Historically, LCD's have rarely been able to show more than several thousand colors. While your laptop may claim to display millions of colors, the LCD most likely can only display thousands of colors. LCD technology has just not been up to par in the color department. Sometimes we think that 3dfx wished everyone had LCDs that could only display thousands of colors when they came out with the Voodoo3. Anyway, the ACD is one of the new breed of high-end LCDs that can display millions of colors accurately and vibrantly. For $3999, we would certainly hope so! The colors we saw in the ACD were much better than those in the vast majority of CRT displays. Though we never saw the ACD side by side with a high-end monitor, we think it even approaches the color found in high-end Sony Trinitron products.

The ACD will most likely fall down when it comes to color accuracy on the professional level. While it is probably more accurate than most CRTs, there are no high-end color matching systems designed for LCDs that we know of. For the normal user this is not a problem since most people are not trying to match colors between source images, onscreen images, and printed output, but very few normal users purchase four thousand dollar screens.

Viewing angle (typical)

The picture of the ACD is viewable from a very wide angle. We didn't have a compass with us, but we think we managed to get past 160° horizontal with the picture still visible. More importantly, the sweet spot, the field of view in which the color and picture stay uniform, is very large. It is easily the largest we have seen in a LCD.

Brightness (typical)

Brightness is measured in candelas (cd) emitted divided by the surface area (meters squared, or m 2) of what is being measured. Contrast compares the brightness from the brightest part of an image to that of the darkest part of an image. To give a comparison, we took a look at the specs for ViewSonic's VG180 18.1" LCD display. The VG180 is ViewSonic's largest LCD intended for graphics use. The VG180 has a typical brightness of 150 cd/ m 2 and a contrast of 100:1. The VG180 goes for about $3300. The ACD has extremely good brightness and contrast. There are brighter LCDs with more contrast, however, they usually trade off color accuracy and viewing angle for their extra brightness and contrast.