My impressions so far
I've had the new 20" monitor for about a week now and thought I'd post some of my impressions.
Design: Awesome. Looks sleek and modern. The aluminum gives it a nice industrial look. IMHO, its far better than the fisher-price look of the old monitors. However, I do think it sits a little low. The screen is below my eye level. This could be due to the fact that its the same stand as the 30"? Anyway, Apple should have added vertical adjustment to the stand. Apparently, either everyone at Apple is about 5'6" or they like to sit low to the ground. Also, and I think its been mentioned before, the brightness and power controls are extremely sensitive and respond to the slightest touch. The firewire and USB ports are awesome to have since I have my MDD on the floor in a box covered with blankets(I'm still angry about how freaking loud it is...the reports of Steve Jobs being a little deaf must be true...probably from using a MDD). Also, the power cord design is a bit stupid. But I do like the power brick itself. Nice bit of design. Another example of Apple making something you'll never see after installation look nice.
Construction: Built like a tank and surprisingly heavy. No way this will tip over accidentally.
DVDs: I'm not big on watching dvd's on my computer(I have an hdtv for that). But I popped one in to check it out. Basically, its excellent. Any problems you might see are inherent in dvd and lcd technology. By that I mean the display is far higher resolution than the dvd(more than double). So when you play a movie in full screen mode, its essentially blowing the picture up. So you get some artifacts. Ghosting is minimal however. Its sort of like when you view a high quality Quicktime movie at double its encoded resolution. I might be biased, since I think in general dvd has poor picture quality after getting used to hd. But these new Apple displays probably blow the doors off of any designed-for-tv lcd on the market. Most of those displays are 480p. Typically the best you'll see is around 1280x720. Its a shame you can't use the Apple displays with a tv signal. They are cheaper than comparable lcd televisions with a far higher resolution. I'd get a 23" or 30" immediately for my bedroom(I'm dying to replace my sony tube).
Gaming: I've tried 4 games: DiabloII, Heroes IV, Dungeon Siege and C&C generals. All ran great. I don't play FPS so don't know how they look. Dungeon Siege was probably the best test for response time. There was some ghosting. But I can't tell if its due to the monitor or my extremely lame video card( ATI 9000/64MB ram).
General use: Awesome. Text is supersharp, great brightness, great color, etc. No complaints. Oh and I don't know if anyone has mentioned this, but the 10.3.5 update has added functionality. There is now an onscreen display if you adjust the brightness. And the power button now allows you to Shut Down, Sleep, or Restart. Nice.
A few notes... my old monitor was a Viewsonic 21" crt. That thing was a monster compared to this. In fact, the 20" seems a little small. In terms of screen real estate, the 20" seems a little cramped(I was used to 1600x1200). I'm still getting used to having the screen about 2ft. from me. Probably, if I could do it over, I'd go for the 23". I'd add another 20" but I'm not thrilled with the idea of spending an extra 100 for a dvi/adc adapter.
One other thing, I'm not usually one for color coordinating my entire desk, but after setting up this monitor....I now have to replace my beige speakers, since they look so out of place. I'm leaning towards the Altec Lansing fx 6021. Anyone have these? And I suppose I will probably get an ATI 9800... didn't realize getting a new monitor had all these additional costs....
