Displays/Monitors - what to buy?

[BobK]

I'm another former Kensington Expert Mouse Pro user who never thought he'd give it up, but now uses the Magic Trackpad. I haven't tried out ji-touch yet, and I don't use any special gestures, but I still like it.

My main issue with the trackpad is how easy it is to do things accidentally. For example, I just zoomed in to this page by brushing my middle finger sideways while my thumb was touching the pad gently but unintentionally. Also, sometimes the trackpad doesn't connect when the Mac Pro awakens from sleep. So far, neither of these have been deal-breakers.

Back to displays: I picked up a Dell 24" LCD (2407 WFP) in the summer of 2006 after reading good reviews. I never thought I'd buy a Dell product, but I've been happy with it overall. It was $750 (before tax, shipping), and I think Apple's 23" display was around $1,100 - 1,200 at the time. One thing I like about this model is that the height is adjustable; not all Dells had/have this feature, nor did Apple's.

There were several revisions of this model, and I remember reading reviews saying certain earlier ones were problematic. This wasn't a deal-breaker, but I'd be similarly careful about researching a Dell now. Also, their support sucked, especially for a Mac user.

I've long considered getting a second display, but Shoosh and Mover got me thinking about sticking with one, and maybe getting a 27" at some point.

[Prime Mover]

Didn't I hear, once, that Apple and Dell monitors are actually made by the same company? I mean, Apple isn't really a monitor company. They may design the product, define the specs, but the actual functional components are made by someone else who knows better. I heard about 5 years ago that Dell and Apple were using the same componants for their monitors, but Apple was charging a premium (big surprise). Not sure how true this is, but it makes sense to me.

[BobK]

Didn't I hear, once, that Apple and Dell monitors are actually made by the same company? I mean, Apple isn't really a monitor company. They may design the product, define the specs, but the actual functional components are made by someone else who knows better. I heard about 5 years ago that Dell and Apple were using the same componants for their monitors, but Apple was charging a premium (big surprise). Not sure how true this is, but it makes sense to me.

I don't know any specifics, but I'm pretty sure I've read that Apple buys raw display components (like the LCD itself) from other manufacturers, just like they use hard drives and optical drives from Hitachi, Western Digital, etc in their computers. But just because they use, say, an LCD made by Samsung doesn't necessarily mean the end product will be the same as Samsung's - other components could be different.

[BKK-OZ]

Didn't I hear, once, that Apple and Dell monitors are actually made by the same company?

Dunno about that, but I do know that their 27" US has all (at least, AFAIK) the same specs as the equivalent Apple display. Of course, Dell doesn't have any of that special 'Stevie' magic, but from what I can tell, the monitors are equivalent.

[Matcher]

I just got a Samsung s27a750d which is a full hd 120hz led display. I got it for gaming at 120hz, but I have to say the 120hz combined with exceptionally fast response time makes everything feel smoother and more natural than on any system I've used before. I think we'll see Apple adopt the technology probably sooner than later.