X-bit labs

24" LCD Monitors Roundup (page 5)

Category: Other

by Oleg Artamonov

[ 10/23/2007 | 08:48 AM ]

Having one cable for all signals is a questionable solution. On one hand, this reduces the clutter of cables on your desk, but on the other hand, you’ll have to take the whole monitor to the repair shop if one connector fails. And if you need to use longer cables or non-standard connectors you’ll have to elongate the existing cable with adapters and extension cords rather than just replace it with a suitable one.

The monitor’s external power adapter is shaped rather oddly. It’s got connectors on the wide side rather than on the narrow ones, as is more common. The connector for the 220V cord is standard while the connector for the monitor’s cord is of an unusual, rectangular, shape. What’s interesting, its pins are symmetrical so you can orient the connector just as you wish when plugging it in.

The monitor has four connectors, though. It’s got two integrated hubs, USB and FireWire, each of which offers two ports. All the ports are placed at the back – not quite handy for various small things like USB flash drives, but appropriate for a mouse, keyboard or a digital camera’s cord.

The monitor doesn’t have an onscreen menu. It is controlled with only three buttons: one to turn it on and two to adjust its brightness. I’ve seen such controls in 30” models from Dell and Samsung, but the lack of a menu in them must have been due to hardware limitations. Here, it is purely a design element.

The only indicator on the Cinema HD is a white LED that shines though a tiny hole in the front panel. It lights up when the monitor is turned on and off, but doesn’t shine at work. I like this solution because large bright blue LEDs of other monitors have become irritating already.

I connected the monitor to an ordinary PC in my tests and had no compatibility issues. Having a standard DVI connector, the Cinema HD was successfully recognized by the graphics card and turned on at its native resolution of 1920x1200 pixels.