It might seem tempting to slap a screen protector on your shiny new MacBook. After all, many of us slap screen protectors on our shiny new iPhones in an attempt to protect those expensive displays. You’d think the same philosophy would apply to your MacBook screen, which is likely more expensive to repair than your iPhone’s screen. But that’s not the case.

The problem is that MacBook screens aren’t made of the same material as iPhone screens. Apple applies an anti-reflective coating to its laptop screens to reduce glare and increase contrast. You’ll normally never notice this coating. It’s not something you can peel off, like a protective seal from the factory; rather, it’s an invisible layer of the screen. If you can’t see it, why would you even think it’s there?

However, many of the people who discover the existence of this coating are those who apply a screen protector to their MacBooks. When the screen protector is on the screen, everything is fine: just like on an iPhone, you see a layer of protector, with the actual screen underneath. No problem.

The problem comes when you remove the screen protector. Maybe the material took a beating and now looks ugly due to cracks or other damage. Maybe you are just tired of seeing this protective layer on your screen and have decided that it is worth taking the risk of removing it to see your MacBook screen the way Apple intended.