Review: Apple's Led Cinema Display A Boon For Mac

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The Good Incredible performance in DisplayMate tests; games and movies look great; clean design; good viewing angle; built-in camera and mic; phenomenal sound from built-in speaker. The Bad Complete lack of connection options that would allow you to connect to a PC or older Mac; dearth of ergonomic features. The Bottom Line While performance is excellent, the Apple LED Cinema Display's one connection option paints it into a small corner that is welcoming only to newer MacBook owners. Visit for details. The market for the 24-inch Apple LED Cinema Display is limited. Until third-party adapters are released, the display is only compatible with MacBooks that have Mini DisplayPort connections.

And even if you have that, you will pay $900 for a display that can't be used with other devices. It has a beautiful and clean design, great performance with movies and games, phenomenal sound, and a good viewing angle, but the monitor's lack of versatility makes it a product we are reluctant to recommend, even to its target (and only) market.

It's a good display to be sure, but until those third-party adapters are released, it's more of a fancy docking station with an excellent-quality screen. If that appeals to you, and if you're an owner of a compatible MacBook, and if $900 seems reasonable, then go for it. For the rest of us, there are many more high-quality monitors out there that are not nearly as limiting in their compatibility. The best of these are the $516 and the $399 Samsung SyncMaster 240HD.

Display

Both of these 24-inchers have lower price points, offer comparable performance, and boast many more connection options. Design and features The extremely glossy screen was the first thing we noticed about the 24-inch Apple LED Cinema Display. In fact, it's so reflective that it's practically a mirror when the display is off. Upon closer inspection, we noticed what seems to be a sheet of antiglare glass over the screen that slightly blurs out the reflection and extends over the bezel to the very edge of the panel.

The panel is about.75 inch thick-a thin measurement for a 24-inch monitor-and approximately 22.5 inches wide, which is normal for a 24-incher. The bezel is about an inch long at the sides and top and 1.5 inches along the bottom. In the middle of the bezel's bottom section, there is a silver Apple logo. Directly above, in the middle of the bezel's top section, is a small lens for the built-in iSight camera. About an inch above the lens on the top part of the panel, you'll find several small holes for the mic, and all the way on the bottom of the panel there are two built-in speakers. The sides of the panel are encased in a smooth aluminum finish that extends across the backside.

In the upper middle section of the rear sits a black, reflective Apple logo, and in the lower left-hand corner are three USB 2.0 downstream ports. The foot stand measures roughly 7.5 inches deep by 7 inches wide.

Review Apple's Led Cinema Display A Boon For Macbook Air

Despite its narrow appearance, the stand provides enough stability that when the display is knocked from the sides there is minimal wobbling; however, thanks to its smooth aluminum finish, it does slide quite easily. The neck of the foot stand is 11.5 inches high and has a 2-inch diameter hole through it for routing the cables. Unfortunately, you can't rotate, swivel, or pivot the screen, and you can't adjust its height. The only included ergonomic feature is that the panel tilts back 30 degrees.

The display has a 1,920x1,200-pixel. Extruding from the back is an irremovable cord that splits off into three connections: a USB plug, a MagSafe connector (that will charge your MacBook if the monitor is plugged in), and a Mini DisplayPort connection. There is no DVI, VGA, or even HDMI connection. As we mentioned, this is a monitor for MacBooks (with the Mini DisplayPort connection) and for MacBooks only-at least for the time being.

Review apple led cinema display a boon for mac

You can adjust the backlight luminance by going through system preferences. There, you'll also have access to the display's color-temperature settings, where you can adjust it from 4,500K up to 9,300K. Unfortunately, there are no contrast controls. Manufacturer's specifications:. Resolution: 1,920x1,200.

Pixel-response rate: 6ms. Contrast ratio: 1,000:1. Brightness: 330cd/m2. Connectivity: Mini DisplayPort.

HDCP compliant? Yes. Included video cables? Mini DisplayPort.

Performance We tested the Apple LED Cinema Display via its Mini DisplayPort connection, which connected to a 15-inch MacBook Pro with a 2.53GHz Intel Core 2 Duo CPU, 4GB of RAM, and an Nvidia GeForce 9400M/9600M GT graphics adapter with 512MB of video memory. With this configuration we are unable to give the display an actual DisplayMate score, as our DisplayMate score is based on a DVI-specific PC with which the Apple LED Cinema Display was not compatible.

Also, we used Boot Camp to install Windows XP Pro on the MacBook, because DisplayMate is not compatible with Mac OS. Given the different configurations, it would be unfair to make direct DisplayMate comparisons with the other tested displays, but we can at least discuss the results we got from the tests.

Review Apple Led Cinema Display A Boon For Mac

Please keep in mind that DisplayPort has a higher video bandwidth than DVI.

Apple's 24-inch LED Cinema Display is a long-overdue update to the company's range of monitors. However, while it represents an exciting future for their displays, it literally isn't for everybody. The 24-inch LED Cinema Display uses Apple's new Mini DisplayPort video connection only.

That means, unless you've got a Mac that offers this output, this new monitor is of no use. The only current Macs with this feature are the latest MacBook, MacBook Pro and MacBook Air laptops.

While, it's possible to buy adaptors that let you use a computer with a Mini DisplayPort output with a monitor requiring a DVI, HDMI or even VGA input, there's nothing on sale that lets you go the other way, so forget about using the new 24-inch LED Cinema Display with your PowerMac, Mac mini or older Apple laptop. We're promised that eventually all Macs will offer a Mini DisplayPort, and as Apple has released the technology on a free license, other computer and monitor manufacturers can release compatible products.

Top performer The Display does a great job of interfacing with the new MacBook family. Its built-in MagSafe connector powers and charges your laptop, so there's no need to use a separate power adaptor. When connected to the Display via the Mini DisplayPort, your laptop can be used with its lid closed by connecting a separate keyboard and mouse. It also offers a USB lead which, when plugged into your computer, gives you access to the three USB ports on the rear of the display panel. So with a keyboard and mouse connected to the display, all you need to do to turn your laptop into a desktop is plug in the MagSafe, USB and Mini DisplayPort leads, turning your new 24-inch LED Cinema Display into a superb docking station for your MacBook.

Top marks for convenience, then, but how does it perform as a monitor? Very well, actually. Instead of the more common florescent tube based backlighting, the Cinema Display uses LEDs spread out behind the screen. This means the brightness can be controlled more precisely and it's lit more evenly, allowing for accurate and consistent colour reproduction.

Screen quality is first rate, with excellent clarity and consistency. All images are solid and crisp with no colour bleed, and its gradients and colour shifts are very smooth, with no sign of the banding. When looking at the greyscales, there's a definite distinction between 100% and 95% black, and also 5% and 0%, something else some monitors find difficult to reproduce.

Review: Apples Led Cinema Display A Boon For Mac Free

With the entire screen displaying 100% black there was none of the patchy inconsistency that is sometimes found in LCD screens. At the display's out-of-the-box settings, the colour photograph we use for test purposes looked slightly washed out, but this is easily fixed with calibration. Something that's especially impressive is you can look at the screen almost side-on, or from above or below without any colour shift at all. You might get problems with reflections though, especially if you're near a window room. Not everyone appreciates glossy screens, but seeing as the only Macs with which it can function also have glossy screens, this might not be the deal-breaker it could've been. There's an integrated mic, and an iSight camera that's much better than the one found in the MacBook range, with richer colours and a crisper image. Audio quality is first rate, with 2.1 sound, solid bass, impressive clarity and almost no distortion at even the highest volumes.

Stand don't deliver Far less welcome is the mounting stand, which has not seen anything in the way of improvement. Once more you can tilt forwards and backwards, but not adjust the height, unless you want to remove the stand entirely and replace it with a VESA compatible monitor mount. It would be handy if you could rotate the screen into portrait mode too. On the plus side, the anti-friction strip on the base of the stand makes it easier to swivel the display.

Review: apples led cinema display a boon for macbook pro

To release a product only for those with new laptops boasting Mini DisplayPorts seems risky. Yet there's no doubting the quality of the product, with its excellent colour display, impressive sound and usefulness as a laptop dock.

What it does, it does well, but it's also very niche. The future of Apple displays starts here, but it's of limited use at present.