> From: Toby Oldham <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > $2000 for the 23" display, when the Dell 24" can be had for $1400, > and is in my opinion, every bit as good - besides ah, aesthetics. Ah > well, at least the displays are getting cheaper. :) > > A Windows friend of mine recently bought an Apple 23" - raves about > it. Reckons Half Life 2 has never looked better. It was funny when I > told him I'd bought a Dell 24" to go with my powermac G5. I don't > think either of us would swap given the chance.
I have to admit that I ended up getting the Dell 24" LCD screen for my PowerBook here at work as well because of the $1400 price and the extra features it had that aren't available on the Apple LCD screens. I have my PC plugged into the VGA input and my PowerBook G4 plugged into the DVI input and can switch at the press of a button (well 1 press to go from VGA to DVI, but 4 presses to go back to VGA *sigh*). However, two of the main features I hoped to use - picture-in-picture and side-by-side display of 2 of the monitor inputs on-screen doesn't allow you to display the VGA signal beside or p-in-p with the DVI signal, so I can't see both my PC and my Mac on screen simultaneously. This only works with either DVI *or* VGA showing one of the video inputs (composite video, SVHS or component) at the same time *double-sigh* The built-in 5-in-one card reader is great though I have only used the pivoting feature (to rotate the screen between landscape and portrait) to show off so far. :-) (It'd also be nice if OS X auto-sensed the monitor rotation to switch without me having to fiddle around in the monitor system preference. Haven't found if Windows XP does so either or for that matter whether the monitor actually sends a signal down the USB to indicate orientation anyway. I still remember the lovely old Radius Pivot monitors on the Mac in years gone by that did this). Aesthetically, it is certainly not a match for the Apple displays, but it's luckily not too ugly. I also find the Dell screen too bright (yes, I am not kidding) and unfortunately can't find a control to drop the brightness. I read reviews on the web of people complaining about the brightness and laughed at it, but now I understand. After a while, my eyes have started squinting and watering a bit to the extent I even tried sun-glasses(!). Not yet sure whether I just need to raise the ambient light levels in my office instead. Might just be me getting old enough that I'll need reading glasses soon. (noooo!) It's the first LCD screen I've used that actually radiates heat - you can feel a bit of warmth on your cheek a centimetre from the screen and the LCD is warmish to the touch. Also, the magnetic mount for my iSight webcam doesn't stick to the top of the Dell screen quite as well as to other metal surfaces, so it slides off if I rotate the screen. :-] I was also a little bit disappointed by the DPI resolution - My 15" Powerbook (with 1280x854) has a noticeably higher dots-per-inch (DPI) rating that the Dell 24" (with 1920x1200) makes everything a bit bigger and doesn't fit quite as much on screen as I thought it would. Mind you, it's probably good that text is a bit bigger on such a physically larger screen, so I can't really complain. Of course my older Dell PC can only drive the Dell 24" monitor at 1600x1200 and doesn't support the widescreen aspect ratio. Even my little Mac Mini will drive the Dell at it's full widescreen res. This is actually my second Dell 24" screen as the first only lasted a few days before developing a crackling noise somewhere inside the monitor, but Dell sent a replacement reasonably promptly - Talking to Dell support in India was a bit of a pain - 5 phone calls and 7 people before I could talk to someone who efficiently organised the replacement. *sigh* > Hmm, this post is kinda missing anything that resembles a point. Just > observations I guess :) Observations are good for those thinking of purchasing in the future. :-) -Mart -------------------------------------- Martin Hill mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] homepages: http://mart.ozmac.com Mb: 0417-967-969 hm: (08)9314-5242
