Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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123 of 132 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Choosing the Apple Cinema 23 HD Above All Else, February 5, 2006
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.
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45 of 48 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Buyer beware..., September 11, 2004
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.
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17 of 17 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Works great on PC's (With the right card), October 22, 2004
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.
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