I was at my local Best Buy today playing with the iMacs and noticed that the 21.5 looked kind of dull. So I pushed it together next to a 27 and was stunned at what I saw. To say the 27 looked better would be a ridiculous understatement. Is this the norm for the 21.5 vs the 27?
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Huge difference in screen quality between the 21.5" and 27"
- Thread starter docprego
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Yebubbleman
macrumors 603
That doesn't seem right, but I could be wrong and the 27" panel may be entirely different than that of the 21.5" model.
I forgot to mention that, I specifically adjusted the brightness to maximum on both. I noted the same thing on another set of 21.5 and 27 iMacs behind these two.
mickbab
macrumors 65816
Hm okay, that does seem a little odd then.
I know that between my MacBook Pro (15" unibody) and my home iMac (20" previous model) there is a significant difference in max brightness but I would have thought that between two different sizes of the current model iMac there would be little to no difference.
Strange.
Yebubbleman
macrumors 603
Come to think of it, I think I remember reading about this (the iMac display disparity, not your difference). But I can't remember where or what it said, just that the difference exists. Not helpful, I know, but still. I remember it!
leftywamumonkey
macrumors 6502a
mickbab
macrumors 65816
On a completely unrelated note, I would've thought that the iTunes Store could utilize a bit more of that screen space.
I've only ever really seen it on my small MBP screen where it takes up the whole space, it looks a little ridiculous on that large screen leaving all the white space.
Anyway....... 😀
I've only ever really seen it on my small MBP screen where it takes up the whole space, it looks a little ridiculous on that large screen leaving all the white space.
Anyway....... 😀
Wow, quite a difference in both size and brightness. The big difference is caused due to the 21.5" screen having a brightness of 330 cd/m2 and the 27" has 375 cd/m2.
From personal experience, the bigger the screen the brighter it has to be to compensate for the image distortion. If you remember, older big-screen TVs had a much duller screen than their small-size counterparts because they didn't backlight their screens properly.
From personal experience, the bigger the screen the brighter it has to be to compensate for the image distortion. If you remember, older big-screen TVs had a much duller screen than their small-size counterparts because they didn't backlight their screens properly.
MacHamster68
macrumors 68040
but that explains why i find it quiet comphy to sit at a mates 21.5 , while on another mates 27 " i just feel not comphy at all , but they sit in different houses so i never really could make a side by side comparison now i think it is not necessary the size which makes me kind of discomphy using the 27" , it could well be the brightness , and yess i even turned down the brighness to the last notch on both , as i do on my old iMac core duo too, i have no need to have full brightness on any kind of monitor, but i guess people who need brightness should not sit as long on the 27" as they could sit in front of the 21.5"
No. It is not the norm. The brightness should look relatively the same. The 27 has the larger screen and a higher brightness level due to it's size. A higher pixel density. But the picture you are displaying is simply the screen dimming on it's own when it is not being used and will go into sleep mode shortly after this. I can only speculate as to what is going on with those best buy macs, but I can assure that is certainly not the norm.
This setting can be turned off in settings. I own quite a few of each model, and the 27 while brighter does not seem brighter to that extent even both screens turned up to full brightness.
Can't be screen dimming because I personally put each iMac on maximum brightness and snapped the photo seconds after bringing the same app up on each machine. There was simply no time for any dimming to occur. The images you see reflect the real difference between the two screens.
And it wasn't a case of 2 isolated machines. The pair directly behind these looked exactly the same.
All it takes is a few seconds, depends on what they have the timing set at. The images I see can have many different factors involved. Lighting, angle of the screen etc.
Like I said I own quite a few of each. See them every day side by side. Use them side by side daily. Day in and day out.
And no that is not normal if the screens are really displaying those characteristics. They each have a IPS screen, same type of screen. One is brighter than the other due to it's size. The 27 has denser pixel density. There is no huge disparity between the quality of the screens other than the size. Seeing them in a store one time is a far cry from using both on a daily basis side by side.
I don't know what to tell you.
Dimming is definitely not a factor here. The screen did not change at all while I set the machines up for these photos. They looked exactly the same while I was navigating as they did a minute later when I snapped the photo. I'm not sure what's going on, but the screen difference is genuinely notable.
Any one else have a 21.5 and a 27 readily accessible that could take similar photos to mine?
Local lighting? Was one of them facing a window, or immediately under a strip-light?
When I was shopping for iMacs, I noticed no such difference.
When I was shopping for iMacs, I noticed no such difference.
Same exact lighting. They were sitting on a table underneath overhead lighting so they were illuminated equally.
Looks pretty normal to me. I'm an ACMT. I remember noticing this when I started working on these. I'm not sure I would qualify it as a difference in screen "quality" so much as I would call it a difference in brightness. The 27" is retina searing bright. I think what you see is pretty normal (although it's hard to ultimately tell by the photos). Unless someone had been mucking around with the color profiles.
Wow that's a huge difference in brightness then. I never really noticed it until the machines were side by side.