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Can you get 'use to' the 24 inch iMac?

sarah3585

sarah3585

macrumors regular
Original poster
Aug 12, 2007
237
0
Ok so really I want the 20 inch imac but due to the in-superior screens I want the quality of the 24 inch screens. I've had a look at them in the apple store and I do think it is overkill. The screen will sit a little way back on my desk so I am worried that everything will be too small and hard to read. I can spend full days on a computer doing graphical work so eye strain is a concern.
My question is, can you get use to the size of the screen until it doesn't seem like an issue anymore. When I first got my 20 imac G5 I thought it was pretty huge but now it seems the norm.
Anyone had these concerns about the 24 but now the screen size seems perfect? Or anyone got the 24 and still think it's too big?
Thanks in advance
 
I think you would quickly get used to it and from that point on you will feel all your other computers are tiny. I have mine pushed back a bit on the desk so I use the 1344x840 resolution.
 
I honestly can't imagine it being overkill unless your desk situation caused you to have to sit extremely close to it (and thus be in tennis match mode). There is nothing like having 1920x1200 worth of desktop real estate. Enough room to have plenty open at once, toolbars etc etc. As with everything, we tend to get used to it after a bit... after the 'new wears off' so to speak. I went from a 17" laptop to my 24" iMac and am LOVING it!

Besides the inherent color issues with LCD for critical color work, the biggest downside with LCD's is that they really only look their best at their native resolution. Anything else tends to fuzz out. I do wonder why there are no other resolution options between the native 1920x1200 and 1344x840. There are other resolutions like 1680x1050 and 1440x900. Granted those would still look fuzzy but would at least give you a little more space than the 1344x840 choice.

At this point I think for those critical of screen quality the 24 is the only choice even if the size is bigger than truly needed.... people seem to be really disappointed with the 20" quality. It's a real blah for Apple because the 20" is the model that is the most attractive from a cost/size/need standpoint for your average home user.
 
Get the 24 inch! You will very quickly adjust. Your brain is good at that. In fact, everything else will seem tiny after a couple of days.

You won't regret it in the long run.
 
Go 24, you will love it. I got mine a year ago and the ability to play 1080p video is a very nice thing.
 
I've had my 24" for less that a week and love it.

the extra room is wonderful, don't have to dig down through windows as much, and the quality of the screen is excellent. only gripe is that it's too tall ! it really needs a vertical adjustment capability -- good 3rd party opening IMO

if you have room and money, get it
 
Someone please correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe the number of dots per inch is what makes text appear larger or smaller, not so much the resolution or the size of the display (though these two items factor into the DPI).

Here is a DPI calculator:

http://www.raydreams.com/prog/dpi.aspx

It says the 20-inch with 1680 by 1050 pixels has a DPI of 99
The 24-inch with 1920 by 1200 pixels has a DPI of 94.3

So text/etc will appear slightly smaller on the 20" display, but its really close so I don't know if its anything you'll actually perceive.

But the point is, the 24" shouldn't be harder to read than the 20"
 
I have been using a 24" iMac since this size became available. The large size is definitely not overkill. Hopefully, there will be a 30" iMac some day.

Let the 30" iMac rumors begin!
 
djc6 said:
Someone please correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe the number of dots per inch is what makes text appear larger or smaller, not so much the resolution or the size of the display (though these two items factor into the DPI).

Here is a DPI calculator:

http://www.raydreams.com/prog/dpi.aspx

It says the 20-inch with 1680 by 1050 pixels has a DPI of 99
The 24-inch with 1920 by 1200 pixels has a DPI of 94.3

So text/etc will appear slightly smaller on the 20" display, but its really close so I don't know if its anything you'll actually perceive.

But the point is, the 24" shouldn't be harder to read than the 20"
Click to expand...

Dead on right... I had a 17" Inspiron that ran the same res as my 24" iMac... talk about being hard to read! I had to bump the font size up and of course XP does a "lovely" job at that... :eek:

I'm glad to be rid of that machine. :)
 
I think you will get used to it. I'm actually still in the process of adjusting. Sometimes I notice the size/brightness (which I have all the way down), sometimes I don't. I've had mine for over a week. When I got it, I was feeling a bit of eye fatigue. I haven't used it for an 8 hour design stretch. And frankly I don't intend to anytime soon (that's the benefit of not being at work...breaks). But I have it pushed way back on my desk, though not so far that I have difficulty reading the ext. I don't have a tv, so I use my iMac for that too--it is great for movies. I'm spoiled by so much space when running CS3, which a refreshing change for my previous 17" monitor. I kind of wish I had this at work. I would say go for it, but you might not respond to it the way I have. Good luck with your decision.

beastie, wee
 
I use 2 24" LCDs. It was a long process to get here. First I had a 23" ACD. Then a 37" LCDTV. That was a huge adjustment. Then it moved to a single 20" (stupid move). Then one 24" then a second.

You will adjust to it. It can be hard at times. But give it a week or two. You won't be able to live without a bigger screen once you have it. Enjoy.
 
I'd recommend going for the 24".

I jumped from a 12" PowerBook to the 24" iMac, and at first I felt overwhelmed by the size of the screen! But gradually, I realised just how much extra space I now have to work with.

It's been a few weeks now, and I don't think the screen is too big at all. I guess I've gotten used to it. I've mounted an existing 20" monitor on the side of my iMac for extra screen space. Well, it was lying around anyway. So far I haven't needed to use it much yet.
 
The screen size is a non-issue to me. I was using a 22" display before I got it so it wasn't such a huge difference in size for me. The extra pixels are certainly nice to have though, especially when working with graphics and music applications.

I have a much harder time getting used to the yellow tint issue though. I've tried for several days now to just forget about it and get on with work, but I'm constantly reminded of it, especially when doing graphics work, but also when just browsing the web.
Looks like someone spilled a cup of coffee over it, tried to wash it off but failed.

So if you're also sensitive to color differences across the screen that might be a problem to you. The 20" also has issues with that, but of another kind.
 
Bah! Screens can never be too big (unless it doesn't fit where you want to put it ) imo. Yes, when you get it , you will be stunned - so was I, but a few weeks later it just started to "fit in". Now that I have a 40" LCD TV in the same room the iMac looks small! Go as big as you can afford - if you have the funds for the 24 then by all means get it, you'll love it.
 
I went from a 17" 4:3 monitor to a 22" Widescreen a couple of days ago.Thought it was huge at first, already used to it :).THe same when I bought my Plasma ,thought 37" was plenty big enough.Wasnt long before I wished I had gone for the 42"er
 
isnt leopard coming with some form of true dpi scaling for all apps and interfaces?

this would make unreadable small icons and text a thing of the past on high resolutions:apple:
 
I'm the same as the people above me. When I first replaced my 20" white iMac with this 24" AL the screen was way too big. A few days later though I was wishing there was a 30" iMac. ;)
 
Man, I got used to the 24" screen the moment I saw it. You might not realize how useful that extra real estate can be unless you try it yourself. The screen is indeed very bright, and I had to keep it on the lowest brightness setting.

There's a little program called Shades...it has the capability to dim your monitor even more if it gets too bright for you. I use it every day, lol.
 
Thanks for everyones advise. I went back to the apple shop today and went on both the 20 and 24. Ideally I still think I would prefer the 20 and the extra £150 in my pocket. But as I am using this for graphics it looks like it will need to be the 24 which I can get use to it I think. Maybe apple will put better screens in the 20's in the future. I have my macbook for the time being until at least lepoard.
 
On my two other machines I rock the dual 19 inch screens.....so for me the 24in iMac felt like a smaller screen....


you'll get used to it realy quick...and then never look back
 
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