My biggest purchase disappointment this year has to be the new 24" iMac aluminium. The glossy glass panel is a joke. I took it off permanently to reduce the red cast after doing calibration. Any software update won't work since the glass is the main cause of the problem. Now, it is barely on standard with my Viewsonic.
Besides that, the LCD panel itself... (oh my god) what a pain it was after finding out that it has light leak problems. Really bad light leak problem when viewing in a very dim or dark room. So much for having 178 deg viewing angle, the left hand side of mine LCD is brighter than the centre and right portion. I talked to my supplier about this and his reply was the iMac wasn't designed for critical post production application. No matter how many machine changes I make, nothing is going to please me. Oh come on. Unacceptable. For a S$3K machine, they had to cut corners and put the cheapest panel (its an NEC btw). The brightness is another problem as well something only Mac fanboys would understand. Its too bright for any serious photo editing work and even my lab printers are complaining my pics are too dark when I sent for print.
My uneducated guess seems to say I totally fall victim for Apple's advertising. This iMac is nothing but an expensive toy for rich kids. Its was designed for those with space constraints, surfing the net, do simple office work and especially showing off but when it boils down to serious photo editing work, it falls flat into the pit. I have this urge to go back to my primitive PC but seeing the iMac sitting pretty like that, I am just going to make do with the shortcomings. *Big sigh*
Rant over and out.
PS: For those with balls, here's a video instruction on how to easily remove the glass panel.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cy0o2WdrN3M