The dead pixels were easily apparent during dark movie and game scenes as well as in all the colored test screens in DisplayMate. Horizontal and vertical lines matched up well on the Apple display and the transitions between gray and other colors were good. Again in these tests I didn't notice any ghosting or poor image rendering on the Apple display.
My second major complaint with the Apple 23" Cinema Display is with the stand. Apple built in the easiest to use adjustment for tilt up and down I have used, but that's it. You get no height adjustment nor any lateral side to side adjustment short of actually moving the stand. At 5'8" I'm no NBA center and the display felt too low for me when I was sitting comfortably. Anyone near six feet sitting at my desk would be looking down at the display.
Apple also did not include adjustment for screen rotation from portrait to landscape. Granted not many displays do these days, my Eizo doesn't have that adjustment either. Honestly, I have never felt compelled to use portrait mode, but the ability to if I wanted would be nice.
Final Thoughts on the Apple 23" Cinema Display
Is the Apple 23" Cinema Display a good display? Undeniably. Is it ideal for every computer user? No. Mac users will be the obvious user group for the display since it is adjustable with the Mac OS tools. Windows based PC users need to think hard about buying the Apple display. Sure it's pretty near perfect out of the box now, but what about down the road? You will never be able to adjust anything other than the brightness with a Windows system. That's a problem that's pretty hard for me to get over considering that the Eizo I test with is very near the same price, performs better and has a plethora of screen adjustment features. Apple says no adjustment controls because you don't need them. I say maybe you don't need them, but give them to me anyway. It helps me justify a $1300 buy over the competitions similarly priced, and fuller featured displays.
