Monitor Question

Hello, I am about to order a mac pro but I am still confused between what monitor to get. I am debating between the apple cinema display 24 inch and the hp 25 or maybe even 27 inch monitor. I know that the cinema display has a camera and a slightly higher resolution but my question is, is it really worth the extra almost $400? I'm thinking I could save some money by getting the hp monitor and then using the money I saved to get a nice set of speakers and an external webcam. So is the apple cinema display really that much better than the hp monitor? By the way I will be using the monitor for everything such photo/video editing, web browsing, word processing and a little bit of gaming. Thanks for any help!

The Apple cinema display uses LED technology so it will look better/more consistent than conventional CCFL monitors and also have no warm up time...

However, for photo editing it is a glossy screen and I simply prefer matte for more realistic colors - the glossy coating can affect the colors.

If I were you and I was looking at 24" I'd go with a high end HP/Dell panel. Matte screen, lower dot pitch, additional inputs etc. Depending on how much photo editing you'll be doing you can put the savings towards a Huey to calibrate the screen too.

Just steer clear of anything larger than 24", 25>28" screens use the same resolution and as a result the images look worse. The next step is 30" which would be too expensive...

Yeah, I was also looking at the dell ultrasharp but I narrowed it down to the hp and apple. I won't be doing to much photo editing. I was just wondering if there is a noticable difference between the apple cinema display and hp 25 inch monitor.

What kind of panel does the HP use - TN, S-IPS etc?

I honestly have no idea. Here is the link to it if you think you can figure it out.

HP® Official Store — Buy the HP 2509m 25" Diagonal Full HD Widescreen LCD Monitor direct from HP

HP is lower res....apple monitor is 1920x1200, HP is 1920x1080.

Yeah, that uses a TN panel.

TN panels aren't very good for color reproduction and have poor viewing angles - looks okay face on but as soon as you move around the color shifts dramatically.

For gaming and normal use I'd be fine but to be honest it's a bit overpriced for a low quality monitor...