Review: LaCie Photon18blue LCD monitor

Reviewed By: Kirk Hiner

Review Date: April 25, 2001

I haven't had good luck with Apple monitors. Never a problem with computers, never a problem with printers, but their confounded monitors have been more troublesome to me a tent full of chiggers. The original 17" Studio Display continues to chill me to this very day, as the myriad problems I've had there could fill an entire forum. In a way, then, I'm happy Apple made sure I couldn't purchase another of their monitors for as long as I have my 450 MHz G4. The ADC has proven a godsend to me as it has forced me to look elsewhere for my displays, thereby improving the chance that I'll get a quality monitor that will function beyond the warranty period.

In my quest for a replacement, I had the opportunity to try out LaCie's Photo18blue, an 18" flat panel LCD monitor. If I may quote Mono Puff, "Once you get down in New York City, you'll never go home again. Once you've had extra crispy, you'll never go back again."

The Photon18blue, fellow Mac users, is extra crispy.

The first thing I noticed about the Photon is its striking appearance. But the navy blue casing isn't there just for good looks, it also helps to focus your eyes on the screen in the same way that a picture frame should help you focus on the image. And unlike the rigid stands of the Apple flat panels, the Photon is supported by a "smart foot" that allows the user to adjust the height, tilt and swivel to suit the work environment. It also creates space beneath the monitor, allowing for placement of USB devices or, in my case, for USB chords to flow freely.

And although I didn't try it, the Photon even has the ability to be hung on the wall. That's a little too Bill Gates for me.

Whenever I had purchased monitors in the past, I never considered moving beyond the 17" range. Any frequent use with a larger project would cause water to build up behind my eyes like a dam about to burst, and I'd find myself crying on the subway to release the pressure. Or at least I think that was why. Maybe I was just sad. But with the clarity and crispness of the Photon's TFT (thin film transistor) natural color matrix screen, I may never cry again without having first hit my finger with a hammer. The 18" display is stunning, plain and simple. The colors are vibrant and the text is amazingly crisp, moreso even than that of my active matrix PowerBook display.

The Photon claims to provide 160-degree horizontal viewing and an 80-degree from center viewing angle, but I found one or two issues with this. Although you can clearly discern what's on the screen from these angles, the clarity does seem to fade a bit. Also, even when looking straight into the monitor, the corners did develop a very slight brownish-green hue. I attribute this to the sheer size of the screen as backing up another foot caused the discoloration to disappear.

Lacie includes a hood with each monitor that can be affixed with velcro straps. This mainly serves to enhance color by blocking outside light. Combined with the relatively glare-free LCD screen, this made the Photon one of the most accurate displays I've ever used once I was able to work my way through the color calibration.

Those used to aperture grill monitors may have the same problems I did with color calibration at first. Because 80% of my work is designed for the web, ColorSync and Adobe's gamma control panel are pretty much all I need for color calibration. And after calibrating numerous monitors in my time, I pretty much have it down to a science. Not so with LCD monitors. It's not that it's hard to do, but rather that the brightness and contrast options have to be handled somewhat differently. On the other hand, the on screen display controls (OSDs) are very easy to set-up and adjust, probably the easiest I've used, and certainly the most powerful. It's possible to indepently adjust the red, green, blue, cyan, magenta and yellow, all while preserving the screen's white balance. And because it's LCD, you won't have to recalibrate the monitor every few months to guarantee accurate color representation. Just as important, the manual does a good job of explaining what each of the on screen controls affects. This being my first deep excursion in the LCD world, I found this information to be invaluable.

The troubleshooting section, however, was not as useful. When I first started using the monitor, I tried switching from the default resolution of 1280x1024. Rather than select from the "built-in" options in the monitor control panel, I accidentally chose the regular 1024x768, 85Hz setting. This caused the screen to go black, and I could not retrieve the image. I could pull up the OSD, but none of my changes would fix problem. Not even resetting the monitor as per the manual's instructions would help. I eventually restarted the computer, and I had an image briefly before the screen went black again. Figuring it to be a preference setting, I rebooted with extensions off which kept the image up. I then deleted the monitor prefs and rebooted one last time, and all was once again right with the world...although some guidance from the manual would have been helpful here.

Being more careful this time, I chose the "built-in" 1024x768 option and was quite surprised to find the crispness and clarity gone. It suddenly seemed as if I was once again looking at my aperture grille monitor. In fact, only at 1280x1024 does the Photon really shine. If there's an OSD setting that helps the image remain crisp at lower resolutions, I couldn't find it. This didn't prove bothersome, however, because the screen looks so good at 1280x1024 that there's no reason to switch to anything else...unless you have to, as with games.

The problem there is that most games automatically resize the screen when launched. If the Photon doesn't support that resolution, you get the black screen trouble. Some games can be set to not take over the screen, so be sure you check for that ability (holding the option key when launching will usually pull up this dialog box) before starting up the game.

However, at $2300, the Photon is not exactly aimed at the gaming market. It's geared towards graphics professionals, as is indicated by some of its special features such as its tilting ability. By simply turning the screen clockwise, users can transform the Photon from a landscape to portrait monitor. Software is included that, with just a couple clicks, switches the contents of the screen to match the display angle. However, this automatically reduces the resolution, so you're once again faced with blurry images.

The hood, byt the way, can be adjusted to fit the monitor in both landscape and portrait mode.

As I've indicated throughout this review, the Photon18blue is easily the best monitor I've ever used...provided I didn't stray from its recommended settings. For graphics and business professionals who spend the day staring at their screens, the Photon18blue provides accurate color that's incredibly easy to look at. In addition, the 1280x1024 default resolution provides plenty of retail space for multiple apps or tool boxes. Also, the 18" screen allows for viewing from fairly wide angles with only minimal discoloration and fading. However, if you need more diversity out of your monitor than the Photon18blue will allow, you're better off sticking with a traditional aperture grille model for now.

Just stay clear of Apple monitors, or it'll all end in tears. Trust me on this one.

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