Apple today unveiled a new 27-inch LED Cinema Display with 2560 x 1440 resolution and 60 percent more screen real estate than the 24-inch LED Cinema Display. Featuring a built-in iSight video camera, microphone and speakers, powered USB 2.0 hub, and universal MagSafe connector, the new LED Cinema Display is an ideal companion for the MacBook family or a Mac desktop, and is available for US$999.
“With built-in MagSafe charging, iSight camera, speakers, and USB ports, the LED Cinema Display is ideal for MacBook and MacBook Pro users,” said Philip Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Product Marketing, in the press release. “With its massive 2560 x 1440 resolution, the new 27-inch LED Cinema Display is a perfect fit with our powerful new Mac Pro, and it gives iMac users an easy way to double their screen real estate.”
The new, larger 27-inch LED Cinema Display features a beautiful 16:9 edge-to-edge glass display on an aluminum stand with an adjustable hinge that makes tilting the display almost effortless. The LED Cinema Display has vivid colors and exceptionally high contrast and uses a premium display technology called in-plane switching (IPS) to provide a brilliant image across an ultra wide 178 degree viewing angle.
Designed as a companion for any Mac notebook or desktop, the 27-inch display includes a built-in iSight video camera for video conferencing, an integrated MagSafe charger to keep Mac notebooks charged, built-in Mini DisplayPort connectivity for video and audio input and a powered three-port USB 2.0 hub so customers can charge their iPhone® or iPod® even when they take their MacBook with them.
The new LED Cinema Display now includes a new ambient light sensor which automatically adjusts the display brightness based on external lighting conditions and uses only as much energy as necessary to provide an optimum viewing experience. Made with mercury-free LED technology, arsenic-free glass and highly recyclable materials, the LED Cinema Display meets stringent Energy Star 5.0 requirements and achieves EPEAT Gold status. The new display contains no brominated flame retardants and all cables and components are PVC-free.
Pricing & Availability
The new LED Cinema Display will be available in September through the Apple Store, Apple’s retail stores and Apple Authorized Resellers for a suggested retail price of $999. The LED Cinema Display requires a Mac with Mini DisplayPort.
Source: Apple Inc.
@Pros Hate Glossy
Glossy sucks for color correcting? Not true.
The type of finish on the screen plays no role in color calibration. The colorimeter is reading the phosphors, or crystals that produce the light and if anything, a matte screen could potentially bias the results of the ambient light read by the colorimeter.
One doesn’t calibrate the monitor, you are actually calibrating the graphics card to match what the monitor is capable of displaying, and only after you’ve determined what color space your printer uses. I always download the latest ICC profiles from my printer’s website, just to make sure we were on the same page. Calibration is a moving target and my printer was constantly updating his color profiles.
You know what plays a bigger role in color calibration, after the graphics card and the monitor itself? The ambient light levels and ambient white point of the room in which your monitor is located. The lighting fixtures you’re using can impact the overall effectiveness of the colorimeter’s performance. Huge differences exist between the types of fluorescent bulbs that are available on the market. I was paying about 25 dollars (times 12) for each 36″ bulb in my office space.
Many other factors can impact color calibration, such as consistency and frequency. I calibrated every time my printer calibrated his equipment and always at the same time of day (3pm) to ensure all of my equipment’s ambient temperatures had reached its optimum operating range. We always calibrate our equipment using the same working conditions for the room too; curtains open, lights on, etc.
Real professionals reconfigure their workspace to suit their working needs. They don’t adapt, adjust, or compromise their talent, skills, or ethics, to suit their employer’s notion of a regimented workplace.
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@Twenty
There are many standards for graphics professionals, so when you speak of “any graphics pro worth their salt”, I question, with a grain of salt, just what you actually mean. What sort of “graphics pro” are you, and why should I care what you think?
Why should Apple care what you think?
I can certainly understand, from a businessman’s point of view, why it would be more beneficial to deal with a single vendor, instead of two, but there’s a limit to what Apple is willing to do to satisfy the needs of every working professional.
I will say however, nothing gets Apple’s attention like a large, informed group of professionals presenting a unified front to affect change. I have ties to both the print and broadcast industries and in the last fifteen-years, the fit and finish of a monitor’s screen wasn’t even on our collective radars.
I do recall a time when Apple preferred matte over gloss, but that value disappeared with the CRT.
Pipelines and production workflow was the greater concern and our thrust was to reduce as many variables possible. In television, we wanted a less-costly alternative to Avid and Apple gave us FCP, we asked for and received an alternative to Protools and they delivered Logic. In print, we wanted uniformed color standards for print-to-film and they reached out to the prepress industry to consolidate the corporate knowledge of the working professional across the entire spectrum of the graphics industry.
FYI, in my second career, I built an advertising agency that operated out of the desert Southwest of the US, in the power triangle of LA, Vegas, and Phoenix metro. We hired talent out of LA and Nashville and did spec work for casinos, dealerships, and franchises. We produced advertising campaigns in television and radio and print for our clients.
The scope of my work was challenging, to say the least, but I never compromised my ethics or my prices. Compromised strategies, yes, but not my principles. My stubbornness cost me business but at least my client list paid their bills on time, every time.
These days, I just sit around on my arse, poking fun at blokes like you.
Gees! I just bought the 24″ version. Love it though.
@Petey
“I’m not kidding when I say that since Apple stopped the matt screens a few years back more and more of my employees are now wearing glasses!”
Ditto. A graphics pro colleague of mine bought the first 27″ glossy iMac… a few months later she was complaining of regular headaches and daily eyestrain. This is after decades in the business and many, many years spent on Macs.
_____________________________________
Note to graphics pros:
DO NOT buy this tacky monitor from Apple! DO NOT let Apple abuse its customer lock-in by forcing you to use inappropriate kit! DO NOT put your health at risk for no other reason than to swell Apple’s bank balance!
There are PLENTY of excellent high-quality pro monitors out there – and ALL of them, of course, are matte.
There is absolutely NO REASON for Apple to glue this piece of glass onto the front of its monitors – other than to satisfy Johnny Ive’s vanity. It serves absolutely no purpose other than form over function (once a cardinal sin in the classic Apple book of design principles).
In nearly all polls I have seen (including MDN’s own) around 50% of respondents clearly stated a preference for matte monitors – do not let Steve Jobs lie about this to increase his profits (at the same time as boasting that Apple does NO market research).
I use Photoshop extensively and have a 23″ Cinema Display, but my next monitor will be either an Eizo or a LaCie.
Are you saying that this monitor is worth reconfiguring an entire workplace for? There are plenty of matte monitors that do the job better, cost less and don’t require expensive lighting experts or time consuming reconfigurations.
You know something is wrong when you have to change your entire workplace in order to use a product, and you don’t even mind. Apple has you by the balls.
@ Twenty Benson,
In my opinion, if anybody doesn’t know what they’re talking about, it’s pretty clearly you. At least I can articulate my ideas. Your arguments are along the lines of “nonsense” or “rubbish”, or “drivel”, along with some irrelevant, non-technical reasoning.
Let’s try this again, mmmmkay?
No, it isn’t impossible for glossy to be sharper. The way the matte surface works is by diffusion. Diffusion works by scattering or softening, therefore it’s simply less sharp.
No, glossy displays are not a matte display with “a sheet of glass glued on”. You clearly have no idea what YOU are talking about. Glossy displays are completely missing the diffusion layer that’s in front of the matte displays that you love so much. The diffusion filter is what MAKES the display matte… Otherwise, it would be… Wait for it… Glossy.
No, glossy displays having better blacks is not rubbish at all! True, the glossy screen reflections will reflect badly, unless you put an anti-reflective coating on it… Just like the AR coating that’s on camera lenses, used to be on CRT monitors, and to this day is even on some retail display cases – for better transmission and lower reflection. The matte display isn’t immune to the problem, either. Instead of a sharp reflection, it shows a diffuse reflection, “lighting up” all the black areas of the screen from the ambient light. This is why the matte screen is clearly and obviously visible as a medium-gray surface when it’s turned off in a lighted room. You can’t get away from that.
On color, read my earlier statement again… Did I say more color accurate? No. I said, “larger color gamut”, which is completely true. Besides, is the opposite true? Does a diffusion filter somehow make a display more accurate? No, it does not. Matte or glossy, your display needs to be calibrated if you’re doing color-critical work. Period. On the uniformity/viewing angle issue: Can you read? I brought up uniformity. With larger displays like 27-30″, off-axis uniformity becomes very important. You don’t want the brightness or color balance falling off toward the edges of the display. Throw up an all-white image in Photoshop and move your head back-and-forth and watch the color temp change on your beloved matte screen, and you’ll know what uniformity (or the lack thereof) is.
Again, if you’re seeing a distracting silhouette of yourself, then you’re working in too bright of an environment. The matte display isn’t going to be accurately viewable under those circumstances, either. Your shadow details is going to be completely obscured by the ambient light falling reflected (diffused!) by the diffusion layer.
CRT’s have “a sophisticated matte coated layer and the slight vertical curvature in the screen”? Really? All of them? It’s true that some did, but most did not; especially those sold in the few years before LCDs took over. In fact, the last series of best graphics-grade Trinitrons Sony ever made before everybody started switching to LCDs was perfectly planar, and was shiny glass with an AR coating. Google the GDM-FW900 and you’ll see what I’m talking about. Try again, padme.
Yes, as a matter of fact, I AM a “graphics pro”… I sit in front of a MacBook Pro working working with the entire Creative Suite and Final Cut Studio all day every day… I’ve been a professional designer, illustrator, photographer and content creator for nearly two decades. How about you, Mr. Know-it-all?
Note to graphics pros… methinks Twenty B doth protest too much.
It’s painfully obvious, he has an agenda against Apple, especially when he starts talking about lock-in, bank balances, and vanity, none of which has anything to do with your productivity.
He couldn’t stop his colleague from buying a 27-inch iMac and he isn’t going to stop others from making up their own minds, either.
He hasn’t even seen this monitor first-hand, much less had an opportunity to use it, and here he is, running his gib and bashing Apple’s latest offering. Twenty B’s hatred of Johnny Ive, a fellow Brit, has clouded his judgement.
Make up your own minds, Apple has a return policy that provides you ample opportunity to test out their monitors under real-world conditions.
Don’t take my word for it, see for yourself!
Apple stores are well-lit environments and every monitor in the place is glossy and in plain view for your own inspection. Sit for awhile, browse the internet, play with all of the software, ask questions.
You know what I find disturbing about Twenty Bs approach? His insistence that he knows better than you, what’s good for you. For all his cackling, Apple continues to sell millions of iMacs and Cinema Displays to hard-working professionals and consumers alike.
Fear. Uncertainty. Disinformation. That’s Twenty Benson’s game.
Replaces both the 30″ and 24″, according to Daring Fireball. I’m guessing that Apple Computer Monitors will disappear in the future and we’ll see a return of the iSight Camera (as I look at my Samsung 25″ LCD TV with iSight camera attached). Facetime in the living room is gonna need a camera if not an Apple TV (40″+) with iSight built in.
@ecrabb
Please – do just a little research before writing. Education is no bad thing.
Many graphics pro users were so fed up fighting all the reflections in the first glossy iMacs that they ending up ripping off the glass in frustration. Only to find underneath… wait for it (and read v-e-r-y slowly)… the original matte panel! Exactly as it had always been on all previous Mac monitors (in the days when Apple cared about its customers and frequently advertised its matte models were for graphics professionals who needed colour-accuracy and non-reflective screens).
(So widespread has been the pro-users frustration at Apple forcing them to suffer a completely useless piece of glass (‘Ive-Candy’) that third party companies offer a service to remove the glass and fit a plastic bevel so that the end result doesn’t look like a complete dog’s dinner.)
This simple FACT alone renders the rest of your verbiage complete and utter nonsense.
“Yes, as a matter of fact, I AM a “graphics pro”… I sit in front of a MacBook Pro…”
Ha! Say no more – case closed.
REAL Graphics Pro users… do not buy this vanity product from Apple – there are a lot of pro suppliers with high-quality matte monitors out there… many using the identical LG Phillips IPS component as Apple do.
@ @G4
Are you saying that this monitor is worth reconfiguring an entire workplace for?
Nope.
I am saying people who conduct mission-critical work in a prepress environment have already given plenty of consideration to their plant’s working conditions and bringing in a new monitor isn’t going to disrupt the workflow. Nor is upgrading, and rearranging the furniture, or buying matte-finished monitors going to define you as a professional. Your work stands or falls on its own merits and your clients could care less what type of monitor you use, because at the end of the day, you’re the one responsible for delivering on your promises.
You’re just trying to make a mountain out of a mole hill. What’re you, a drama queen?
I am saying anyone who buys, or is contemplating the purchase of a glossy monitor and claims it will compromise their ability to turn out a top drawer product is just looking for an excuse for their shortcomings. Well, guess what? Clients don’t want excuses, they want results.
I am saying anyone who says a glossy screen will compromise their work ethic, has probably overlooked so many other factors that can impact the quality of your work, that the matte/gloss argument is probably the least of their worries, and just gives them something to bitch about.
I’m not suggesting anyone go out and buy lighting, colorimeters, or photometers to yield the best results either, especially if you work for scale. But, if you were like me, you did these things in order to differentiate yourself from your competition. Telling a potential client you prefer matte over gloss isn’t going to score you any points, or earn you any extra money.
I am suggesting that if you have aspirations of becoming an independent professional in the graphics industry, that you don’t let something as benign as the finish of your monitor stand in your way.
However, if you’re an employee and you are forced to work with a glossy screen, try blaming your substandard work on your monitor and see how far that takes you.
On the other hand, if you’re an employee and you work with a beautiful, but expensive matte monitor connected to an eight-hundred-dollar Dell computer, blame the computer for your substandard work and see how far you get.
Twenty Benson stated 50% polled preferred matte. And why not? This is a polarizing issue that divides the graphics community right down the middle, according to his research. So, I’d hardly call that conclusive evidence that one is superior over the other.
If you’re going to lie, using statistics, why not say 60% or even 70?
@ Nickel & Dime Benson
<i>”So widespread has been the pro-users frustration at Apple forcing them to suffer a completely useless piece of glass… “
Let me stop you right there. No one is forcing anyone to do anything. I suspect you are just addicted to drama!
If this problem was as big as you say it is, Apple would have reversed their policy already, however it’s quite apparent no one of import is twisting their arm and your one-man campaign is an utter fail.
After weighing the advantages against the environmental impact of chemical etching, Apple probably concluded there just wasn’t a big enough demand for matte monitors that would offset the expense of dealing with the accumulation and disbursal of hazardous waste.
Besides, anyone who wants a matte-finished monitor can simply go elsewhere, much like you did, so what are you bitching about?
What’s next, bitching at Apple for not making bicycles?
@ Twenty Benson,
OK, so if the iMac gloss/glass screen is so easily removable, and the MacBook Pro is available with the matte screen as an option, then WHAT THE F is everyone (like you) bitching about? Buy your plastic Samnsung or LG displays and STFU.
Oh, and because I’m using a MacBook Pro, I’m somehow not a professional? Please. I didn’t say that was the DISPLAY I was using, did I?
Oh, I know why you’re bitching… Because the new iMac and these displays AREN’T just a matte display behind the glass… They’re like I said and HAVE no diffusion layer. Ooops!
How exactly does one model of iMac having had a matte screen under the gloss screen render any of what I’ve written complete and utter nonsense?
Also, could you PLEASE stop parroting the idea that a glossy screen is somehow less color accurate than a matte screen – that’s completely untrue.
@G4Dualie
You can try putting words into my mouth and telling me what I have and haven’t done until you are blue in the face – it will not hide the fact that I am one of Apple’s biggest fans and – just like S Jobs – I will call a pile of junk a pile of junk when I see it.
Like ALL experts, I demand the very best tools for my work and will accept no compromise. If you want to make yourself an apologist for poor quality and inappropriate tools it’s up to you… if you are unable to see the difference between a good tool and a bad one, well that’s your problem (ignorance is bliss, as they say). I can only imagine what your work looks like.
A large part of that 50% who voted for matte screens in the MDN poll were undoubtedly pro users – like me… experts who care passionately about having the best tools. If Apple has lost that passion, I’ll get my kit elsewhere and leave the Ive-Candy for you and the Windows switcher crowds.
@G4Dualie
“After weighing the advantages against the environmental impact of chemical etching, Apple probably concluded there just wasn’t a big enough demand for matte monitors that would offset the expense of dealing with the accumulation and disbursal of hazardous waste.”
Jeeeez – to think MDN once attracted intelligent comment. What in the world is the “environmental impact” and the additional “hazardous waste” of LEAVING OFF a completely useless piece of Ive-Candy glass from the front of a monitor?
Apple’s dumbing down is clearly infectious.
@ecrabb
When in a hole – the best advice is to stop digging.
In the “one cable” picture on the product overview page, it’s funny how tiny the Mini DisplayPort connector looks next to the USB plug.
FYI – You can ONLY connect TWO of these to the new Mac Pro with the stock video config. One of the three ports is a dual-link DVI port, which does not work with this the LED Cinema Display. It’s obvious that Apple doesn’t care about maximizing sales of displays (no dual-link DVI port to make it more compatible). Apple wants to maximize Mac sales, and this amazing display is primarily meant to be an “accessory” to benefit Mac users.
Having used Macs since 1984, when the only option was a matte screen, since it’s been possible I’ve always purchased the highest quality monitors available.
For most of the past 26-years this was third-party options, eventually my business settled on Sony GDM-FW900 (the finest CRT available, ever) and we used them for a number of years. Check them out in Pixar “making of” videos, Steve Jobs’ other business used them too. The color calibration on these babies is second to none, I still know people in the movie/tv biz who still use them simply because of the high quality of color reproduction.
When the Apple 30-inch LCDs became available we switched to those, they are excellent and we love them.
I am sad to say that when we come to replace them we won’t be buying glossy screens, our office is all windows and the glare would render them unusable for our purposes; we’ve already only chosen 17-inch MacBook Pros with matte screens, thank goodness there is that option.
You people who take the glossy screens, that’s your choice; my choice will be to shop elsewhere for pro-displays for my Macs.
A new USS Merrimack is also long overdue.
You can bet your life Jonny Ive dont use the apple glossy screens for his work!
@twenty
The monitor in question is called a Cinema Display, and nowhere in this article is anyone stating the CD is a professional-level monitor and yet you’re here bashing Apple for what this product is not? Really?
Anyone who is passionate about their color-critical work is not looking to Apple for color monitors! They’re looking to LaCie or Eizo. If you’re happy with their offerings then STFU about Apple already.
@twenty
What in the world is the “environmental impact” and the additional “hazardous waste” of LEAVING OFF a completely useless piece of Ive-Candy glass from the front of a monitor?
I stand by my thoughts on Apple’s environmental impact of producing/recycling monitors with anti-glare treatment.
@Twenty Benson
You don’t have to be so melodramatic about it. Go ahead and buy your professional monitor from another source and connect it to your Mac Pro. Or don’t – we really don’t care. Your decision on this subject will be met with deafening disinterest. I think that you mistook this forum for Matte Daily News.
@Twenty Benson
I seriously doubt that any poll that you have seen on matte displays was scientifically designed or properly implemented to achieve a valid and statistically significant response. You referenced an MDN poll, for instance – “Ha! Say no more – case closed.”
Did you know that over 90% of contributors to the MDN forum prefer Mac OS X over Windows 7? That’s quite a statistic, but meaningless if you are attempting to characterize the preferences of the general population. It may be true that roughly half of graphics professionals prefer matte displays. But that is half of a relatively small number when compared to the Mac OS X installed base. Even Apple has limits when it comes to developing niche products. Given the increasing demand for Apple products and the growing breadth of its product line, the company cannot risk stretching itself even further in order to cater to special interests. Apple cannot even satisfy the current demand for the iPad and iPhone 4. And just wait until the release of the new iPod touch just in time for the holiday season. Another product shortage in the making…
I could say more, but absolutely nothing, including fact and reason, will change it. I’m sorry, TB, but you have terminal teabagitis.
does it ask for a serial number or key code when you click to register? try that and look on the box for a serial number or key code if it asks for it. if not, then i’d call apple..
http://healthproductadvice.com/revolution-e-cigarette-reviews/
I don’t like screenswith cameras. It makes me very suspicious. Because you never reallyknow of they are off or not. O would place tape over the camera.