Today, a 27″ Apple Thunderbolt Display showed up on my doorstep and while I’ve only used it for a few hours, there are a few things that make it a dream display.
First off, it’s 27 inches (diagonal)! This is huge; my last display was 24 inches and the first TV I bought myself was 27 inches and I watched that at 10 feet away. The resolution is 2560×1440 which is a lot more than the 1920×1200 I had before. It may not seem like a lot, but the extra real estate (especially vertical) lets me use the iPhone simulator for the iPhone 5 without scaling. This alone, makes it worth getting a huge display.
Second, the Thunderbolt connector means that I’ve gone from plugging in power, display, Ethernet, FireWire 800, and USB down to power and Thunderbolt as I plug Ethernet into the display as well as USB and FireWire 800. This is effectively the docking station that Apple hasn’t made since the Duo Dock (I’ve wanted a dock since I started using a laptop as my primary machine many years ago).
Third, I had my machine connected to my old display using a Mini DisplayPort to HDMI connector which handled audio as well as video. The problem was that in this configuration, the sound can only be controlled via the display and the display controls were pretty awful. Now, I can use the keyboard volume controls (and mute). I can also control the brightness with the keyboard.
So far the only downside appears to be power consumption. We’re in an old house with very few circuits in the house (pretty much everything is on one circuit). The display and part of my office is plugged into one outlet; I keep hearing my UPS cycle and I think that this is due to a slight voltage drop. Previously I’ve only heard this when I turned on the printer. Hopefully it won’t be too annoying and I don’t go insane before we move! Also, the display is quite warm and for awhile this afternoon, I could feel the heat a few inches away from it.
While I was hoping for an updated display with USB 3.0, the only thing that would have gained me is faster backups to my Voyager Q. I can still hold out hope that Newer Technology adds Thunderbolt to the product.
If I get around to it, I’ll post a longer review in the future.