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Netbooks and mini laptops with a matte screen

By Andrei Girbea , updated on June 4, 2014

If you’ve read some of my posts here on NetBookLive , you’ve noticed I always complain about how glossy most netbooks and mini laptops are these days. You can hardly find some proper matte devices which are a lot better for a couple of reasons I’ve wrote about in my post Matte vs Glossy. However, in this postI’m going to talk only about available netbooks and mini notebooks with matte screens.

These mini machines are meant to be portable. Thus, they will be used in all kind of light conditions, from a dark room during the night, to a bright sunny afternoon in the park. And have you ever tried to use a glossy display outside, during daylight? They are like vampires those ones, barely useless for anything more than mirrors. See the picture below (from here).

Glossy display

Glossy display

That’s why we all crave for matte non-glare displays on these mini machines, and for good reasons: can be used outside in stronger light and don’t catch fingerprints, smears and smudges as easy.

Matte vs glossy

Matte vs glossy

You will notice that on some matte displays, colors are kind of dull and everything seems washed off in bright light. That won’t be so obvious if you for something with good brightness, but that is a characteristic for matte screens. Still, the glossy one will reflect anything in front, although colors are more vivid.

Now, let’s see what are the popular netbooks boosting such types of displays.

10 inchers:

  • Samsung N230 (matte plastic outer casing and brushed aluminum interior) and its predecessor Samsung N210
  • Samsung NB30 Pro (rubberized casing, waterproof and ultra-tough)
  • Asus 1001P (matte plastic case) – only some versions
  • Asus 1005PX (glossy casing – only available in some parts of the globe)
  • some versions of the Asus 1005PE (available in Western Europe only)
  • HP Mini 5102 (premium netbook with metallic casing)
  • Lenovo S10 (older devices, with plastic casings – some finishes are glossy) – careful, newer S10-2 and S10-3 models offer glossy displays, only the initial S10 had a matte one
  • Samsung NC10 (casing is glossy, older device from 2009)
  • Samsung N150 (matte casing also – only some versions come with the matte finish, other are glossy)
  • MSI Wind U123 (glossy plastic inside and outside)
  • Asus 1015PED – new generation mainstream 10 incher
  • Asus 1015PEM – 10 incher with N550 dual-core processor

11.6 inchers:

  • Lenovo ThinkPad X100e (great build quality, matte plastic casing, AMD powered)
  • MSI Wind12 U230 (glossy plastic exterior)

12 inchers:

  • Lenovo X200 and X200t tablet (all top notch devices, especially the last one)
  • Toshiba Portege R500 and R600 (premium options with metallic alloy casings)
  • Dell Latitude E4200 (pretty poor viewing angles based on reviews)

As you can see, most netbooks with matte displays do come with matching matte casings, but that’s not always the case. And yea, those devices in the 12 inch class are more mini notebooks than netbooks, as they are all expensive, but there are not cheaper options with a matte screen in that category.

Of course, I might have missed some important ones, so if you notice some devices that should be in here and are not, please leave a comment. And updates will follow as soon as i spot new devices that could get in here.

Also, I’m working on a post about how to transform your glossy display into a non-glare one and it should be online soon. Also, a post about the best matte netbooks on the market, so stay tuned, more info on matte mini laptops will follow soon.

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Andrei Girbea, Editor-in-Chief at TLBHD.com. This project was born as part of my search for capable mini-laptops that I could easily lug around to work, and still provide the performance that I'd need on a daily basis. I'm primarily using such ultracompact devices and have been testing them since 2006.

14 Comments

  1. Andrew

    October 14, 2010 at 2:20 pm

    THANK YOU< THANK YOU, THANK YOU. I bought my hp mini 110 a year ago, and am glad i got a matte screen, but i had no idea that part of the case would be glossy!!! It has soured the experience, and now I'm contemplating sanding the case just to get rid of the glossy-ness.

    The next laptop or netbook i get will NEVER have glossy ever again!!!!

  2. Andrew

    October 14, 2010 at 2:24 pm

    Could you possibly give us some 14 inch computers that do not have the glossy screens or plastic. I bought the hp mostly because it had good keyboard reviews too.

    10inch is pretty portable, but it doesent fit on my lap very well. I’m thinking 14inch might be just about right. What do you think?

    • Andrei Girbea

      October 14, 2010 at 4:06 pm

      Not that familiar with 14 inchers but I might try writing a post about them in the next weeks… perhaps you could also try a 13.3 incher?

  3. janos

    November 27, 2010 at 3:23 am

    dell latitude xt tablet is matte as well…

  4. RobertSmith

    January 25, 2011 at 10:55 am

    Other reviews of MSI Wind12 U230 seems to say it has have a glossy display

  5. LPH

    July 12, 2011 at 11:40 am

    Great idea… I hope people follow up the subject and give their feedback 🙂

  6. Brian Lam

    June 29, 2014 at 11:47 pm

    Thank you so much for the research! Just what I needed. Companies should make laptops again with the ‘old’ LCD/TFT screens and non flickering backlighting..

  7. Brian Lam

    June 29, 2014 at 11:52 pm

    Are there any of these laptops still for purchase new on Amazon? Or perhaps other 2014 models with matte screen.

  8. Viv

    December 18, 2014 at 12:38 am

    Great information, Andei. Do you happen to know about tablets with non-glare screens. I’ve spent ages looking but either the screen is glossy, or there’s no information about the screen. If you do know of any, I’d be delighted to know about them.
    Thanks.

    • Andrei Girbea

      December 18, 2014 at 1:37 pm

      Hi Viv. The thing is, tablets and all devices with a touchscreen have a layer of glass on top of their displays. And glass is , well, glossy 😛 . You can put a matte screen-cover on top, but don’t expect wonders. Still, they cut through most reflections and help better protect the dfisplay from scratches, etc.

  9. Viv

    December 18, 2014 at 4:55 pm

    Thanks, Andrei, I hadn’t known the displays were all glass. Disappointing, but at least I can stop looking for matte and accept that I’ll have to have a glossy screen.
    I recently bought a notetbook with a matte screen (Acer). What a relief it was after putting up with glossy for the last few years. Must say, the Acer is pretty good for the price.

    • Andrei Girbea

      December 18, 2014 at 9:33 pm

      I’m a fan of matte screen myself and there are still laptops with matte screens out there. Which Acer model did you get?

      • Viv

        December 18, 2014 at 10:15 pm

        I treated myself to a 17″ Acer V3-772G-9820. 8 gb RAM and 1TB hard drive. I think it comes with 12 gb in the US but we’re always deprived somehow in Canada. After my 3 year old Dell Studio, it seems like a whirlwind.
        There are other Acer notebooks with what they call Comfyview (i.e. matte) screens.

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