In the past year I've bought two 24" Asus monitors which have been amazing to use, albeit I use them with a PC and have not had to calibrate color profiles. Native HDMI isn't so bad either. Hell, not to mention you could buy 4 of these instead of an ACD

I understand your points completely, i did a very similar thing recently myself. I had been using one of Dell's Cheaper 22" displays since mid 06 and loved it, though when i brought my unibody MacBook it was a complete hassle to get the colors to match (i didnt care about the profile much, but at least have them match! please??).

I decided i would take the chance to rotate the Dell display home, and to invest in something new for the office, it was a going to be a decision between the 24" or 27" Dell, or the 24" Cinema Display, in the end i went with the cinema display.

The main reason was price, apple had the cinema display available in the refurb store for about £50 more than i could find the 24" ultrasharp dell for, although i liked the idea of all the extra ports of the dell, i was very interested in the other extras.

In the end i reasoned thus, while the monitor completes it work life (in my office, on my desk, showing me pretty pictures) then i will never really need any of the other inputs as the dell had, at the end of the day, all of the machines in the office carry a display port & thats where its going to be living…

However, the isight, mic, speakers and power supply do make a difference everyday i'm in the office. I use skype a lot and it wonderful to be able to actually look at the person i am chatting to on the big screen without having to stare across to my laptop, not to mention the number of times i have forgotten my macbook power supply! My upgraded screen has brought me a bigger better much nicer display, and an isight upgrade, extra powersupply and a USB hub, could not be happier! I recon the Apple display will probs hold its value better no dobt too…

Hope that helps

Jamie & Lion

I guess different things suit different people but as a web designer id definitely pick a mac over a PC any day now!

The use of this new standard is a bit frustrating- my Mac is the only piece of equipment in my entire house with Display Port!

I totally understand the sentiment that Apple has ruined you for everyone else as it's done the same for me! I only have an iPod touch, but the quality of of its UI and the precision of its touch screen feedback meant I had to return a touch screen phone from LG as it felt like a $20 toy in comparison. The result? Still saving for the day I can afford an iPhone as it'll be totally worth it!

After I got a iMac at work, I decided I wanted a good quality monitor, but without the unnecessarily high Apple cost. The HP is brilliant. Plus, it has an adjustable stand so ergonomics once again become a reality.

I guess the key is to either stick with quality Apple hardware or just not to buy crappy Dell stuff.

My computer is an iMac 27" and costs as much as the Dell Monitor linked to in aforementioned article plus 700 dollars. For the 700 dollars left you get a 3.06Ghz dual core machine with 4Gb of RAM and 1 TB of hard drive space (Not to mention the LCD is far superior). Your OS is included in the purchase.

This computer runs a 2560×1440 resolution, which is absolutely awesome (compare to 2560×1600 on the Apple 30"). I have my older Apple 20" attached and I can have my text editor, Firefox with Firebug, four terminal windows all open at the same time in workable resolutions. Meaning I never have to alt tab when developing web sites. (combined with an auto refresh plugin for Firefox this is like live preview of your work).

I put this thing on my desk when I bought it, never had to fiddle with any settings. Just plugged the power in, turned it on, the OS was installed, I could install my apps, and there I went.

The only reason I run Windows nowadays is testing websites in Windows versions of browsers (most notably IE ) and some gaming every once in a while. And lo and behold, I run Windows 7 on my Mac via Boot Camp.

Is that cool? Yes.

Certain brands I ALWAYS buy now are Apple, Hugo Boss, Adidas & Xbox for my computers, phones, smart and sports clothes and gaming. I've stuck with this and been COMPLETELY happy with doing so. I know sometimes it works out more expensive, but seriously, it's worth ten times that when it all goes smoothly.

Nice read, thanks

~ Suleiman