I’ve been very happy with my aluminum 23-inch Apple Cinema Display for the past four years. The image quality is excellent, and, while it takes some time to warm up in the morning, my only real complaint is that it’s just too small.
We receive computers damaged in transit from time to time, and in rare instances the carrier declines to reimburse us for the damage. This was the case with a 27-inch iMac we received back in December – the front glass was shattered, the LCD had a pretty deep scratch in it, and there was some deformation of the enclosure itself. The iMac still worked, though.
As we could not sell this computer in good conscience, it’s living on my desk, with new glass, for the time being as my second display for my MacBook Pro. 27-inch iMacs have a Mini DisplayPort that supports input and output. Using the Belkin Mini DisplayPort to Mini DisplayPort cable, I connected my laptop to this iMac, and without any further configuration, the iMac recognized my laptop and became a second monitor.
I’ve seen, played with, and even serviced both the 27-inch iMac and 27-inch Cinema Display, but actually using a screen this large for productive purposes has been a game changer for me. I love screen real estate and 2560 × 1440 is a substantial step up from the 23-inch display’s resolution of 1920 × 1200. The 27-incher is also much, much brighter.
I certainly can’t recommend picking shards of glass out of a damaged iMac, but there’s tremendous value in the big iMac. It has one of the industry’s very finest displays that will extend its useful life significantly if used as a second display for your next computer in a couple of years.
Please note that the 21.5-inch, 24-inch, and 20-inch iMacs do not support this functionality. It’s only the 27-inch that can function as an external display.