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Can I use an OLED Monitor with my MBR? Or am I stuck with IPS?

D

Diablo1945

macrumors newbie
Original poster
May 11, 2024
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I am new to Mac and just picked up a MBP M3 Max. I was planning on getting an OLED monitor to go with it. Something like this:

34" Alienware OLED Panel

After reading about some scaling and other issues with Macs I'm wondering if OLED is simply not going to be an option. Would I be able to use this OLED w/out issues? Can someone suggest an OLED that might work in the 27"+ range and under $1400?

I'd strongly prefer a monitor that is OLED or mini-LED, has HDR, and is not stuck at 60hz. Coming from PC I am not used to not having options. Thanks for any/all advice!
 
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Scaling issues (or lack of those) have nothing to do with display technology, so choose whatever you prefer, either OLED, IPS or VA. If you choose ultra wide with 3440x1440 resolution, MacOS font rendering on non-HiDPI screen is considered to be not so great by many people. You can use 120Hz refresh with modern Macs.

I have Dell U3824DW (3840x1600) and I use it in native resolution while sitting approx. 70cm from screen. No problems for me, but everyone is different.
 
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I'm taking a guess that at this point, OLED displays (except for a few high-end models) are relatively rare yet.

How soon before we see them competitively priced as alternatives to IPS displays (with their "IPS glow")?

Particularly interested in 27" size, 4k resolution.
 
Prices are dropping. Look at the specs of this bad boy at only $1100.

32" Alienware OLED

I guess the only way to know if it works with a Mac is to buy it and try it, unfortunately.
 
AlphaCentauri said:
Scaling issues (or lack of those) have nothing to do with display technology, so choose whatever you prefer, either OLED, IPS or VA. If you choose ultra wide with 3440x1440 resolution, MacOS font rendering on non-HiDPI screen is considered to be not so great by many people. You can use 120Hz refresh with modern Macs.

I have Dell U3824DW (3840x1600) and I use it in native resolution while sitting approx. 70cm from screen. No problems for me, but everyone is different.
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I'm curious. What made you go with that IPS display instead of an OLED or mini-led? Thanks!
 
Burn-in is my concern about OLED displays as well. I often leave certain apps/windows open for easy reference, such as email and calendar. So for me, OLED would have a high risk of damage for my use case.

I recently bought my first OLED TV last week, actually, but that's a different scenario entirely.
 
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Diablo1945 said:
Prices are dropping. Look at the specs of this bad boy at only $1100.

32" Alienware OLED

I guess the only way to know if it works with a Mac is to buy it and try it, unfortunately.
Click to expand...
It will work. Any non-HiDPI PC monitor with HDMI or DP (via DP to USB-C converter) will work.

The questions is:

- are you going to be able to accept font rendering from your sitting distance?

No one can answer this, but you. Best to order from a shop with a generous return policy (i.e. Amazon - 30 days return).
 
Samsung has pretty good OLED models. Anything with resolution higher than 2560 should work well with modern Macbooks. It does not really matter what you connect your MBP to, should output image anyway.

What (in my personal opinion) would be a better choice tho is to connect the Mac via HDMI and not thru USB C – many monitors seem to provide charging to Macbook. And you don’t really need that, because Macbook should use its own battery juice. Charging it like that may shorten battery life.

Many people disagree with this approach tho (probably same people who buy a new Macbook every 2 years) and say that it is good to charge Macbook constantly. But if you are like me and have yours for a long haul then consider using HDMI connection
 
Thanks for the feedback guys. Regarding using either USB C or HDMI, I can see where you would not want your MBP charging all the time. Is there any technical difference between the two as far as image quality, refresh rate, etc?
 
Diablo1945 said:
Is there any technical difference between the two as far as image quality, refresh rate, etc?
Click to expand...
They are the same in this regard. HDMI versions are regularly updated to include new resolutions and refresh rate. The latest standard is HDMI 2.1b which includes even 8k. All latest Macbooks support v2.1
 
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Just wondering...

How would the "burn in" issues be handled on an OLED display?
Will displays designed for computer use have any "internal processes" that could minimize burn in?

With a tv set, the image is constantly changing.
But a lot of computer users will keep an image (such as a desktop background) displayed for long periods of time.

Inquiring minds want to know...:cool:
 
Fishrrman said:
Just wondering...

How would the "burn in" issues be handled on an OLED display?
Will displays designed for computer use have any "internal processes" that could minimize burn in?

With a tv set, the image is constantly changing.
But a lot of computer users will keep an image (such as a desktop background) displayed for long periods of time.

Inquiring minds want to know...:cool:
Click to expand...
Modern OLEDs are supposedly much more resistant to burn-in. Some manufacturers (for example Corsair) provide 3 year anti burn-in warranty, but many others don’t.
 
shadowboi said:
What (in my personal opinion) would be a better choice tho is to connect the Mac via HDMI and not thru USB C – many monitors seem to provide charging to Macbook. And you don’t really need that, because Macbook should use its own battery juice. Charging it like that may shorten battery life.
Click to expand...
This is not correct. MacBooks can charge to 80% only and hold it there rather than charging to 100%. It's called the Optimized Battery Charging feature. "This feature helps to reduce the wear on your battery and improve its lifespan by learning your daily charging routine."
 
chars1ub0w said:
This is not correct. MacBooks can charge to 80% only and hold it there rather than charging to 100%. It's called the Optimized Battery Charging feature. "This feature helps to reduce the wear on your battery and improve its lifespan by learning your daily charging routine."
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I would have preferred to rather disable charging completely, but most display manufacturers do not provide any option to do it. It would make sense when battery will not be holding charge at all, but now it seems like unnecessary strain on battery

This is btw a reason of battery premature failing in all portable devices. People who use their phones on chargers will have batteries failing twice as faster, at least it was often my own experience with Apple devices
 
shadowboi said:
This is btw a reason of battery premature failing in all portable devices. People who use their phones on chargers will have batteries failing twice as faster, at least it was often my own experience with Apple devices
Click to expand...
My iPhone 14 Pro also has optimized charging. It won't charge until full until some time before I get up, some kind of delayed + trickle charging (lower temperature perhaps). As I operate the phone from my pocket all day, it has to be fully charged by then. And phones have to be as lightweight as possible, so the battery has not much capacity. In sum, phones lead a much tougher life than laptops.
"With iOS 13 and later, Optimized Battery Charging is designed to reduce the wear on your battery and improve its lifespan by reducing the time your iPhone spends fully charged. When the feature is enabled, your iPhone will delay charging past 80% in certain situations. Your iPhone uses on-device machine learning to learn your daily charging routine so that Optimized Battery Charging activates only when your iPhone predicts it will be connected to a charger for an extended period of time. The algorithm aims to ensure that your iPhone is still fully charged when unplugged."
 
It sucks there isn't a "perfect" monitor right now. I would enjoy a 34" in OLED in 4k with usb-c charging. To my knowledge it doesn't exist. LG just came out with an updated OLED monitor line. The 32" is 4k but no usb-c.
 
shadowboi said:
I would have preferred to rather disable charging completely, but most display manufacturers do not provide any option to do it. It would make sense when battery will not be holding charge at all, but now it seems like unnecessary strain on battery

This is btw a reason of battery premature failing in all portable devices. People who use their phones on chargers will have batteries failing twice as faster, at least it was often my own experience with Apple devices
Click to expand...
I use an app called AlDente Pro which limits my MacBook Pro's battery to 80% (or whatever level I specify) when plugged in to my Studio Display. A single click will allow it to charge to 100% if I'm going to take my MBP with me. I've been using it for years on various laptops and it's been well worth the price. It's maintained their batteries quite well.
 
I have the Gigabyte 32u2p OLED 240hz monitor.

Using the USB-C with the M2 Pro it runs at 4K at the full 240 refresh rate. The M1 Max runs at max 120hz.

It looks amazing. Text looks slightly worse than 5K IPS displays, but everything else is way better.
 
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RobinNL said:
I have the Gigabyte 32u2p OLED 240hz monitor.

Using the USB-C with the M2 Pro it runs at 4K at the full 240 refresh rate. The M1 Max runs at max 120hz.

It looks amazing. Text looks slightly worse than 5K IPS displays, but everything else is way better.
Click to expand...

The exact one I'm going to buy whenever B&H have it in
 
zakarhino said:
The exact one I'm going to buy whenever B&H have it in
Click to expand...
To add to this, I think this pairing works very well. KVM switch (keyboard, mouse) always works and the USB-C connection is stable. It wakes the monitor up from sleep consistently and the image quality is obviously is amazing.
 
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I have a LG 55" OLED TV (LG OLED 55B9PLA) as my main monitor on my mac mini. It's absolutely lovely, fantastic, I don't have words… I got it used for $600 a year ago (guess I was lucky), and have not seen any sign of burn-in. My reference monitor for photo editing used to be my 32" Benq, calibrated and everything, but now, the LG beats it, much because of its fantastic blacks. I have, of course, made it act like a computer display, by turning off everything 'auto', 'enhance' and set neutral gamma, extended color space and such in its settings, and it looks super good. And I don't mean super as in most TV's default settings, which is most often terribly glaring, saturated, plasticy - but natural. It's a monitor for me, I never use the TV part of it. For TV, I use a browser, TV app, etc, click fullscreen, and you can't tell it's not a TV.

For anyone wondering how I can use a 55" screen for a computer; I have it quite high on the wall, set to 1600 x 900 resolution, so text is so big that I can read it from several meters distance, and I have a couple of mouse/keyboard sets around the room. Underneath the TV I have the 32" Benq for when I want to sit closer with finer control.

HDMI, many resolutions available, never had any trouble with scaling affecting quality.
 
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