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Something I've been wondering about for a while... Why are there no (capacitive) matte touchscreens in laptops or mobile devices?
For a while, matte screens have been rare, presumely because glossy screens look better in the showroom, tend to have darker blacks and brighter colors, and were more demanded by consumers. Still, you could get matte screens as monitors and in laptops, especially for "business" users who appreciate that they have much less irritating reflections.
Now with touchscreens, I've failed to find a single device that has a matte display. Why is that so?
I'd love to see an authoritative answer from an engineer, or a statement from a manufacturer's website that states why these are not (or cannot be) produced. The gritty technical (legal, marketing) reasons, not just speculation.
I've already read enough speculation, and I'll try to list a few things that I believe can be debunked:
"There is not sufficient demand for matte screens" - There was presumely more demand for glossy displays in the years past as well, but you could still buy matte displays as niche producs. I find it hard to believe that professional users wouldn't be interested in matte touchscreens in notebooks.
"Fingerprints stick more on matte screens, they get too dirty" - There were matte (resitive) touchscreens long before there were ones with glossy displays, think about GPSes in cars, or industrial control panels. Fingerprints were never a big problem, you could clean them almost as well as glossy displays. In fact, fingerprints are a bigger problem on glossy displays. Remeber a few years back when people were worried about fingerprints on the new iPhone or on back then popular piano lacquer devices, and manufacturers had to point out that they were using novel "oleophobic" coatings?
"A matte coating would interfere with the touch sensors, dim the display." Or: "You can always add a matte protector on top of the glossy screen." - The interference argument is moot since there are aftermarket protectors that work. But the protectors are inferior to a real matte display. I'm also not talking about a matte coating applied to glass (which looks more like a frosting). The matte displays I'm thinking about are more like what the TFT is beneath the glass. All the matte displays I used did not have glass on the outside, but some kind of transparent plastic sheet. It is slightly rough, but much smoother than the "matte screen protectors" you can buy. The matte effect is not an additional coating, but the absense of a glossy coating or a glass sheet.
The toshiba portege x20w has a matte touchscreen display. – William – 2017-04-15T00:44:50.513
You can't effectively clean matte screens. – Daniel R Hicks – 2014-02-09T14:17:47.313
2@DanielRHicks Yes, you can. If you look at the kind of screens used in factories for example, they are usually matte, and when they get dusty or grimey they can be washed off just like any other plastic surface. They are not especially rough or dirt-attracting, and in fact you don't see oil films or fingerprints on them as easily, so you don't even have to keep them as clean as glossy displays. Nearly all rugged hardware that works in dirty environments has that kind of screen for that reason. (I might be wrong of course, but I'd really like to see a source/test to back that up.) – jdm – 2014-02-09T14:27:40.063
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Close voter, would you care to explain your vote? I checked before asking that hardware questions are on topic on this site, and I believe this is the most appropriate SE site for the question. I'm not looking for a discussion, but an objective answer from an authoritative source (like "the molybdenum in the matte screen reverses the polarity of the touchscreen" or "Apple has a patent and lets nobody build them").
– jdm – 2014-02-09T14:40:04.873But you don't touch them thousands of times a day. – Daniel R Hicks – 2014-02-09T15:04:18.650
If it were practical, some manufacturer would figure it out and sell it as a "feature". Look at bicycles -- from one speed to 3 speeds to 10 speeds to 15 speeds to 18 speeds to 21 speeds to 24 speeds to 30 speeds to ... 1 speed. You can always sell what's different, if it works at all. – Daniel R Hicks – 2014-02-09T15:07:03.537
@random and others: Why was this closed?! Surely this can be answered with facts. I'm explicitly asking for a technical reason or a quotation. It's not like I'm asking what kind of screen is better... – jdm – 2014-02-10T21:34:48.930
The other option was to close as too broad given how varied and long answers are/will be for it – random – 2014-02-10T21:38:50.990