Quality and Style

Author's Rating:

Pros: Gorgeous design, near-zero footprint, beautiful cable management, nice picture

Cons: Not many adjustments, only one video input, expensive

The Bottom Line: 
A beautifully designed monitor with a nice image that keeps your desk open and leaves no cable clutter, but it is as expensive as it looks.

Author's Review
When the 20" Apple Cinema Display was first released, it's price was actually quite reasonable for a monitor of that size. Now that 20" widescreens are common, it's rather pricey in comparison to its competition. Though it may not be worth the cost to many, its got style to spare and if you like the look the quality is there too.

The strengths of the monitor are obvious: It's a slick, attractive, well-integrated piece of hardware. It has a built-in FireWire 400 and USB2 hub, with two ports on the back for each. The cables for both of those, as well as power and DVI, are all combined into one fat cable that comes out of the back of the monitor ant splits down at the computer end into the individual connectors, so it's a joy to look at on your desk--as little clutter as you could hope for.

Assuming you keep your mouse and/or keyboard on the same level as the screen, it even further reduces the tangle of cords, since you can plug one or both into the hub on it. I, in fact, have my keyboard/mouse, digital camera cable, iPod cable, and video camera connector all plugged into it, so I have basically only one cable going from my entire desk to my computer, and I don't need a separate hub. very attractive.

Picture-wise, the monitor is a solid contender--nice color, even illumination, plenty bright, and it has an anti-glare coating that strikes a good balance of clarity without being too reflective (although "shiny" LCDs do look a little more "crisp", I have found that the matte ones actually have more accurate color reproduction, and are well worth the reduction in glare). I had it side-by side to a Dell 20" that is nearly identical spec-wise, and I thought it looked a little better, although the difference wasn't dramatic.

The only controls on it are brightness and power, in the form of capacitative "buttons" on the side with no moving parts--just brush your hand over them. If you're using it with a Mac this shouldn't be an issue, since the OS handles the brightness adjustments from them and you can select whether you prefer the power button to turn just the screen off, sleep the computer, or do nothing at all. The monitor definitely works with Windows, but I don't know if the drivers support these features.

The other thing about it that makes it unusual is that the AC-DC brick is external, rather than internal. This means the monitor is VERY thin and has no ventilation holes, but it does leave a brick sitting on the floor (it's an attractive white thing with an Apple logo, and has its own AC cord so it doesn't eat up space on your power strip). I like this design, personally (no dust build-up, and looks just as good from the back as the front if you've got it on a receptionist's desk or something), but I suppose others may prefer the integrated type.

As far as I'm concerned the biggest strength of the monitor, however, and the sole reason to spend that much on it, is the design--it's flat-out beautiful. The ports are inconspicuous but easy to reach along the bottom edge, the buttons are slight indents into the smooth plastic sides, the entire case of the screen is one smooth piece of brushed aluminum, and the foot is flat-out awesome: The clever design means that it effectively takes up NO space on your desk--just a strip of metal about an inch deep and about 5 inches wide. Great for those with cramped workspaces.

Disadvantages are pretty obvious: Not many controls, no integrated speakers (though those usually sound awful anyway), only one input (DVI-D), and it doesn't do any sort of TV stuff at all. If you're using it with a G5 tower, a Mac Pro, or a Mac Mini, these are probably not disadvantages--it complements all of the above beautifully. If you want to use it with other hardware or two things at once, that may be an issue. Also there's only a 1 year warranty unless you buy it at the same time as an Apple CPU and buy AppleCare.

Is it worth the money? If you like the style and don't need the extra features, I'd say yes--I haven't regretted buying it at all. If style is less important than features to you, then look at options from ViewSonic or Dell instead.