4
votes
Why don't more screens come with anti-reflective coating?
I hate watching reflections on my screens. My old laptop had a super reflective screen. So does my tablet and smartphone, but I was successful in applying anti-glare on them. Reflective screens are annoying in any condition besides total darkness. Anti-glare is such an improvement! Yes, I lose a small amount of brightness, but I need a lot less brightness when my screen is not a freaking mirror!
Hence the question, "Why don't more screens come with anti-reflective coating?"
On your phone and tablet the answer is simple: it's that there's always a glass screen at the end of a capacitive touch screen. That matte layer would cause a noticeable blurring and "rainbow haze" on the glass screen, and also change the smooth texture that people use to touch and drag (of course, this is desirable sometimes; see paper-like screen attachments for ipads).
For normal screens, there's a fair amount of matte options available. Glossy is still more common, and as you noticed matte does lower the contrast, and it also makes the color accuracy worse. Not that big of a deal for most consumers, but glossy screens will always look better in the promo pictures. Additionally, color accuracy is one of the few metrics available to marketers of screens.
That's a major thing, right? Glossy screens look sharp and futuristic and that sell products.
Regarding the problem of contrast and color accuracy, yeah, most people are not designers, color graders, etc. Professionals look at their screens in a controlled environment. I, myself, sometimes want to see something on my smartphone screen at noon. I cannot perceive any real loss when it comes to touch screen functionality. And I use screen protectors. If they came from the manufacturer like that this would be even less of a problem.
I'd argue that the hypothetical losses of a less reflective screen can easily be outweighed by the comfort of not looking at yourself when you use your devices...