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Viewing angle: 170/170 vs. 178/178

T

ThomasJL

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I am trying to decide between buying either a discontinued 23" Apple Cinema Display or a new 24" HP ZR24w, both of which have a 1920 x 1200 resolution, and both have S-IPS panels. The Apple has a viewing angle of 170° horizontal/170° vertical, while the HP is 178° horizontal/178° vertical.

I used to own a display with a 160/160 viewing angle, and I could not stand it. I like to slouch and reline in my chair, and the screen would look awful. It also looked awful when I looked at it from a diagonal position in my room. I have a 178/178 now, and love the viewing angles, but need to sell it because it is wide gamut (I only use sRGB).

The Apple and the HP both are being sold for a similar price. Which should I buy?

Thanks for any feedback. :)
 
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Viewing angles are a spec that gets fudged sometimes, i'd bet the apple has the same viewing angles in real life as the HP does.
 
Viewing angle specs are meaningless to compare as numbers. They can only be used as an identifier to what type of panel is most likely present in the display.

160 deg to 170 almost always signifies a TN based panel. No TN based LCD will ever produce the same image within such a wide range. There is a very narrow window (of approx 30-45 deg) when viewing head on and at level height that will display a homogeneous image without severe color shifting or contrast loss. Vertically a TN based display will always be darker on top than bottom and it's vertical viewing angle may be considered almost pointless.

178 deg can signify either PVA or IPS based panel tech. The actual useful viewing angles of either of these types of panels is indeed very much wider than TN. The image will tend to look very good within 60 to 80 deg of viewing head on and mostly experience contrast loss at higher angles. Vertically, both IPS and PVA are pretty much equal and retain good color and contrast. Some PVA based panels may exhibit gamma shifts; but the angle at which this occurs may vary.

There is no reason to compare numbers like 160 vs 170 deg, as neither is practically better than the other. Some TN's may have slightly better image quality at severe angles; however the viewing angle specs don't necessarily reflect this. It's fairly safe to assume that any PVA or IPS based panel will always have better actual viewing angles than any TN panel.
 
Get the HP,

The 23" Apple is an older panel with slower pixel response and worse contrast ratio, ie. lighter blacks.

Viewing angle is virtually the same as both are IPS panel types, but the newer HP panel is superior in pretty much every quantifiable way otherwise.

You also get more input types and a better OSD (on screen display) to adjust the panel brightness, contrast, and color temperature, as well as more usable scaling ratios in the HP, such as 1:1, aspect and full screen.
 
To chime in, yes the HP is well worth its price, especially compared to the Apple Cinema:
More inputs, pivot, newer & faster panel...

About viewing angles: no two "178 degrees" displays are equal.
As mentioned these numbers are factitious and nowhere near real world results or nothing close to CRTs. Both IPS and PVA panels sell as 178 ones but the experience is quite different.

As such, the ZR24W does not offer 178 REAL degrees of viewing angles, with no change of image quality compared to head on viewing.
When viewed from extreme angles, luminosity drops quite a bit. Especially visible with a white desktop image. On dark images the IPS glow becomes visible. This depends on viewing distance of course and is more pronounced when sitting very close to it.
However there is minimal colour shift compared to what happens with TN panels that change colours or even invert them.
Not to scare you off, but only older IPS with polarizers had a bit wider viewing angles (2490wuxi v1)

With the ZR24W you will have NO trouble whatsoever viewing the display from a slouched position. At a bit lower position from the normal angle, the image displays just fine.
 
Actually, I'd say the HP with it's H-IPS panel will have a bit worse viewing angles since it suffers from white glow on dark colors. There will be glow on dark colors on the CinemaDisplay S-IPS as well, but it will be more of a purple kind.

With that said, I'd also choose the HP since it's new and has an adjustable foot.
 
in fact the ZR24W has an E-IPS, unlike the H-IPS of its other sibling 2475 or the Dells and NECs.
 
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