How much better are ACDs than older Studio Display LCDs?

I have a pretty old 17" Apple Studio Display LCD. I'm thinking of upgrading to a new ACD 20" or 23". Aside from the increase in size, is there a significant difference in the quality of the ACDs vs. the older Studio Displays like the one I have?

G5 2.0 dual-core, Mac OS X (10.4.10), 17" Apple LCD, NVIDIA 6600 LE, 4.5 GB RAM, 10,000 RPM 74G Raptor boot drive

Posted on Dec 27, 2007 2:54 PM

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5 replies

Dec 28, 2007 7:43 AM in response to Badlydrawnboy

You won't notice a big quality difference. In it's day, the panel used in the 17" Studio Display was very premium and very expensive. It is hard to even source a 17" LCD of that quality today because the 17" segment of the market has really fallen to the bottom of the scale and the panels have become cost reduced, cheap and of inferior, TN technology to the wide viewing angle technology of your LCD. Fortunately Apple still uses fairly premium panels in their ACDs, so they have retained a good measure of the quality of your Studio Display.

Dec 29, 2007 5:28 AM in response to Badlydrawnboy

Don't overlook the screen size. It makes a huge difference. Switching from 17" to 23" is a breeze of fresh air.

Apple still uses IPS panels. This is a good thing. The market is now flooded with crappy TN displays.

The contrast ratio and brightness have also been upgraded since the Studio Display era. Both are now twice as high (700:1 vs 350:1 and 400cd/m2 vs 200cd/m2).

Dec 30, 2007 10:35 PM in response to Badlydrawnboy

Badlydrawnboy wrote:
Wow. So you're saying the quality of my 17" Studio Display is actually equal to or higher than the quality of the newer ACDs? If that's true, I guess the only reason to get a new display would be for the larger viewing area.

Elsewhere in another forum someone suggested that the ACDs were higher quality, but he didn't give any details.



No, I think BSteely is only specifically talking about 17" screens. Not all screens. The 17" monitors have not improved much since when you bought your older screen, because 17" monitors are now seen as a low end point in the market. Generally, people only buy a 17" screen if they have very little money to spend, or if they just need a very basic monitor for an office, etc. So even modern 17" monitors aren't especially good. The same goes for many other sizes too, because companies seem to be focusing on mass producing cheaper monitors with cheaper components, but there are exeptions. With modern screens, there are always SOME screens that are high quality. Most of the DELL screens, and the Apple Cinema Display's for example, use the best panels available today. They aren't perfect, but monitors that use the best panels on the market (IPS/S-IPS/AS-IPS), have good colours, good brightness and contrast, fairly decent speed, and are generally pretty good. But you have to specifically look out for screens like that, because mostly, modern monitors are using cheap TN panels which aren't that good.

Message was edited by: telelove

Jan 22, 2008 11:14 AM in response to Badlydrawnboy

Apple Studio Display 15 M2454 = 15 inch TN (LG.Philips LM151X3) panel.
Apple Studio Display 17 M7649 = 17 inch 35 ms ACE (Samsung LTM170E4-P01) panel.
Apple Cinema Display 20 M8893 = 20.1 inch 50 ms DD-IPS (IDTech IAWS64) panel.
Apple Cinema Display 20 M9177 = 20.1 inch 16 ms S-IPS (LG.Philips LM201W01) panel.
Apple Cinema Display 22 M5662 = 22 inch 60 ms IPS (LG.Philips LM220W1) panel.
Apple Cinema Display 23 M8537 = 23 inch 25 ms S-IPS (LG.Philips LM230W01) panel.
Apple Cinema Display 23 M9178 = 23 inch 16 ms S-IPS (LG.Philips LM230W02) panel.
Apple Cinema Display 30 M9179 = 30 inch 16 ms S-IPS (LG.Philips LM300W01) panel.

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How much better are ACDs than older Studio Display LCDs?

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