Many developers prefer matte screens because it makes text easier to read and puts less stress on the eyes. Many designers and gamers on the other hand prefer glossy screens as they look more vivid.
As a developer, I could not use a glossy screen for the life of me. Thankfully there are many laptops with matte screen. I keep an up to date collection of them on Product Chart:
Unless we discover a type of glass that lets light pass in only one direction, this divide between matte and glossy screens will probably continue up to the day we all wear VR headsets.
>Many designers and gamers on the other hand prefer glossy screens as they look more vivid.
I work at a company that amongst other things sells mid-high end monitors (mostly to photographers and graphic designers) for people who need the colours to be true (we distribute monitor-calibrators and colour systems). We also have Imacs that we look after for a customer in the office right now, and some cinema displays. We happened to be moving some stuff around recently and I was stuck by the texture differences between cinema displays and Imacs versus the lovely soft displays on say an Eizo or high end Benq.
I can only say it is all about looks rather than function for any machine with a glossy display.
I don't think my Thinkpad is as glossy as a MBP
Perhaps this thread should be titled, 'Why are Apple monitors shiny"
As a developer, I could not use a glossy screen for the life of me. Thankfully there are many laptops with matte screen. I keep an up to date collection of them on Product Chart:
https://www.productchart.com/laptops/sets/1
I made a show HN when I created it for the first time. Let me find it ... ha! 5 years ago:
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10197939
Unless we discover a type of glass that lets light pass in only one direction, this divide between matte and glossy screens will probably continue up to the day we all wear VR headsets.