Should I buy an apple cinema display??

[marold280]

I have a Macbook. its absolutely fantastic. The screen is too small for what i need though. I was thinking about saving up for a cinema display(20inch) to plug into my core duo macbook.
The other thing i want to do next year is save up for a Glassbook, i presume the old displays will work with the new Glassbooks?
thanks!!

 

[sfwalter]

I have a cinema display and I absolutely love it with my mbp. If money is a consideration you may want to look at alternatives such as a Dell flat panel. I just couldn't bring my self to buy a Dell

If your buy a current Apple Cinema display (not the new 24" that was just announced) you will need a $29 adapter to use with the glass books.

scott.

 

[vorkorsigan]

Have a look at the new Samsungs as well, T series. They are pretty good and cheaper than Apple, probably not quite as good a panel but close. Bonus is they have HDTV built in.

 

[JML42691]

The current (older-designed) displays should work with the new MacBooks my means of a mini-display port to DVI adapter. But I would look around at other displays, the prices of ACDs are outrageous in my eyes.

 

[marold280]

all im thinking is i want a bigger screen that also looks awesome at the same time. and ........ apple are annoyingly good at that.

 

[allmIne]

The ACD's are amazing. I have a 20in alongside my mbp; they just match so bloody well.

My brother has a whitebook, and he bought a Samsung 22in display. It's pretty nice too, admittedly!

 

[Umbongo]

While Apple's displays are of good quality and of a competitive price for that quality there are so many other options that probably better suite your budget and needs. You should be able to get a decent 24" display for $600 rather than 20", or a decent 20-22" display for a lot less than $600.

 

[Demosthenes X]

What are you planning on using it for? I paired my BlackBook with a 22" Acer monitor (I paid about $300 CAN a year or so ago). It's not the best monitor in the world, but I'm mostly using it for internet, Word, and Excel, and watching movies on... it does all of those fine enough.

I think unless you need the ACD for its specifications, you'd be better off spending far less on a lower-quality monitor. The ACDs are fantastic, but imo not worth the price premium unless you're using it for pro work.

 

[11800506]

Apple's displays are made for professionals who need very good color accuracy and thus use S-IPS panels which are much higher quality than normal panels but are also much more expensive. Seeing as you don't seem to need extreme color accuracy I would look elsewhere for monitors as you'll find other displays to be much cheaper. One such display that I would recommend would be one of the Dell 24" displays which are a good value.

 

[six.four]

What do you plan to do use the display for?

The reason why apple cinema displays are so expensive (other than the fact that it carries the apple logo) is because apple is one of the few companies that aren't using the inferior TN panels that most companies use nowadays to reduce the cost of LCD's. Instead they use they use the superior (and much more expensive) S-IPS panels. The response time is noticeably higher, but the color reproduction is significantly better.

If you are an artist/designer/photographer or just a person that wants to have the best color reproduction possible, then you are definitely looking to get a monitor with an S-IPS panel (which I believe all the Apple Cinema Displays have). If you are looking for a budget S-IPS panel LCD, the older Dell 20" 2005fpw actually all have S-IPS panels. You can find one for around $200 on ebay.

If you're on a budget and don't care much for color reproduction or just don't have the eye to notice the difference, a better value would be to purchase one of the many cheaper LCDs with a TN panel.