29.07.2011

Review: Thunderbolt Display 27inch Monitor

Apple's new 27" flat panel monitor was launched last week year (along with the the MacBook Air and Mac mini 2011) and is a direct replacement for the 27" LED Cinema Display for newer Macs.

Thunderbolt Display offers a resolution of 2560 x 1440 pixels and is configured in a 16:9 widescreen aspect ratio.

The monitor supports up to 16.7 million colours, has a 1000:1 contrast ratio and a brightness rating of 375 cd/m2.

Thunderbolt Display's wide viewing angle ensures all members of an audience will see the same presentation with colour uniformity and contrast only slightly affected by viewer movement.

Tests have reported no problems with light leakage or stuck pixels.

The product features an in built HD FaceTime camera, microphone and a 49 watt dual speaker system. The casing is aluminium and glass and the overall look is in keeping with the unibody designs of the MacBook Pro and iMac.

Connections

The Thunderbolt Display has double the connection ports sported by its predessesor, and replaces the old DisplayPort with a seperate Thunderbolt port. This allows for rapid data connection with other products that have Thunderbird ports, such as storage devices and other Mac models.

The use of this Thunderbolt technology has enabled much faster transfer speeds, and allowed for the inclusion of a gigabit ethernet port and a FireWire 800 port to the product.

The Thunderbolt Display also offers 3 USB 2.0 ports and a captive cable with two connectors. The Thunderbolt cable on the rear of the monitor replaces the USB 2 connectors and Mini DisplayPort from the 27" LED cinema display and a MagSafe cable is added to allow for the charging of notebooks.

Compatibility

Thunderbolt ports have so far been introduced to the the MacBook Air and Mac mini 2011 series, the iMac and MacBook Pro. 

However the Mac Pro line is currently without Thunderbolt, meaning it cannot be connected to the Thunderbolt Display. Mac Pro users will need to stick with the LED Cinema Display at least for the time being. 

For MacBook Air, Mac mini 2011, iMac and MacBook Pro users, it is important to note that OS Lion (10.6.8 or later) is required. 

The release of the Thunderbolt will come as a boost to 2011 MacBook Air, Thunderbolt Display allows MacBook Air users to use the featured gigabit ethernet and FireWire 800 to connect to a wired LAN, where previously a USB to Ethernet Connector was required. Also, where as before MacBook Air users were limited to USB 2.0 transfer speeds, the Thunderbird Display now allows much improved I/O connections. 

Flaws

As mentioned earlier, the Thunderbolt Display is not compatible with the Mac Pro, and this is true of any Mac Mini DisplayPort, meaning many older machines will not be able to use the device. Personally, I find this disappointing. To me, ensuring backwards compatibilty with older models is very important as it suggests consideration for customers who have already invested their money in Apple technology. 

In addition, ease of configuration is not an area in which the Thunderbolt Display excels, with the product lacking an on-screen display menu or any buttons on the casing to enable the adjustment of image quality. The manual calibration process is old fashioned and cumbersome, but you can use this to adjust colour and gamma, while brightness can be set in the system preferences.

Another disappointment is the lack of an anti-glare option, meaning that clearly viewing a Thunderbolt Display in an environment with many light sources can be difficult.

On the design side too, it impossible to pivot or raise and lower the screen. The elegantly curving connection from base to screen may look aesethically pleasing, but falls short in terms of basic functionality.

Connecting the Thunderbird Display to two machines is not as easy a process as one would hope. It is possible to attach a second Mac equipped with Thunderbolt to the display via the seperate Thunderbird Port, but only by aquiring a separate Thunderbolt cable. However, the user is forced to unplug the display's captive Thunderbolt cable from the first machine so that the seondary Mac can gain control of the display. With other displays on the market offering the ability to freely cycle through attached computers connected by multiple inputs, this is another black mark for the Thunderbird. 

Conclusion

If you have a 2011 MacBook Air, taking advantage of the Thunderbird Display's gigabit ethernet and FireWire 800 makes the monitor an appetising option, but if your Mac already offers these features then there's no real reason to consider the Thunderbird over its far more user-friendly competition.

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