With Intel’s Thunderbolt technology gracing the latest slew of MacBooks and Mac minis, Apple has now revealed the perfect monitor to match. By taking the body of the 27in LED Cinema Display and adding Intel’s lightning-quick connectivity to the mix, Apple’s multitalented Thunderbolt Display is more than just a 27in monitor. It doubles as a slick docking station, adding 2.1 speakers and throwing in an HD webcam for good measure.
At a glance, the Thunderbolt Display is identical to the standard LED Cinema Display. They share the same stunning good looks – that hefty aluminium figure looks and feels like it’s worth every penny of the £899 asking price. And both have the same LCD panel at their core, an LED-backlit, 2,560 x 1,440 IPS unit.
The integrated set of 2.1 speakers still carry a crisp, weighty tune, and the integrated webcam receives a welcome upgrade, leaping from 640 x 480 to a crisp 1,280 x 720.
Functionally, it’s neater than ever. Where the captive cable trailing from the previous LED Cinema Display required separate mini-DisplayPort and USB connections, Intel’s Thunderbolt does it with a single cable. That super-fast connection provides enough bandwidth to carry them all at once.
And the Thunderbolt Display has more than only three USB 2 sockets. At the rear of the monitor, you’ll find three USB 2 sockets, Gigabit Ethernet, FireWire 800, and a Thunderbolt port for daisy-chaining high-speed devices, such as hard disk RAID arrays and high-end video capture devices. There’s even a MagSafe connector for charging your MacBook from.
Image quality is superb. There’s no onscreen display, and only brightness is adjustable from within OS X’s display options, but the Thunderbolt Display delivers incredible images straight out of the box. The LED backlighting delivers eye-popping brightness and the IPS panel combines wide viewing angles with vibrant, accurate colour reproduction. The glossy finish is the only low point; we frequently found ourselves cranking up the brightness to compensate in our bright, sunny office space.
Details | |
|---|---|
| Image quality | 6 |
Main specifications | |
| Screen size | 27.0in |
| Aspect ratio | 16:9 |
| Resolution | 2560 x 1440 |
| Screen brightness | 421cd/m2 |
| Pixel response time | 12ms |
| Contrast ratio | 824:1 |
| Dynamic contrast ratio | N/A |
| Pixel pitch | 0.233mm |
| Horizontal viewing angle | 178 degrees |
| Vertical viewing angle | 178 degrees |
| Speaker type | 2.1 |
| Speaker power ouput | 49W |
| TV tuner | no |
| TV tuner type | N/A |
Connections | |
| DVI inputs | 0 |
| VGA inputs | 0 |
| HDMI inputs | 0 |
| DisplayPort inputs | 0 |
| Scart inputs | 0 |
| HDCP support | yes |
| Upstream USB ports | 0 |
| USB ports (downstream) | 3 |
| 3.5mm audio input jacks | 0 |
| Headphone output | no |
| Other audio connectors | 0 |
Accessories supplied | |
| Other cables supplied | Captive Thunderbolt cable, Captive MagSafe power adapter |
| Internal power supply | yes |
Power consumption | |
| Peak power consumption | N/A |
| Idle power consumption | N/A |
Image adjustments | |
| Brightness control? | no |
| Contrast control? | no |
| Colour temperature settings | none |
| Extra adjustments | none |
Ergonomics | |
| Forward tilt angle | -5 degrees |
| Backward tilt angle | 25 degrees |
| Swivel angle | 0 degrees |
| Height adjustment | N/A |
| Pivot (portrait) mode? | no |
Dimensions | |
| Dimensions | 652 x 209 x 491mm (WDH) |
| Weight | 10.800kg |
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