No dedicated graphics/vram. Pretty much sums it up.
Every previous Pro machine in Apple's lineup has had a dedicated graphics chip with separate ram (not shared), including the 12" PowerBook. Heck, even the iBooks had dedicated vram.
Don't get me wrong though, I actually own a firewire'd 13" MB and it's more than capable for my needs. But if I were doing more than word, excel, and a little photoshop I would need vram. I just loved the form factor and purchased a Mac Pro for everything intensive. It's an excellent machine, I just don't know that it is worth of the "Pro" labeling for anything other than marketing to hip college-bound tweens.
Unfortunately I currently use 2 30" Apple cinema displays and one 30" Dell display. I wish I could use all Apple displays because they are clearly superior, but the input options make me need the Dell. Apple really need to rethink their input options...
C
I have two Dells.
How the heck are the Apple displays superior? (Apart from costing more)
[Offtopic]
If Apple used a dedicated 9400 256 MB card, I don't think that it would have left the current 13" MBPs far behind in performance.
Even the base 15" MBP does not have a dedicated card.
I was seriously considering going with the Dell 3008WFP, but just wasn't willing to wait for it to go on sale and then wait another 4 weeks to get one built and shipped. The ACD was pretty much an impulse buy this past Friday (in advance of my bday tomorrow). I don't regret having bought it at all! It doesn't have all the features of the latest Dell 30" display, but then I don't really need those features (multiple inputs, HDCP, extra wide color gamut, blinding brightness, faster response, stand with adjustable height).
Lets give Catch a chance to respond. He's among a handful of people who work with both types of displays side by side, so it's really interesting to hear what he has to say on the topic of Apple vs. Dell. I was seriously considering going with the Dell 3008WFP, but just wasn't willing to wait for it to go on sale and then wait another 4 weeks to get one built and shipped. The ACD was pretty much an impulse buy this past Friday (in advance of my bday tomorrow). I don't regret having bought it at all! It doesn't have all the features of the latest Dell 30" display, but then I don't really need those features (multiple inputs, HDCP, extra wide color gamut, blinding brightness, faster response, stand with adjustable height).
I have dual samsungs
Materials maybe. Build quality is identical between $200 LCDs and $4,000 LCDs. Zero difference.
btw. This is my screen setup.
2x Samsung SyncMaster 245B Plus. They where cheap but great quality and good reviews..
I absolutely can't agree with you.
Have you ever took a closer look to the Apple displays? There is (at least at my 30") absolutely nothing that I can complain about. They are flawless.
All of them are flawless. Or we would be taking them back for a refund.To me when you said "materials and build quality" that distinguished the two as separate. I agree that a few of the Apple monitors have a better frame (some are aluminum right?) material. But build quality as in the button switch and dial quality, screen surface, dead pixels or no, mother board layout, MB mounting/fastening design/screws, screen <-> frame gaps, mask quality, MB component grades, etc. are all mostly identical.
I was really just referring to the quality of the enclosure of the display, which is one piece of aluminium plus the stand itself.
I don't bother what's inside the display, but I'm pretty sure that, as you said, they are almost all the same. As Apple does not manufacture it's own panels, they are really exactly the same as some in other Dell, HP or Samsung models.
IIRC the 30" Apple uses a Samsung panel and so does the Dell 3007. So the picture quality should be almost identical.