Apple’s new 24inch LED Cinema Display

Posted by Stephan Kristyn on February 2nd, 2010 / No Comments

Today I went to the only Apple Store in Germany to take a look at the ACD 24inch.

The Store was extremely crowded and it was very hard to get my hands on the ACD. I could check it out for about 10 minutes. The Display looks and feels absolutely amazing. I was immediately sold.

A swift checkup of video, brightness and text revealed more of its qualities.

+ Build Quality is amazing

+ Video looked good and not very blurry with nice and very deep black levels. Blur was maybe noticeable a tad more than on an TN Panel.

+ Text looked sharp and a lot sharper than on the 30″ ACD next to it. I observed sharp text also on the IPS Panel in the 2209WA by DELL

- Color reproduction was not the best of its class compared to a PVA panel. But still very very good.

- Brightness set to less than 100% was too low because of the reflections in the very bright Apple store. The reflections did not disturb me directly but they indirectly worsened contrast a bit.

To sum it up I would say this screen is very nice for every task I can think of. Given the quality of the exterior the price is fair. Extending the warranty to 3 years with Applecare would be a must-have. I read user reports of occasional dust patterns below the glass front.

The ACD comes with a mini display port so in order to hook it up to your PC you will need a Matrox Graphics Card with mini display port. If you want to pair the ACD with a 3D graphics card -good news- it is possible. There are adapters available on Ebay.

Update October 2010:
I own an iMac 27inch since 6 months now and it feautures hands down the best display I ever used. Highly recommended.