https://hardforum.com/threads/please-help-i-want-to-buy-the-dell-u2414h-but-i-am-afraid-of-the-ag-coating-i-dont-know-what-to-buy.1914918/
He highly prefers glossy. He also says:
"All I have been asking here is one simple thing. Are there any matte monitors that I can use for reading if I have severe problems due to viewing matte screens?
Last time I used a matte screen from 5 years ago I experienced a lot of problems with my eyes, it was a samsung monitor and same thing happened when I used a Dell.
I saw sparkle, and floaters in my vision from starring at white background with black text. I was forced to invert colors just to read websites.
I then bought a HP 25" Glossy Monitor for the first time and all my eye problems went away, it was TN panel and was the most beautiful thing I had ever seen it was pure godly so clear. Later on I bought a Dell S2415H Glossy which I am giving to my mother because she needs a new monitor. The Dell which is an IPS I will admit isn't as flawles as my HP something about TN making the pixels look better this dell."
These quotes are taken from this page: https://hardforum.com/threads/matte-display-help-please.1915140/
He then says, "I don't know how my eyes are so sensitive, it developed 10 years ago when I was looking at a CRT monitor one day I started seeing crazy flickering on every single crt. I switched to a matte LCD in 2006 and within 4 years I developed sensitivity to the matte grain, I could see all the flaws in the matte, I could see the coating I could see ever detail in the coating as if I somehow developed some kinda super power or something. It looked ugly and disgusting, I couldn't stand it and just like that I started noticing floaters in my vision from starring at the matte screen. Same with all matte.
I then switched to the 25" HP 2509m I think was the bezel a thick ugly fat bezel glossy monitor. But boy was the screen beautiful? every single problem I had ever had went away with just 1 look at that glossy monitor it was like being trapped behind a frozen foggy glasses with vaseline pasted on it and one day it was totally removed and I could see everything in the world with my naked eyes. That is my explanation of it.
The most brilliant poster I have seen here is a guy by the name of NCX he seems to be an expert in monitors I read his posts he too notices the sparkle in matte screens I think people like me and him are the few who can notice these things. But I am not sure if he is still alive though.
I suppose to be on the safe side I should go back with the S2415H gloss?
For the record my mother has a 24" Sony Bravia HDTV its a 4 year old TV that is 720p and has semi gloss. I hooked it up to my PC with Hdmi and my god is it disgusting, in 20 minutes my eyes started getting fatigue reading white pages. Who knows if it was because of its low resolution or what I enlarged the text huge and I placed it away from my eyes to not make resolution an issue and boy was it still horrible. The white background, it was terrible like it was tearing my eyes apart. I then switched back to my Dell and immediately my problems went away it was like my eyes started to heal rapidly."
I relate in that my own eyes tense up every time I look at my matte screen and I feel them relax when I go back to my low haze one.
Interestingly, he also says: "I want to mention something else, my eyes hurt less when there is subtle reflection on the screen. For example during the day when I open my windows and doors, and my own image starts reflecting off the gloss on my monitor, my eyes become relaxed, it feels smoother, cooler and calmer when there is slight reflection on the screen as opposed to a dark room with none. "
Personally I've used plenty of matte Dell screens that I recall with a kind of horror. I really disliked those aggressive coatings!