Well, that guy must have had some issues...

You mean "I don't think anyone would argue that color accuracy is better on matte" right? An identical glossy screen without counting glare will always look better than a matte. I've never seen a matte screen that doesn't ever so slightly blur or color shift in order to achieve the anti-glare properties.

I maintain my argument that you haven't seen a high quality matte screen. They are not dull, and they have good contrast ratio. I think part of the decisions has to come down to how do you use your laptop most? Watching videos and playing games in the dark, or browsing the web, reading a lot of content and spending your time in a text editor? Or are you going to tell me that glossy screens don't cause eye fatigue faster now too? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glossy_display#Adverse_health_effects It's on wikipedia, so it has to be true right?

On a less argumentative front, screen manufacturers are making good progress on a semi-glossy screen which seems to have the best qualities of both. It doesn't act like a mirror, and it has better contrast than most matte screens.

Sirisian. Have you ever used your laptop actually on your lap?

I used to use my dell laptop on my lap in the hallways between classes. It's fine as long as you don't cover the fans. Sitting cross legged allowed the bottom to breathe and I never had a problem. I haven't done anything intensive yet other than SupCom 2 with my new one, but it seems to run much much cooler than my dell laptop. My dell laptop feels warm when touching the keyboard and the new one feels cold. I'll be home on Friday night so I can do some more tests. I still need to see how Crysis 2 performs.

I maintain my argument that you haven't seen a high quality matte screen. They are not dull, and they have good contrast ratio.

I'm saying that if you look at the same display with a glossy finish it will look better. I'm not trying to say I like glossy or matte more. I'm simply stating a fact that the technology used to scatter the incoming light to give the anti-glare effect changes the image quality.

I think part of the decisions has to come down to how do you use your laptop most? Watching videos and playing games in the dark, or browsing the web, reading a lot of content and spending your time in a text editor?

I rent and watch around 4 movies a week and I tend to always play games with the lights off even with my matte screen. I use a rather nice 21" matte screen at work and I've already been programming on my new laptop. I don't have any difficulty reading on a glossy screen. In fact I find text to be ever so slightly crisper without the anti-glare layer between me and the screen. Check, your move.

Be careful with laptops! According to The Register, you can get your penis burnt by having the laptop on your lap:

The next day he noticed irritation and oedema of his penile prepuce. Furthermore, the ventral part of his scrotal skin had turned red, and there was a blister with a diameter of about 2 cm. These findings were verified when I saw the patient 1 day later. There were no signs of phimosis or balanitis. The patient recalled that, while sitting 2 days earlier with his computer on his lap, he occasionally had felt heat and a burning feeling on his lap and proximal thigh, a sensation that was relieved at least temporarily when the computer was moved slightly.

After the first 2 days, the penile and scrotal blisters broke and developed into infected wounds that caused extensive suppuration. More than a week later, the wounds were covered by dry crusts and thereafter were healing quite rapidly. No antibiotic treatment was needed.

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hmmm... it feels like my crotch is on fire... and my laptop is getting pretty hot... I better keep playing crysis on my overclocked laptop on my lap...

I've had a Sager (Clevo) as well as a Lenovo, both 17 inches, 1920x1280 screen, and similarly powered relative to when I purchased them. The Sager one ran extremely hot (on the outside), and after only a couple of years of fairly reasonable use all of the important components apparently simultaneously cooked themselves. Before that, the left hinge on the screen had broken twice just from the stress of closing it (I had gotten it replaced under warranty the first time; the second time was after the warranty expired and shortly before the whole thing exploded). The Lenovo, on the other hand, doesn't give off any appreciable amount of heat at all (really, the difference is astounding) and has already outlasted the other one with no problems in stability or construction. The Sager had a glossy screen and the Lenovo had a matte screen; the difference between the two really is minimal, and I was very satisfied with both screens.

Unfortunately, Lenovo doesn't seem to make 17 inch laptops at the moment, but if they ever do, I have to say that I'd recommend them over Sager by a large margin. The only problem with the Lenovo relative to what you're looking for is that, as it comes configured initially, Ubuntu will install but then get confused when you boot into it; I think this is related to the hidden recovery partition that comes pre-installed but I haven't actually bothered to figure out a real workaround because I haven't needed to use Ubuntu.

I've had a Sager (Clevo) as well as a Lenovo, both 17 inches, 1920x1280 screen, and similarly powered relative to when I purchased them. The Sager one ran extremely hot (on the outside), and after only a couple of years of fairly reasonable use all of the important components apparently simultaneously cooked themselves. Before that, the left hinge on the screen had broken twice just from the stress of closing it (I had gotten it replaced under warranty the first time; the second time was after the warranty expired and shortly before the whole thing exploded). The Lenovo, on the other hand, doesn't give off any appreciable amount of heat at all (really, the difference is astounding) and has already outlasted the other one with no problems in stability or construction. The Sager had a glossy screen and the Lenovo had a matte screen; the difference between the two really is minimal, and I was very satisfied with both screens.

Unfortunately, Lenovo doesn't seem to make 17 inch laptops at the moment, but if they ever do, I have to say that I'd recommend them over Sager by a large margin. The only problem with the Lenovo relative to what you're looking for is that, as it comes configured initially, Ubuntu will install but then get confused when you boot into it; I think this is related to the hidden recovery partition that comes pre-installed but I haven't actually bothered to figure out a real workaround because I haven't needed to use Ubuntu.

Lenovo and their misplaced Fn key can go to hell! The Sager problem seems strange. I have never read any negative reviews on the Sager machines, especially with problems to the same extent you're referring to. I wonder if Sager has a cult like following that puts up with the flaws, much like the Mac crowd I don't want any more kids, but I'm definitely not looking for genital burns!

Lenovo and their misplaced Fn key can go to hell! The Sager problem seems strange. I have never read any negative reviews on the Sager machines, especially with problems to the same extent you're referring to. I wonder if Sager has a cult like following that puts up with the flaws, much like the Mac crowd I don't want any more kids, but I'm definitely not looking for genital burns!

The Fn key is a holdover from the old IBM ThinkPads. I actually got used to it pretty quickly; it took me slightly longer to get used to switching between keyboards frequently, but I can do that pretty quickly now too. It's sort of like using the same password for two different websites (not that I would ever do this or anything) and then changing one of them; you'll mix them up for a while until you actually associate the password with its website. I'm sure most Sager laptops are more successful than mine, but given that the one I had seemed to have at least two major design flaws (excessive heat output and too much stress on hinge) along with spontaneous breakage, and that I was able to get basically the same thing from a brand that is generally known for its durability and lack of major design flaws, I don't think I'd necessarily risk it again.

And yes, I imagine that someone really could burn oneself on the Sager, though this wasn't really a problem since I use these computers mostly as desktops that I can carry around.

I know my studio 15 is basically too heavy to carry arround regularly. Are you really carrrying your laptop much? You sure your $2000 would be better spent on a pc ?

Ive always owned budget laptops, so my perspective may be skewed, but I quite like this macbookpro ive gotten from work (with windows coinstalled, obviously). Things that stand out to me, that are specific to the laptop manufacturer:

Absolute silence, even when compiling and running cuda simulations at the same time, with very reasonable temperatures. If I hadnt opened it I would have guessed it didnt have a fan. None of this annoying high-frequency humming many laptop PSU's do either. Ice cold during normal operation.

Very responsive touchpad, unlike anything ive ever seen on a non-mac laptop. This thing is actually operable without an external mouse without incurring instant hand-cancer.

The first laptop ive owned that has both the volume and sound quality to watch a movie on, if you had to.

Sexy features like a unibody are pretty common in the priceclass you are looking for I suppose. Maybe these other things are too. Either way, if you dont mind lining steve's pockets with his hipness premium, its not a bad choice I think.

I know my studio 15 is basically too heavy to carry arround regularly. Are you really carrrying your laptop much? You sure your $2000 would be better spent on a pc ?

I rent currently and don't have the space for a dedicated desktop. Otherwise, I would get a netbook, and a powerful desktop.