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Apple just announced their new G4 PowerMacs at Seybold San Francisco 1999. At the same time, they announced their 22" Apple Cinema Display. While we were very impressed with the G4 PowerMacs. we were bowled over by the Apple Cinema Displays. We took a look at Apple's spec sheets and product literature and, once again, found them inadequate. We talked to Apple employees at Seybold Seminar in San Francisco, got answers to most of our questions, gazed longingly at an Apple Cinema Display (ACD), and got writing. After you read this article, you may want one as badly as we do. The way the article is arranged, the Apple specification information is in Bold and our comments, clarifications, and remarks are in normal text.
Screen size and tube
22 inches (diagonal viewable image size)
Thin film transistor (TFT) active-matrix liquid crystal display
The ACD is 22 inches diagonal, though it is in a wide-format aspect ratio. A number of us at Sharky Extreme use 19" Sony 400PS monitors so we tend not to feel much in the way of monitor envy. However, the ACD is a monster and the TFT image is razor sharp, so we're feeling a little inadequate right about now. Using the screens optimal screen resolution of 1600x1024 as a guide, the proportions are 25:16 at 86dpi. This is large enough to hold two full pages side by side on screen at something approaching WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get). Standard WYSIWYG is 72dpi, so the dpi is a bit high, but artists can always scale up the image to make it closer to 72dpi. They have plenty of space to do it in.
We did some asking around, trying to find out who produces the LCD that Apple is using. Apple refused to tell us, but a kind and well-informed woman from Mitsubishi mentioned a press release from a few months back telling of Apple investing in an LCD maker. We searched for the press release and found it. In July, Apple announced that they invested $100 million in Samsung to insure that Apple's LCD needs would be met in the future. Because of this, the smart money is on the ACD having a Samsung TFT-LCD.
One problem most LCDs have is a slow display speed. This results in ghosting and poor video performance. There is a noticeable delay between when an image is sent to the screen, when it appears, and when it disappears. The delay is getting shorter with every generation of LCD, and we're happy to say, we noticed absolutely no ghosting or refresh delay with the ACD. Looking at the ACD, you have to remind yourself it's an LCD, the picture is just that good.
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