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Why don’t phone manufacturers offer matte screens without a screen protector?

matte screen - for some reason we don't have an alt tag here

I love all of my mobile devices. My MacBook Pro, my iPad, and my Galaxy Nexus go almost everywhere with me. But all of them share a similar downfall: glossy screens.

Glossy screens bring many issues to mobile devices. For starters, they make the device I’m holding in my hand very hard to look at without me going blind. The reflections are simply too much to take, so I avoid using my devices until I’m in a shaded area. And while many screen protector manufacturers have made products that solve that problem by adding a thin layer of matting to the protector,  that just got me thinking: why should I have to apply a stupid screen protector to use my phone in the sunlight in the first place?

I have two 23-inch monitors on my desktop setup, both matte. I wouldn’t be able to do any work whatsoever with a glossy display in my home office, so matte was really the only way to go. Surprisingly mobile devices don’t offer matte screens – not even as an option! That just doesn’t make sense to me.  Display manufacturers are able to add matting to their displays; why hasn’t it happened on mobile devices?

Could it be that there’s not a big enough demand for matte screens? I know that there are a lot of people who prefer glossy screens because of the modern look and colors that “pop”  that they provide, but don’t those same people hate fingerprints and reflections? Matte screens cut down on the noticeability of fingerprints and smudges by removing reflections – and colors can still look good without a glossy finish.

Maybe I’m talking to a lot of glossy fans and maybe, because of that, you’re going to tell me to suck it up and buy a matte screen protector for my devices. Still, I can’t see a logical reason that companies wouldn’t even offer the matte screen option when you go to buy a device. I’d even be happy if manufacturers decided to charge a premium for matte screens à la Apple with its 15- and 17-inch MacBook Pro laptops.

As I wrap up my compaint, I can just look at the screen on the MacBook Pro I’m typing on, or the Galaxy Nexus that I’m texting on, or even the new iPad that I’m watching the (unfortunately cancelled!) Napoleon Dynamite television series on, and just wonder how joyous my viewing experience would be if I could see Napoleon’s face instead of the window frame behind me.

Do any of you have a similar hatred towards glossy displays?

[Image credit Lucas Mathis via Wikipedia]
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Calob Horton

Calob Horton is an associate editor at Pocketables. He loves all technology, no matter which company it comes from. This unbiased view of the tech world allows him to choose the products that best fit his personal needs and tastes: a Microsoft Surface Pro, a Samsung Galaxy Note 3, and a third-gen iPad.Google+ | Twitter | More posts by Calob | Subscribe to Calob's posts

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