Well worth the money
Written: Oct 13 '00 (Updated Dec 17 '00)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Cool design, perfect picture quality, lots of cool features
Cons: Somewhat pricey, not suited for coulour mgmt
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| kvarnbrink's Full Review: Apple Studio Monitor |
The 15" Apple Studio Display is truly a gorgeous thing. The display has been completely redesigned and it now looks more like the Apple Cinema Display, only smaller.
A really cool thing about the design is that the display has no buttons at all. Instead, it uses touch-sensitive surfaces for power and monitor settings. The power "button" doesn't only control the monitor, it is also serving as a conveniently placed power button for the computer. As usual with new Macs, pressing the power button when the computer is on puts it to sleep mode (actually, it is more like suspended animation). When the "button" for monitor settings is pressed, the Monitors control panel in Mac OS is opened - no hazzle with on-screen displays. There is only one disadvantage with the touch-sensitive controls: it is easy to accidentally put the computer in sleep mode. However, it can only be considered as a minor nuisance, at most. At least if you don't pat your monitor very often.
Another feature of the Apple Studio Display is the Apple Display Connector (ADC). It is a digital connector for monitors, like the DVI connector, but it also carries power and USB connection. As a result, the monitor only needs one cable to connect to the computer. At present, only newer Macs support this feature.
The display quality is absolutely stunning. As usual with all-digital TFT monitors, the sharpness is absolutely perfect. Even the most expensive CRT monitors seem unsharp and flickery compared to the Apple Studio Display. Since it has substantially higher brightness and contrast compared to CRT monitors, the colours appear as far more vivid. I made a side-by-side comparison to the 17" Apple Studio Display, which is a great digital CRT monitor with very good quality and built-in colour management, and the difference between the two monitors was huge. Not only is the brightness, contrast and sharpness on the TFT monitor better, the colour temperature is also more comfortable. The picture on the CRT monitor seemed dark and unpleasantly blueish by comparison. Yes, I know that most monitors have adjustable colour temperature, but changing to a lower (and more pleasant) colour temperature would mean substantially decreased brightness, so that viewing pleasure decreases even more. This is not a problem on the TFT monitor.
Something that usually is a problem with TFT monitors is the viewing angle. Since they use polarized light, the picture quality decreases if you look at the monitor from a lower angle. On the Apple Studio Display, the viewing angles are 120 degrees horizontally and 90 degrees vertically. This means that you can look at the monitor even from the side (however not from a 180-degree angle) without any major decrease in picture quality. However, don't trust this monitor as far as more accurate forms of colour management is concerned. For me it's not a problem, since I use the monitor at home and have all necessary resources at work, but others may find it a problem. However, it is absolute perfect for all other kinds of work, including image editing in Photoshop - but make sure to check the results on a calibrated prepress monitor if you're going to send it to the printers.
The maximum resolution is 1024 by 768 pixels, which is a little too low. Many of my friends ask me why on Earth I'd buy a 1024*768 monitor for four times the price of a CRT monitor that can show resolutions up to, say, 1600*1200. The way I see it, however, it is still well worth the price. Even if the resolution is low, the quality is completely outrageous, and 1024*768 is good enough for most purposes, like working in Photoshop and surfing the Web. You can easily adapt to working with a lower resolution, it isn't much of a problem, but it is far less appealing to work with the murky, blurry and flickery picture on a CRT display when you've become used to the completely perfect picture quality of a TFT monitor.
I've mentioned the price earlier, and all I have to say is that I consider the 15" Apple Studio Display worth its hefty price tag. For that price, you get a cool-looking, space saving monitor with lots of features and absolutely gorgeous picture quality. A clumsy, ugly CRT monitor with its blurry, flickery picture is simply no longer an option.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 999,00
Operating System: Macintosh
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Epinions.com ID:
kvarnbrink
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Member: Samuel Kvarnbrink
Location: Umee, Sweden
Reviews written: 1
Trusted by: 0 members
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