Apple ADC acrylic display -- 20" or 23" HD?

[proverbs]

yea, i know -- the acrylic displays are OLD. but they are cheap and still look SO nice.

i can pick up either of these sizes for less than a $100 from my buddy. i've heard that the 20" has a crisper display. it's also about a year newer than the 23" HD. anyone have some advice? the price difference isn't much, maybe about $25.

i already have an ADC-to-DVI adapter, so it won't be a problem hooking up to my MBP.

 

[Anonymous Freak]

yea, i know -- the acrylic displays are OLD. but they are cheap and still look SO nice.

i can pick up either of these sizes for less than a $100 from my buddy. i've heard that the 20" has a crisper display. it's also about a year newer than the 23" HD. anyone have some advice? the price difference isn't much, maybe about $25.

i already have an ADC-to-DVI adapter, so it won't be a problem hooking up to my MBP.

The 20" is lower resolution, 1680x1050, the 23" is 1920x1200.

Personally, I prefer higher resolution. Should be the same 'crispness' when run at native resolution, and the 23" was manufactured up through the discontinuation of the acrylic line, just like the 20", so unless you mean the actual manufacture dates of the two exact displays you are considering, it's entirely possible that any given 23" display is newer than any given 20" display.

EveryMac shows them having the same viewing angle, same contrast, 20" slightly brighter (230 cd/m^2 vs. 200) at max brightness (but how often do you run it at max brightness?)

 

[proverbs]

thanks for the advice AF.

yea, i am leaning towards the 23" now. for some reason, i remember hearing that the 20" had a cleaner display than the 23" model. not sure where i heard this though. but the 23" is an HD display -- doesn't that mean the picture should be crisper on the 23"?

 

[Anonymous Freak]

thanks for the advice AF.

yea, i am leaning towards the 23" now. for some reason, i remember hearing that the 20" had a cleaner display than the 23" model. not sure where i heard this though. but the 23" is an HD display -- doesn't that mean the picture should be crisper on the 23"?

The only difference, from the ones I saw, was purely physical size and resolution. They even have the same dots-per-inch. (So the area of 1680 x 1050 pixels on the 23" display (when set to its native resolution) should be the same number of square inches as the full display of the 20" display.)

 

[SimonUK5]

They are really nice screens, i'd go with a 23'' one though, just for the better Res, and ebay a ADC to DVI/VGA converter and your sorted for any machine you want!

 

[proverbs]

on my way to pick up the 23" now