Apple Thunderbolt Display (27-inch)

Reviews for Apple Thunderbolt Display (27-inch)

Customer Reviews and Ratings

3.5 out of 5 stars

Based on 208 reviews

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  • 1.0 out of 5 stars

    HORRIBLE FOR IMAC, MULTIPLE DISPLAYS AND LION

    • Written by from sacramento

    I was so excited to get my 27 inch iMac, and thunderbolt display(TBD)...until i opened them up and set them side by side.... and went huh?

    The TBD is shorter than the 27 iMac so the screens do not line up. that is a bad design flaw. if you had the laptop or the 21 inch iMac this wouldn't even matter so I'm lost for why they didn't make them match. did they hire someone from micro$oft to design this?

    Second design flaw for the TBD is actually LION the os... does not work well with multiple displays like snow leopard does! when you use the new FULLSCREEN mode in lion apps it actually dims out the TBD(or any other screens for that matter) and displays a linen style backdrop which make the $1,000 monitor a very nice paper weight. I would hope this would be addressed in a LION update ASAP.

    The third and very irritating design flaw is the lack of a POWER BUTTON. so now your pretty much forced to look at the linen style backdrop because you can't turn off the monitor. its like a reminder how much you paid to look at NOTHING.

    I have been a mac user and customer for over 13 years and have owned/used almost every product apple has made and let me say that I have not been this disappointed from apple ever with both the TBD and LION.

    3123 of 4178 people found this useful

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  • 2.0 out of 5 stars

    Beautiful and full featured yet handicapped by LCD quality control

    • Written by from Frisco

    I purchased two of these beautiful displays a few weeks ago and was wowed with them. The displays have a lot of functionality with the multitude of ports on the backside. The ethernet, firewire, and usb ports are great when docking a computer such as an air. This is the good.

    The bad is that the LCD panel inside of of the two units had a blue/greenish tint to it on the right and bottom area of the display which was very prominent when a light or white background was moved over it. I had that display replaced only to have the new one have yellowing around the bottom left corner and upper middle when on a darker background. Likely is caused by backlight bleed.

    At $1000, I would assume others are using this for creative means and work like myself. Apple since will only replace the panel once. Being in photography, I am unfortunately having to return the display. Disappointing.

    1469 of 1668 people found this useful

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  • 4.0 out of 5 stars

    Ultimate docking station for my Macbook Air

    • Written by from candiac

    Likes:
    - great size, was a bit concerned it would be too large compared to my previous Apple Cinema 20" display, but I quickly appreciated the extra space
    - Clean simple design
    - No fan, no noise - sometimes get fan noise from my MBA when using video chat 9heavy processing i guess)
    - Love the Docking simplicity - I plug 2 FW 800 drives, keyboard, Ethernet (Thunderbolt HD prices are crazy, even by this monitors standards...)
    - no concerns about reflection, I'm in sunny office by a window, no issues with reflection at all
    - Built in FaceTime camera is great - was tired of looking sideways at my laptop during video calls
    - Colors bright and even
    Dislike:
    - undocking - no clear documentation on how to undock when you have multiple drives attached. Found an applescript called "undock" to eject all drives prior to undocking
    - Apple needs to improve communication on how to "undock", sleep computer first ? eject disks, etc...
    - Smell - yes smell, for first few days, like some past macbook pros i've owned, this monitor has a "smell" for few days from the 'electronics" heating up, not too techie, but there's obviously some sort of coating etc. that emits a annoying smell, it eventually goes away, but reminded me of my past macbook pros
    - no USB 3, this is a bit ridiculous, again, considering the price of thunderbolt external HDs
    - would like to have audio out to plug speakers

    Summary:
    would i buy again and recommend - yes.
    hope this was helpful to shoppers

    1135 of 1300 people found this useful

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  • 3.0 out of 5 stars

    Decent Display

    • Written by from W. Lafayette

    Pros:
    The display is decent, has a nice crisp image and good color quality. Makes a wonderful "docking station" for an Air. From a hardware perspective, seems to work ok with my new 27" iMac.

    Cons:
    The glossy screen is extremely unfortunate; in nearly all lighting conditions, with anything other than a white background, I can clearly see my reflection in the display. The lack of a power button and height adjustment -- other than reams of paper under it -- is also disappointing. At a minimum, the VESA adapter should be included. It is silly that the height does not directly align with a 17" iMac's screen, results in a rather annoying offset between the two.

    The biggest problem, however, is Lion's current (10.7.2) compatibility with dual displays. You will seriously feel like there are no developers at Apple using 10.7 with dual displays. You'll get to enjoy such basic problems as:
    - an occasional missing mouse cursor when moving between displays (don't worry it comes back when you click somewhere).
    - Extremely poor interoperability with Mission Control (one example: can't drag windows to spaces on other displays).
    - blank 'secondary' displays with apps in full screen mode.
    - occasional corrupted windows / menu bar when moving finder windows between displays.
    - issues setting desktop backgrounds, if you also use spaces.
    - a host of other issues that feel basic and obvious.

    193 of 210 people found this useful

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  • 3.0 out of 5 stars

    Dual display bugs and poor design choices mar an otherwise amazing product

    • Written by from Fort Wayne

    Pros:

    • This display provides real dual display functionality for laptops for the first time in Apple history. This has allowed me to ditch my Mac Pro and consolidate to a single machine. I cannot say how amazing that has been.
    • The Thunderbolt ports do not appear to be a bottleneck for connected devices. I have seen no slowdowns from chaining the displays.
    • The screen has fairly accurate color representation, an even backlight and good brightness variation for different environments.

    Cons:

    • A dual display setup is very buggy. Dual display support under Lion is abysmal, but I have tried to not reflect that in my judgement of this product. When reconnecting the laptop, the displays often "forget" arrangement, desktop backgrounds and which one is the primary. This is a major annoyance and actually makes me not want to disconnect the laptop because I'll have to spend 2 min resetting things when I get back. It doesn't "just work" and it needs to be fixed quickly.
    • It's not just glossy, it's practically a mirror finish. I have used several 30" displays from other vendors and while the matte finish wasn't as attractive while off, they worked a lot better while on. Any amount of sunlight causes severe issues with reflections. You must be very careful where you place the displays. I understand the aesthetic, but not at the expense of usability. I would very much like to see a matte option.

    I personally wouldn't buy these displays if they weren't the only ones that allowed for chaining. That being said, they do (generally) perform as promised.

    Fixing reconnection bugs would bump my review to a solid 4 stars. A matte option would make it 5 (and cause me to upgrade).

    187 of 206 people found this useful

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  • 1.0 out of 5 stars

    DO NOT BUY!!!!!!!!!!

    • Written by from Gloucester

    After time my display started making horrible static noise! This is a very common problem that lots of people experience, you can even read about that in these reviews. HORRIBLE!

    193 of 231 people found this useful

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  • 1.0 out of 5 stars

    Great display, poor ethernet integration

    • Written by from Florham Park

    As a display, this monitor is magnificent. Great colors, clarity, viewing angles, etc.

    Where it fails miserably is in the ethernet integration. This display is supposed to act like a docking station where you can plug your usb and ethernet into the display, then your laptop uses the ethernet and usb interfaces in the display when the thunderbolt cable is plugged into the laptop.

    Unfortunately once you disconnect from the display, when you return and plug the thunderbolt cable back in, you may find that the ethernet port is no longer available. The only way to restore functionality is to reboot your laptop.

    You can read a very long thread discussing this problem on the apple forums. You will see this isn't just an isolated problem. Unfortunately this site doesn't allow me to publish the URL, so just google for: thunderbolt ethernet not available

    I keep hoping every OS X Lion update will fix this but after at least 6 months, the problem still persists.

    174 of 199 people found this useful

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  • 2.0 out of 5 stars

    So many problems.

    • Written by from Montreal

    I should've read the other reviews before purchasing a brand new MacBook Pro and Thunderbolt display. Plagued with problems.

    1) Display flickers (apparently a common trait)
    2) Unplugging MBP from Thunderbolt display causes MBP to shut down.
    3) Plugging an awake or sleeping MBP into Thunderbolt display is a mess with the display needing multiple plug/unplugs to even turn on. USB, Firewire ports don't work. MBP needs hard reboot.

    The above description is not a rare occurrence but almost every time.

    . . .

    When it's all working it can be very nice but this level of disfunction is not what I expected for $3500 worth of brand new equipment. I am bitterly dissappointed.

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  • 1.0 out of 5 stars

    $1000 boat anchor

    • Written by from Warrenton

    Worked well for a year, then had major audio problems (static, quite loud). Finally, it was powered off to try and fix the audio and then the display went black. Not working at all now. VERY disappointed in Apple, there doesn't seem to be any quality control any more for their products. I will never buy another Apple monitor again.

    170 of 196 people found this useful

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  • 3.0 out of 5 stars

    It would be perfekt if...

    • Written by from Nacka

    I've had my display soon for a week, and I am quite content with it. It is quality all through. There is however one problem. My display won't wake up with my MBP. The display stays in sleep mode.

    I was in contact with apple support regarding this and got the answer that it is a known bug. The work-around is that i have to pull out the thunderbolt cord from the MBP and put it in again. Then the screen wakes up again. That is HIGHLY annoying. Until apple fixes that issue I will have to keep on doing that.

    166 of 189 people found this useful

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  • 1.0 out of 5 stars

    Unstable and extremely Disappointing

    • Written by from London

    I bought this monitor at great expense for my Mac Book Pro.
    Out of the box it does not seem to plug in and work- like I was sold it would. In fact it is as though this device was never tested with other Apple products. It fails to open after the computer goes to sleep. Huge compatibility issues, badly tested waste of money.- And, when you do get it working, for that brief period of time, the image quality I would say is average to disappointing- I see blurring when scrolling. I wish I could give this thing no stars- As that is what it clearly deserves. Apple don't seem to test their devices with any care anymore.

    187 of 237 people found this useful

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  • 1.0 out of 5 stars

    Don't buy it if using with a Macbook Pro

    • Written by from Toronto

    I bought this monitor a week ago, worked great for 2 days. After your laptop goes to sleep, the monitor doesn't wake up. You have to shut down, restart, reset and sometimes start on safe mode to go back to normal.

    I looked online, TONES OF PEOPLE ARE HAVING THE SAME PROBLEM.

    Apple is not doing anything to fix it.

    Save you money and time.

    158 of 184 people found this useful

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  • 1.0 out of 5 stars

    Standby Issues

    • Written by from Snohomish

    I'm having similar issues as other users have reported. I bought this display and a new macbook pro retina. Everything was working fine for a couple of weeks and then I started having issues with the USB ports and network not working after coming out of standby.

    I also think there should have been a audio line out on this display. I am very disappointed with this monitor.

    139 of 159 people found this useful

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  • 2.0 out of 5 stars

    Beautiful picture, poor Thunderbolt port features

    • Written by

    The picture quality is spectacular, even though it is glossy. The unit itself is beautifully designed. The main issues are when connected to my MBP 13" (Mid 2011). The Apple USB keyboard (connected to TBD) is often not recognized or does not register all the key inputs. It seems random which keys are recognized. Second, the MBP will not wake from sleep when connected to the TBD (have to force restart). For a $1000 display, it's advertised features should be better. Hopefully a firmware/software fix is in the works.

    140 of 165 people found this useful

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  • 1.0 out of 5 stars

    Nightmare

    • Written by from Lakeland

    I purchased 2 of these displays on the date of release for my work and its been nothing but a nightmare since that day. between the light bleed on the bottom left of the screen. the amount of heat these things put out. the severe issue with image persistence, and the fogging under the glass. for a $1000 a pop you would not expect to have these issues. to top everything off the apple stores in my area are an hour away and have done absolutely nothing to repair them besides replace the glass and feed me lip service about this being normal. here i am 9 months later with 7 trips to apple stores and separate apple techs, now running out of warranty and i'm screwed.

    137 of 160 people found this useful

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  • 1.0 out of 5 stars

    WORST PURCHASE EVER

    • Written by from Lawrence

    USB ports on the back of the Thunderbolt display usually do not work. I have a brand new 2012 macbook pro that I am trying to use with it but I can't get the connected devices that I leave on my desk at work to operate when I connect the display to my macbook pro. I have an apple usb keyboard and a usb flash drive and neither will work routinely. Apple support doesn't have a solution. Actually, the automated system doesn't even understand the item "thunderbolt display." It just says "I don't understand."

    I recommend a simple google search on "thunderbolt display usb issues" before you throw away $1000.00

    Apple can't fix this issue and they will not give me a refund.

    I've wasted my money and my time trying to use this display the way it should work.

    My workaround as is: every morning I have to come into my office, attach the thunderbolt cable to my macbook, open my macbook to wake it up, shut it down, restart holding down the command+option+p+r to reset the pram, then wait for it to start up fully, close the lid, and then and only then can I use the keyboard or any usb peripherals.

    NOT COOL.

    133 of 155 people found this useful

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  • 1.0 out of 5 stars

    Bad buy.

    • Written by from Sausalito

    Amazing how crisp it is and enjoy the thunderbolt options. Great to watch a movie on I bet. HOWEVER, as an Art Director/Designer this was probably the worst display I've ever worked on. It's like looking at a mirror, reflects EVERYTHING and then some. Bad eye strain after one week so I bought a screen defuser - so basically defeats the point of spending $$$ for a sharp display.

    127 of 152 people found this useful

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  • 3.0 out of 5 stars

    Mixed review

    • Written by from Montreal

    It's difficult to decide how many stars to give because some things about the monitor are impressive, while there are also some very annoying glitches.

    If you use the monitor with a laptop, the system becomes very temperamental if you put the laptop to sleep and wake it up. I've had the following issues after waking up the computer:
    -the screens blink and never recover; forced to reboot
    -lose ethernet connection and can't get it back unless you reboot.

    Also, you have to remember that closing the laptop puts everything to sleep. To continue working you have to wake the system back up.

    The Thunderbolt port is also very delicate. If the wire gets wiggled, I lose the connection to the monitor and anything docked to the monitor. So any external hard drives are disconnected and you will get "please eject disk before disconnecting errors". This can cause major headaches if you're in the process of video editing.

    Despite these glitches, I find the image quality to be impressive and the docking ability to be convenient. It's very easy to configure your screens, choosing the main screen and secondary screen, etc. I hope the sensitive port doesn't prove to be a problem. The other issues will probably get worked out with firmware.

    111 of 121 people found this useful

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  • 1.0 out of 5 stars

    Guaranteed frustrations on a daily basis.

    • Written by from Denver

    The Thunderbolt display will not play nicely with my MacBook Air (2011 model). Go read online forums, and you'll see that it consistently malfunctions with most Apple laptops: Clamshell mode doesn't work, the display doesn't wake up, half your windows are off-screen, etc.

    Apple is fully aware of the issue, keeps promising fixes, but the fixes never work. It's been months, and I still can't use the display normally. Applecare just makes me reset my laptop, but that only fixes the problem once.

    Unless you want to have to restart your computer every time it goes to sleep, or every time you plug it in, don't buy this display.

    108 of 119 people found this useful

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  • 1.0 out of 5 stars

    DisplayPort monitor compatibility blocked last minute

    • Written by from Herriman

    I bought a 27" thunderbolt display thinking I could daisy-chain it to my current monitor (DELL U2711 w displayport). In fact I even took my monitor and laptop into the Apple Store to test it myself before making my purchase. It worked great, I placed my order. Now today I get my monitor and the daisy chaining doesn't work. I call Apple only to find out the daisy chaining of a displayport monitor used to be supported but no longer is. What a joke! First time ever I've purchased an Apple product that was different than the one I tried in the store. I'm extremely disappointed, and would like to know if displayport compatibility is going to be restored someday.

    117 of 137 people found this useful

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