Customer Reviews

Apple Cinema 23-inch HD Flat-Panel Display

5 star:		(24)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(6)
1 star:		(7)

 

 

I've been looking for a new WUXGA monitor for the last month, and I've conducted a lot of research. I narrowed down my choice to these monitors: Dell 2405FPW, Samsung 244T, ViewSonic VP2330wb, HP L2335, and Sony SDM-P234/B.

I will be using the monitor for coding, illustration, and DVD playback, in that order of importance. Prolonged periods of looking at text must be easy on the eyes. It also has to have natural colors with no casts or artifacts and a reasonable response time.

Two of these monitors are 24" and their panels are made by Samsung, the 2405FPW and the 244T. The others are 23" and their panels are made by LG-Philips.

The Dell 2405FPW was ruled out because, even though it's the cheapest by a big margin, it has a notorious high-pitch squeal problem that Dell doesn't acknowledge or address and people are still getting squealers to this day. This would surely drive me crazy. In addition, I don't like the shiny Dell logo at the front bezel, and the silver plastic stand looks very cheesy. I also heard reports that the brightness is so strong it would fry your eyes, even if you turn it all the way down. It might be good for gaming, but staring at texts for extended periods leaves you with eye fatigue. Dude, you're NOT getting a Dell!

The Samsung 244T is the most expensive of the bunch, and it has the fastest response time. However, since its pixel pitch is 0.27, text doesn't look as crisp as it does on the LG-Philips monitors, which have a pixel pitch of 0.258. Add to this the excessive brightness and an ugly stand that looks like a shovel handle and it's a no go!

The main problem with the HP L2335 is that it's been discontinued by the manufacturer, and that doesn't inspire confidence. The earlier batches of the LG-Philips 23" panels had pink and yellow cast problems, and if you want to buy a monitor that uses these panels, you need to make sure its one of the latest batches. In addition, the stand doesn't have cable management, so the wires droop all over the place. No go!

The Sony looks pretty good, but its scarce reviews on the web aren't encouraging, especially those about units that die after a couple of months and don't get replaced for weeks. Furthermore, I'm not a big fan of sliver/black monitors (like the 2405FPW, L2335, and SDM-P234/B). I prefer either all black or all silver (like the 244T, VP2330wb, and Cinema 23 HD). No go!

The ViewSonic VP2330wb is very close. It looks pretty good, pivots, and has a very good response time. In addition, my current monitor is a ViewSonic VX2000. I had it for more than two years and I'm very satisfied with it. So I was kind of inclined to go again with the same brand. According to a ViewSonic rep, however, it won't launch till February 13. In addition, its predecessor, the VP231wb, didn't have good color reproduction, and I prefer a lighter color bezel because it gives a more natural look, so it's skipped for the Apple.

When it comes to looks, the Apple Cinema HD is Miss Universe of the monitors. It's not just a monitor: it's a piece of art (and I'm not even an Apple fan; I use Windoze). On paper, the specs look fantastic. Small pixel pitch for extra clarity, moderate brightness, good response time (not spectacular, but then again, I'll be using it mostly for development), and according to most reviews, its colors look more natural than all the other LG-Philips-based monitors. It doesn't pivot, but that's a non-issue because I'd rather have more windows side-by-side than a single long window.

However, I had misgivings about the Cinema 23 HD because it has a bad rep from all the negative reports about pink color casts and uneven lighting. It seems that most of these complaints are from the earliest LG-Philips batches. But I wasn't really sure, and I had to take my chances.

The first one I bought didn't have bad pixels or a pink color cast, but it had a severe uneven backlighting defect. In a dim environment with a black background, you can easily see a golden/yellow spot at the upper right corner. It's very annoying and distracting when you watch DVDs in a dark room. And if you change your viewing angle vertically, you can see that blacks shift immediately to faint yellow. So I took it back to the Apple Store and got a brand new replacement.

The replacement was awesome. Uniform backlight, no color casts, not a single dead or stuck pixel, and absolutely gorgeous, clean, sharp, vivid, natural picture.

I really love this monitor, but I had to take one star out because Apple has major quality control problems. Apparently getting a good unit is a hit-and-miss proposition, and if you can lay your hands on one, it's worth every penny.

I am having color problems with this monitor; it has a pinkish haze and the left side of the screen is washed out about an inch. It was OK the first day I had it, but the problems showed up after a day or two of use. Re-calibrating the monitor does help -- but does not eliminate -- the pinkish haze, and the washed-out part is there no matter what.

There are many posts on the Apple Support boards about others with the same problem. You may want to consider this, and hopefully Apple will adknowledge a design flaw in these models soon.

I picked up this monitor to replace 2 of my aging trinitrons. If you have a Mac, this monitor is absolutely awesome and totally plug and play. However, if you have a PC, this monitor requires a little extra to truly shine. In my case, my Matrox Parhelia card (with Dual DVI) would not recognize this monitor. After I installed a ATI X800 Pro, this thing works like a dream and so far is a great replacement for my old ones. The one catch is that the monitor does not engage until the computer loads windows. You can always attach a VGA monitor to the free slot in the ATI if you need to debug. Performance wise, it's great and sharp and looks really cool to top it off. It has no contrast controls (only brightness) so prepare to use Adobe to tweak the color settings with software but to be honest, I haven't needed to tweak in any way yet. From a graphic designer point of view, this thing is sharp. DVD motion pans look pretty clear on it as well. If you're serious about detail and color, I suggest checking this monitor out.

This was a no-brainer. The monitor arrived on time, and it took longer to unpack it than it did to plug it in to my G5 tower, turn it on, and be up and running. Literally plug-and-play perfection! The quality of images on the screen is as advertised. It would be hard to find a better high-quality monitor for color-critical graphics work.

The only tweaking I did was to create a color profile with a Spyder 2.

[sidebar:] This 23" Cinema HD Display replaces an excellent 21" Sony GDM-F500 CRT with no regrets; no looking back.

Lots of great features in this display plus it's design is very appealing especially next to the Apple Macintosh G5 tower........But, the color inconsistency and backlighting problems with the two monitors I have had are a big problem if you plan to do serious photo editing or any application that requires accurate color. If that is not the case it should be fine. However, it seems to me that for this price there should be little if any compromise. I'd suggest checking out Apple's discussion forums before buying this display

My first new 23"display had the famous PINK casting problem (see MacFixit.com or Apple forum) and I returned it. 2 weeks later, I received a new one with the same problem... PINK...and a slightly darker area in the middle of the display. I tried in vain to calibrate the monitor with SPYDER PRO, but the pink casting usually comes back 1-2 days later. The display is gorgeous, and I'm really disappointed that I need to return it. Hopefully Apple will soon fix this problem or recall this product.

Despite Apple advertising this monitor as working with PCs - "This DVI connection also removes all barriers to using an Apple display with a PC. If your graphics card supports DVI with DDC technology for widescreen viewing, you should be able to use these two displays with a PC." - it does not do so reliably. I tried three different cards and all exhibited insurmountable problems. Even if someone has declared a particular graphics card model to work with their display, don't count on yours working with your display. Apple tech support admitted that compatibility is an issue, and could not even suggest a card that is known to work. Mine is going back.

As other reviewers have pointed out, Apple seems to have solved the "pink issue". I have been using this display for over a month now, with no issues. No dead pixels either.

I bought this display for use with my Mac mini. I started with a Mac hooked to my PC monitor/keyboard/mouse. I've always been a fan of using dual monitors on my PC's, but had no way to do this with a Mac mini. So I decided to get the largest single monitor that I could.

The 23" cinema works just as well as dual monitor for me. The extra wide display allows me to place applications side-by-side and not have to be flipping through windows. The display is very clear. It does produce more heat than I expected, but it is by no means "hot to the touch".

The extra USB and Firewire ports are nice. But I wish Apple could have put more than 2 USB ports on it. They certainly had the space.

NOTE-It seems that the 'pink' color cast issue is more or less resolved now with the current stock of these monitors as I've looked at several current ones and none of them had the bad pink color cast or a dark spot in the middle like the first batches had. Now on to my review and other issues:

LCD monitors inherently can be manufactured such that they end up with a few dead/bad pixels. This shows up as a colored dot on the monitor when certain colors are displayed. Apple needs to do the right thing and take a stand on quality control. Samsung has recently adopted a 'no bad pixel' policy on their monitors and Apple should do the same.

Apple's policy is that it's not considered a defective monitor unless there are 5 ore more bad pixels or a cluster of 3 or more clumped together. Apple states that out of the millions of pixels that high resolution monitors have, a few dead bad ones isn't considered a problem. This policy is not fair when such a large number of these Apple monitors do actually make it to the retail stores with bad pixels. The first one I received had a bad pixel that was visible all the time and the replacement also has 2 bad pixels that are visible sometimes, when certain dark colors are being displayed. I was told point blank by the Apple Store that I would not be able to return it again, without paying an exhorbitant 10% restocking fee.

While the monitor is beautiful in case, design and quality of the overall picture, the pixel issue is a serious issue for me. I feel it's unfair that I have to pay so much for a monitor that contains visible defects. And while I'm living with the bad pixels right now and don't notice them all the time, it still bothers me that Apple doesn't step up and do the right thing, especially on such an expensive item.

Easily one of the best displays I've ever seen! Unfortunately I've got the color consistency problems, even after Apple has taken the display back for repair.

Make sure that you can return the monitor if you experience these problems as Apple does not yet acknowledge the color problems with this model exist!