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Apple Cinema Displays Kind of Suck

carbonmotion

carbonmotion

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Jan 28, 2004
983
0
San Francisco, CA
I was about to purchase a 23" ACD (approx. $850) when I decided to cruise the net for some price comparisons. On new egg I found a Samsung 245BW 24" for approx. $460. When I compared the specs, the Samsung had an advantage. Some who point out that since every manufacturer make their displays, it's incorrect to compare apples to oranges. However, I should point out that apple's flat panel supplier is Samsung. Essentially, Apple is selling you a inferior Samsung panel for much more than the cost of a more advanced Samsung panel.
 
No, that monitor uses an inferior TN-type panel, which has lower response time but way worse color reproduction. The Apple Cinema display uses an S-IPS panel type, which has very good color. The ACDs are expensive, but that's at least partly because they are very well thought of for color-critical work (the kind done by video and design professionals, the target market for Apple's displays).
 
To be fair, the Samsung uses a TN panel, which is cheaper and has a faster pixel response time, but also has limited viewing angles, often has only six-bit color, and has relatively poor color reproduction.

The Apple Cinema Display uses a more expensive S-IPS panel, which has superior color reproduction and a better range of viewing angle.
 
If you can find a considerably cheaper S-IPS panel then please let me know.
 
I was in the display market late last year. Was considering the Apple 23" Cinema, the 24" Dells and higher-end Samsungs (not the crappy 245BW, in other words!).

I ended up with a Planar PX2611W. Not cheap (still around $900) but offers the best of everything: good color accuracy, fast refresh rates, and no input lag. Just an excellent all-around display, though the extra size kind of overwhelms my desk. It uses a H-IPS panel, BTW.

Apple really is due to upgrade their Cinema Displays some time soon, but I think their engineers are seeing the same problems with the current crop of 24" displays that I saw when I was shopping: there are just too many compromises involved with the PVA and TN panels out there.
 
I was going to get the 30" apple display but the dell has a far better spec and connectivity so I will be getting the dell 3008 unless apple brings out an update soon.
 
Mord said:
If you can find a considerably cheaper S-IPS panel then please let me know.
Click to expand...

I have one from Dell.....a 20". Got it for around $300 USD. Dell sells (or used to sell.....not sure anymore) two different 20" displays. One was called the E207 or something, which is crap. The other was a 2007WFP or something. It either has an S-IPS or S-PVA panel. Both are good. I lucked out and got the S-IPS type. I found a way to check it.

The only problem with reviews on Dell monitors is that they switch panels after a few months (and all the reviews on the monitor are done). All Dell 20" 2XXX WFP series monitors used to be S-IPS, and it got great reviews. Then they changed the panels to S-PVA (which isn't bad at all), and now they're mixing them. Apparently, they've done this numerous times with other monitors. The Dell 30" is supposed to be fantastic, but the Dell 24" is not an S-IPS monitor.


Anyway, people who buy one of these displays should understand that Apple has and always will build their ACDs with graphics, photography, and video people in mind, not gaming or watching movies. If you play games, watch movies, and do some occasional photo editing in iPhoto, then buy any monitor. A mid-range monitor will be better, but I don't think you'd suffer too much.
 
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