With machines like the MacBook Apple has come a long way in closing the price gap between it and its PC competitors. But there's still a large divide with some of their peripherals that is simply too hard to justify, specifically: monitors.
I've been in the market for a new external monitor to connect to my MacBook Pro for about three months and I've been eyeing Apple's 23-inch Cinema HD Display. It's a gorgeous all-digital, flat panel display with 1920 x 1200-pixel resolution that sells for US$1299.
Recently I saw a special on the Dell 2405FPW 24-inch flat panel LCD monitor that caught my eye. Originally selling for US$949 (US$350 less than the Apple LCD) it was on sale for US$759.20, an amazing US$540 less than the Apple monitor.
Both come with free shipping and have an optimum resolution of 1920 by 1200 pixels.
The Dell monitor has 24 inches of viewable screen area, inputs for S-Video, Composite, Component, DVI & VGA connections, four USB 2.0 ports, 500 cd/m2 brightness and 1000:1 contrast. The Apple monitor has 23 inches viewable, two USB, two FireWire 400 ports, 270 cd/m2 brightness and 400:1 contrast.
Don't get me wrong, I really like Apple's hardware and especially like the aluminum bezel on their LCD displays, but when you consider that the Dell has analog inputs, better brightness and contrast and costs almost half of what the Apple monitor costs I'm forced in the direction of the Dell.
What's your take on the price gap between Apple and PC peripherals? Will you pay more for the Apple logo?
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