New 24-inch Cinema Display Goes LED, Gets Hydra Cable

At last week’s media event, Apple introduced the new 24-inch LED Cinema Display, the first Apple external display to feature LED backlighting, a trend that Apple embarked on in 2007 as a way of eliminating the mercury used in fluorescent lamps. Most importantly, Apple is aiming the LED Cinema Display at laptop owners (clever as we are, it’s pretty obvious by Apple’s tagline, “The first display made precisely for a MacBook”). To live up to that claim, Apple outfitted the LED Cinema Display with an iSight camera, a microphone, a 2.1 stereo speaker system, and a special cable with three connectors: USB, Mini DisplayPort, and MagSafe through which you can power your notebook. It also features three self-powered USB ports – all of which are
enabled upon plugging the USB connector into your laptop, but which continue to provide power to an iPod, iPhone, printer, or camera even when the laptop isn’t connected.

Unfortunately, the new display appears to be compatible only with the new MacBook, MacBook Air, and MacBook Pro that are equipped with the Mini DisplayPort, according to Apple’s specifications page.

As with the previous model, the 24-inch LED Cinema Display has a 1920 by 1200 resolution, and will be priced at $899 when it ships in early November 2008.

Although not as prominently featured on Apple’s Web site, the existing line of Apple Cinema Displays (30-inch, 23-inch, and 20-inch) are still available and unchanged. Hopefully, we’ll see a transition to the LED style at Macworld Expo or soon after.