Design isn’t art. I know some designers that are also artists—the two aren’t mutually exclusive, but it really gets on my tits when a designer loses sight of the fact that they are first and foremost solving a problem, and they let aesthetics rule—to the point of sacrificing functionality. Imho design is at its most beautiful when it’s all about the user experience.Recently I’ve been working with two huge 30″ displays. One is the Apple 30″ Cinema display and the other is the Dell 3007WFP. I took a lot of flak from the graphic designers at Marque for hooking a Dell display up to my Mac, but now I’ve worked with both I can offer an insight into how they compare.

Apple are renowned for their beautiful product design

The designers at Apple are renowned for their beautiful product design, and this Cinema display is another minimalist triumph. When it comes to looks it decimates the Dell and for many of the people who buy them, the visual appeal of the display is very important.

The Apple 30
The Apple 30" Cinema Display is a triumph of beauty over function. Le Corbusier would not approve.

But when it comes to the user experience, the Apple monitor is outshone by the dark side. Both displays feature a USB hub but apple puts all its ports on the back of the monitor, presumably to keep unsightly cables out of view while working. But after a month of ins and outs with a USB flash drive you learn to love the ease of use of the Dell’s two side mounted USB ports. And hold on—what’s that above them? Yes it’s a card reader that I can use to grab images directly from the memory card in my digital camera without having to remember the cable. You won’t see this on the Apple—those extra holes would be far too unsightly.

It’s the arrogance behind Apple choosing the best set-up for us.

Then there’s the core Apple design philosophy that left us with one button mice for so long, and the reason you can only resize an OS X window from the bottom right corner. It’s the arrogance behind Apple choosing the best set-up for us—there’s no need to allow users to choose the font used in the Finder, no need to allow users to choose a different sound to replace that stupid whooshing noise when Apple Mail successfully sends an email, and no need to allow users to adjust the height of their Cinema display. Yes, it’s already at the perfect height, as decided by Apple, regardless of your or your desk’s height.

Dell's alternative to the Cinema Display is cheaper and more functional. This is the 3007WFP, which has now been replaced by the 3008WFP which has improved connectivity.
Dell's alternative to the Cinema Display is cheaper and more functional. This is the 3007WFP, which has now been replaced by the 3008WFP which has improved connectivity.

Dell on the other hand thought it prudent to allow users to adjust the height this massive screen so that they can find a viewing angle that doesn’t give them a pain in the neck, and this really is the killer feature as anyone who has spent time working with one will tell you.

Then there’s the connectivity options for which I’m sure you can guess where Apple stand. Yes, it’s a single DVI connector because that’s all you need to attach your computer. I’m afraid Dell falls foul of this same shortsightedness with the 3007WFP which seems crazy, as I’m sure I’m not alone in wanting to hook up a games console, or maybe a dvd player to such a monster of a display. And Dell listened to people’s complaints about the single connector and they have updated this monitor with a new model, the 3008WFP which comes with a veritable smörgåsbord of connections including VGA, DVI-D with HDCP, HDMI, S-Video, Component, Composite and DisplayPort. Yay!

He only wanted to know one thing, “is it an Apple display?”

But, designers will be designers, and Apple know their target market, something proven today when I offered a brand new Dell display to one of our graphic designers who spent the morning moaning about how terrible his ageing display is. He only wanted to know one thing, “is it an Apple display?” As we speak he’s still sitting in front of the old display, still moaning, and won’t be happy until there’s an Apple logo on his new display, regardless of how inferior the user experience is. Sigh.

I realise that all this ranting paints me as an Apple-hater but I’m not. My phone’s an iPhone, I travel with a MacBook Air and my Dell screen is hooked up to an 8 core Mac Pro—they are definitely the lesser of a few evils, but it just feels to me like so close and yet so far. Would it really destroy OS X to allow us to resize a window by dragging on one of the other three corners?

Postcript. I have no affiliation to Dell or Apple and my company paid full price for both of these monitors. I would also like to point out to Mr Dell that if he would like me to further research this subject I would be delighted to receive the new 30008WFP for an extended test period. Shy bairns get nae sweeties. ;)