Sad Mac

I finally got down to an Apple Store and had my first look at the new iMacs. At first glance it looked pretty good, but at second glance it didn't. If I didn't know what to look for I wouldn't have seen it but the 20” screens really are darker at the top and lighter at the bottom. When I put that standard image of the clown fishes in the green plants it looked terrible. Too dark on the top with medium tones going almost black then so light at the bottom that light tones just washed out. This is completely unacceptable for a graphic artist. And I didn't like the glare, either. It wasn't terrible and I was in the brightly lit store but why would I want to put up with that?

The 24” looked much better but still had the reflections in the glossy screen. I could probably adjust to it but why spend $1,799 for something that's less than I'd like? Very odd of Apple to not offer a matte screen and to go with a cheap TN Film 6 bit FRC screen on the 20”. Artists and photographers all across the internet have been complaining, saying they can't use it. This is a major blunder, maybe Jobs has lost it. And I really prefer the new styling of the aluminum, thin body, but the screen quality trumps everything else, including speed. I really wanted to like these new ones and I don't.

What it boils down to is that I'm not getting one, when I was all set to buy two. I'm going to go for one of the white iMacs, on sale everywhere for around $1,299. I'm even thinking of getting the Mac Mini for the home computer, that way I can still use my old monitor and the compact keyboard I bought. I was really looking forward to a new iMac screen and making my old cinema display the second monitor but maybe it's not worth the price.

I'd love to go for a couple of the white 24” iMacs but don't think I can afford that. But the bottom line is I waited for these new iMacs for nothing. And what about the future? Is Apple going to only make glossy displays from now on for everything? I'm very disappointed.