First Impressions

I have to start the review with a brief story. I received my new office machine last Friday, and because the monitor and CPU shipped separately, the CPU arrived without a monitor! Being a serious geek, I was really suffering — I wanted to fire this baby up with the new flat screen, and not hook up on of my old Sony VGA monitors. Well, that day I got a phone call that the monitor had arrived, but would not be delivered until Monday, a lovely feature of our University shipping process.

Like I said before, “I’m a geek,” so I hiked the eight blocks to pick up the monitor. Hey, I was under a severe case of Applelust here. It had to be quenched immediately, especially after waiting on the long process of ordering from a school (going through committees) which almost teased me!

Installation

The best thing about lugging a flat-screen display eight blocks on a hot, humid day, is that Apple provides a handle in the top of the box, and the box is fairly thin and light compared to a regular monitor. It was not terribly heavy, and the walk was good exercise. Besides, I could show if off during the trek over to my office.

Once I got back to the office I whipped open the box, removed the manual (tossed it aside), and the display from the packing. I set the display on my desk and plugged the ADC connector into the back of my brand-spanking new 733 G4 with a GeForce 3 card with a Gig of RAM. The card has both VGA and ADC ports. Ignore that VGA nonsense. There is no power cord, the digital video signal, power, and USB are all carried in the ADC connection. I hooked a Belkin USB hub into one of the two ports on the back of the display, and fired up the computer. Installation complete in about 3 minutes.

Rendered Speechless

As my wife will tell you, its not very often that I’m rendered speechless. The quality of color, contrast, clarity, and performance of the display are jaw dropping. The color is perfect out of the box. Since the signal is unconverted digital from the video card to the display there is no need to correct the placement of the image on the screen, the contrast, or anything else. At 1280 by 1024 the image is crystal clear. Those of you who using normal 17 inch monitors at home, and think 1024×768 is big enough — you’re wrong. You’ll put the higher resolution to work because of the screen size. This display can REALLY render graphics thus rendering me speechless.

A striking feature of the display is the display size. It’s quite a bit larger that the traditional 17 inch monitor. I have the old Sony next to the new display, and the Apple screen is visibly bigger, about an inch and a quarter taller and slightly wider. The screen image goes right to the edge of the screen (there is absolutely no wasted real-estate on the screen), and the higher resolution is perfect for reading and graphics work. The pixel size is so smooth this aliased (jaggy) text looks anti-aliased (smooth) as I’m typing.

I have a sunlit office window. Like magic almost, the glare of the sun floods the office and seems to stop right at the screen’s edge! When you walk around the display it keeps the same bright color and contrast all the way around. There are few shaded areas as with many LCDs (darker at top for example). It just looks great from any angle or tilt. This is graphics designer talking here people, and I know a good screen and color when I see it. And I am looking at one right now.

There are no controls on the display to make adjustments other than a button on the left to bring up the Monitors control panel, and a button on the right to power-up or sleep the CPU. The case itself is a work of art, sheathed in clear plastic, with clean lines and a negligible desktop footprint. It looks fabulous turned off. It is indeed a “work of art,” and not just another monitor to slap on your desktop. In fact, it gives the whole room a feeling of elegance.

Performance

Besides the gorgeous color/contrast/quality, this display can really move. DVDs and video looks great, and with the GeForce 3 card pumping the signal, I have never seen gaming look this good. I’ve been Quaking and Elite Forcing all morning, and not only do the games look good, but they ROAR. I’m talking 60+ FPS at 1280×1024 with ALL effects turned on. Freakin’ amazing. Firing up iTunes with full-screen display is fast, very fast, with frame rates up to and over 60 at times. The “look of the music” is fantastic on this thing. Windows users, eat your hearts out. We have the best monitor on the market today.

Wrap-up

I really can’t say enough about the new Studio Displays. They are truly an awesome sight to behold. The digital signal carried through the ADC connection is unparalleled in any other monitor I’ve seen, and the LCD screen gives you sweet color and definition. You can sit at it all day long with little strain on the eyes. Apple has really raised the standard with the latest series of displays. The iBook’s new display is also incredible; I don’t know what Cupertno has been doing with their monitors of late, but whatever it is, don’t stop!!