[PJ G4]

I need advice. I am in the process of buying a new computer. My choice is a Quicksilver 800 with an Apple 17" Studio Display. I currently own a Sony VAIO GRX-570 laptop with a 16.1" LCD and 1600x1200 resolution. I was able to borrow the Quicksilver and 17" Studio Display. When I compared the Mac to the Sony I was surprised to find so much difference in the sharpness of text and photos. When opening my Hotmail account the messages are very blurry. I used photos from dpreview.com which were taken from high resolution digital cameras to compare images and the Sony was much sharper. Why is this. I would really like to buy the Mac but the differences are quite great in my opinion. Both computers are using the same video card, the Radeon 7500. Is the resolution the difference. Why does no one make a stand alone LCD with this kind of resolution if it makes the images sharper. I would much rather have a 16"-17" LCD with higher resolution than a larger LCD with less resolution. Would there be any stand alone LCD that would giver sharper images than the Apple Studio Display. By the way the Mac is running OS X 1.5 Thanks

[PeteWK]

That all seems strange. I have the September 2002 Consumer Reports in front of me. The Apple 17 inch LCD bested all of the tested models by a wide margin. CR gives ratings of Poor (black dot), Fair (half black dot), Good (clear dot), Very Good (half red dot) and Excellent (red dot). The Apple 17 inch screen was the only one to receive an Excellent rating.

CR commented that the Apple specifically had excellent image quality and a wide viewing angle. The test included nine total screens including the iMac and 7 non-Apple LCD screens, including a Sony which finished 5th out of 9. Also tested were 14 CRTs.

My thought is that something is wrong with your test of the LCD. You may want to try adjusting the settings from the computer, or even resetting the controls back to OEM specs.

PeteWK

[Peabo]

You are running the 17" at 1280x1024 right?