Tech Goes Boom

Review: Apple 20" Cinema Display

UPDATE: The just-released 10.3.5 Mac OS X update brings the new 20" Cinema Display fully into the fold, with brightness controls talking correctly with the operating system as well as a throbbing power light during sleep.

Interesting that the display throb would be controlled by the operating system instead of being hardwired into the display itself. The power button still won't turn on the computer, though... END UPDATE.

The newly redesigned Apple Cinema Displays are sleek. So sleek, in fact, that when sitting down in front of one for the first time, there is no helping the voice of Austin Powers in your head saying, "You're a sexy, sexy bitch! Yeah, baby! Yeah!"

But all misogynistic objectification apart, it is indeed a gorgeous piece of hardware.

Spec-wise, the new 20" Cinema Display is very similar to the previous generation, at least when it comes to the actual display. The new display has the same pixel count as the previous generation, but is slightly brighter. Not having an old-school 20" display around to directly compare with, we'll have to take Apple's word for it. It is fiercely bright, though, that much is immediately obvious.

Physically, the bezel is a completely new design. ADC has been dropped in favor of DVI, and it features both FireWire and USB 2.0 pass-through. (Incidentally, are any manufacturers putting this kind of functionality in their displays?)

As the main update is the bezel design, let us focus on that. It is, as previously mentioned, a very nice piece of eye candy. Uncompromisingly sleek and austere, it makes a perfect companion to, natch, a G5 workstation. It seems that Apple wanted to mimic the "hovering" effect of the display of the flat-panel iMac, and they succeeded to a point--the stand recedes back enough that it helps accentuate the display's feel of thinness and lightness.

So far, so good. There are a few flies in the ointment, however: The brightness settings on the monitor do not communicate with the brightness setting in the Displays System Preference Pane, which feels a bit non-Macish. Also, you can no longer power on your system from the display. Looks like this functionality is a victim of the move from ADC to DVI. The same change also led to the introduction of a--albeit very sleek and nice--power brick to feed the display. Bah. But the brick gets hidden in the rat's nest of cables under your desk anyway, so it's not that significant.

For some strange reason, the power light on the monitor stays off during normal operation, but comes on when the workstation sleeps. However--brace yourself--it doesn't throb! No soothing lullaby from this piece of hardware, just a pin-point white light to indicate the unit is sleeping.

All in all, the new version of the Cinema Display delivers on fantastic industrial design, but suffers a little from some loss of functionality due to the drop of ADC; at the same time, going with industry-standard DVI makes the display series more appealing to Windows users, and indeed the box even sports a discreet "For Windows" logo.

One problem that is nice to have is that the Cinema Display makes other pieces of hardware on your desk seem clunky and obsolete.

Say it with me: "You're a sexy, sexy..."

Listening To: "Come on Home" by Franz Ferdinand