Originally posted by Ifeelbloated
If Samsung makes LCD monitors for Apple do they offer their own line of monitors that are cheaper than Apple's? Same ingredients, different brand name? Like some automakers do.
Not that I know of - I bought what was pretty much Samsung's top-of-the-line 17" for my PC a couple of months before I bought the 17" Studio for my Mac. The list price was the same although, as is so often the case with PC stuff, a little searching around turned it up for about $900 instead of $1000.
It wasn't an exact feature-for-feature match, either - the Samsung has both DVI-I and VGA inputs (with a switch on the front, so you can hook two machines up if you're willing to put up with analog video on one of them) but there are no USB ports and no integration of brightness control. However, the Samsung is available in a (more expensive) model with a TV-tuner built in, and there may also be one with built-in speakers. It has a lot more in the way of standard monitor screen adjustment controls, but everything except brightness is locked out when it's running in digital mode.
Also, while it does have a degree of tilt to the stand, it's butt-ugly next to the Studio Display.
Note that there's also no guarantee that the LCDs are the same model. They're both Samsung, both 17", both made around the same time, but the white temperature on the Apple display is higher - the Samsung looks a bit off-white by comparison. Maybe the same LCD but a different backlight?
Another difference - I had to search far and wide for a PC TFT monitor that had DVI support. All the ones I saw seemed to be premium models from their respective manufacturers, while the vast majority of displays out there just had standard VGA input.
Never could understand the logic of that, it's like buying a brand new DVD player with composite outputs, progressive scan, etc, and a matching 42" plasma display, then using an RF cable to hook them up.