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Review: Apple LED Cinema Display

If you're a MacBook Pro owner, then here's another reason to smile. Apple has designed the beautiful LED Cinema Display especially for you, complete with an extra 24 inches of viewing space, spare controls, and striking performance.
review image
Rating:

6/10

WIRED
Handsome 24-inch auxiliary screen designed specifically as a companion to the MacBook Pro. A single cable lets you power and charge your laptop while also connecting it to the display's three-port USB hub. Arsenic-free screen backlit with mercury-free LEDs. Exceptionally bright.
TIRED
No external controls: Brightness, volume, and power must all be regulated via connected Mac. Doesn't play nice with PCs.

Apple's new LED Cinema Display is designed specifically — nay,exclusively — with MacBook Pro owners in mind, giving them asimple way to dramatically increase their screen real estate with anextra 24 inches of incredibly gorgeous video. This 1,920 x 1,200-pixelresolution monitor includes all the trimmings you'd expect from Apple:beautiful industrial design, spare controls (there isn't even a powerbutton), and unparalleled performance and brightness.

There's a catch, however, and that's that if you don't have a MacBookPro (with its mini DisplayPort connector), you're pretty much hosed. Asingle cable with three connectors splitting off from its terminussnakes out from the back of the LED Cinema Display: the mini DisplayPortplug, a MagSafe charger, and a USB connector. Plug them all into yourMac laptop and you're ready for business, no additional setup required.But if you have any other type of machine, you'll find this monitor ispretty much useless — it won't even work with your MacBook Pro ifyou try booting into Windows via Boot Camp. Booooo!