Great design, no adjustment feature

I have a whole roomful of Macs since I repaired them for nearly a decade. Having seen many different monitors made by Apple, the easel style LCD is one of the prettiest monitors they have ever designed.

Having the industry standard one year warranty on the .26 dot pitch, multiple resolution monitor was nice, but I never had to fix anything or get anything fixed for this sturdy monitor. The industrial design is not only nice to look at, but like most Apple products, this piece of hardware is meant to last longer than its competition. Of course, it costs on average 20-30% percent more and this monitor was $599 dollars (USD) new.

Paired with a Power Mac, I set the resolution to 1024 x 768 and I found I liked that very well for my basic uses for internet surfing, email, and light graphics. I had just used a laptop with 800 x 600 resolution, so it was nice to upgrade. I am never one who wants to set a resolution to the highest mode because with my eyes, I can't read very tiny type.

Like most LCD monitors, if you shift your head either too far up or down, you will notice a shift in color or brightness, but not as much as LCD monitors from an earlier generation.

The LCD monitor design Apple previously had to this one was equipped with the ability to raise the monitor up and down, right and left, and forward and back. At first I noticed that the new design of Apple did not have any of those features because it was set on an easel type of stand allowing for only one angle once it was set on the table. This is usually not a problem when I do my internet surfing and email.

However, when I took a college class on Post Production for Graphic Design using the Mac, I became more aware of the importance of using the correct color and seeing a correct color while making a design or piece of art. It was at this point I realized that this design, and other Apple designs of a stationary easel was not ideal for graphic design compared to my other fully adjustable Apple LCD. I also noticed that after servicing thousands of computers, I saw that a lot of corporate graphic designers had adjustable PC LCD monitors on their desks with their Macs. However, when I went into repair a Mac at a person's home who casually used the computer, they almost always opted for the standard, non-adjustable easel LCD from Apple.

While I have both types of Apple LCDs, I use the adjustable LCD exclusively these days because of that monitor's ability to adjust it easily from a sitting position.

I wish Apple would return to a fully adjustable LCD monitor someday and it explains why Macworld magazine sometimes gives a PC company a higher rating on an LCD monitor (which will work with Macs with a DVI port.

That being said, the Apple monitor in the easel format looks much better on the desk though if I had to buy a current monitor for my Macs, I would have to opt for a PC DVI port monitor if it was a model that was adjustable. The very latest Apple LCD does not have the up and down adjustment which is the one feature I use the most on my older adjustable Apple LCD. When my wife, who is five inches shorter than me, and a professional graphic designer for more than two decades, sits at my Mac she adjusts the height of the monitor right after she boots up.

Again, if you are not concerned about the minute details of color correctness in graphic design, the easel design of the Apple LCD monitor will be perfect for you.