Yes of course. It will be easy to calibrated it now, now that I'll be looking at the ACD as I do the calibration 
I think you just aren't getting it. You cannot make valid judgements about displays when they have not been calibrated by a hardware color system. You can't do it accurately by eye. Out of the box, the ACD may be close, but it probably is not spot on. I know for a fact that my 23" ACD was not at 6500K out of the box. It was noticeably cooler and required calibration. It also changed as the panel burned in and had to be recalibrated on a periodic basis. Your 30" ACD will very likely not look exactly the same in a month as it does today.Yes of course. It will be easy to calibrated it now, now that I'll be looking at the ACD as I do the calibration![]()
Not that it matters now, but lixuelai, what makes you so sure Apple is using the same exact panel they did in 2006? And even if what you say is true, there may be a good reason for it. As the saying goes, don't fix it if it ain't broken.
As do the other monitors. You imply getting the Dell or HP will give you inferior results. That is most certainly not true. They are certainly no worse, and possibly better (as they use more up to date S-IPS panels). Apple doesn't even promote their monitor anymore. They don't have a featured product page for it anymore (they highlight the 24"), and it's buried in their store pages.If you own a Mac, especially a Mac Pro (like I do), this is the display is for you! Sure there are less expensive displays, with better connectivity and HDCP decoding (i.e. ability to play BR content and stream protected HD video), but when hooked up to a Mac, this thing produces a bright, uniformly backlit, color accurate, sharp image .
That is complete and utter B.S. Why do you insist on spreading it? The Apple is not calibrated out of the box, any more than the Dell or HP are, and it is not any better than the Dell or HP in terms of color accuracy. When you install the ACD, the Mac loads a default color profile for it. But it does that for the Dell as well (and possibly the HP too). They all use S-IPS panels, except that the Dell and HP are more recent models and use newer LCDs. Have you even seen the Dell or HP 30" monitors in use? I suspect not. I assure you any color pro who cares about results does not leave the ACD to chance out of the box. They calibrate it on a regular basis. Ditto for any other monitor. Claiming the ACD is calibrated out of the box is nonsense.You will most likely find that to come close to this image quality on a Dell or HP monitor you will have to invest in a colorimeter, since these displays, based on my research, do not come calibrated from the factory (which is partly why Dell and HP are able to sell their displays for less). Dell and HP monitors tend to have over-saturated colors, meant to impress the casual user or the devil-may-care gamer who cares little about color accuracy and more about the "pop" factor.
Umm...I didn't have to return my monitor to wait for a replacement. I have it now and am using it. When the replacement arrives I'll have had zero loss of use. I put the old one in the box, slap a prepaid Fedex sticker on it, and call Fedex to pick it up. For me that's much easier and less hassle than packing a monitor and taking it to an Apple Store.No, I have not seen the Dell 3008WFP in real life. I'd have to buy one first, and then hope that when I get it a month later it will not arrive with a greencast that lingers for up to half an hour after the display is turned on. If it does, then woops, back to square one! Send the rotten Dell back and wait another month for the replacement to be made (does Dell only make these displays after they get an order?!).
My theory is because there's a 27" 1920x1080 replacement imminentWhy doesn't Apple feature the ACD? You're theory is as good as mine. Perhaps they don't need to because the darn thing just sells itself![]()