Hello.
Perhaps someone else could settle this for me.
I’ve been umm’ing and ahh’ing for a while between buying the 17" Apple Studio display @ £400 or going for the Sony trinitron flat screen CPD-E220E which retails at around £220.
Now I’ll admit I’m weak. And I’ve been trying to come up with all sorts of reasons to justify paying an additional £180 for something that’s very nice to look at.
But apart from that, and the additional USB sockets that come with the Apple monitor, the only other justification for the price is Apple’s "Patented internal calibration for consistent, accurate colour over the lifetime of the display".
Now is this thing any good?
I’m reluctant to suggest that it isn’t too difficult to calibrate the colour of the Sony Trinitron, in which case, being on a budget, I should opt for this since I would imagine the quality of the image from both monitors is very similar.
Any opinions?
I had this same dilemma a few weeks ago when I upgraded my SOHO studio from a G3 to a G4. As it was a luxury to change I was considering the Sony H220 (I think we are talking about the same monitor) with its pale green & silver hues - a nice compliment to a G4 considering the other beige monitors on the market, plus it was a good price for a good Sony screen.
I too also debated (much to my wife's chagrin) the merits of buying the Apple 17" Studio Display and visited PCWorld & ComputerWarehouse (with walking distance of each other) to try to visually kick my discision-making rear into gear.
I now have a Studio display on my desk next to my shiny G4 (a now discontinued AGP 400MHz model) - I figured (with the assistance and insistence of my PC loving brother) that the Apple display was just to awesome to overlook seeing as though it would probably sit on my desk for another few years like my last Apple monitor - that's a very long time to wonder if I should have just shelled out the extra cash and bought what I really wanted.
Having said that the picture quality is absolutely fantastic, especially for video and DVD playback. Its bright, sharp and drop-dead gorgeous. Go on spoil yourself - you will grin everytime you sit in front of it.
Just bear in mind that it has a ADC connector so you can only use it with June 2000 and current 2001 G4 Macs.
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regards
Steven Hood
[ O U T L A W : S D G ]
Resistance is futile on this one.
Steven, did you find anywhere cheaper than Apple's store for the monitor (currently £410 incl VAT & del)?
nah - I paid £349+vat which is the same.
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regards
Steven Hood
[ O U T L A W : S D G ]
I bought the Apple studio display just before Christmas last, though in my case I was deliberating between that and Apple's flat panel display. But I couldn't justify paying double the price for the flat panel.
It's a great monitor.
For what it's worth I always buy from John Lewis as their prices are competitive, the after sales is superb, and they give a 2 year warranty on computers. Admittedly I paid the standard £410, but when the G4 combination I bought dropped by £300 straight after christmas, I claimed and got the £300 back. Their policy is if they drop their prices within 28 days, you can claim the difference back. Can't be bad.
John F
Good tip John,
definitely worth an extra years warranty for the same money.
Thanks.
Okay. I bought the Apple 17" display from John Lewis.
I also asked them to price match Computer Warehouse (http://www.cwonline.co.uk/) so I got the monitor for £393 incl with the 2 years warranty.
I so weak.
But happy.