Two monitors

In this article two 24-inch monitors are compared. First one is the monitor associated with the 24-inch iMac. And second one is the 24-inch Gateway monitor connected to a Windows Vista computer.

The Gateway 24-inch monitor has the following properties mentioned on the monitor itself: HD Display / HD 1080p / DCDi by Faroudja / resolution is 1920 X 1200 / Universal inputs: HDMI, DVI, VGA, Component, Composite, S-Video, UltraColor Gamut 92%, 4-Port USB 2.0 Hub.

Figure 1. Properties of Gateway 24-inch monitor

Monitors with Power Off

This is how the monitors look when they are powered off.

Figure 2. Apple iMac 24-inch Powered Off

Figure 3. Gateway 24-inch monitor powered off

Figure 4. Apple iMac and Gateway 24-inch monitor powered off, side by side

The Apple iMac can not be turned into a portrait mode; it’s always in the landscape mode. However, the Gateway 24-inch monitor can be turned to the portrait mode. This monitor also slides up and down.

Figure 5. Apple iMac and Gateway 24-inch monitor powered off, side by side in portrait mode

Monitors Displaying Wallpapers

Here the monitors are shown displaying the standard wallpapers that come with Windows Vista and Mac OS X.

Apple iMac with standard wall paper

Figure 6. Apple iMac 24-inch monitor with the standard Mac OS X wallpaper

Gateway 24-inch as an extension monitor to a Vista computer

Here the Gateway monitor is used as a second monitor to the primary laptop screen. That’s why, this monitor does not have the Windows Vista bar at the bottom (or anywhere on the screen).

Figure 7. Gateway 24-inch monitor with Windows Vista Wallpaper

Figure 8. Apple iMac and Gateway 24-inch monitors with Standard Wallpapers

The Apple Website on the monitors

Here both the monitors show the Apple Website. The iMac shows the site in Safari on OS X. And the Gateway shows the site in Safari on Windows Vista.

Apple Website on iMac

Figure 9. Apple Website shown in the Safari web browser on Apple iMac 24-inch screen

Apple Website on Gateway

Figure 10. Apple Website shown in the Safari web browser on Gateway 24-inch screen

Apple Website side by side

Figure 11. Apple Website shown in the Safari web browser on iMac and Gateway 24-inch screen side by side

Monitors for viewing PDFs

Here the monitors are shown with PDF files. The portrait mode of Gateway 24-inch monitor makes it fun to read PDF documents (or any long, continuous documents or streams of text). The portrait mode is not possible with iMacs.

PDF viewing with iMac

Figure 12. Viewing a PDF on iMac

PDF viewing with Gateway 24-inch monitor

As shown in the figure below, you can turn the Gateway 24-inch monitor to the portrait mode and see one full PDF page at a time. This makes it very convenient and pleasant to read large documents.

Figure 13. Viewing a PDF on Gateway 24-inch monitor

One of the fun things is to check the ‘Enable Auto Pivot’ on the EzTune program that comes with the Gateway 24-inch monitor. With this checked, the display in the monitor will automatically go to the portrait mode when the monitor is turned.

Figure 14. Auto Pivot on the Gateway 24-inch monitor

PDF viewing on different monitors

Here the two monitors (iMac and Gateway) are shown side by side for viewing a PDF document.

Figure 15. Viewing PDF on two different monitors

Screen Resolutions

The maximum screen resolutions on both the monitors (iMac 24-inch and Gateway 24-inch) are 1920X1200 pixels. Of course, various resolutions can be achieved on both the monitors.

While the iMac monitor is bright and crisp, both the monitors are very usable for day-to-day purposes.

Changing the Display Settings on second monitor

On Windows Vista, the display settings for the second monitor can be changed from the Control Panel – Display Settings dialog box.

Figure 16. Display Settings for the second monitor

Changing the Display Settings on iMac (OS X)

The screen resolutions for the iMac monitor can be changed from System Preferences – Displays.

Figure 17. Changing display settings on iMac

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