Hi, Looking to purchase a suitable monitor to use with a mac mini m4. Mostly using for graphic design (adobe creative suite ) and photography post production. There’s a mine field of info online about scaling issues between 3rd party monitors and macs. Had been looking at Asus pro art and Dell ultra Sharp series. Any suggestions, info or recommendations much appreciated… looking to spend up to £300/£350
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Asus or Dell monitor for Mac Mini M4?
- Thread starter robtrik
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I have an Ultrasharp and think very highly of it. But I’m about to pull the trigger on a ProArt. Either the PA329CRV or the new 5k. Principal use is photography where I doubt scaling issues, if noticeable on fonts, will matter. I use an iPad for anything else so I don’t worry about scaling issues on the Mac.
M
Thankd v much for your advice. Just out of interest what ultrasharp do you currently have?
An old U2515H, QHD 1440 native. 25" screen as my desk at the time was rather shallow and a 27" lasted 2 days -- was too much head turning.
I think the Ultrasharps are really good monitors. @JPack mentioned Dell support for Mac. That's good news but make sure that's the case. My experience with Dell is they're supportive up to the point of sale and after that you're on your own. Pros: good panels, solid company, suspect better/easier warranty process than the typical Asian brands. Cons: plastic, squeaks (though nearly everything <$1,000 will be the same).
If I was on a budget and focusing on photography, I would not hesitate going with a QHD display. My Dell is 117 ppi, my iPad Pro is 264 ppi, a huge difference. I just pulled up this page on my iPad. While the fonts render different, I can hardly fault the Dell's QHD render. Its perfectly fine reading, I'm pretty close to it and see zero pixelation. The graphics on the page display the same.
The advantage of a QHD (2560x1440) display is the native resolution is exactly 1/2 Apple's 5k resolution of 5120x2880 and equal to Apple's default "looks like" resolution for the 27" 5K Studio Display. No scaling. Fewer pixels are an easier load on the graphics card, no scaling is also an easier load on the graphics card. Something to consider if you're buying base models and using AI processing that runs off the graphics card (Adobe, others likely as well).
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FYI, the vast majority of displays specifically go 1st hand tuning/validation for OSX and Mac products. You can verify this via the tech specs - Mac Compliance.
To achieve this, it has to pass our internal compliance checks, which include physical validation testing in our labs. We also work directly with the Apple team on validation as well in cases where firmware and other tuning elements are required.
Also, the warranty for ASUS is an outstanding point. Many companies will offer a shorter warranty period.
All ProArt monitors offer
3-year warranty, which includes rapid replacement
Openly disclosed bright/dark dot pixel policy ( most companies do not disclose this )
Use of only A-grade panels
I do agree with @Ray2 QHD if you do not need ultra high resolution or PPI offers a good balance for the majority of users ( Check out our CFRV model ).
Also 27 QHD is a good option for dual monitor and the CFRV offers daisy chain support.
Best of luck with whatever monitor you settle on.