Both displays are great! However, the Apple Cinema Display has some great advantages in my opinion. The Cinema Display is made with much better material, aluminum over plastic. Also do not let some of the response times scare you from Apple. It depends if the response time is measured from grey-to-grey or black-to-black. I have read reviews that Dell Ultrasharps have terrible color calibration out of the box. For your uses I think you will be much happier with the Apple Cinema Display for its features and aesthetics.