The most expensive laptops often have vivid, beautiful, high-resolution OLED panels that look fantastic. But those OLED screens are almost always glossy, and that means they suffer from glare and reflections. Out in the real world, I prefer matte IPS displays—they don’t look as good in perfect lighting, but they’re more usable everywhere else.
If your laptop lives at your desk in perfect lighting all the time, then OLED is an excellent choice. But if you’ll be taking it outdoors, the sun is kryptonite for flashy OLED panels. That premium OLED display option? It doesn’t always feel premium in real-world conditions.
Glossy panels are the real problem
I keep saying OLED, but the core issue here is the display’s coating: glossy versus matte. A glossy display is more vivid and shiny, but it also produces more glare in sunlight, in overhead lighting, and in other challenging lighting conditions. I often find glossy laptop screens to be impossible to read outdoors while matte panels are still fine.
Unfortunately, OLED panels are almost always glossy. The one exception I know of is the Samsung Odyssey OLED G8 desktop monitor, which has an OLED panel with a matte coating. I myself own one of these and I use it on my office desk—I wouldn’t want to use a glossy panel in a room with that much natural light!
Matthew Smith / Foundry
But even if you opt for an IPS panel, you aren’t quite out of the woods. IPS panels are available with both matte and glossy surfaces, with some of the nicer laptops I’ve reviewed offering anti-reflective coatings that go the extra mile. Sadly, many IPS laptops have glossy displays, too.
IPS displays can be glossy, too — especially ones with touchscreens
If a laptop has a touchscreen, it probably has a glossy surface. Whether you’re looking at a touchscreen clamshell laptop, a 2-in-1 convertible, or a device with pen input, the glass layer tends to be glossy and smooth so you can have a smooth surface to touch. A matte finish just isn’t as smooth, so it’s not the ideal fit for a touchscreen display.
Glossiness isn’t always associated with price, by the way. Lots of laptops with cheaper IPS panels are paired with glossy finished, and I’ve personally used cheaper laptops with matte finishes.
Laptops with IPS panels and matte finishes are particularly common in business laptops, which are mostly used to get work done in rooms with suboptimal lighting, whether that’s outdoors or under overhead fluorescent bulbs. That said, “premium” and “high-end” business laptops do tend to have glossy touchscreen OLED panels with stylus input.
Glossy vs. matte panels: It’s a trade-off
There’s no one best solution. Glossy displays are shiny and vivid, and in ideal lighting conditions—a dark room, for example—they’ll likely wow you. Heck, they often impress me when I use them indoors.
But with laptops designed for portability, that glossy appeal fades as soon as I take them outside and the glare of the sun hits the screen. Even with manufacturer-applied anti-reflective coatings, there’s a glare.
Chris Hoffman / Foundry
Meanwhile, matte displays aren’t as impressive at first glance. Side by side in ideal lighting conditions, you’ll find matte displays to be more “dull” and nowhere near as colorful.
But once you step into challenging lighting conditions—outdoor sunlight, overhead fluorescent lighting, or any room with overly bright or dark lights beyond your control—matte displays prove their value as far as readability, reflections, and eye fatigue are concerned.
Chris Hoffman / Foundry
So, pick one: a vivid display with more shiny reflections and eye-fatiguing glare, or a duller display with less vibrant colors that’s easier on the eyes in challenging lighting situations.
The good news is, if you’re looking for a high-performance gaming laptop that stays on your desk in a your room with great lighting, this isn’t a problem. It’s mainly a concern if you need a portable machine that’s going to be taken into a variety of situations.
Thinking of buying an OLED laptop? Here’s what else you need to consider
Not all glossy OLED displays are unreadable outdoors. If you do want a glossy OLED, one thing I can recommend is a brighter panel. The brighter the display can get, the better it can overpower harsh lighting conditions and stay readable. (This is true for matte IPS displays, too.)
Brightness is an incredibly important spec when using an OLED laptop outdoors. A screen that only reaches 400 nits of brightness is going to be harder to read in bright conditions than one that can hit 800 or even 1,000 nits. The more brightness you have available, the better and more adaptable—but that’s a brute-force solution.
Also, while it’s possible to get OLED panels with anti-reflective coatings or surface treatments, those coatings and treatments aren’t all equal… and some are more expensive than others. Each one is its own compromise. For example, if you’ll always use an OLED laptop in perfect lighting conditions, you don’t want an anti-reflective coating because it’ll hamper the vivid picture you’d get with that shiny screen.
Valve
I own a 1TB Steam Deck OLED, and while the higher-end OLED model features “premium anti-glare etched glass” that produces fewer reflections and less glare, the image on the standard OLED model (without the etching) looks a tad more vivid. Similarly, my Samsung G80SD monitor gives me a nice big OLED display in my office where I don’t have window sunlight making it hard to read.
In short, if you’re getting a laptop with an OLED screen for use in challenging lighting conditions, make sure to get one with plenty of brightness and anti-reflective coatings or surface treatments.
Glossy vs. matte: I love them both
“Glossy” and “matte” are words that usually aren’t highlighted on spec sheets. But for a portable device like a laptop, the reflectivity of the display matters a lot even if it doesn’t get top billing.
I love OLED displays. I really do. When I review a high-end OLED laptop and the lighting is perfect, I get why people are willing to put up with the reflections. But then the sun peeks through the clouds…
If you’re buying a laptop and plan to use it outdoors, think twice before buying the high-end glossy OLED model. A cheaper matte IPS display could actually feel like a much more premium experience.