Which 20" iMac screen: old (white) or new (aluminum)?

Can anyone summarize the conventional wisdom for me on the quality differences between the new 20" and the old (white) 20" imac screens? I know the new one is only 6-bit, but was the old one 8-bit? I'm considering whether to buy a refurb white one for the better screen.

AND, will the difference in monitor quality matter? Will I notice it? (Let's not talk about glare; I have controlled lighting around the machine and don't expect problems.)

And if anyone can say anything about differences with calibration, I'm open to hearing that too.

Thanks,
Andrew

To my eyes, the major difference is the new iMac's glossy screen which might be a pain to use in certain environment due to reflections.

The old ones were 8-bit (but some were PVA and some were S-IPS, seems there were different batches).

Yes, there are clearly visible differences (limited viewing angle and colour shifts along the vertical axis on 6-bit TN panels), also the dithering will sometimes fail to avoid banding in some gradients. In addition the glass (even without glare) does increase the contrast and causes shadows to clip earlier. How much of a difference this makes depends on the image being viewed.

Cheers,
Uwe

If you're getting the older model, where are you getting it from?

I'm in the marketing of buying a 23" and 20".

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When I switched from PC a few months ago I got the new 20" model as soon as they came out. I ended up sending it back and getting one of the old 24" white models.

The reason for doing this was the screen, the glossy is a problem, my desk faces away from the only window in the room, but there is a white door right behind me and it was reflecting in the glossy screen. If I closed the curtains and turned off the light it was okay.

However the bigger problem with the panel, if you put a solid colour on you can see the color change from light to dark as go from top to bottom, it is light a laptop screen. It makes it very difficult to know if the colors in the photo are actully that shade, or is it the monitor, move around and the shade changes!!

I have none of these problems with the 24" white model, the extra screen size is great and no glossy or color gradiant problems.

I got mine from the refurbished part of Apple's website.

John

I just got a 20' white refurb from Apple. I put in 3 gigs of ram in. It came with Tiger installed so I was able to migrate all my info and apps from my old eMac. It also came with a Leoperd disc. I will not be loading it untill I purchace CS3. The new iMac is a champ. I will recomend Apple referbs to anyone.

I also bought a 20" white refurb to avoid the gloss and other issues on the aluminum iMacs.

I went with the 20 because the 24's screen is brighter and my old G5 iMac 20 was way too bright even at minimum brightness. The Intel is better is this regard, so the 24 may have been fine.

My refurb is working well and I would grab one before they are all sold to photo buffs. I cannot see the appeal of the glossy screen in use--the non reflective LCD was one of the key issues making the switch from CRT's so attractive. I also bought a MacBook Pro to get a matte screen rather than the less expensive MacBook.

The screen issues are well documented and made it a no-brainer for me in choosing the white one.

I wanted to mention that amazon.com has the 20" white one NEW for $1250 which includes a wireless mouse and keyboard - and the keyboard is the white extended one not the aluminum one (which is sexy but has no number pad). This is sold by amazon, not another retailer on the site, so if you are a Prime member it ships free (or ships for $4 overnight which is what I did).

You save the tax on the refurb from Apple, get it faster and it's new. Plus, iLife '08 is included which is nice. The only downside is you'll need to order Leopard from Apple, but it's only 10 bucks since you are getting a new computer.

You can search iMac on amazon - just make sure you go to the one amazon is selling - here's a link:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000VR1WJ0

Brad

Doesn't it have a better screen?

I have the old 20" white imac and at times find myself really wishing I had gone for the 23"...

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TJ

I guess the question is "better than what?" It's a 24" BTW - the new screens are no good on the 24's either - darker on the right (or left - can't remember) - it's been well documented here in another thread.

The white ones are the way to go IMO - but it's a personal choice I suppose.

You can get the 24" for 1500 from Apple BTW