Apple Cinema 24" LED Display Review

    Hello everyone,


    I've been looking for in depth display reviews and came across this site, which has very detailed and well covered display reviews. Excellent work done by all the contributors.


    I would like to suggest to review a new Apple 24" LED Cinema Display. Since Apple long been positioned as a graphics professionals platform it would be interesting see how its products are actually performing.


    Also I would greatly appreciate a review of Apple's new MacBook Pro displays (especially 17" model) since those are also targeted at graphic work.


    Actually more and more manufacturers release notebooks with large displays aimed at graphic work, so it would be nice to have professional reviews of these displays to make the buying decision.


    Looking forward to new reviews.


    Alex

    I would not see the cinema display as a pro device, since it has a ultra glossy screen. Pro Screens don't have Ultra Gloss, it is very unusable since it reflects your plants, lights, your face and windows and it tweaks the contrast ration to unrealistic levels. The Cinema Display is clearly an overpriced Multimedia Gadged for product placement and décor in some TV-Series. just my 2 cents.

    It's true. And, there was a review somewhere on the net where they tested an ACD and after calibration the delta of some colors was too high for serious graphics work.


    Apple is overrated, overpriced, overmarketed (in a sneaky way). Don't fall for it. Of course, if you like the Apple design, you are already lost (almost :)).

    Today I went to the Apple Store (the only one in germany) to look at the ACD 24". The Store was -extremely- crouded and it was very hard to get my hand on the ACD. I could check it for about 5min. The thing is: It looks and feels absolutely amazing - I am sold =)


    A swift test with Video, Brightness and Text revealed its Pros and Cons:


    + Amazing Exterior Quality.
    + Fast Video (avatar trailer) looked good and not very blurry with nice and very deep black levels. Blur was maybe a bit more than on an TN Panel (again: this was 5min test)
    + Text looked sharp, a lot sharper than on the 30" ACD next to it. I observed sharp text also on the IPS Panel in the 2209WA by DELL
    + Brightness was very good on maximum setting


    - Color reproduction was not the best of its class, I would say the DELL 2209WA had more natural colors (this is not a lab test !)
    - Colors were only near natural on 60% brightness, on 100% brightness the colors were off scale. Blue was way to blueish, I guess this effect reduces the visible color range a lot.
    - Brightness less than 100% were to low because of the whole reflection thing going on. So the reflections did not disturb me directly, but they indirectly worsened contrast a lot.


    To sum it up, I would say for general purpose use and movies this screen is very nice. Given the quality of the exterior the price is ok. Extending the warrenty to 3 years with Applecare would be a must-have. I read user reports of occasional defective ACD and lack of consistent quality control at Apple.


    Let's get to the infamous BUT - if you need color accuracy and high contrast you have to head home and try to get the excellent haptics of the ACD out of your head with 2 bottles of whiskey. You got to stick to the ugly plastic Eizos. Your work's results will thank you later.