Picked up an 27" Cinema Display from the Apple Store today

[bluesteel]

i went down to the apple store today to see if they had any 27" Cinema Displays, and sure enough, they did, only one though, so i bought it. i can say three things about this display for sure. the built in speakers are not bad for monitor speakers accept that they are pointed downwards, text is sharp, display is bright, and the actual display itself is thinner than i thought.

i sold two of my two year old 30" cinema display for this new 27" (i'm gonna get another one when more are in stock), and i'm happy and not happy, right down the middle actually. i liked the aspect ratio of the 30". it seems like it was a lot bigger, well at least a little wider and a lot taller. but with the 27 my neck doesn't hurt from having to tilt it up when using the 30". i also liked the matte display of the 30" so much better than this 27's glossy look. there is a little glare, especially from the shiny black bezel, sort of distracting actually. other than that, i like the 27's cable setup. its a lot less clutter...i'm glad the 30's power brick is gone.

one other thing is that the display gave me a splitting headache, no joke. none of my other monitors have done this to me. something about this display induced what felt like a migraine headache after prolonged usage.

all in all, this is a decent display, but not for the professional who does color critical work. again, i really don't think this is a pro monitor. i think i would have been just as happy if not happier with my 30 inchers. if you have a newer 30" cinema display, you should seriously consider whether or not your going to like the new 27".

PROS: good build quality, less cable clutter, sharp text, bright screen

CONS: glossy display, no height adjustment, limited connectivity, 16:9 aspect ratio, limited color gamut, price, induces headaches, speakers point downward toward, short connection cables, and oh yeah did i say glossy display....

 

[CountlovE]

i went down to the apple store today to see if they had any 27" Cinema Displays, and sure enough, they did, only one though, so i bought it. i can say three things about this display for sure. the built in speakers are very impressive for monitor speakers, it looks just as good as my 30 inchers did, and the actual display itself is thinner than i thought.

i sold two of my two year old 30" cinema display for this new 27" (i'm gonna get another one when more are in stock), and i'm happy and not happy, right down the middle actually. i liked the aspect ratio of the 30". it seems like it was a lot bigger, well at least a little wider and a lot taller. but with the 27 my neck doesn't hurt from having to tilt it up when using the 30". i also liked the matte display of the 30" so much better than this 27's glossy look. there is a little glare, especially from the shiny black bezel, sort of distracting actually. other than that, i like the 27's cable setup. its a lot less clutter...i'm glad the 30's power brick is gone.

all in all, this is a great display, but i think i would have been just as happy if not happier with my 30". if you have a newer 30" cinema display, you should seriously consider whether or not your going to like the new 27". i'm pretty sure mine is going to grow on me, especially when i get a second one.

EDIT - 30 minutes later
i'm having problems with the display now. the USB ports in the back of the display are not working. i'm on hold with apple technical support as i write this.....seems like everything i buy apple these days has issues right out of the box...such a shame...never use to be like this.

Turn off the lights in your room so you are in total darkness. Then load up blackle.com and tell me if you have any serious glow from the bottom right and left corners. I bought a 27inch iMac 2010 that had serious issues from them removing the display to install a SSD drive. They basically are warping the screen when removing it for a BTO machine. Just curious to know if there are any issues with the 27inch standalone displays.


I ended up returning the iMac and bought a MacPro. Using my Dell 30inch with no issues at all.

 

[Derek87]

can you tell us how long the cable is? i have some concerns of how long it will be to reach my Macpro in the way i want to set up my desk/workstation at work.

thanks!

 

[bluesteel]

Turn off the lights in your room so you are in total darkness. Then load up blackle.com and tell me if you have any serious glow from the bottom right and left corners. I bought a 27inch iMac 2010 that had serious issues from them removing the display to install a SSD drive. They basically are warping the screen when removing it for a BTO machine. Just curious to know if there are any issues with the 27inch standalone displays.


I ended up returning the iMac and bought a MacPro. Using my Dell 30inch with no issues at all.

no problems with glow on the bottom right and left corners. i don't see any bleeding at all actually....very uniform backlighting. my 30" cinema displays had bleeding in all corners.

you've got to be lovin' that mac pro as opposed to the iMac. i've owned iMacs in the past, and i bought a quad-core 2.8 in May, but returned it the next day. while i like imacs and think they are brilliant marvels of engineering, i've always had a problem with an entire computer sitting directly behind the screen i look at...never liked that.

 

[bluesteel]

can you tell us how long the cable is? i have some concerns of how long it will be to reach my Macpro in the way i want to set up my desk/workstation at work.

thanks!

yeah, i just measured it at 48". not that long actually. it'd be better if it were 5 to 6 feet. from what i can see, at 48", your mac pro would have to be almost right below the displays. maybe there is some kind of extension cable out there?

 

[Cynicalone]

can you tell us how long the cable is? i have some concerns of how long it will be to reach my Macpro in the way i want to set up my desk/workstation at work.

thanks!

44 inches or close to it. Comes out of the center of the display. Exactly the same as the 24" LED ACD.

But Monoprice makes a very cheap 6 foot extension cable.

 

[rnelan7]

Post some pics of the setup!

 

[Derek87]

44 inches or close to it. Comes out of the center of the display. Exactly the same as the 24" LED ACD.

But Monoprice makes a very cheap 6 foot extension cable.

thanks, guys! good to know. i want to not have the computer at my feet but to the side under my desk...i'll have to look into the monoprice cable.

 

[Derek87]

thanks, guys! good to know. i want to not have the computer at my feet but to the side under my desk...i'll have to look into the monoprice cable.

guess i need a USB cable extension too?

(i'm unfamiliar with these new connectors as i've been using the ACD 23" for many years now)

 

[bluesteel]

Post some pics of the setup!

a pic from my iPhone.....

 

[Cynicalone]

guess i need a USB cable extension too?

(i'm unfamiliar with these new connectors as i've been using the ACD 23" for many years now)

Yes.

If you want them both to be white, I've found cheap white USB extension cables at Radio Shack.

Once you have both extension cables you can move the display about 9 feet from the Mac. Or more if you keep adding cables.

I don't know what the maximum range is.

 

[AlphaDogg]

Can you post a close up picture of the connectors on the cable? IE, the magsafe cable, usb cable, and the mdp cable? I am interested in knowing if they use the MBA style magsafe or the 2010 MB/MBP style magsafe. Thanks!

 

[Derek87]

9 ft should be enough and i don't really care about color...so i'll get both parts from monoprice.

thanks!

Yes.

If you want them both to be white, I've found cheap white USB extension cables at Radio Shack.

Once you have both extension cables you can move the display about 9 feet from the Mac. Or more if you keep adding cables.

I don't know what the maximum range is.

 

[Spencerx]

Did the same thing! Walked over to the Apple store to see when they were getting them in, and they had them. Will post pics soon.

 

[drunkenbozo]

a pic from my iPhone.....

how come your macbook pro doesnt have the black edging around the display? ive never seen that before...

 

[simplymuzik3]

how come your macbook pro doesnt have the black edging around the display? ive never seen that before...

It's a matte display. If you get the matte, then theres no black around the edges (it's usually 1 piece of glass on the front).

 

[cyberthom]

how come your macbook pro doesnt have the black edging around the display? ive never seen that before...

matte display option so the black glass front is missing

 

[Lloyd Christmas]

a pic from my iPhone.....

now its time to invest in a mstand to bring that mac up to eye level. i got one cause my neck was killing me and it was the best money i spent. makes it a new experience. Lloyd

 

[hugodrax]

Gonna wait till all the defects get sold. (ie Yellow screen issues, etc..) I notice anytime something new comes out, the first 3 months are tough for the new buyers and then its good for everyone else.

 

[bluesteel]

Can you post a close up picture of the connectors on the cable? IE, the magsafe cable, usb cable, and the mdp cable? I am interested in knowing if they use the MBA style magsafe or the 2010 MB/MBP style magsafe. Thanks!

here you go....

how come your macbook pro doesnt have the black edging around the display? ive never seen that before...

i have the matte display, not glossy. the matte version has an aluminum bezel....

 

[Doc750]

picked mine up today as well ...





Uploaded with ImageShack.us

 

[bluesteel]

Gonna wait till all the defects get sold. (ie Yellow screen issues, etc..) I notice anytime something new comes out, the first 3 months are tough for the new buyers and then its good for everyone else.

i returned the 27" cinema display!!! USB Problems!!!

when i first brought it home this afternoon, i was having issues with USB devices (external keyboard and mouse) plugged into the back of the display...there are 3 USB ports on back...they weren't working. i called technical support and we first tested all the USB ports on my 2010 macbook pro...they were all working fine. then we reset my SMC and PRAM, restarted my computer and everything worked fine....the USB ports on back of the display were working now.

i used the display for a few more hours, and all of the sudden the USB devices stopped working again. i moved the USB part of the display cable to the other two USB ports on my macbook pro, and the USB devices connected to the back of the display still did not work. i reset the SMC and PRAM again (not knowing what else to do), and restarted my computer, and the USB ports on the back of the display still did not work. then i called technical support again to inquire about the problem. while on the phone with them (they couldn't figure out what the problem was), i removed the magsafe power part of the display cable from my macbook pro, and my entire computer froze. that was it for me. we confirmed that there was nothing wrong with my macbook pro, and thats when i told the apple technical support person not to worry about it anymore cause i was going to return the display right away. so i just got back from the apple store and got a full refund, no 10% restocking fee either.

i'm just sick of this crap. it seems like most of the new apple stuff i've purchased in the past 2-3 years has problems right from the get-go. it wasn't like that for me before. i never use to have these kind of problems with new products...and i buy apple hardware every year, probably for the past 16 years. when the 24" cinema display came out, i bought two of them, and they were both faulty, so i returned them after 3 or 4 days. then my iPhone 4 with the proximity sensor issues, signal issues, etc., and on and on a few mac pros and a few macbook pros.

and by the way, if your buying apple care for the 27", wait on that too. the apple care i bought with the display at the apple store wouldn't register, so also talked about that with technical support, and it looks like there is a problem with registering these new 27inchers with apple care. they wanted to work it out and call me back on it. they said it has something to do with how new the displays are and how they haven't been linked with apple care for displays yet or something...who knows.

if your buying a 27" cinema display, i wish you lots of luck...hope you don't get a dud like i did. i'm waiting for three or four more months until the problems are worked out at apple. i wish i had my 30" cinema displays. they were awesome, never gave me any problems.

 

[fensterbme]

i liked the aspect ratio of the 30". it seems like it was a lot bigger, well at least a little wider and a lot taller. but with the 27 my neck doesn't hurt from having to tilt it up when using the 30". i also liked the matte display of the 30" so much better than this 27's glossy look.

think i would have been just as happy if not happier with my 30". if you have a newer 30" cinema display,

I too find the 16x9 ratio to vertically short... for me the 30" 16x10 ratio is much more usable. As a photographer I find editing more "square'ish" images on a very widescreen aspect ratio leads to me to look at images noticeably smaller sizes than on a 30", and when they announced the 27" was going to be glossy that killed it for me.. as there is just no way to accurately proof images and expect the prints to look similar. I think the 27" is a great monitor for a lot of applications, but critical photo editing isn't one of them.

So I passed on the Apple 27" and opted for the 30" NEC display which gives me the aspect ratio I want along with a really high quality non-glossy screen. The only annoying aspect of the NEC was it's price, lack of Display Port and that it doesn't look as sexy as the Apple unit.

i'm just sick of this crap. it seems like most of the new apple stuff i've purchased in the past 2-3 years has problems right from the get-go. it wasn't like that for me before. i never use to have these kind of problems with new products...

I'm sure that was a really frustrating experience... you go out and buy the new hotness monitor and come home to find it has issues. Your also right to expect that things work right out of the box...

... but it's also a bit naive to think that these problems didn't exist in the past.

I've been buying technology for almost twenty years, most of it as a IT professional buying servers, networking gear, SAN frames, and a lot of end user technology for myself, and almost everything has some kind of issue it's first released, sometimes it's small and minor other times it's massive. This is why most IT folks know if you decide to buy something that's brand spanking new to expect something will go wrong (and be pleasantly surprised if it doesn't). It's definitely frustrating but it shouldn't (sadly) be surprising.

 

[bluesteel]

So I passed on the Apple 27" and opted for the 30" NEC display which gives me the aspect ratio I want along with a really high quality non-glossy screen. The only annoying aspect of the NEC was it's price, lack of Display Port and that it doesn't look as sexy as the Apple unit.

that 30" NEC is a spectacular monitor. we have two MultiSync LCD2690W2's and they are the best monitors i've used to date. i loved my 30" cinema displays, but the color reproduction of the NEC's is outstanding.

I'm sure that was a really frustrating experience... you go out and buy the new hotness monitor and come home to find it has issues. Your also right to expect that things work right out of the box...

... but it's also a bit naive to think that these problems didn't exist in the past.

I've been buying technology for almost twenty years, most of it as a IT professional buying servers, networking gear, SAN frames, and a lot of end user technology for myself, and almost everything has some kind of issue it's first released, sometimes it's small and minor other times it's massive. This is why most IT folks know if you decide to buy something that's brand spanking new to expect something will go wrong (and be pleasantly surprised if it doesn't). It's definitely frustrating but it shouldn't (sadly) be surprising.

you know, i've had really good luck in the past with apple products in particular. i can't help it, but i've noticed a trend with them in particular, in that as they have grown in the past 3-5 years, that they seem to have more product defects that should be caught before production. but i guess i might not have bought as much hardware as you have over the years. yeah, i have to admit your right, i'm definitely being naive..lol.

i shouldn't have sold my two 30" cinema displays. when calibrated, they worked out just fine. that was probably the most amateur move i have ever made. my co-workers are going to get a kick out of it..lol.

 

[scottrichardson]

bluesteel, I feel your pain.

Around 80% of the Apple gear I have purchased has had issues. Two macbook Pro's gone, one with a faulty logic board, one with a faulty screen. A Powerbook, with logic board. 2 PowerMac G5's with Logic Boards. 20" ACD with banding. 24" LED Display with Yellowing.

Thankfully the Nehamlem Mac Pro 2.93 and my wife's old white macbook have had no issues thus far. *touches wooden table*.