glossy

Updated August 16, 2012: We think a matte-screen finish offers the best picture quality in rooms where you can't control ambient light.

Most TVs are fine in normal lighting situations, and some glossy screens are better than others. But if you watch TV a lot in a very bright room, or have to place the set where its screen can't avoid reflecting a window or other bright light source, you should strongly consider going to the matte.

Unfortunately, most quality TVs have glossy screens. With LG going glossy on its higher-end LED models this year, the pickings are slimmer than in 2011. Sharp is a standout, Toshiba a pleasant surprise and Samsung uses matte in its lower-end EH lineup.

New in this update is the LG PM9700, the only plasma TV with a matte screen. I also included a sixth *bonus* TV since it's too good to pass up: Vizio's excellent M3D0KD, with its "semi-gloss" screen finish that's more reflective than the others, yet not as mirrorlike as truly glossy sets.

Here they are, arranged in descending order of overall CNET rating. … Read more

We think a matte-screen finish offers the best picture quality in rooms where you can't control ambient light. Here are our favorite five matte-screen TVs CNET reviewed in 2011, arranged in descending order of overall picture quality.… Read more

Much like birds building nests, people seem to like shiny objects. The truism holds, apparently, for laptop and LCD TV screens as well. Samsung was among the first TV makers to popularize the shiny, glossy screen with its LNA650 series, and we complained about it, albeit to no avail. The company expanded its gloss-coated reach to encompass most of its LCD screens, and many other makers followed suit.

The sole picture-quality advantage of glossy screens we've observed, at least when done correctly, is that they can in some cases preserve black-level performance--dark areas stay darker--in bright rooms with overhead … Read more

Fancy a thin ThinkPad? Lenovo's venerable ThinkPad brand may seem from a distance to look the same every year, since lately the interesting changes have been made under the surface lately. It's also a confusing landscape to navigate, even when you know what size you want. Case in point: the ThinkPad X1 and the ThinkPad Edge E220s.

In one sense, they're completely different laptops. The X1 is a full-powered 13-incher, with a serious professional bent and durable construction. The Edge E220s is a smaller, low-voltage laptop, a 12.5-incher with a more reasonable price tag. And yet, … Read more

For the record: I hate reflective screens.

In the past, I've written about how I hate them on laptops. And, judging from the reader comments, many of you hate them as well. Unfortunately, it seems like our pleas are falling on deaf ears. Matte screens are becoming harder to find on laptops: you usually have to search out "business" models, which are sometimes lean on consumer-friendly features and pricing. So, if you're not in a totally darkened environment, you're left staring at your own reflection in the screen, instead of at your work.

Now the trend is extending to TVs, as well. Once upon a time, plasma screens had reflective glass, while LCD screens had matte finishes. But as LCD continues to take market share from plasma, the LCD TV manufacturers are struggling to distinguish their products from one another in the marketplace. And with the spec sheets becoming ever more identical--1080p resolution, LED backlighting, 240Hz refresh rate, zillion-to-one contrast ratio--design becomes more important than ever. In addition to ever thinner panels, shiny, glossy, highly reflective screens are becoming the norm in LCD land.

The cynic in me still thinks the manufacturers really prefer the glossy reflective screens because they "pop" on the showroom floor at Best Buy--shoppers eyes are drawn to shiny baubles, even if they're $3,000 big-screen TVs. But, to be fair, the glossy screens aren't entirely cosmetic. Manufacturers claim that the glossy screens preserve black levels by focusing the reflections rather than scattering them in a more diffuse pattern. So, you'll see the light from a window will only take up that much space on the screen, instead of having the larger discolored white blob you'd see on a matte screen.

While that's certainly true, the fact is that I find the diffuse matte reflection to be much less objectionable than seeing a mirror image of my living room staring back at me. On the example above, note the reflection on the screen on the left completely obscures Maggie Gyllenhaal's image; the same window reflection on the upper corner of the TV on the right is, to my eye, much easier to tolerate. … Read more

Editor's note: We're currently benchmarking and testing the new Apple MacBook. We'll update this post with a full review later this week.

With the launch of Windows 7 only days away, it's not surprising that Apple would fire a last-minute shot across Microsoft's bow. While the timing may be suspicious, Mac fans are no doubt pleased to see an update to the most popular laptop in the Mac lineup, the $999 polycarbonate white MacBook.

While it's neither the less-expensive entry level MacBook some had hoped for, nor the long-rumored touchscreen device, the new 13-inch … Read more

Apple on Tuesday added an antiglare upgrade option to its 15-inch MacBook Pro line of notebooks.

The option of an antiglare display has already been available on the 17-inch MacBook Pro. The 13-inch counterpart continues to offer only a glossy display.

First reported by AppleInsider and confirmed for CNET by Apple, the antiglare display is a $50 upgrade via Apple's online store.

The glossy versus antiglare debate has been ongoing since the glossy version was first introduced on notebooks. For some, it's a matter of aesthetics or eye strain. And then there are creative professionals who maintain that … Read more

Unless you've been living under a rock (or in Redmond), you've no doubt seen the flood of product news coming from Apple's WWDC 2009 conference--from the new iPhone 3G S to an entire line of revamped MacBook laptops.

While we're down with the new SD card slots and lower prices (see reviews for three of the new MacBooks here), there are still a few items on our MacBook wish list:

Matte screen options Despite the fact that nearly every serious laptop user we know prefers matte, non-glossy screens, only Apple's 17-inch MacBook Pro offers a … Read more

After putting up our reviews of the new 13-inch Apple MacBook and 15-inch MacBook Pro, we checked back over the next couple of days to see what CNET readers would have to say about them in the user reviews section.

Reader reviews generally fall into two categories. One-star ratings for negativists who want to lay some online smackdown on a brand they're not feeling too generous about (Sony, Microsoft, etc.), and so-called "fanboys" who give everything five-star ratings with an almost religious zeal. Needless to say, usually very few of these amateur reviewers even own the product … Read more