Apple 24" LED Cinema Display review...

An update for you all!

After my first Apple LED Cinema Display arrived with a stuck pixel and dust/debris under the glass, Apple overnighted me a second screen, which was in even worse shape than the first! Black specks of crap and "bits" under the glass! I was appalled! Anyway, my third screen (*sigh!*) I just received on Friday last week, and it seems to be "perfect."

After having used three of these screens over the past month-or-so, I will say they are absolutely stunning. Assuming you can a) get one without dust etc, or b) not care about dust etc, you're in for such a treat. My wife has been begging me for one, so now I have to buy HER one, too. Gah!

So yes, this is the most beautiful screen I've ever used. Highly recommended, though Apple clearly needs to work on their dust-free environments!

 

Yep, this is by far the best screen I've ever used. So vivid!!

 

Yep, and the instant brightness is awesome. My 23" Cinema Display always took some minutes to get up there in the brightness. Heck, even my LCD TV does, too. The instant wowness of the brightness is awesomeness.

 

I think that you should ask for free macpro....

 

now, i may not like apple but the Monitors are awesome!

 

The monitors are the best I've seen in a long time. BTW, Tinselworm, how do you change you username every day?

 

Just updating the camera situation I posted about:

I ordered a D90 and a 16-85mm lens yesterday from B&H. Looking forward to my first DSLR kit.

 

using pm system and Chaz

 

Is there an adapter coming out for this thing that would let us Penrym MBPRO owners use this display?

 

Haha, it was Thomas.Murlis one day, Apple_Killer the next day, and yesterday it was Tinselworm. Kinda confused me a bit...

 

Not that of anyone knows at this moment.

 

Interesting. Well....24 is a bit small compared to the 30....

 

I think the 24" is the perfect size having coming from a 23" and a 30" acd in the past.

IMHO the 30" ACD is just TOO big, you cant view the whole monitor at one look. You always have to constantly shift your head up left, up right, down left, down right.

Also the 24" seems alot bigger than the 23", I didnt think 1" makes that much of a difference but it does!

 

I'm gonna go with the 30"...selling one laptop, buying a new one, then a new monitor...too much.

 

If you sell your penryn mbp for around $1100 or even $1200 you can break even by paying the difference of only a $1000 more for the 2.4ghz unibody mbp + $865 (with student discount and tax) which comes to a total = $1865) spent which is about the same price even if you get your 30" ACD ($1599 + tax = $1731 with student discount + tax).

Whats a $100 more dollars or maybe even less considering your getting a whole new unibody mbp with a 9600m gt card and dual gpu switching + a brand new gorgeous 24" LED ACD.

 

Well...I'd kind of like the 30" just to own one....it's such an impressive display. I'd rather put money towards a BIG display than replace the laptop I already have.

 

Well its your choice and your money. But just letting you know, while the 30" ACD is great it has horrible uneven brightness. I think its due to the display being so big and one of the corners has a big backlight bleeding that reaches half of the display. I've actually been through 4 30" and they all have the same trait of the right side being brighter.

First time I bought the 30", I exchanged it and then returned it, then 4-5 months later I tried again and exchanged again and returned again. I eventually gave up because I was tired of carrying that huge box to the apple store which was located right in the middle of the mall.

One last thing I didnt like about the 30" is the resolution. I like the resolution for OSX and desktop but I did not like it under gaming via windows because it makes games look stretched out when your trying to find a right resolution and most games doesnt support the full resolution of that display.

But I advise you to try it out for a while and think about it being at home (its always different from the big Apple store's desk as to your own smaller desk at home) because the 30" looks overwhelmingly HUGE at home.

 

I would go for 2x24 for a price of 1 30

 

what stand is that you guys are using to hold your macbooks?

 

what do you mean by hold?

 

I think he means like a stand to sit your computer on such as the Griffin Elevator and the M-Stand. I personally don't use one at all, just use my MB and an external monitor as a dual monitor setup. Hope that clears things up!

 

I know the 30" is huge...good point.

Is the Apple 30" on Amazon.com the same as the apple site? I may get it off there.

 

Do you have a link to it on Amazon? If you have the link, I'll check it out.

 

I don't actually...I keep going back and forth between the 20" and the 30"...the price difference is huge.

 

I would go 20, because it is plenty big for almost everything, and the 30 would probably make your eyes spread apart trying to cover all of the scree.

 

edit: found it
http://raindesigninc.com/store/product_info.php?products_id=63
thanks chargerbaseball25

 

I use this exact stand and it is called the "mstand" by rain design.

You can buy one here http://www.raindesigninc.com/store/index.php

 

No problem, ender17! Glad I could help you out!

 

Or you could save a few dollars and get free delivery by getting it on Amazon. Either way, lovely stand. Very good for what it is.

BTW, Amazon just delivered my second Apple LED 24" display. The wife is thrilled with it.

 

is it "good"?

 

It's fine. I really don't think there's such a thing as a "perfect" Cinema Display. I AM very picky, sure, but I've now had four of them in my house, and they've all had at least ONE noticeable speck of dust under the glass. The last two I received (mine and my wife's) are as close to "perfect" as I could hope for, in this respect...

They're worth the money, without question. I wish they were just easier for Apple to build with the attention to detail they really need.

 

Have you tried using your finger nail to see if its a crust (the speck)? I had one speck of dust on the top right corner and got frustrated the first time and I used my finger nail gently to see if it was on the outside (but it looked like its in the inside) and all of a sudden you can hear the tiny grinding noise from the nail and it actually cleaned the crust/speck off!

I really dont know what it is, maybe finishing touches from the actual glass thats been cut got a speck on there but I swore it was inside the glass but it comes right off. You have to gently use your index finger nail and try going over it and see if you can feel it.

Now my 24" LED ACD has no speck of dust or any stuck pixels and it is the most beautiful display in the world!

 

Oh they're all definitely been under the glass. I tried this, believe me. Others on the Apple Discussion boards have faced the same thing. It's really not a big deal anyway anymore. Both my wife and I are happy campers.

 

Final note that I have to say.. my GOD the color black looks so dark and pure as night and white is white as cocaine snow, yellow is brighter than the sun, red is deeper than my own blood, orange makes me want to eat a real orange, pink is pinker than any pig that I've seen, green is as green as my backyard and blue is like the deepest blue ocean thats never been yet discovered!!

Basically everyday instant full brightness on when I wake my display from sleep and literally I turn into @_@.

 

While my screen is awesome, sounds like I SERIOUSLY need to see yours!

In any case, I'm glad I got my Applecare some months ago in preparation for this screen. $21 delivered after cashback.

 

Have you used the color profile someone professionally calibrated with spyder 2?? It makes the WORLD of a difference!!!

If you want the color profile and believe you'd really really want it, just pm me your email and i'll send it to ya.

 

Yep, I've got it, and I also calibrated my own display with my own Spyder2, and it was even better. EVERY screen is different, so I highly suggest getting your own calibrator. My wife's and mine look very different from each other prior to calibration. Now with my new calibration, it looks much better than the file that was someone else's Colorsync profile.

 

I dont think it could get any better than this profile. =)

 

Trust me on this, as an amateur photographer, you're 100% wrong. Our eyes are EASILY manipulated into believing something is "correct." Once you properly calibrate, you'll wonder how you ever managed on the profile you're using. Believe me, I've used the profile you're using, and now I'm using a profile DESIGNED for my screen. Night and day difference.

 

I'm sorry your wrong in this case. The profile I found was from another forum I stumbled upon very deep from a professional photographer that used the spyder 2, as long as the displays are the same lcd make/model in this case (LM240WU6-SDA1) its all the same.

Just curious what is the profile's name that you think I'm using?

 

I can't remember who it was, but it was on the HardOCP forums. Some guy uploading his profile for everyone to download.

Again, if you think that as as long as the displays are the same (i.e. same make model) that the profile will work, you really could not be further from the truth. Think about what you're saying. What would be the point of being able to calibrate YOURSELF if all you need to do is get a "stock" profile for the display? This is actually beginning to frustrate me. And you tell me that I'M wrong, with absolutely no basis for this. Do you actually know anything about color work?

If you don't believe what I'm telling you, go to a photography forum like fredmiranda.com and ask there. Again, you're kidding yourself if you think you've got a PERFECT profile that somebody else uploaded for you. It if were easy for me to do this, I'd put my wife's new LED display next to my LED display and show you how COMPLETELY different they look out of the box, AND with a calibrated profile from someone ELSES's display.

 

And read this:

http://ask-leo.com/why_do_picture_colors_vary_from_computer_to_computer_or_when_i_print_them.html

Above is an example of someone who has two identical screens, and the color is different between them. That means that when you apply specific color adjustments to BOTH screens, they're still going to look different because their base colors were different in the first place!

I'm not going to continue this "discussion" any longer, because clearly you don't want to listen to someone who has an inkling of knowledge on this subject.

 

Its basically everyone perceives color differently, in which makes every different calibration seem "better" to the person who is doing it and this is the effect that your seeing for yourself with the exact same monitor.

Its like buying an hdtv where a professional would calibrate the color spectrum, brightness, contrast level, so on and so on (and believe me people pay professionals hundreds of dollars to do it, if you dont believe me look around the AVS forums) and they can share the exact same specs where other people with the exact hdtv model/lcd panel can adjust to or back in the day crt monitors.

Also you calling it a "stock" profile does not make sense when a professional has calibrated it for the proper colors. Its exactly as you say, when an amateur photographer calibrates the exact same screen compared to a professional, there is certainly a night a day difference.

Ps: I did not get this profile from hardforums. It was either from an NEC forum or one of the Eizos one who actually was praising the 24" LED ACD with giving out his calibration after comparing it to his CG301W (which he said he got the 24" LED ACD pretty close to it) especially the CG301W being a $5000 monitor.

Basically in one thing that you are right is that colors can look different to other people but if what professionals say this is the correct color for this monitor then I wouldnt argue. Hell sometimes I think adobe 1998 "stock" profile looks better than my own calibrated monitor on my 15" mbp just because I like the cool color tones from it.

 

OMG did you actually read that article. Did you read the beginning?? Where it saids how do I get the same monitors to match my jpeg image connected to a pc compared to mac??

Also how reliable is that both those monitors are the exact same panels (which dell uses different panels in all of their same model displays like the 2407 or 2408 as well). As far as we know all the 24" LED ACD uses the exact same panels.

Of course its different when you have the same monitors connected to a different machine with the default colors attributed much differently due to the stock configurations of the different OS.

In this case the professional that made my profile used a 15" mbp of course the newer unibody what else is there that could connect to this 24" LED ACD and the exact same lcd panel from the ACD itself.

Jesus your one stubborn son of a *itch.

END OF DISCUSSION.

 

No, sorry, not end of discussion. You're wrong.

The original question is irrelevant to the answer being given...

First, he obviously is using the SAME OS (he drags pictures across), and chances are the SAME panel are being used. Do you not understand the concept of panel variance?

Here, read it again:

"I have two identical LCD monitors on my system, and even when I drag a picture from one to the other, or better yet split it across both, I can see color differences between the two.
The bottom line: color matching is really, really hard.
I will say this about your gallery's Macs: they've probably invested in higher quality monitors, and perhaps even taken the time to calibrate them.
And calibration is the key."

There is a REASON why these tools exist. There is a REASON why these tools prompt you every few WEEKS to recalibrate. The calibration to a screen done in a DARK room will be MASSIVELY different to the calibration done to a screen in a room with sunlight present, versus a room with 5000 kelvin bulbs. To deny this is idiocy. I have the "professional" tools. Do you even know what a professional calibration is? It's a calibration when you use a professional tool! My calibration with a Spyder2 Pro (which I use) will be EXACTLY the same as a "professional" doing the same thing!

You've clearly deluded yourself into thinking you're right. So be it. Enjoy your current "calibration" all you like. Excuse me for trying to HELP you.

On a more amusing note, why is it just ME who's being stubborn?

 

Like I said, who knows if the two same monitors he has, uses 2 different lcd panels.

Anyways I'm done arguing, believe what you want.

 

Perhaps, but REALLY beside the point. *sigh* I'll let you get back to calibrating your "professional" printer, too, and be sure to download those paper profiles while you're at it.

Anyway, my proof is known to me. This image of the inside of a Bugatti Veyron looks very brown on my first LED display, and sort-of orangey/brown on my wife's new LED display, both with the same Spyder2 Profile from my system's calibration. When I calibrated her screen separately, both our screens look identical. The proof is in the Veyron. Before I calibrated her screen, she thought it looked stunning. I got done calibrating it a few hours ago, and the difference is amazing. Your eyes will not believe it until you do it right.



Get yourself one of these. This is from my MacBook Air review:



There is a reason I have one, you know...

That said, if you're not doing print work or need to match colors like this, there's no need for you to calibrate. I can assure you that if you do any print work with some random guy's profile from his LED display, your colors will NOT match your print. Again, there's a reason tools like these exist.

 

William would you recommend or have you tested the 30 ACD? I heard it was updated in 2006 sometime...but pretty much left there. However at Apple store its still incredibly impressive...what are your thought? I'd rather WAIT a year or so to buy a new macbook pro....let some revisions come out, etc...than just swap it so I have a mini display port. Plus the 24 looks great...but the 30" is just super impressive.

 

The 30" is a VERY impressive display, but it does suffer from, as jjahshik32 mentions correctly, some uneven backlight issues. It really depends on how picky you are. It's a STUNNING display, no question. I also agree with jjahshik32 that it's a little "too" big for a desk unless you're really doing a lot of Aperture/Lightroom work or Final Cut Pro work. For "general use," I'd go with the 24" Cinema Display.

There's no question that I wouldn't swap my MBP + 24" LED display for anything out there, so waiting for a new revision might be a little fruitless. Both my wife's and mine have been flawless so far!

 

Easy guys, we surely wouldn't want a Mod coming in here and closing this thread, because it's so informational to some people.