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Fishrrman

macrumors Penryn
Feb 20, 2009
28,525
12,651
The surface of the display has a sprayed-on thin anti-glare coating.
It's VERY fragile, and easily damaged.

You don't want to "clean" it any more than absolutely necessary.
A "dry wipe" may be THE WORST THING you can do to it.
The coating may begin to flake off -- and then you have "StainGate" (look it up).

My suggestions:
DO NOT routinely "wipe" the surface of the display.
Try to avoid touching it at all, particularly when opening and closing the lid.
If there's dust on the surface, use a soft cloth and gently "dust it away" (without pressure).

If there's something on the surface that won't "dust away", use a moistened cloth and AS LITTLE PRESSURE AS POSSIBLE to dislodge it.
Then, dry the surface by "dusting" as above.

When the sprayed on anti-glare surface was first introduced on the retinas, it was very susceptible to problems. Apple seems to have "toughened it up" somewhat since then, but I would still be careful with it.

Personal experience:
I have a 2015 MacBook Pro 13".
I "practice what I preach" above, and the surface of the display is still without problems.
 

Madhatter32

macrumors 65816
Apr 17, 2020
1,454
2,914
Soft microfiber cloth (like for eye glasses) and a little moisture in the form of H2O does the trick and will not harm your screen.
 
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FHoff

Suspended
Mar 21, 2020
506
1,130
2015 13” MacBook Pro. Cleaned almost daily with omnicleanz by RadTech and microfiber cloth. No screen issues whatsoever.
 

AjTee

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Aug 17, 2018
471
148
Gdańsk, Poland
I used flashlight from my iPhone and saw that there are dust spots which cannot be removed using Fellowes wipes or microfibre cloth easily. Only when use my microfibre 10 times then this micro dust spots went out. Does it normal?
 

Texas_Toast

Suspended
Feb 6, 2016
1,718
329
Texas
@Fishrrman,

Why doesn't Apple fix this issue.

It is a pipe-dream to expect users' monitor to not get dirty... :rolleyes:

Is the anti-glare coating even necessary?

Why not sandwich the anti-glae coating underneath a clear, durable, glass (or plastic) outer layer that one can scrub?

Seems like another stupid design by Apple along with their keyboards...
 

nothingtoseehere

macrumors 6502
Jun 3, 2020
453
521
If there's something on the surface that won't "dust away", use a moistened cloth and AS LITTLE PRESSURE AS POSSIBLE to dislodge it.
Then, dry the surface by "dusting" as above.

That is also my way. 2015 rMBP 13", no problems as of today.

Little variation: Sometimes I find little spots of dirt on the screen. In that case, I do not moisten the microfiber cloth but put a little bit of saliva at my fingertip, moisten only the spot of dirt and wipe the region gently with the cloth :cool:
 

AjTee

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Aug 17, 2018
471
148
Gdańsk, Poland
I used flashlight and there are spot looking like dust, but it is very hard to remove them. There is a lot of them. I tried using finger and some of them is hard to remove. Is it normal that under flashlight there are more dust spots visible and some of them is "sticked" hard to surface?
 

bmclaurin

macrumors regular
Nov 10, 2011
103
15
Las Vegas, NV

Fishrrman

macrumors Penryn
Feb 20, 2009
28,525
12,651
"Is it normal that under flashlight there are more dust spots visible and some of them is "sticked" hard to surface?"

Put the flashlight down, and just look at the display with your eyes.
 

Rashy

Suspended
Jan 7, 2020
186
372
Good thread.
Bought my 15" 2015 beauty back in December. Topcase with Battery and display (due to staingate) had been replaced prior, so aside from the logic board it seems like a brand new unit.

Now I want to keep this baby in a good condition as long as possible. I don't even fully close the lid to prevent the keyboard touching the screen (unless I am carrying it around ofc). Using a soft cloth, slightly moist, as seldom as possible.

Even more sad that even the follow-up models carry the same issue. Dunno why Apple can't utilize the same sturdy coating like on the iPad / iPhone, or a different solution. Been 8 years since the first rMPB introduction.
 
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