Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

LED Cinema Display worth it today?

J

Jaffaman27

macrumors member
Original poster
Jul 7, 2010
93
14
Tampere, Finland
Hello!

I've been wanting to have a second screen for a while. I have a 27' 2010 iMac, but I'm planning to buy a 27' retina iMac (when ever the new ones come).

I came across a fairly cheap, used, Apple LED Cinema Display 24'.
Are those any good in todays standards?
They look good next to an iMac so that is a bonus, but how is the screen quality?

Would it be weird to have a FullHD screen next to a retina iMac.
I think it would be useful to also have a low resolution screen as i work with graphics and web design? Or maybe I'm thinking wrong.. :)

Any help would be appreciated.
 
It is 16:10 and 1200p. It would be a downgrade for me right now (I have dual 27'' 1440p monitors these days) but up until the beginning of the year when I bought my second 1440p display it would have been a nice upgrade. Many casual users are still using single 1080p displays that are arguably inferior to the LED Cinema Display.

For awhile my second display was a 23'' 1080p Samsung and it wasn't weird or anything like that. I still found it very acceptable for watching movies or doing second screen stuff (having research or web pages only).

I personally am in the camp of preferring 16:10 aspect ratio and if I had one of these displays, I would probably be reluctant to part with it.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Jaffaman27
It was a decent screen, but over priced. It is now old, OK screen, and likely very over priced. I wouldn't buy one unless it was exceptionally cheap.

A low res screen may be useful for web design. Maybe a cheap, average screen will give you a better idea of what many of your users will see.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Jaffaman27
These days, I wouldn't buy a used Apple display.

There are plenty of 3rd party displays that are "Apple's equal" or even better.

Cheaper, too
 
I just sold two of my 27-inch LED Cinema display for $650 each on Amazon, Now i'm going to purchase a Predator X34P when it comes out and no new money is coming out of pocket either using the money I got from both of my displays to pay for the X34P.
 
I've been working in front of a 24" LCD Cinema since late 2009 and I'm in no rush to replace it. It's a perfectly nice display for what it is; it has always seemed to me to have good color saturation and brightness, and I like the glossy (near-glossy?) screen. If the one you are considering is in good shape, no dead pixels or glass scratches, and if the resolution suits your needs (1920x1440 IIRC), and the price is right, why not. I personally prefer the extra vertical pixels that 16:10 gives you.

You might want to make sure that it starts up from off / black consistently. Mine is starting to get weird at power-on, and there are hints that that is a standard failure mode.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Jaffaman27
What would be a fair price for a 24" cinema display?

I bought one a year ago and find it great. Not only for the display it is but because it also acts as a docking stating for my Air.
 
Thanks for all the great answers.. And sorry for a late response.

I actually did buy the display and so far so good.
Now it sits next to my 2010 iMac and it seems to be of a similar quality.. Kind of like my old 24" iMac screen from before.
It looks nice next to the iMac which is a big plus when compared to other screens.

Surely I will see a big difference in the future, when I will have a 5K iMac, but that is also a "good" thing.
I can check my websites and other work in "normal" resolution while still mostly working with the high-res screen.

Oh, and one big thing (maybe there is a better solution for this problem already, if so, please share):
When working on Photoshop with retina mac, the pixels will be very small. And at least for the moment I still use Photoshop for UI work too. So it will be good to have a non-retina display for these situations.

But I will have to wait and see how it feels when I finally get my new iMac.

For the price I paid, I don't know if it was a good buy in general. So far it feels like so.
I bought it as a part of a package with 2011 Macbook Air (4GB/128SSD), both used and in fairly good condition.
The MBA is just for casual sofa usage, browsing the interwebs and such.
I paid 500€ (about 550$) in total.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back