The 20" LCD Shootout: Dell versus Apple
by Kristopher Kubicki on April 27, 2005 12:05 AM EST- Posted in
- Displays
Internals
After benchmarking both monitors, we opened them up to get a more in-depth look at the individual apparatuses. Doing this will certainly void your warranty, and most likely irrevocably damage an Apple Cinema display. The acrylic bezels on the sides of the Apple Cinema displays seem extremely fragile, and we actually put a hairline crack in our bezel during the course of the evaluation.The internals of our Apple Cinema 20” display reveal nothing particularly interesting. Since the Apple relies only on digital inputs, the digital signal processor (DSP) for our display is relatively small. The majority of the circuitry on the PCB inside the monitor is reserved for the USB and Firewire pass-through, with some small logic in place for the touch pad. Likewise, since the Apple display relies entirely in digital signals via digital inputs, input controls are fairly limited.
The Apple M9177LL obtains power from a funny looking white power brick; so the DC circuitry inside (right) the display is also compact. You can also catch a glimpse at the USB inputs along the bottom left of the monitor in this picture.
Click to enlarge.
Click to enlarge.
Click to enlarge.
LG.Philips LCD LM201W01
We mentioned it already a few times, but the Apple Cinema 20” and Dell 2005FPW revolve around the same LG.Philips LCD LM201W01 panel. Boasting a 7ms Tr and 9ms Tf response time with 12ms gray-to-gray average response times, the LM201W01 is definitely a quick panel when compared to PVA and MVA displays. We dug around a little bit and actually found this Product Specification document that details some of the exact measured specifications from LG.Philips, although it is about a year old by now.
Apple 20” Cinema Display
Click to enlarge.
Dell UltraSharp 2005FPW
Click to enlarge.
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jediknight - Wednesday, April 27, 2005 - link
Only thing I really don't like about Dell is their dead pixel policy. They will only replace a monitor (so I've been told) if it has 6 dead pixels.Personally, ONE dead pixel is too many!
crimson117 - Wednesday, April 27, 2005 - link
Dell's brand is called "UltraSharp", not "UltraSync" as the review states. NEC's brand is called MultiSync, maybe that got confused?mlittl3 - Wednesday, April 27, 2005 - link
Here are the final prices (retail not education of both of these monitors).Apple $799
Dell $486.85
Apple just today reduced the price of their LCD panels. Also, it should be noted that the Dell LCD is listed as $749 but a 35% discount lowers the price.
This is a perfect example of how hardware costs the same between PC and Mac but volume shipments allow a distributor to lower the cost considerably.
Apple is selling a lot less of these than Dell therefore their prices are higher. Both panels still cost about the same before volume shipments are factored in. If the whole world buys Apple, then Apple would sell the LCD for $499 and Dell would increase the price to $749.
Gotta love capitalism!
DCstewieG - Wednesday, April 27, 2005 - link
#17 How did you get that $799 price? I followed the link and the session was expired but then I went back to the store and sure enough...$799. Even with my educational discount it's $899.Though even @ $799, my point stands.
JNo - Wednesday, April 27, 2005 - link
Superb...Agree that other connections (s-vid, composite) should be tested via eg xbox... shame no component...
Am really tempted to get widescreen now that games are beginning to support it or can be made to support it. More elegant than dual monitor and better for movies/games too. Really impressed that the Dell 'out-functioned' the Apple with similar/better performance too.
On the Dell 2405 (1920x1200), does anyone know what panel it uses? LG Philips too?
Also anyone know if
a) it supports 1:1 pixel scaling?
b) it can be bought in UK (does not appear on dell uk website) - and how much?
c) it can also rotate to portrait mode?
Thks
smn198 - Wednesday, April 27, 2005 - link
#2112ms typical (Grey to Grey) / 16ms typical (Black to White)
http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/monitors/200...
Guess Dell are slightly schizophrenic
sandys - Wednesday, April 27, 2005 - link
Quite a few games that don't support widescreen natively can be modified to do so, check out http://www.widescreengamingforum.com/ for details, I have a 2405 and run all my games in widescreen with the correct aspect ratio.Cheers
blwest - Wednesday, April 27, 2005 - link
Nice article. I bought two of these in Feb and absolutely agree with everything in this article. I do think that WOW supports 16:10 though. I'm not 100% certain until I get home but I've been playing it and nothing is deformed. In soviet russia, the monitor watches you.segagenesis - Wednesday, April 27, 2005 - link
Impressive display but I personally dont like the fact its 16:10... why not 16:9? Did I miss the memo on how LCDs are manufacturered? Having a Trinitron CRT im still hard pressed to want to move to LCD especially for games.toyota - Wednesday, April 27, 2005 - link
Dell does NOT claim 12ms response time!! I am looking at their catalog that i got a few weeks ago and it lists 16ms for response time for the 2005FPW!!