So.. do you hate the glossy screen on the new MacBook Pros? I don’t, really, but I stumbled over this in a local store and thought it’d be interesting to give it a whirl. It’s an “LE cristal Screen Protection w. matte finish”.
Basically it’s just a sheet of plastic (rather expensive, for a sheet of plastic) that you stick onto your MBP so you don’t damage the screen, and in this case, to remove the glossy finish.
Step 1: clean the display. I mean that. Even the smallest speck of dirt or dust will give you a headache when you try to apply this thing.
Step 2: Apply the overlay with some kind of flat “tool” so you can get rid of air bubbles. I used my passport 
Step 3: Revel in the awesome non-glossiness!
Below are a few photos of it after the operation:
Front view:
Side view with flash:
Side view without flash:
Going outside:
As you can probably tell from the last couple of shots, this obviously won’t make it entirely non-specular It works pretty well though, takes away the glossiness completely, leaving only a matte shine - so basically it does what it says on the tin.
Pros:
- It’s an inexpensive way to get rid of the glossy screen if you don’t like it.
- It gives you back the ability to use your notebook outside or in locations with lots of lighting / locations where you have no control over the in-door lights.
- You can remove the skin without any ill effects to the notebook screen! - At least no effects that I’ve noticed
Cons:
- The application can be a little hard, and in fact I would be surprised if most people don’t get a little imperfection under the matte skin - one tiny bit of dirt is all it takes to ruin the joy, and since the skin does seem to be rather fond of static electricity, it gathers up dirt like a motherbitch!
- If you don’t get it right the first time around, you’ll have to pick up a new one, as it’ll be next to impossible to 1) clean up, and 2) apply the second time around. I know, because I messed up the first one I tried with
- It does take away a little sexiness that you now have a big sheet of plastic overlay on your otherwise flawlessly designed notebook.
Conclusion
So far, it’s a good purchase. The overlay does add a tiny bit of “texture” to the display, but I would compare it to the “grain” you got on the old MBP’s matte display. It doesn’t disturb or draw much attention to itself. As you can see on the snaps above, there is still a certain amount of reflectivity on the display, but compared to the glossy surface, it’s actually very well done. I’d recommend this if you hate gloss, but would only give it a 3.5/5 rating, because of the small annoyances and the rather hard “installation”.
