Well, it seems my Apple Cinema HD Display (23") has finally died. I got it back with either the MDD G4 Power Mac (“Wind Tunnel”) or the PowerMac dual-G5 2.7 GHz (Cheese Grater). Not sure which, but I think I’m safe in saying I had it for at least 20 years.
I’ve been using it as an external monitor shared via KVM between my iMac and my MBP, when I work at home. Its death has coincided with upgrading one Thunderbolt Hub (from TB1 on an Elgato to TB4 on a Caldigit) and upgrading another USB-C hub to a Thunderbolt 3 Hub (Anker), so I was worried it might have been a result of the hub upgrades. It’s more likely either the KVM switch or the monitor itself, and since the KVM switch still works for the USB attachments, and since the Macs still “see” the monitor as attached, I’m assuming it’s the backlight of the monitor.
Oh, well, it lasted a very long time and served me well.
[Sounds of Amazing Grace on bagpipes…]
Rather than shell out gobs of money for an Apple monitor – maybe some day later – I ordered a Dell Ultrasharp U2723QE from Woot. I’ve always liked the Dell Ultrasharps I use at work. I’m not a gamer, and I value image quality for productivity over fast refresh rates.
Looks nice! I just go down to Costco and buy the widest they’ve got. Last time that was an LG, 2560x1080 and somewhere in the 32-34 inch range. Now it seems like the latest thing for extra wide monitors is curved, always with the word gaming in the blurb. I’m not sure I would care for that; a curved spreadsheet or browser seems strange to me.
I’ve been using a Dell 32" for long time as well, Costco had it, I tried the wider screen, ultra wide, but it didn’t set up at the time decently, took it back, went to this Dell… Only issueI have is the controls are under the edge, difficult to figure out what is what, got it where I want it, quit messing with it… Brightness via keyboard wasn’t working with one of the updates, but I found a widget, Monitor Control, that took care of that… Been solid…
I might have considered a curved monitor if it were the only monitor on my desk. With the iMac and MBP, this has always been a multi monitor setup anyway, so there’s a kind of de facto curve to the arrangement. I also have somewhat limited desk space, so 27" is probably good enough.
Has anyone here tried a VESA mount? I’m thinking about it, a little. In the past, the thought removing Apple’s attractive aluminum monitor stand in favor of a VEASA desk mount in generic black hasn’t seemed a good aesthetic tradeoff and a bit dubious on ergonomics. I’ve always set up the monitor the way I like it and leave it.