[FpUser]

>"if you are not acclimated to "retina" smoothness for fonts"

I am not using magnifying glass so for my eyes smoothness is just fine without "retina" prefix.

>"The colors aren't great. The blacks are just dreadfully light"

If you care so much about colors get real pro display. Just be prepared to second mortgage your house for that.

For mere mortals (I mostly use 32" BenQ monitors) colors on are reasonably fine and so are blacks. No artifacts. I do not see Apple as superior in this department.

Once again, if for some reason you need perfect colors / blacks / uniformity / whatnot Apple with its "retina" is not the one to go with. Try Eizo for example