Dell 30" Widescreen LCD available soon

If you've been drooling over the phat 30-inch flat-panel display that Dell's website has pimped out for a couple of weeks now, I suggest you go get a tissue or something. The site has been updated with a selling price, and for US$2,199, it's looking like a pretty good deal. The only direct competition at this screen size today is the 30-inch Apple Cinema HD Display, which goes for over thirteen percent more moolah at $2,499. With that price difference in mind, let's take a look at what we're paying for.

Other than claiming that the monitor is optimized for everything under the sun, the product pages are blissfully devoid of marketing blather, so let's dive right into the technical specs. First, there are a few similarities to the Apple alternative: screen size is the same, they're both TFT active matrix LCD screens with a 0.250 mm dot pitch, they both sport a dual-link DVI interface, and both have a native resolution of 2560 x 1600, or WQXGA if you prefer. We're looking at two beefy displays here, folks, and the dual DVI inputs means that you must feed them with beefy graphics cards. If you've been looking for an excuse to upgrade the graphics anyway, maybe you could just show your significant other one of these sweet displays and hope for an instant emotional attachment to onscreen real estate. But I digress. As similar as the two rivals look on the surface, any geek worth her salt wants the nitty-gritty details before closing any deal. Is that where Apple justifies the price tag?