Apple Cinema 30-inch HD Flat-Panel Display

Customer Reviews

Average Customer Review




Perfect companion to a Mac Pro, November 30, 2009
By Adam Kadmon (Biillerica, MA USA)
If you own a Mac, especially a Mac Pro (like I do), this is the display is for you! Sure there are less expensive displays, with better connectivity, and HDCP decoding, but when hooked up to a Mac this thing produces a bright, uniformly backlit, color accurate, sharp image that no other monitor can match straight out of the box. You will find that to come close to this image quality on a Dell or HP monitor, you will have to invest in a colorimeter, since these displays do not come calibrated from the factory (which is partly why Dell and HP are able to sell their displays for less). Dell and HP monitors tend to have over-saturated colors meant to impress the casual user or the devil-may-care gamer who cares little about color accuracy and more about the "pop" factor. The Apple display, OTOH, complies with strict SWOP standards (Specifications for Web Offset Publications). In essence, SWOP requires that the photo you took with your DSLR be reproduced exactly (color-wise) on the display and on the print copy. I don't think folks at Dell and HP are even aware of SWOP! And then there is the look of the Apple display. It's clean, it's beautiful, it looks like a piece of modern art. 'Nuff said. Now go ahead an click that buy button!



expensive, but amazing!, November 24, 2009
By Terence Tan (Austin, Tx, United States)
This monitor is used primarily for photoshop, and also wow gaming. As a wedding photographer, I spend lots of time in front of a monitor.

This monitor came from an upgrade of the hanns 28" monitor which is a steal of a deal at $330.

The apple monitor is substantially more expensive. Even the refurbished one is 1400 after tax, which is 4-5 times more expensive than the hanns.

Comparatively, the resolution increase of the apple 30" over the hanns 28" is impressive. The apple has 2500x1600 while the hans has 1900x1200. This is quite a significant increase in pixels. Initially I thought that pixel density doesn't matter, but for photoshop editing, this clearly makes a difference. The colors of landscapes and colors of skintones just pops so much better with the Apple.

The monitor seems to run hotter than the hanns though, my guess is the apple monitor burns more energy.

Conclusion is, the hanns is great value for money, but if you have an additional 1k plus to burn, and really need the increased tonal range and color, then go for the apple. You won't regret it!



Broken Apple Cinema HD, October 18, 2009
By Michael J. Hubley (san francisco bay area)
My 30in Apple Cinema display has a prob - flickering and dancing pixels.

I am on the way to the store.



Simply the best, August 30, 2009
By John Rambo
flat out the best computer screen i've ever seen or owned. i bought two of them for my mac pro. i love these monitors so much i get anxiety cause i want to buy to more and put them away in case these ever poop out in the future. expensive, but worth the price. very different build quality than any other monitor i've seen. simply stunning images and build quality.



An excellent monitor, if you can afford it, June 19, 2009
By buru buru piggu (New York, NY USA)
At $1750, this is not a light purchasing decision. It's a lot of money to spend on a monitor, and there are cheaper alternatives (like the Dell 3007WFP-HC 30-Inch LCD Widescreen Monitor.

But I liked Apple's industrial design and I wanted the biggest screen I could afford, so I was willing to pay a bit more for style. Now, after a year and a half of ownership, I have no regrets about spending the money. The monitor looks beautiful in my room and its sheer size is still impressive to behold. The screen is bright and beautiful.

Moving program windows and palettes around is probably the biggest single time waster on a small screen. Much of your time is spent rearranging the screen just so you can see the workspace, instead of actually working. Programs like Dreamweaver, Photoshop, Illustrator, and even Word can easily cover up your screen with tools palettes, leaving you little visible space for creating your document. I would say at least 30% of the time I spend is moving palettes around on smaller screens.

Having a multiple monitor setup is helpful, but that requires multiple graphics cards, or a card with multiple video out ports. Having a big monitor like this solves everything because it's like 2 or 3 monitors worth of viewing space.

Pros:
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- huge screen real estate so you can position menus out of the way and reduce screen clutter

- beautiful design and functionality. Screen is bright and sharp.

- At 4 million pixels, its resolution is twice that of an HDTV.



Cons:
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- steep price

- potential problem with the power brick block and single thick cable, which forks off into 4 connectors (DVI, USB, Firewire, monitor power). The length of available cord may be too short for some people, especially laptop users. (See my photo in the customer gallery). I have to put my MacBook Pro on the floor because the wires make it too awkward to have it at desk height.

- much thicker than the product images imply. Monitor panel is approx 2 inches thick, with plastic sides, not all aluminum all the way around.

- only 2 USB ports and 2 Firewire ports on back. That is not enough for my needs, so I need to constantly unplug things.

A great monitor that will give you performance and style, if you can afford it. If not, go with a multi-monitor solution (2 smaller, cheaper monitors), or one of the Dells.