“Can we all agree that Apple makes nice monitors? I think we can. They come in three magnificent sizes: 20 inch, 23 inch and the big daddy of them all, the 30 inch. Surrounded by aluminum goodness they are the ying that completes the PowerMac’s yang. Sadly they also boast price tags of $800, $1,500 and $3,000 respectively, therein lies the problem,” James R. Stoup writes for Apple Matters.
“If you just dropped $600 for a Mac Mini how can you justify spending $800 on a monitor? I could understand if you planned on placing it beside a $3,000 PowerMac, what is a few more bucks at that point right? But for consumers on a budget Apple has severely priced itself out of the display game,” Stoup writes.
“If you are Joe Schmuck then a simple bit of arithmetic will show you that at CompUSA’s website you can get FIVE 15” LCD monitors for $750, THREE 17″LCD monitors for $775 or ONE 20” LCD monitor for $800! Hum, which one should you choose? If you go with option A then you could set up two computers with a dual monitor display and still have one left over for a laptop. If you go with plan B then you could have a very nice dual monitor setup for one station and still have a nice display for another computer. Option C leaves you with one monitor for one computer. You know Apple, your displays are nice, but they aren’t that nice,” Stoup writes.
Full article here.
1- Apple’s LCD monitors are way too expensive.
2- You CAN use any DVI or VGA family monitor if you choose.
3- Apple needs to re-introduce the Studio brand name for lower cost monitors. Keep the Cinema name for the high $ stuff.
4- The ADC was a great idea, but the bottom line cut-throat condition of the PC market kept it from being widely adopted.
We have a 23″ widescreen viewsonic LCD display and the 23″ Apple Cinema display, on display. Guess which one is more expensive?
Apple – $1899
Viewsonic – $2299 !!!!!
So much for the fallacy that Apple equipment is more expensive! $400 bucks more that two 15″ monitors, (whatever, who would want a miniscule 15″ monitor anyway!)
MW = now, as in “now who’s talkin’!
hammer-
Are you seriously going to argue that no one who ever buys a Mac mini will not already have a monitor? You can’t be serious. Of course the idea is for people who already have a PC setup to go buy a mini to try out. But there are plenty of people of who want a whole new setup or who don’t already own one at all. These people will go into an Apple store, look at the mini, see how much it costs to add the monitor they need, and think the setup is to expensive. I rarely go to the Apple store and even I have seen this happen multiple times. That ought to be addressed, in my book.
The Dell 20″ and the Apple 20″ use the exact same screen.
Apple= $799 free shipping; Dell $524 – free ground shipping.
Buy the dell and tape an apple sticker over the monitor´s dell label.
Consider this:
Sony makes a 19 inch LCD and sells it for $599. Originally it was $699. This monitor looks great, but does not have the best specifications. Yet people still bought it.
Now, Apple’s lowest end LCD is a 20 inch one. Prices for LCDs go up drastically for each additional inch on the monitor. I have seen 15 inch LCDs for $250, 17 inch LCDs for $330, 19 inch for anywhere from $400 to the previously stated $700. So $800 for a 20 inch LCD, especially one that is as great looking as Apple’s is, is not at all bad, especially considering they were about $2500 when they originally hit the market.
I would, however, like some technical specifications on the monitor. Apple doesn’t offer that on their website. For instance, what is the brightness, the contrast ratio, the response time? I’m willing to bet that they have some of the best in the industry specifications for those monitors.
“Too expensive” is relative. I have a 23″ display and feel that I didn’t pay one dime too much for it. Then again, I’m doing far more than web surfing and email with it.
It’s it’s too expensive, DON’T BUY IT!
What isnt addressed in this article is that the latest Allum- Silver monitors that Apple has put out seem cheaply constructed as well as over priced.
I have the earlier 23 in display and it is gorgous and its construction is sturdy as a tank. I think the quality is the same but Apple seemed to opt for a way to make more of a buck when they came out with the lighter version of my monitor.
The most common comparison I see, is between the Dell 24″ and the 23″ ACD. The 23″ ACD has long litany of color banding issues. For a monitor that was once (recently not) advertised and color-correct for digital image editing, it is absurdly over-priced (even now) compared to the competition.
Everybody except Apple offers a standard 3-year warranty. Why does Apple only offer a 1-year warranty.
Unless you are snob, the Apple aluminum case really doesn’t justify the added expense. The Dell 24″ is nice, but over-bright and not suited to color accuracy. The Apple ones were, but are no longer touted as such.
The 30″ ACD is just a class by itself, so you pay for it. The 20″ is nice, but more expensive and a wimpier warranty than the competition.
Personally, who cares about the case. Your customer doesn’t care how good your kit looks if you can’t accurately turn over your jobs and deliver the results.
Apple needs to add a widescreen 17 or 15 inch monitor for $499 to it’s line up. Matches the Mac mini in price and for the average user 15 or 17 inch widescreen monitor is plenty big.
As someone who uses Apple displays day-in and day-out, I can honestly say that when I go to work on other makes of good displays, it hurts my eyes.
Seriously, I’d love to see them drop prices (again) but when you compare them to the rest, they ARE that much better>
SB
AppleResellerCanada said:
“We have a 23″ widescreen viewsonic LCD display and the 23” Apple Cinema display, on display. Guess which one is more expensive?
Apple – $1899
Viewsonic – $2299 !!!!!
So much for the fallacy that Apple equipment is more expensive! $400 bucks more that two 15″ monitors, (whatever, who would want a miniscule 15″ monitor anyway!)”
Hmm,
of course you’re selling not buying… so it would make sense that you’d pick a more expansive monitor to compare to apple’s and that way facilitate the sale of apple monitors.
Kudos for your business savvy, but not really a valid example in this discussion, imo.
Having said that, if I was in the market for it i’d still support apple and buy one of their monitors!
For my Mac Mini I bought a Benq 19″ DVI Flatscreen for 350€ all inclusive. It’s not a Cinema Display and it’s not fully 20″ but compared with the apple 20″ Cinema Display, in Europe sold for 829€ , the Benq has a reaction time of 8 ms vs 16 ms for the Apple, contrast = 700:1 vs 400:1 for the Apple and a brightness of 300 cd/m2 vs 250/m2. This comparisson makes me think of my wife who bought a very expensive Philip Stark design garlic press which looks very nice but is unable to press garlic in a decent way. As a low end user and Apple addict I think it’s good to have nice design, but it would be even better to have affordable flatscreens in the Apple product line.
Granny Smith,
What’s the color depth on the Benq? Low response times are typical of TN technology, which only offers 18-bit color, while the Apple monitors use S-IPS technology which offers 24-bit color. TN monitors suck in general for color accuracy, and the uneven brightness (darker on top than bottom) and dramatically limited vertical viewing angle typical of a TN panel also sucks. However, the contrast ratio you report for the Benq suggests that it may be a PVA or MVA panel, which is better than TN in every way except for response time. Bottom line: there’s A LOT more to an LCD monitor than the specs you report. Check this out, read and learn:
http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/other/display/lcd-guide.html
Brightness is overrated.
The author of the original article and all of you that have the misguided perception that apple displays are “expensive” need to get a grip on reality.
When you are buying an apple 23″ display, you are buying a WUXGA 23″ High Definition 1900×1200 panel with integrated usb and firewire hub. Now I think it is reasonable to compare apple’s display with other 23″ WUXGA 1900×1200 displays don’t you?
Well here is some DISCOUNT pricing from buy.com:
HP F2304 HP 23″ High-Definition Widescreen Flat-Panel LCD Monitor
$1546
BenQ FP231W – flat panel display – TFT – 23″
$1363
Sony 23″ PremierPro Widescreen LCD Flat Panel Display
$1648
Apple 23″ Cinema Display HD
NON-DISCOUNT PRICE $1479 (INCLUDES FREE SHIPPING)
Apple 23″ Cinema Display HD
EDUCATIONAL-DISCOUNT PRICE $1479 (FREE SHIPPING)
$1299 (this is the least expensive price here)
Keep in mind, you will likely pay more at retail outlets, and buy.com service sucks big time, and I think you have to pay substatial shipping costs, and if it doesn’t work, I don’t know if you have to pay return shipping or not, but I bet you do. I like being able to take it down to the apple store and having it replaced on the spot, thank you very much! Also, you can get a 3 yr warranty on the apple displays as long as you buy them with a compatible computer (mini, powerbook, or G5 tower).
Not only that, but imagine you are a publishing company with offices in LA, NYC, and London. If you standardize on apple displays the image you see in one location will be the same image you see in another. Companies go to extaordinary expense to achieve this…and have a HUGE amount to risk if they get it wrong.
Tks for the info Mark,
But please notice I’m not a Pro.
Specs can be found here:
http://www.benq.nl/products/LCD/?product=506&page=specifications
i have been returning 3 consecutive Apple 23″ ( bad pixels,bad color etc…) display before going to the 24″ Dell …wich is blowin away Apple 23″ display in every specs with one exception… the look
common Apple you can beat them !!!
I have both the old plastic, and the new alunimum 20″ Cinema’s at home, and a Dell 2001FP, 20″ non-widescreen (1600×1200). I can definitely say that the brightness of the Apple displays is not only good (I use them at 50%), but that they have a lot mroe adjustment (from nothing to too bright), where the dell’s brightness adjustment is like +/- 15%.
Also, if you want to compare comparable displays, Dell’s 20″ widescreen with 1680×1050 is about $750, only $50 less than the 20″ Cinema. For that matter, the 2001FP lists for almost $700 (although my workplace has an agreement with Dell, and we only paid $560 for mine).
panoctopi,
Was that US$ or CDN$ for the ViewSonic….?
======================
waslamepcgrilnowhotmacchick,
I guess if nasty color banding and a 1-year warranty (not everybody buys and ACD with a new computer or buys AppleCare), then the 23″ ACD isn’t that expensive.
Also, many of the non-Apple displays you quoted have s-video and other ports to more readily use them as HDTVs.
The 24″ Dell can be had for under a $1K if you try hard enough. That’s $300 lower than Apple’s educational price and 3-times the standard warranty (whether you buy a Dell computer or not).
Apple hear my plea!
We want 15″, 17″, and 19″ Mac monitor clones, and a little better pricing please.
Thanks!
there’s no need for cheaper cinema displays
apple needs to bring back the studio displays.
15″ for $300
17″ for $500
19″ for $700
would that be so hard? i know for a fact that across the LCD industry the manufactering price is going down way faster than the consumers’ prices are, and i’m sure apple can manage these prices.
APPLECARE will not cover that EXPENSIVE display. To me the bottom line is that APPLE is walking away from its displays the minute is sells one because it knows the quality control is terrible. When I go into any real store the only broken or damaged displays I have seen–ever–are APPLE displays even though those stores are filled with displays made by other manufacuterers. COMPUSA will sell you INSURANCE for any display but an APPLE display–When I say INSURANCE, I mean a policy that will cover you even if your own negligence is what caused the problem to the display–they will replace the display. NOT WITH AN APPLE LAP TOP OR DISPLAY. What does it mean when APPLE wont back these products? I say it means that APPLE knows too many of them wont last. And dont get me wrong–Im not knocking APPLE–I want to buy an APPLE display–BUT IM NOT GOING TO TAKE THE RISK—Go look at the new zhongguo think pad price list–right on there is warranty for the screen and right on there is insurance for the screen–TRY TO GET APPLE TO REPLACE A DISPLAY–GO AHEAD.
Geez you guys complain about the prices in the US, you should try buying an Apple minitor in NZ- $1,459.00 for the 20″, $2,699 for the 20″ and $5,749 for the 30″ (All prices noted are exclusive of 12.5% GST)
I would agree they are too expensive to do what most “so-called” computer users use them for–looking at numbers, surfing the net and general screwing around. But, if you have real work to do, where color correction etc., is important, then get a Mac monitor. Especially if you have to earn money by being as perfect as possible.
So there!
If you aren’t doing color correction with your Mac, then by all means don’t spend more than $400 on a monitor. Pick one up on ebay or from your local want ads for $100 or less. These things multiply like rabbits.