23" Apple Cinema Display or New Option?

[Nate Haustein]

Hi All, I know this question has been asked before, but not in some time, so I want to see what people think of the older 23" Apple Cinema Display versus any new 2012 monitor.


I currently have a 2010 model 24" Samsung LCD hooked up to my 27" iMac. It was a cheaper model, about $150 at the time. It's pretty terrible color, contrast, and viewing-angle wise, but it got me by for screen real-estate. The stand broke on it recently and to be honest I'm kind of sick of it so I'm looking for a new second monitor.


That brings me to the question: should I get a used 23" Apple Cinema Display off eBay for around $250? Worth it? The resolution is nice, and I like the idea of a matte display with the possibility of hooking it up to say a Matrox box in the future. Or is there a better option out there in the standard LCD market in 2012? Heard good things about the Dell U2711, but not sure how their ≈$300 models stack up.


Any thoughts on this would be helpful. I'm using Final Cut Pro X right now, so I would probably be looking to send my preview window over to the second display most of the time. Again, not doing anything broadcast critical with it, but want something that looks decent. Thanks.

[valdez]

I'd have to say it really depends on your price range. I put off the purchase and finally just got a dell U3011 from ebay; a refurb at about 900$. It's truly amazing and big enough to be my only display. Arguably better than the apple options, too, for color work and amazing resolution.
before I got that I had a super cheapo "hanspree" 28" thing that's 1920x1200. Not great color, but great for a little extra real estate on the cheap and it was something like 250$.

I may not be the best judge, though, since I'm using a macpro tower. but if you can get an apple display for that cheap and just want it for full screen monitoring that's probably the best thing. I got that cheap 28inch 1920x1080 thing because it's big and it makes things a little easier to see at the same resolution; bigger is better usually but it actually ended up being nice sometimes sitting back further and still seeing objects easily.
Without a doubt, though, if you have the loot go with a dell; absolutely fantastic.

[Nate Haustein]

Thanks for the comment. I went to look at a U2711 Dell today and it was really nice. Expensive, but nice. If I was running a tower it would certainly be my first choice (maybe even second as well!). I've been searching quite a bit lately and think I might have decided on getting a 24" ASUS PA246Q. It's similar to the cinema display, IPS and matte, but the panel is quite a bit newer. I'm not overly worried about screen real estate, but the connection options are a little more diverse on the newer displays with display port and HDMI. The color gamut is also rated at 98% so that could be very interesting for video. Similar prices so we'll see!