4K Monitor recommendations – MacBook Pro 14”

[GregD]

I’ve recently purchased a new 14 inch MacBook Pro and was looking for some advice regarding a monitor for it.

My budget is between £500 - £700

I’m a designer coming from a 27” 2015 5k Retina iMac so brightness and 4K at least is a must. USB-C and DP 1.4 connections ideally also and height adjustable.

I’ve done quite a lot of research but nothing seems ideal and there is always a problem somewhere. Current models Im looking at:

Dell Ultrasharp U2720Q

• Seems a good pick but there are build quality issues in several Amazon reviews with warped bezels at the bottom.​

LG Ultrafine Ergo 32 880B

• Well rated but it is not as bright as my iMac based on reviews and I may not be able to use the clamp arm on my glass desk, as it could break.​

HUAWEI MateView 4K 28.2"

• Nice aesthetics and looks ‘Apple’ but there are panel uniformity issues in the reviews I read. Also not sold on the 3:2 aspect ratio.​

Gigabyte 32" 4K UHD

• Seems more of a 'Gaming' monitor so not sure how good the colour will be for design, but was rated top monitor pick on rtings.com.​

Any other recommendations ? Are there any panels that are better suited to Apple gear ?

Thanks

 

[StuartC]

I recently bought a Viewsonic vp2768a 4k for use with a 16inch mbp m1 pro. All good so far, used mainly for photo editing. Whether or not ‘better’ suited to Apple gear I couldn’t say but it works very well for me. Viewsonic claim colour calibrated and although I haven’t checked that it looks fine to me!

 

[GregD]

I recently bought a Viewsonic vp2768a 4k for use with a 16inch mbp m1 pro. All good so far, used mainly for photo editing. Whether or not ‘better’ suited to Apple gear I couldn’t say but it works very well for me. Viewsonic claim colour calibrated and although I haven’t checked that it looks fine to me!

Hi Stuart,

Thanks very much for the reply and recommendation. I hadn't actually seen this panel, seems very reasonable price wise. How is it in terms of brightness / colour ?

I also found the Asus Proart 32" for £749 which is also colour calibrated. The only draw back is it's DP 1.2 – but not a major. So probably between these 2 panels for now unless there are more recommendations?

Thanks

 

[StuartC]

I was looking at the 27inch Asus Proart monitor before I encountered this one ( the Viewsonic only introduced recently I think) but it was out of stock. To my eye brightness and colour are excellent ( I think I have turned the brightness down a little) but I haven’t put a colourimeter on it so this is very much a personal opinion. I haven’t looked at a Viewsonic 32inch as I was only interested in 27inch, so that might be worth a look if 32inch is your preference.

 

[happyhippo1337]

I'm currently using the LG Ergo 32 880B and the monitor arm is superb. Picture clarity and sharpness are also excellent. Backlight bleed seems to be minimal for now.

What's massively annoying: you can see some kind of vertical wave pattern in the coating of the screen, mostly on bright backgrounds. Second negative: white uniformity leaves a lot to be desired.

Picture shows the vertical lines. It's not an artifact from the picture, you can actually see it on the screen from looking at it straight on. Viewing at an angle and they're not visible. Haven't seen this bad of a coating in 10 years.

 

[GregD]

@StuartC

Yes I will have a look at 32 and see what there is. (EDIT: Seems the 32 inch model is not available yet.) The only thing I'm struggling with is finding any decent reviews of the panel. There are a couple of the older models on Youtube but nothing recent. I'm not sure if this is the same model as there is no 'A' in the model number?

I think the only thing with the Pro Art that concerns me is it's an older panel from 2020, so perhaps a newer panel would be better? I think I saw one person on the forum that has one so I may ask their opinion.

@happyhippo1337

Thanks for your feedback on the LG! It was one of my top picks but I decided against it as I have a glass desk and the arm clamp may break the glass according to the manual. Shame about the coating, I think that would definitely put me off.

 

[StuartC]

No, that is the older model. The ‘a’ version was only introduced in Aug/September I think, hence the absence of reviews so far. Beware when searching though, there is also a vp2768a 2K, had me fooled for a while. I searched for reviews for the 4k but could find none.
I went with the hunch that given earlier versions had pretty good reviews this would be no worse and probable at least as good. Not the most scientific of approaches but seems to have paid off. That said I haven’t critically examined the panel so can’t really offer a forensic report as @happyhippo1337 has done, but as said earlier I haven’t detected anything obvious.
I can, however, report that their customer support is quite responsive ( they have UK support) I had a couple of questions re set up and they came back to me quickly ( it was my error not a fault!)

 

[GregD]

Ah I thought so – tricky to decide without some solid reviews.

Tough to call, both come with a 5yr warranty as well.

Is there a benefit to a 32" screen I wonder coming from a 27"?
I'm guessing it will be less sharp and I will need to move it further away to try and get a 'retina' experience.

So far this is where I'm at:

Viewsonic VP2768a-4k

Pros
DP 1.4
Higher PPI with it being 27" - 163PPI
No logo at the bottom of the screen which is a nice aesthetic thing.

Cons
No reviews
No HDR

ProArt PA329CV

Pros
More reviews - mostly good
Bigger screen – (although trade off with the PPI?)
HDR

Cons
DP only 1.2
Lower PPI – 137PPI
2020 panel
Logo at the bottom of the screen

I will do a bit more research and try to make a decision soon as it's becoming a bit of a mission to decide ?

Cheers

 

[Amethyst1]

No DP 1.4 isn’t really an issue with the ViewSonic as it doesn’t “do” HDR anyway.
As for the PPI — the higher the better. But a larger panel would allow you to run a higher scaled HiDPI mode (and thus have more screen estate) without things getting (too) small. On 27”, 2560×1440 simulates about 110 ppi. On 32”, you can run 3008×1692 and get the same simulated PPI and thus, the same size of UI elements and text while gaining screen estate.

Disclaimer: I’ve never used a “4K” monitor with less than 163 ppi.

 

[StuartC]

It is, took me ages, via an Asus 2k monitor and an earlier Viewsonic! I belatedly came across the newer model so cancelled the older (and slightly inferior) one. I presume the Viewsonic is a later panel. You could try ringing Viewsonic customer support, they have a technical dept who deal with repairs etc. they may be able to clarify. Alternatively try this guy, he is a rep or similar for Viewsonic. I found him very responsive and helpful Luke.Adams@viewsonic.com.

 

[GregD]

No DP 1.4 isn’t really an issue with the ViewSonic as it doesn’t “do” HDR anyway.
As for the PPI — the higher the better. But a larger panel would allow you to run a higher scaled HiDPI mode (and thus have more screen estate) without things getting (too) small. On 27”, 2560×1440 simulates about 110 ppi. On 32”, you can run 3008×1692 and get the same simulated PPI and thus, the same size of UI elements and text while gaining screen estate.

Disclaimer: I’ve never used a “4K” monitor with less than 163 ppi.

Thanks for the tech info!

Am I right in thinking that reducing the resolution on a 32" display will increase the PPI?

It seems all 32" monitors have a lower PPI due to the size?

The reason for the DP version is I was thinking of possibly doing some casual gaming on PS5 in the future – but I realise neither monitor is a 'gaming' monitor as such with 60hz refresh rates. This is more of a 'nice to have'.

Cheers!

 

[Amethyst1]

Am I right in thinking that reducing the resolution on a 32" display will increase the PPI?

If by resolution you mean the "Looks like" (i.e. scaled HiDPI) mode, it will decrease the simulated PPI, not the actual PPI.

A 27" 3840×2160 monitor has an actual pixel density of 163 ppi. A 32" 3840×2160 one has 138 ppi. Keeping the resolution the same, increasing monitor size will decrease actual PPI, while reducing monitor size will increase actual PPI.

 

[Fishrrman]

OP wrote:
"Am I right in thinking that reducing the resolution on a 32" display will increase the PPI?"

No.
PPI is "fixed" and unchangeable -- it's "hardware". Changing the resolution cannot change PPI.

Here's a good reference for display sizes, pixel counts, dots per inch, etc.:

DPI Calculator / PPI Calculator

If you want 4k, then that's that.
All 4k displays have the SAME "resolution": 3840x2160.
The choice of display size -- 27", 32", or something else -- will determine the pixel size.

What I'd like to see is a 5k resolution on a 32" size display -- but nobody makes one.

 

[GregD]

Ah ok, so because of the larger 32" screen it can seem less sharp than a 27" because the pixels are more spread out I'm assuming?

So the only solution is to move the monitor further away from you to make it 'sharper' to the eye.

What are the benefits of a 32" screen then? More space?

Cheers

 

[Amethyst1]

Ah ok, so because of the larger 32" screen it can seem less sharp than a 27" because the pixels are more spread out I'm assuming?

The physical pixels are simply bigger. Bigger pixels mean a less sharp image.

What are the benefits of a 32" screen then? More space?

Yup.

 

[StuartC]

@GregD Welcome to the bewildering world of resolution and scaled monitors!

 

[GregD]

The physical pixels are simply bigger. Bigger pixels mean a less sharp image.


Yup.

I see. According to this article it seems the Mac OS UI is 1:1 though on a 32 inch??

This would possibly help with design / Photoshop I'm guessing? As I always have to zoom to 200% in photoshop to get '100%' on a 27" iMac

@StuartC haha thanks ! I did not think it would be this tricky to find a monitor for Mac.. I've not bought a monitor in 15years ?

 

[Amethyst1]

According to this article it seems the Mac OS UI is 1:1 though on a 32 inch??

The “More Space” option may give you a 3840×2160 desktop, yep. If this is indeed unscaled, i.e. not using a HiDPI mode, the problem then is how macOS renders text in non-HiDPI modes (pretty unsatisfactorily IMO)…

FWIW, I don’t really agree with that site’s conclusions that 24” “4K” is irrelevant or that 32” “4K” is the best choice for macOS. They are completely ignoring the fact macOS is optimised for external monitors which have about 220 ppi — and you might ideally want to aim for a ppi close to that range.

The higher the ppi, the sharper the image and the better for macOS.

 

[GregD]

Went with the Proart 32" – I think it's best to test it in real life and then make a final decision.

I have until end of Jan to return it for free with Amazon so gives me some time to evaluate.

Thanks guys for all your help and insight!