CNET Editor's rating: 7.9 out of 10
Reviewed by
Kristina Blachere
Review date: 09/14/04
Release date: 06/28/04
The good: Beautiful image quality; stunning design; PC-compatible; integrated USB and FireWire ports.
The bad: A bit pricey; limited adjustability options; no home entertainment video inputs.
The bottom line: The Apple 23-inch Cinema Display is low on extras and high on price. Still, one look at this gorgeous LCD, and you'll kiss your practicality good-bye.
Apple's latest line of Cinema Displays (available in 20-inch, 23-inch, and 30-inch models) ushers in a renewed spirit of cross-platform cooperation. Thanks to a DVI connector on each and every Apple Cinema Display, PC users can now enjoy the fabulous design and stunning image quality that Apple aficionados have been luxuriating in since the iMac. The 23-inch Cinema HD Display LCD, in particular, is a looker. It's so lovely that we're willing to forgive its high price, limited adjustability, and lack of video inputs. In fact, hooking it up to a comparatively hideous Intel-based PC feels like such a crime that we're beginning to suspect an ulterior motive on Apple's part. How much was that Apple Power Mac G5 again?
The Cinema HD Display's design leaves no detail overlooked. The sleek, 0.75-inch brushed-aluminum bezel is unblemished by anything so vulgar as a power button (it's tucked discreetly into the right-side edge of the display), and the aluminum neck and base form a simple, elegant L shape that's both completely stable and smooth enough on the bottom to turn and slide easily across your desktop. As you contemplate the Cinema Display's pristine beauty, you'll notice small, elegant details, such as the oval cable pass-through ringed with white plastic; the single white cord, which meets the glossy white power brick and splits into signal, power, USB, and FireWire cables; and the DVI connector, which also wears a tidy, white, iPod-style suit.
The simple design, however, limits the adjustments you can make to the display panel. The neck height is fixed, so very tall users may have to set the Cinema Display on a riser (though it's almost painful to contemplate sullying the display's minimalist appearance with such a device). Also, unlike many large LCDs, such as the Eizo FlexScan L885, the Cinema HD lacks the ability to pivot between Portrait and Landscape modes--a feature that would have made it even easier to view legal documents and Web pages. But while the display doesn't have a hinge or a lazy Susan for swiveling left and right, the slippery aluminum base lets you accomplish the same thing by sliding the monitor around. The panel also tilts back and forth about 20 degrees and 5 degrees, respectively; it's by far the smoothest, easiest tilt function we've ever seen in an LCD.
This generation of Cinema Displays marks Apple's return to a DVI connection (after years of using a proprietary ADC connection), making the Cinema HD Display PC compatible. Also, for the first time, the new Cinema Displays are compatible with VESA mounts, allowing you to attach the monitors to walls. But unlike many jumbo LCDs that incorporate home entertainment features such as picture-in-picture, a TV tuner, or composite and S-Video ports, the Cinema Display provides only two USB and two FireWire ports. We're willing to forgive these omissions because this LCD looks so pretty, but you should know that you can get these video extras in a 23-inch LCD (such as the Planar PX212M or the HP L2035) that costs several hundred dollars less than the Apple Cinema HD Display.
If you're using the Cinema Display with a Wintel machine, the only adjustment you can make to the display's image is to its brightness. The touch-sensitive brightness-control buttons are nestled out of sight along the right-side edge of the panel (below the power button) and blend perfectly with the white plastic end pieces. Luckily, the image quality is so good that the average Wintel user won't miss the ability to tweak contrast or individual color values. When we hooked it up to our Power Mac G4, we were able to tweak the image using Apple's Display Calibrator Assistant. CNET Labs' DisplayMate intensity and grayscale test screens revealed some obvious color-tracking errors; very light grays have a distinctly pinkish hue. Otherwise, we see very little hue shift in the Cinema HD Display's nicely linear progression from black to white. Our only other criticism is one that's common for LCDs: there's a fair amount of ghosting in high-contrast test screens; the display seems to have trouble switching from black to gray and back to black again without leaving reverse video trails. But overall, the display looks stunning: colors are vibrant and warm, details are crisply rendered, and video looks quite smooth and free of noise. (Video playback looks even better when you hook the display up to a G5.) Text also looks very sharp, with excellent contrast; the monitor does a great job reproducing pure, bright whites and dark blacks.
Given that the Cinema HD Display is significantly more expensive than competing LCDs, we're disappointed with its skimpy one-year warranty. The industry standard for LCDs is three years--appropriate for a piece of hardware that costs $2,000.
Intro:
The Apple Cinema HD Display is a 30 in, flat panel computer monitor.Compared to other flat panel monitors on the market, it is expensive at around $1,750.Comes with a built-in FireWire hub and USB hub.This LCD features a 2560x1600 native resolution.Weighs 27.6 lbs.
Noteworthy Features:
Has 2560x1600 resolution, which is somewhat higher than some similarly priced monitors.Also, this monitor has 0.25 mm dot pitch, which is considerably better than some similarly priced monitors.Its wide viewing angle (178 degrees) is useful whenever the screen is being viewed by more than one person at the same time.Accepts DVI input, which allows for greater signal clarity than traditional VGA.
Weaker Features:
None noted, given available product data.
Suitability:
A flat panel monitor, suited for those who want a high-end display for movies, presentations, or design work.
Value:
In general, this monitor's features are in line with its price.However, the average price of flat panel monitors with similar viewable size is considerably less -- right around $975.Still, typically, higher prices are easier to justify on flat-panels from Apple, as they tend to be of high quality.
Suggestions:
(1) Before purchasing an LCD monitor, consider visiting your local store for a live demo to ensure that its overall image quality, color, and sharpness meets your expectation.(2) You can use the built-in USB hub to connect peripherals such as mice and keyboards, or a flash card reader.(4) For more help in deciding if this is the right monitor for you, visit the buying guide for monitors at CNET Reviews.
9 out of 10 - Spectacular A necessity in all areas of computer endeavor
In Photography nice to have such large display to be able to view each pixel for that pro job. If ...
In Photography nice to have such large display to be able to view each pixel for that pro job. If you are dealing with several documents they all can be available on screen at once. Receives highest industry ratings. Another way to go is two 20" Apple Cinema displays.
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by 20dogpp (see profile) -
July 22, 2008
9 out of 10 - Spectacular Great monitor
Fantastic Monitor but weird connection on my Mac Pro to get output to the right resolution. My Mac Pro had ...
Fantastic Monitor but weird connection on my Mac Pro to get output to the right resolution. My Mac Pro had two outputs and had to use the left one or didn't get the resolution needed. Wish this was in the manual, but Apple helped me resolve it. Other than that, love the monitor!
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by james.stine (see profile) -
January 23, 2008
10 out of 10 - Perfect Great display
I beleive that this is the best monitor out there. The colors are accurate, the work space is huge, photo ...
I beleive that this is the best monitor out there. The colors are accurate, the work space is huge, photo editing is a joy since the image is so big! It is a bit pricey but the flexibility that you get when using a monitor of this size is worth it. It is the perfect companion to my 15" Apple Mac Book Pro.
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by crazyqban67 (see profile) -
August 10, 2007
10 out of 10 - Perfect Worth the money
This was a worthwhile purchase. I originally bought three LaCie 19" LCDs because the dollar per sq/inch was a ...
This was a worthwhile purchase. I originally bought three LaCie 19" LCDs because the dollar per sq/inch was a better value. Then after eight months I decided to also purchase the 30" Cinema. I should have only bought the cinema. I use the monitor about 10 hours per day, six days per week. I have had the monitor for 26 months. When the price drops to $1400 I will buy two more to replace my Lacie side monitors. One complaint is the placement of the controls. I other monitors mounted immediatly to the sides of the cinema for a wraparound effect but this makes it difficult to get to the controls. I use this Cinema with a Windows PC and a Matrox video card working with small text. So far, no problems.
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by jmarianu (see profile) -
May 27, 2007
9 out of 10 - Spectacular Nothing better
absolutely amazing monitor, and worth every penny.
one problem: the on/off and brightness buttons only work if you're ...
absolutely amazing monitor, and worth every penny.
one problem: the on/off and brightness buttons only work if you're plugged in to an apple computer. they're tied into the mac's OS, so on their own, they dont actually control the monitor.
...so pc users, your monitor will stay on 24 hours a day. (i called tech support and the only work-around to date is to plug the monitor into its own power strip and turn that off when you want).
10 out of 10 - Perfect Display is perfect as-is!
I think this product is priced right. The resolution is remarkable. I'm not sure why anyone would want to ...
I think this product is priced right. The resolution is remarkable. I'm not sure why anyone would want to rotate this monster. It's better than two very high-end 19" monitors rotated (I can't think of a single thing you could view better if the monitor were rotated????).
Also, given the DVI, it will work with all of the high-end equipment. Buying this to watch DVD's on would be silly (since you could buy a much bigger, but lower resolution TV for half the cost). But on the other hand, if you work on your computer, it is well worth the price.
10 out of 10 - Perfect Try saying it suck with two of them
I would like to have someone tell me it sucks after playing a game on two of these *******.
I would like to have someone tell me it sucks after playing a game on two of these *******.
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by mrpiddly1 (see profile) -
November 13, 2006
9 out of 10 - Spectacular its HUGE!!!
holy crap, this thing is at least three times larger than it looked in all of the reviws. IT BARELY ...
holy crap, this thing is at least three times larger than it looked in all of the reviws. IT BARELY FITS ON MY DESK!
9 out of 10 - Spectacular Great for multimedia users and gamers
Image quality is something to speak about, colour accuracy is much better compared with other lcd's, however black levels ...
Image quality is something to speak about, colour accuracy is much better compared with other lcd's, however black levels are not that great.
This monitor is PC compatible, you can use this monitor with any PC card at a maximum resolution of 1280 x 800, if you want to use it at maximum resolution you will need to get an ati x1800 xl or xt or something like that.
Also if you have a new 15" or 17" powerbook you can run it at full resolution, if you have a powermac you will need a similar PC card.
You have to consider brightness level doensn't look that perfect in every inch of the lcd, which means colour may look a little bit different in some areas ( I am extremely demanding ) however image quality in general is simply something that you will not find everywhere.
I have a trinitron monitor too and this display has a very close colour accuracy, colours are breathteaking in practice, response time is adecuate for gamers, I AM ONE.
I am not very sure if I should recommend this display for real professional graphic designers or photographers, I mean c'mon! nobody will belive an lcd is a good display for graphic designers! they should know colour accuracy is always better on tube based monitors, not lcd's, not plasmas no projection tv's nothing like that.
In terms of LCD technology this is a great item, easily one of the greatest LCD monitors I've seen.
This is an expensive item and you need to see it in action with your own eyes, and try to test the black levels, they are a little bit dissappoing. Anyway you will never see true black levels in any regular lcd with a back lamp, I've heard about led iluminated lcd's, but image resolution is not that great.
When watching HD movies and games you will destroy all those plasmas and TUBE based monitors, this is due to the sharpness level, is something that you need to see in action to believe, 1080p displays are NOTHING if you compare them with this, believe when I say image is soooo sharp.
Everytime I play games you will see beautiful colours and you will be saying OHHHH AWWWWW don't believe it.
Don't complain about price, you already know every apple item is expensive, but for the first time of my life I don't feel this item is really overpriced.
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by heirdt (see profile) -
December 22, 2005
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