Photodon antiglare film on a dv4z Infinity display mini-review

The extreme glare of HP's Infinity displays and lesser glare of glossy screens in general has a cure: antiglare films, which also provide scratch protection. I found a very comprehensive review of the options here:

Screen Protector Shootout Results

Photodon LCD protector sheets were highly rated, and since Photodon is in my home state of Michigan I ordered from them. I went with a larger than normal custom cut for my HP dv4z's Infinity display, figuring (correctly) that I'd want the film to be a little larger than the LCD panel since there's no bezel. I got the width right, 310mm, but I guessed low on the height. 194mm should be about right. Being mechanically disinclined I did a poor job applying the film but it still looks good. Some pics:


Glare screen, no flash, creepy serial killer gloves from the Photodon installation kit


Glare screen, flash on


Photodon antiglare film, flash off


Photodon antiglare film, flash on


Photodon antiglare film, notebook on, flash off


Photodon antiglare film, notebook on, flash on

I neglected to take pictures of the notebook on before applying the film. Oops.

So far, so good. I have convergence insufficiency, a very common eye problem aggravated by lots of "near work" (try sitting 2.5 to 3 feet from your screen instead of the usual 1.5 to 2; if your ability to stay focused while reading noticeably improves, get tested), so anything that makes reading easier is a good thing. Antiglare screens help. HP uses them on their business notebooks for a reason.

Service and communication from Photodon was very good. Nice people.

If you don't mind sacrificing a little color accuracy and video playback quality in exchange for less eye strain, give an antiglare film a try. Worst case, they're removable. There's a thinner version for touchscreens, perfect for the HP tx2z.

 

how much does it affect the brightness of the screen and it seems like it works nicely from your pictures. I would actually be really interested in this since i really dislike glossy screens + working in the sun =)

 

Brightness... not much, if at all.

 

Few years ago I bought Dell XPS 1330 LED (many of us did ). Given the number and type of problems I faced with it I can say that it's perfect for DIY type of people. One of the problems was a bit rised in the middle keyboard, I rerouted wires underneath it few weeks after i bought it, despite that I now have scratches on my screen shaped like keys. Not the type of on screen keyboard anyone would like.

And so I decided to apply Prohodon MXT film, considering that silicon will hide those scratches and give me a matte effect as a bonus. I also wanted to try to apply film under the bezel to have no visible borders of it.

Photodon doesn't have precut size for XPS 1330, and they surely have no size for internal install, so I measured my screen and ordered custom cut. Few weeks later (that's the kind a post service we have here) I received my order. I've disassembled screen and applied film.

And it was not so good. The film itself applies very easy, no problems here, you just need to align it. But the screen inside 1330 has some sort of black duct tape along the edges, I guess it covers LEDs. Anyways, this tape prevents MXT film from laying straight and the edges just "hang in the air". You can push them but they come off as soon as you release your finger.

The film was holding ok, and the edges are not visible in assembled state, so it's not a big deal. But after I've assembled lid, I've noticed that film has separated from a screen in lower right corner. It turns out, that bezel pushes down unglued part of a film, which raises glued one. That was a problem as it was very noticeable and ugly. After several cycles of disassembly, film corner cutting, assembly I was able to make it sit straight.

Result: I now have very beautiful matte screen, though a bit more grainy, but as bright as it was and there is no signs of any film applied, everything is hidden under bezel. And no scratches, silicon has filled them.
Here how it looks with a daylight lamp reflecting: