20" ACD vs. 12" Powerbook LCD

csubear said:

Are all powerbooks like this, or is there something wrong with mine?

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Have you put your PB next to anything else, besides an ACD? Remember, the typical laptop display is made to run on about 1-1.5 Watts of power. The typical desktop LCD is made to run on about 80-150. Which one do you think will be brighter? The power consumption of the desktop LCD is more than twice as much as your PB's full power consumption, when its plugged in and charging a dead battery, as well as running full-bore! And a big part of that power consumption is running the backlights. It makes a big difference when you aren't limited by designing for a battery (and a tiny package), in terms of designing in brightness.

Or I feel like I'm missing something? This is pretty much true of every single notebook LCD / desktop LCD comparison I've ever seen, for any manufacturer of either product....

csubear said:

Brightness aside, I am still have trouble getting the colors anywhere near close. I am not a graphics professional or anything, and I have not idea what I am doing with the color profiles.

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Hmmm...this is a toughie. I think what you want to do, as a non-professional, is basically to use the exact same thinking process in doing calibration on each monitor. That is, whatever the subjective answer to each of the adjustments the calibration utility asks you to do is, to you, follow the same procedure on the ACD and the PB. Maybe even take a break in-between, so that you're doing it with fresh eyes, and avoid looking at the "wrong" screen when you're doing it. I think you can be successful in getting them to look very similar in the sense that you can transport colors and work between them effectively, but if your goal is to put them side-by-side and flick your eyes back and forth, I'm honestly not sure, unless you jack down the brightness on the ACD.

Then again, there are a *lot* of graphics people here...maybe one can answer?

Ha! I just bought a 20" ACD today to supplement my Powerbook and noticed the exact same thing!

But, man, I love having them connected. I'm preferring just to keep the Powerbook lid closed and using the single display. It's like having a desktop and laptop in one!

im having similar fun with my new Dell 2005FPW. its tons brighter than my PB and the color contrast is much different. so the colors seem different but i think some of it just the brightness/contrast. on DVI the only way to change the color is through the software. i use VGA so with analog i can change the color a lot more and am having a bit trouble with that. one minute it looks blue, a couple settings later it looks green, a couple more it looks red. it gets better every few adjustments.