Snippet: My (Embarrassing) Issue with Inexpensive Displays ☇

Matt Alexander of OneThirtySeven fame shares a little bit of a response to Shawn Blanc’s post on using similar, but less expansive displays than Apple’s:

At the same time, however, I cannot help but cringe at the Dell moniker emblazoned across the front of the display. In reality, I suspect I’d never pay much attention to this innocuous piece of branding. But, as a design-conscious individual, I cannot shake the feeling of asymmetry between the Dell display and my 11-inch Air.

I pride myself on being an open-minded person when it comes to the competitive technological landscape. In instances such as this, however, I simply cannot pull the trigger on a Dell-branded display.

Alexander brings up a good point—currently, my main Macs are using their internal displays, and the G5 is using a Samsung display I bought a few years back. It’s rather plain and inoffensive, but I can also see the desire to get the Apple display. That extra $400 means the ability to charge a MacBook, a set of decent speakers, a microphone, iSight camera, and plenty of ports. If you add up these components separately (taking into an account the Thunderbolt hubs that will soon exist), it’s really not a bad value. With some of the other dual-link DVI displays, depending on the Mac, an adapter could be an added expense.

Personally, I’d much rather save some money and put it towards improving the computer, but I can see the hard decisions when it comes to finding a balance of performance, price, and everything matching. This also makes me wonder how successful a 21″ Apple display (similar to the iMac’s) would be, especially at a $500-$600 price point (still enough screen real-estate and features).