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"Perfect Monitor!" on by M4Hawkins
Pros: + The monitor is beautiful. Great contrast, dark shadows, great colors.
+ LED backlighting saves power vs CCFL lit LCD displays
+ Decent sounding built in speakers
+ No dead pixels or dreaded "yellow tinting" that plagued iMac still to dateCons: - Height of the stand is not adjustable
- Glare issues unless you can control your work environment lightingSummary: I'm currently using my Cinema display monitor on my PC with dual AMD HD6970 gpus. I had to upgrade from my old 5xxx series gpus since they didn't have mini display ports built in. I tried to use all the dvi adapters I could find, but the older AMD video cards wouldn't support the dvi adapters either. Ultimately, for the extra cost of the adapters ($99-$149), it was well worth just upgrading to a newer video card and selling the old ones. I believe all AMD 6xxx series and newer cards will have mini-display port standard. I don't have an Nvidia card so I can't comment on those, but I believe most will have display port and you just need the standard to mini adapter for fairly cheap.
The monitor simply plugs into the mini-display port on my first video card and into a usb drive. A 2nd wire plugs into the wall for power. The monitor works perfectly in Windows 7 x64. The camera, microphone, and speakers work right out of the box with no fiddling or software to install. The only catch is you have to have a mac product to adjust the brightness or light sensing. I just had a friend come over with his macbook, so we could set the brightness to where I wanted and turned off the light sensor. The monitor remembers the settings even after being unplugged.
Display:
The monitor is beautiful. Great contrast, dark shadows, great colors. I can't really detect any ghosting or lag. My friend said he can sense just a little bit of ghosting on battlefield 3. But he said it was very minimal and prob the best he had seen on a large non gaming monitor. The monitor is affected by glare, so keep that in mind in a bright room. It also shows spots and dirt fairly easily, but is very simple to clean. Love the resolution, no more need to run dual monitors to run apps, browsers, and spreadsheet at the same time anymore.
Camera:
It works. Looks fine, but doesn't have any way of adjusting zoom, pan or anything like that on a PC. Not sure if that's available in mac os. The device manager will show that the camera isn't working right, but ignore it. Its just looking for a driver that doesn't exist, the default windows driver works fine.
Microphone:
Might be a little too good. I has a range that it picks up very well and can be a bit loud to people on the other end. A spoon clanking a bowl or a microwave beep comes across very loud, even from my kitchen on a different floor of the house. Had people tell me "bless you" when my wife sneezed from our bedroom on the 3rd floor.
Speakers:
I'm a speaker snob. I've gone through a lot of desktop computer speakers and I pretty much hate em all. The monitor doesn't sound great by any means... but it sounds decent, and it doesn't take any space. No ugly boxes or clutter of wires. It was one of the strongest points for this monitor. If I want better sound I just use my headphone/amp/dac setup. Media controls and volume DO work. Both the sound slider on the os and the volume knob and media buttons on my keyboard. It worked fine with my logitech slim, my ms sidewinder and a generic usb keyboard.
Construction:
Top notch. It's built like a tank, looks professional and stylish. You'll never see any other monitor in a home decor or style magazine for good reason. Doesn't wobble, very sturdy, plugs are all very secure. Unfortunately there is no height adjustment and the monitor doesn't rotate, you just turn the whole thing.
Summary:
I love this monitor. It looks great on or off. It gave me back a ton of desktop space (from multiple monitors + speakers + wires) and just works flawlessly in everything it's supposed to do. People complaining about price don't really have any other choice. A good accurate 27" monitor + speakers + mic + camera + usb hub doesn't exist except here. You will spend more piecing it out with other hardware and trying to be on the same level of performance and it will look like crap.
FYI, I have my monitor connected to some 6 foot extension wires to reach a computer in the adjacent room. There have been no problems running mini-dp, usb, and power through the extra long wires.
PS: for low price if you're will buy this Apple Display, I suggest you have to compare prices at: Compare-Lowprices.info/Apple-27-Inch-LED-Cinema-Display
Hope this helpful. -
"Kickass display but watchout..." on by soupgfx
Pros: Color and Picture Quality is Top-Notch! Probably the best looking monitor on the market.
Cons: Connection cable is mini-display port only. Connection cord is very, very short. If going for dual monitors on a mac pro you will need to buy a cord extender. Glare sucks. Cost sucks.
Summary: We bought two of these for a new graphic design work station for our design studio. New macpro, (2) new 27" cinema displays. Ultimate work station, you would think??? But no, it's funny how Apple nickel and dimes you know to get what used to be free.
When trying to put the two monitors together on a desk, one of the monitors cords will be too short to reach the back of the computer. Even then, you will have to fork out another $150 to get the dual monitor setup to work. You will also need to buy a monitor cable extender, so that you can put the monitors next to each other. Pretty rediculous...
So if you are looking to buy two of these monitors and hook them up to a new mac pro, you WILL be spending more than just the purchase price of the monitors.
The monitors look great. The glare sucks. The monitor cost sucks. The extra accessories you will need to buy, sucks. I do believe Apple made this monitor to work with their laptop only. Pretty sad to think that they are putting their workhorse computers on the back burner to their ipods and apple tv products. -
"Guy Above Drinks way too much Apple-Juice" on by toddybody
Pros: ppi at screen size
panel depth
black levels
color reproductionCons: Price (granted equal to Dell's U2711)
Glossy Screen
Connection OptionsSummary: In Eric's defense, adapter dongles DO NOT reflect connection options native to the panel. Apple would have been smart to include an HDMI in, making it a perfect partner with it's own Apple TV (more importantly a BluRay player/Xbox360/PS3...etc). Citing 3rd party dongles as product features is ridiculous....should we rate cars on how they "could" perform if we upgraded them. No. Stop being such a Fan Boy troll and complaining about Eric's contemplative and fair review.
PS: If a screen filter merits contrast enhancement through keeping white background from wrapping text...it does help. -
"Outstanding monitor! WORKS w/ PC with display ports" on by Mgman715
Pros: I have purchased 5 27" monitors before I settled for the best. I am using this on my HP Pavilion with an XFX Radeon HD Video Card that has Mini Display Ports. All settings on the monitor were done on a new Mac book at the Apple store before hook up.
Cons: Price...which I found if you want true,rich colors, great contrast, true Blacks and the highest resolution, you have to spend more than the typical monitor.
Summary: I have not put this side by side to the Dell 27", but from what I read, they are very close in quality and price. When I updated my HP desktop with the new video card, I noticed a big difference over the on board graphics card. With the mini Display ports, the ACD will plug into the card and work perfectly. Since you cannot adjust the settings from your PC on the Apple monitor, I did it at the Apple store before bringing it home by using a new Mac Book laptop with display ports that was on display. Settings ( brightness actually is all that needs to be set) can be made by mirroring the laptop display setting for the monitor, which once set, you don't need to adjust them again as the monitor memorizes the settings and were even more vibrant once set up at home. Once hooked up the PC, the picture was nothing like I have seen over a Windows PC Monitor. ( again, the Dell 27" is supposed to be comparable). Resolution is outstanding at the 2560 x 1440 with no ghosting or shadows. I actually run it at the 1600 x 900 so the print isn't so small, which still presents excellent graphics at the lower resolution. This is about the best for Gaming, video editing or playback of high def movies. Very pleased I made the purchase and Apple is probably the best for customer service if ever needed. I would recommend for any Mac user or any PC user that has a video card with display ports.
PS.. one other CON..the power cord is fine but the USB/Mini Display cables are only 3 ft long. Had to buy an extension cable for them to reach the PC.
Updated on Dec 23, 2011 -
"It's an apple." on by petachon
Pros: Gorgeous. Simple, elegant, great color and real estate.
I use it with my mac pro (running Radeon 5870.) It's the second display next to the Cintiq 21ux.
Like a lot of reviewers mentioned, the glare can be problematic at times. However, I usually work inCons: 4ft cable. Are you f'in kidding me??? I had to go looking for a MDP extender to use with my Mac Pro.
Also, *** is with no other input other then MDP? I have a 2007 imac that I cannot use with the damn display because it's not "new" enough. Lastly, I don'Summary: I love apple, I really do. But I'm really sick of them updating their crap to only work with their new ****. I probably have 5 something to something adapter in my house.
Apple LED Cinema Display user reviews (27-inch, 2010)
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