14 DAY TRIAL // Apple’s new Thunderbolt Display uses a two year old display model, despite the 27-inch monitor being launched to the public just weeks ago, a team of technicians has learned.
After doing what they do best - tear down gadgets - the folks at iFixit were surprised to discover Apple’s newest baby actually has old parts inside it.
Specifically, the display - a 27-inch (diagonal) TFT active-matrix LCD screen that boasts a resolution of 2560 by 1440 pixels. According to the repair shop, this is the standard for displays of this size and price.
They note that the Thunderbolt Display has 12 ms response time and 16.7 million colors, features that “fall short of the 6 ms response time and 1.07 billion colors of Dell's comparable display.”
Dell’s monitor, on the other hand, wouldn’t make a good prop even for a 1992 Star Trek TNG episode. Just look at how thick this thing is.
Leaving aside my compulsion for beauty versus brawn, iFixit adds: “We might be splitting hairs here, but those hairs would be viewed with 1,053,300,000 less colors on Apple's display. Just saying.”
According to the teardown, the LG display reads model number LM270WQ1 which just so happens to be the very same part found in the 27-inch iMacs launched by Cupertino in late 2009.
It’s also the same LCD screen found in Dell's competing 27" monitor. There’s a slight difference between Apple’s hardware and Dell’s, though. The Apple monitor uses LED backlights as opposed to Dell's traditional CCFL, according to iFixit.
The tinkerers also found that Thunderbolt Display comes with a 49 watt 2.1-speaker sound system, including a miniature subwoofer. They remarked: “you will get some pretty decent sound out of this bad boy.”
To see the full teardown, visit the repair experts here. By the way, they gave the Thunderbolt Display a repairability score of 8 out of 10, with 10 being the easiest to repair. That’s quite a good score.