Apple’s 2004 30-inch Cinema Display

The 32–inch Pro Display XDR isn’t Apple’s first foray into extra–large screens, recalls Adam Banks

Unveiling it at WWDC 2004, Steve Jobs called the 30-inch Cinema Display “the largest desktop canvas ever created”. With a resolution of 2560x 1600, the 16:10 TFT LCD not only boasted an unheard-of four million pixels but also a dramatically imposing physical size. Compared to the regular 23-inch Cinema Display, the 30-inch screen had 70% greater area. From a normal working distance, it could feel overwhelming.

Just two inches thick, with a flat slab design mounted on a tilting stand, the aluminium-clad panel seemed impressively slim compared to the cathode-ray tube monitors still lingering in professional use, even if its wide bezels (similar to a modern iMac, but part of the metal case rather than glazed over) look clunky with hindsight. The price of £2,549 didn’t include upwards of £449 for the new Nvidia GeForce 6800 Ultra graphics cards that had to be installed in the Power Mac G5, the only compatible model, to provide the dual-link DVI connection required. Although Apple claimed wide viewing angles, reviewers found significant colour shifts when pixels were viewed from as little as 45° off-centre. The screen was so big the edges would always be viewed obliquely unless you sat so far away that you couldn’t see details clearly. For video, animation and game creators, the 16-millisecond response time wasn’t fast enough to avoid ghosting on fast motion, drawing unfavourable comparisons with CRT image quality. And despite the relative stability of the LCD matrix, the cold-cathode fluorescent backlighting wasn’t even and would fade over time.

Still, the 30-inch was a popular studio purchase, manufactured for six years before being replaced by the 27-inch 2560x1440 LED-backlit Cinema Display costing just £899. With the launch of Apple’s 32-inch Pro Display XDR, however, premium big screens are back.