The Apple screen is, like all Cinema Displays, superb. In the back, nothing hangs out and there is a single cable for connection to an external casing from which there are two other cables, one for the peripheral and the other for the computer.  The latter is divided into 3 for video; DVI, USB and Firewire. Likewise on the back, there is a duo of hubs with 2 ports in this format. This is practical. 

So, is all of this more attractive than the Dell? Not necessarily.  It all depends on taste and especially your equipment.  It will be in a Mac user’s interest, despite the higher price and impossibility of vertical adjustment, to take the Apple first of all for its design and harmony with your configuration (it went well with our test G5).  Second, you will especially choose it as a Mac user because the screen doesn’t have any buttons.  All adjustments aren’t made on the screen but rather directly through the computer.  And for Apple, computer means only Macs. On the screen itself we can only control brightness – and then again these two functions are deactivated when connected to a PC.  For the gamma, contrast, and fine tuning of colors, it all happens on the Mac computer and no tool was planned for PC users.

An amazing screen but not for graphic artists

We used our test Apple computer to view and edit photos.  In complement to the tools provided by Apple, we also calibrated the screen with our colorimeter.  Once this monitor is adjusted, it is superb, without any color dominance, contrary to what some people experienced with the first 20 and 23 inch series.  There is no white halo on the sides or dark area on any part of the panel.  However, as we do with the Dell, we tend to not recommend this screen to graphic artists or for those who really count on color fidelity.  Like the 3007WFP, the HD 30’’ Cinema Display has a big problem in brightness homogeneity and the monitor we received was 30 % brighter on the upper left hand corner compared with the opposite corner.  On one side, white was at 242 cd/m² and black at 0.4 cd/m². On the other, we measured 309 / 0.5 cd/m².   In the middle of the panel and the area where we tend to calibrate the screen, white is at an intermediate 290 cd/m².   For games, personal photos, writing code or for spreadsheets, this doesn’t matter and the variation is unnoticeable because it is spread out.  However, for those whose profession is to display and manage exact colors, they may be surprised when changing the position of the photo on the screen.  In the end, this is quite bothersome.

For games, we preferred installing the Apple screen on our Dell computer. It’s configured in SLI, the G5 is not.  In addition, there are more games for the PC.  Once everything is connected, we are literally immersed in the game, swallowed up by the image.  You will have to step back, however, for two reasons : to see the entire screen and avoid constantly turning your head ; and to not be bothered by afterglow.  For the latter, this is indeed noticeable, but from 1.5 meters, it disappears and shooting our adversaries becomes a real pleasure!

Compare this screen’s test results with the competition’s in the Product Face-off section

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