display pixels constantly and not as sharp now than when it was brand new.

When it comes to sharpness and stuff, depends on the quality and brand of the LCD for the most part. Some smaller LCDs today now are considered HD and can support huge resolutions of larger LCD's on the small HD Laptop LCD's which gives it a huge clarity boost since the pixels are smaller.

But from what I know Matte finish (the original) is anti-glare. Glossy finish can have a glare from lights, but the colors and depth of said colors is supposed to be far superior than the matte finish LCD's. I just can't say much about glossy because I have two matte finished LCD's and never really looked at a glossy up-close.

I'm sure someone here has a way better answer.

moriz

moriz

??ber t??k-n??sh'??n

Join Date: Jan 2006

Canada

R/

a glossy display has better color reproduction and contrast, but becomes unusable under glare. a matte display is not quite as good as glossy in picture quality, but you can actually see what's being displayed under glare.

Elder III

Elder III

Furnace Stoker

Join Date: Jan 2007

Ohio

I Will Never Join Your Guild (NTY)

R/

if you use your computer indoors, and don't have it right underneath or beside a bright light than glossy wins hands down 10x over. If you have a need to be outdoors with it or will be close to a bright light that will be on all the time you may want matte. For most home users I would say go for glossy.

KZaske

KZaske

Jungle Guide

Join Date: Jun 2006

Boise Idaho

Druids Of Old (DOO)

R/Mo

I have both Matte & Glossy. Even indoors the Glossy screen gets a lot of glare where the Matte finish has no noticeable glare at all.
As for color reproduction I don't believe it. I would like those that say Glossy has better reproduction to prove it to me, show me a link. Please note I am referring to actual color reproduction, not perceived color reproduction. My older Samsung 19" WS Matte has much better color reproduction than the new Samsung 22" WS Glossy but the glossy appears to be brighter and more vivid. In actual testing I found that there was no difference between them the color range, brightness is the same on both of them. The observed Vividness of the Glossy is due to the clarity of the solid plastic transparent protective cover rather than the soft translucent protective cover that Matte monitors have.