Is the Mac Thunderbolt display a contender?

[Mike OBrien]

I'm looking for a new monitor. Is the Mac Thunderbolt display a contender?  For instance: can it be calibrated? Is it reliable and accurate?
I'd like to hear from people who have experience using this display.

[jduncan]

I'm looking for a new monitor. Is the Mac Thunderbolt display a contender?  For instance: can it be calibrated? Is it reliable and accurate?
I'd like to hear from people who have experience using this display.

I will recommend you to avoid it if color accuracy / calibration and uniformity is needed.
For similar price you can get better options like the Nec and for extra price you can do better.

1) LG 34um95  this one is not adobe RGB but is a productivity dream and do cover most of sRGB
2) Any of the NEC spectraview  monitors. by example this one:NEC PA272W-BK-SV
3) if money is not an issue go Eizo CG any of them. If money truly is not an object then cg318-4k
4) A contender is LG Digital Cinema 31MU97-B. Its been reviewed by one of the members of this fora.

Best regards,

[D Fosse]

Eizo CX (with Colornavigator). In terms of panel technology absolutely identical to CG, just lacking some extras (internal sensor/hood/video and broadcast standards).

And priced as NEC PA/Spectraview.

[texshooter]

I will recommend you to avoid it if color accuracy / calibration and uniformity is needed.

I hear this all the time: "...if color accuracy is needed," but I don't have the foggiest idea what that means. I've never used a "reference" display, so I confess ignorance. So I would like someone to explain exactly how a "color accurate" display gets the job done when, say, the new Mac 5K display doesn't stand a chance. I have been using a 117% NTSC gamut (whatever that means) display, Color Munki calibrated, for years now, and have been more than pleased with how well the screen matches my Epson 3800 prints.

So please someone enlighten me to what I'm missing.  The local camera shops don't carry the high end reference displays, so I can't go see for myself. I want to upgrade and am willing to pay top dollar, but the more I think about it, the more hesitant I get about chasing after the very best.

[digitaldog]

I hear this all the time: "...if color accuracy is needed," but I don't have the foggiest idea what that means.

It means the display system was designed from the ground up for critical color quality and calibration. The software that drives it along with it’s hardware. Purity across the panel, ability to control both black and white point (contrast ratio), high bit control inside the panel itself. Last time someone asked about the difference between an Apple display and an NEC SpectraView I put this list together. Forgive the copy and paste.

1.Nearly all if not all current SpectraView displays are wide gamut, Apple's are not (sRGB like gamut).
2.SpectraView uses a high bit internal processing path (at least 10-bit) with internal 3D LUTs, Apple and many other's do not. These high bit LUTs allow precise adjustments to be made to the display’s Tone Response Curve without reducing the number of displayable colors or introducing color banding artifacts.
3.Newer NEC SpectraView's use GBr LED which produce far more precise control of White Point, run cooler, use less energy, run far longer than CCFL.
4.SpectraView has 3-4 year on site warranty, Apple has 1 year. 
5.SpectraView panels are hand selected from the manufacturer line (pick of the litter). 
6.SpectraView has electric technologies like ColorComp, which adjusts and improves screen (brightness) uniformity using individually measured matrices for each display at the factory. All done high bit with compensation for operating time and temperature.  Apple does not. 
7.SpectraView has electric technologies like GammaComp, to adjust the monitor's internal 10-bit gamma Look-Up-Table, allowing various custom display gamma or Tone-Response-Curves to be achieved. Apple and many other's don't have anything like this. 
8.SpectraView is a smart display system that integrates custom software for calibration including multiple target calibration's which can be loaded to adjust the display while loading the associated ICC profile, Apple (and few other products aside from Eizo) cannot do this. To quote from the manual: 
9.SpectraView communicates with the display monitors using Display Data Channel - Command Interface (DDC/CI) which is a two-way communications link between the video graphics adapter and display monitor using the normal video signal cable. No extra cables are necessary. All adjustments to the monitor settings are done automatically using this communications link. It is not necessary to manually configure the monitor as all of the necessary settings are made by the software. Apple has nothing like this, nor can 3rd party software you have to pay for extra do this.
10.SpectraView will bundle a custom mated Colorimeter with their software for calibration, Apple doesn't. The price you pay for software and colorimeter with the SpectraView, depending on what country you live in costs significantly less than buying the hardware and software for a non SpectraView. And that extra money will not provide a fraction of the capabilities outlined.
11.SpectraView PA series offer the ability to calibrate WITHOUT a Colorimeter with the FREE Multiprofiler software since each panel is measured with a very expensive spectroradiometer and that data is embedded in a chip in the panel. It can update the calibration as the unit ages to ensure calibration. Apple has nothing like this. 
12.SpectraView can emulate with a single click other behaviors, again on the fly so it can simulate a non wide gamut display (sRGB) among other standardized behaviors (Broadcast Video DICOM, etc)
13.SpectraView has internal electronic control over contrast ratio, Apple and few others provide this. Real useful for soft proofing on media that has differing contrast ratio's (matt vs. glossy papers). 
14.SpectraView has Network support (Windows only). Apple doesn't.
15.SpectraView has provisions to lock the display controls so no accidental alteration to behavior by mistake. Apple doesn't. 
16.SpectraView displays allow the user to raise and lower the display for best viewing position AND it can be rotated 90 degrees for Portrait. Apple doesn't provide this. 
17.Several SpectraView's support Picture in Picture (you can have two differing calibration's per picture). Apple has nothing like this. 

[D Fosse]

I'll have to copy that list myself. The question comes up, in various forms, all the time - and always from people who haven't worked with one of these displays. If you have, you know. And you'll never be able to go back.

The display is the single most critical piece of hardware in the entire chain. It should be at the top of any priority list; that's where the money should go first.

Unlike the other components, a display is functionally an analog device. You can't rely on the out-signal being as good as the in-signal - only as good as the unit happens to be. A cheap CPU, on the other hand, gets the same job done, only in a little longer time. I suspect many think of displays the same way out of habit.

(edit) - and of course, as per the list above, the dedicated software which gives you a degree of control other displays aren't even within shouting distance of.

[texshooter]

I guess it comes down to what do you value more: color accuracy or resolution? For me, it's resolution. So today I bought the IMac 5K.  Wish me luck. besides, photo sharing has moved lately from print to Retina mobile devices that have narrow color gamuts and are  profusely back-lit. So I might as well edit the photos in that same medium.

[digitaldog]

I guess it comes down to what do you value more: color accuracy or resolution? For me, it's resolution.

Yup and you can have both, for a price I‘ve got a high resolution display (Retina) on my Macbook an I’d be hard pressed to do color critical work on it instead of the NEC. Output mistakes or surprises can be expensive.

[bokehcambodia]

NEC Spectraview monitor bundles are the only reasonable suggestion anyone can give a photographer/designer (expect they demand an EIZO for some reason).
Mine was low-end at the time and is now 11,000hrs into use, sensor still working, just one dead pixel, go figure.
Go out and buy a PRO display if you're a photo pro or want to see the pixels you're working on. Price/hours used, cost diminishes;