All Things Being Equal, Is the Apple Display The Best Monitor For A Mac

Question

Let's put price aside for a second....
Is the Apple Display the best monitor to hookup to a MacBook Pro (or any Mac for that matter) because the Apple Display is specifically configured for Macs where other monitors are probably more configured for PCs/Windows? In other words are Apple Displays the best out of the box for your Mac (minimal configuration, maximum clarity and crispness, etc.).
Thanks.

Answer 1

It's a very good sRGB monitor. The 30 is outstanding. I still think the 23 is a little sketchy; it seems prone to an issue where for as much as an hour you can just discern a ghost of a window that has been up for a few hours; and there are still sporadic reports of weird color casts and "sparkling" effects that can make it difficult to focus on fine details when you're working. The 20 is very good unless you're in a bright environment, in which case you might find its backlight does not go up enough. The 20 has a certain rarity value right now; it's about the last really good wide-format monitor in its size class, though there are still plenty of good 20 or 21 inch 1600x1200 displays out there.
Bear in mind that because OS X (including, most importantly, Safari) still thinks everything is sRGB, if you get an extended gamut AdobeRGB monitor like the latest 90-series 26 incher from NEC, all the colors in iApps like iPhoto and Safari will come out looking Day-Glo.
The very best monitors out there -- and here we're talking 24-inch monitors that cost $1,200 and up once you consider tax and/or shipping -- will tend to have things like a polarizing filter on the display itself, HDCP support, dual or even triple computer inputs, and 10 or 12 bit color support that enables profiling within the monitor independently of the graphics card on your computer. Of the above features Apple is particularly overdue on implementing HDCP, which Hollywood in its stupidity has made a requirement for HD movies (why they want to enrich monitor manufacturers rather than themselves I don't know), and the polarizing filter thingy, which further improves the blacks and the viewing angle on IPS panels such as the ones Apple uses in its displays.
Every now and then a cheaper one comes along -- DoubleSight's latest 25.5 inch ("26 inch" in name only) display comes to mind -- that fulfills all those attractive specifications but usually has some deficiency or other. The most common aggravating feature of cheaper displays, and this has shown up in forums on the DoubleSight display, is you can't turn the brightness control down far enough for domestic use without resorting to hardware calibration and/or pulling back on the individual RGB sliders, which makes color accuracy a problem. But for a brightly lit office environment, and if you're OK dealing with the (hopefully temporary) OS X issues with wide gamut, the DoubleSight is an attractive HD option.
Now will someone help me decide which of the ACD 20 or 23 causes less eye strain when dealing with text? Thanks in advance.