All laptop screens have a polarizer which is a thin sheet of film laminated to the outside layer of glass of the laptop screen used to filter light waves produced by the LCD screen to create an image. The difference between a traditional matte notebook screen and an anti-reflective notebook screen is the type of polarizer film.
The polarizer of a traditional notebook screen has a rough matte finish. This rough matte finish is not visible to the naked eye. The matte finish causes outer ambient light to disperse or reflect off of the traditional polarizer at different angles which reduces the intensity of the glare reflected directly back to the observer's eye. This ambient light reflection is reduced in intensity due to the diffusion of light, however, the drawback is the reflection shows up as a large hazy object which obstructs the images on the screen. Other side effects include distorted images, a lower contrast ratio, inferior viewing angles, less vibrant colors and eye fatigue.
The polarizer of an anti-reflective Dell TrueLifeâ„¢ screen has a smooth high-gloss finish. The high-gloss polarizer has a layer of film made of a unique chemical compound which reduces the reflection of external ambient light by absorbing much of the external light instead of dispersing it at different angles. Since the external light is mostly absorbed instead of being reflected at different angles, the polarizer does not need a rough matte finish and therefore a smooth finish can provide crisp, brilliant-colored images with the most direct internally derived light from the LCD.
In general, the observer sees light from two light sources: 1) light produced by the LCD itself and 2) external ambient light which is reflected off the surface of the LCD. The objective of an anti-reflective polarizer is to improve the image quality generated by the LCD while minimizing the reflection of external ambient light.
