Why are monitors with a gloss finish not being made any more?

Ben97

Ben97

Ben97

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I've asked about this on another forum, but thought I would get more peoples view here too.

What I don't understand is that all smartphones and a great deal laptops now have glossy screens. With smartphones especially, since you are outdoors with them a lot of the time, I would have thought they would benefit hugely by having an option of a matte finish as it would make them far easier to see and cut down reflection almost entirely.

It seems to have gone the other way with monitors.

Having had a Dell S2415H for several years that has developed a fault, going back to a matt monitor is not a nice experience. For office use (widely used for this, i know), this finish is appropriate, but I can't find any new monitors currently being manufactured that still use a glossy finish. Why is this? TV's haven't changed their approach. It makes images sharper, and when light comes on the monitor from an angle, it bounces directly off it rather than diffusing it into a messy patch spread out. Consequences are that if you get a direct reflection, it can be rather intense and painful for some, but still am so puzzled as to why I can't find these monitors any more.

I even bought a Dell U2518D as an upgrade which was over 3 times the price of my S2415H. The image quality on that was excellent, but still noticeable that there was sharpness and some other things lacking due to having a matt finish. One thing however that made me return it was the horrendous backlight bleed, which from what I have read - a matt finish can heavily amplify this issue making it spread out more so it is more apparent. I barely noticed any backlight bleed on my S2415h. I just couldn't accept this so I had to return it.

I then bought an even more expensive Philips 258B6QUEB and that had quite a bit of backlight bleed as well as a big amount of colour shift in dark scenes from one side of the monitor to the other.

I then returned that and bought yet another monitor and had even more problems. At that, i gave up with expensive monitors and got an incredibly cheap Philips monitor and for the price, it really isn't that bad, but the backlight bleed is still pretty awful and am still really missing a glossy finish.

Trying to find my S2415H second hand at the moment as I don't know what other choice I have. Almost all my problems are related to the quality control not being as good as it used to be as well as being too used to the significant advantages of a glossy finish. I just struggle using a matte finish at the moment.


Why do you think monitors with this finish are not easily available now?

Interested in knowing your thoughts and views.



Thanks.
 
I wouldn't buy one "just in case". If there is an issue with light bouncing off the screen it's not like you can just shade it with your hand, you are completely stuffed. I couldn't move my PC around to avoid the light. So I am guessing many people are the same. It's just too risky.
 
I'm not quite sure what you mean. The main thing I'm questioning is just why monitors with this finish are next to impossible to find these days.
 
He did answer you, GLARE/REFLECTIONS

I like gloss and it looks better and colours/blacks/contrast pop out at you but it can be bad in daylight or lit room for reflections, good for gaming/movies in the dark.

A lot of Laptops still have glossy screens and that is why they look nice but you can angle the screen and move around with them.
 
Yea after reading what you have put, I understand pp111's point now. Still surprised that there is barely even a smaller amount of glossy monitors still made. There used to be far more. Like you say, laptops are portable, but all monitors do have at least a small amount of adjustment on them and a lot more if used with an arm / wall mount. I would have thought they would make them with two different users in mind. Office use I totally understand the need for a matt finish. However, people will use monitors at home too, just like TV's. And when are TV's matt these days? Virtually never. I was almost at the point of buying a TV for a monitor rather than a specific PC monitor, but wall mounting with a standard 100x100 vesa seems quite hard to find as well as several other features.
 
There is a higher change of a VA panel being glossy than TN/IPS but again they all seem Semi Gloss now at least not that grainy crap some had.
 
As above quite a few of the Samsung VA panels are semi-glossy which I much prefer to grainy anti-glare displays.

I personally can't stand grainy anti-glare displays and far prefer the clearer/crisper look of a glossy monitor even if it means dealing with some reflections.

Does anywhere/anyone have a list of monitors/manufacturers/panels that have glossy/semi-glossy panels?
 
chaparral said:
Were the screens made of glass ?

Thinking if they were then maybe it was due to many of them breaking or cracking
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My dell S2415 h claimed to have a "3H Hard Coating" and it was indeed really tough. Don't see how this would be more prone to damage than a matt coating actually.


silvagti said:
As above quite a few of the Samsung VA panels are semi-glossy which I much prefer to grainy anti-glare displays.

I personally can't stand grainy anti-glare displays and far prefer the clearer/crisper look of a glossy monitor even if it means dealing with some reflections.

Does anywhere/anyone have a list of monitors/manufacturers/panels that have glossy/semi-glossy panels?
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The Dell U2518D that I bought had a semi-glossy display which did look better, but still not quite as good as my S2415H in terms of making things stand out. Looking on Dell's site, their current series of monitors don't have any glossy ones at all. Until they stopped making it, their latest one was the S2419H. I would have bought that if it had the ability for mounting it.

I too find one of the biggest problems with anti-glair matt coatings is that whites just look grainy and you can see the red/green/blue lines that make each pixal more easily. They just don't look clean like Glossy monitors do. I am aware most users will prefer matt monitors, but there are several huge advantages to a glossy finish that a matt finish just can't compete with.
 
Ben97 said:
What I don't understand is that all smartphones and a great deal laptops now have glossy screens. With smartphones especially, since you are outdoors with them a lot of the time, I would have thought they would benefit hugely by having an option of a matte finish as it would make them far easier to see and cut down reflection almost entirely.
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Did monitors ever had glossy screens outside of PC World or other mass market outlets? Its more about the looks than actual practicality whenever I've seen them in shops I think "shiny... cool.. pretty" at least until I see the reflections on them and think "thats not very practical".

Would anyone buy a matte smartphone? Not a cool thing to own however eminently functional because lets face it, people like their shiny bling and thats all these monitors are.
 
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Blackjack Davy said:
Did monitors ever had glossy screens outside of PC World or other mass market outlets? Its more about the looks than actual practicality whenever I've seen them in shops I think "shiny... cool.. pretty" at least until I see the reflections on them and think "thats not very practical".

Would anyone buy a matte smartphone? Not a cool thing to own however eminently functional because lets face it, people like their shiny bling and thats all these monitors are.
Click to expand...

There have been countless glossy screens on the market in the past. I bought my S2415h directly from Dell. There are many more advantages other than the appearance of it externally. The question I would ask is why all TVs are glossy if monitors even for home users don't have that option any more.

When I went back to a matte display, I noticed all sorts of things that was worse about the image compared to a glossy screen. Not as sharp, grainy whites (amplifying the 3 colours that make white up). Even the bit of backlight bleed that many monitors have is heavily diffused by a matt cover as it spreads it out more due to the properties of that layer.


Glare is indeed the biggest weakness by far of glossy monitors, but image quality wise, glossy monitors are better and in several areas. After my Dell S2415H started to have issues, having switched back to a matte finish having not any other choice, I'm missing so many things that were better about my old monitor. And that is after trying several significantly more expensive monitors.

https://pcmonitors.info/articles/matte-vs-glossy-monitors/#:~:text= Matte vs Glossy 1 Introduction. For,surface type that is often dubbed... More

After being stuck and asking for advice in other forums, I got a link to this article. It explains really well the advantages and disadvantages to both. But specifically to do with image quality, sharpness and colour depth, glossy monitors are simply better and that is why I'm so frustrated that they are not made any more.

Yes, it is obvious most users likely prefer a matte display, but it wouldn't hurt manufacturers to still make one or two models with this glossy finish. Dell's latest display with this finish (the S2419h) was still very popular.


I was just interested to hear some people's views on matt vs glossy monitors here so that was why I created the thread.





Regarding your point about my question on why no smartphones have a matte display, almost every popular phone gets third party matt screen protectors made for them and plenty of them have thousands of reviews on amazon. So that may answer your question that at least a minority do prefer a matt finish - even on smartphones.
 
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JohnG7 said:
He did answer you, GLARE/REFLECTIONS

I like gloss and it looks better and colours/blacks/contrast pop out at you but it can be bad in daylight or lit room for reflections, good for gaming/movies in the dark.

A lot of Laptops still have glossy screens and that is why they look nice but you can angle the screen and move around with them.
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This. I used to have a screen with a really glossy display. Everything popped on the screen and the colours and contrast looked so much better than any screen I have had since. But I was fine as my desk was in the cupboard under the stairs so there was no reflections.

But unless you always game in the dark, glossy screens are a nightmare. The gfx design girl has a big modern glossy screen at work and it looks stunning but you can see everything in the screen, including a reflection of yourself so I just wouldnt be able to use one at work.
 
I'm with you brother. Same problem with the gaming laptop market. There NO gaming laptops in mid-range and budget category(only a few premium ones) with glossy displays. As opposed to office ultrabooks, which, ironically are used in bright light mostly for writing text documents where great colors aren't needed. This is idiotic and makes zero sense to me, same with smartphones, it would work the other way around, not the way it does now.
But watch Dave2D video on Youtube about it, hopefully there are people who will make this trend popular again.
I am myself currently looking for a glossy desktop monitor, with 16:10 aspect ratio, no luck yet.
 
I'm in the same boat as you. It's seems insane to produce a really high quality colour monitor with sharpness and then stick a hazy screen over it. I would have bought the DW2401 from AG Neovo but for this. However, the reason I am writing is I have found that some people say the coating can be removed on some monitors. There are videos of how to do this. And I'm encouraged by seeing this ad where they apply what seems to be the same coating (anti-glare 3H) and say it's removable: https://www.kapsolo.com/index.php/en/produkte-en/a3h-en
I have written to Neovo to ask if it can be removed. If I have success I will try and let you know, though it is over 2 years now, and the West is being bad to you guys. :(
 
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