External display suggestion please

[rjalex]

Dear friends,
I have two Macbooks at home.

First is a 15 inch Pro from 2018 with a 2.6 6 core i7, with 16GB RAM 2400MHz DDR4, Intel UHD 630 with 1.5GGB
Second is an older 13 inch retina early 2015, 2.9 GHz 2 core i5, with 8GB 1867MHz DDR3, Intel Iris 6100 with 1.5GB

I really wish to buy an external monitor for them that would be hight enough on its pedestal to use above the macbook open screen. Is this a good idea?

My use is mostly browsing, writing, programming so text clarity very important but also do some LR photo editing occasionally.
No gaming, no video playing (do both on my LG OLED TV).

Would both mentioned macbooks drive a full HD screen well enough? What about 4K?

Thanks a lot.

 

[ISKOTB]

check this one

 

[rjalex]

So a good/decent full HD would be good, right? IPS is what I have to look for?
What about the connections? The newer one only has USB-C ports as far as I understand. The older one has an HDMI.
Thank you

 

[ISKOTB]

sorry, I edit my reply above, someone got it the other day for basic use and yes it's fine. You will need an USB C to HDMI cable. How much you want to spend?

 

[rjalex]

2-300 would be ideal, could strain to 400 and bleeding to 500 for serious reasons

 

[brianmowrey]

1080p would be the most seamless experience since the 2015 drops to 30HZ for anything bigger on HDMI. But, you aren't gaming with it, so maybe you are ok with that.

 

[rjalex]

Ok thanks a lot.
Are any monitors with an high enough pedestal going to fit the open macbook screen under it?

 

[Fishrrman]

"Are any monitors with an high enough pedestal going to fit the open macbook screen under it?"

I seriously doubt that you're going to find any display like that anywhere.

If you want the display to be "that high", you're going to have to buy or build some kind of "pedestal" for the display to sit on, raising it up.

Why not set the MacBook "off to the side" ...?

 

[ght56]

How crispy do you want your text to be?
Do you have a preference on refresh rate?

IIRC, on your 2015, if you want 4K at 60 Hz, you will need to use either mini DisplayPort to DisplayPort, or mini DisplayPort to HDMI 2.0 as the HDMI port on the 2015 doesn't support 4K at 60 Hz. You might need to use something like SwitchResX as well. If you don't want to bother with that, QHD is a nice intermediate between 1080 and 4K. Text is not 4K crispy, but it still looks pretty good in native 1440p.

At a budget of $300 with a willingness to go to $400 if necessary, you have a lot of options in both QHD and 4K.

As for height, you may find that to clear the 15-inch that you are going to need either a high monitor stand + a height adjustable monitor or a monitor arm that attaches to the desk. You could also do a wall mount depending on where your desk is situated.

 

[rjalex]

Thank you so much. The wall mount is a great idea as the desk is against a wall.
I mostly work with the 2018 machine but some times I need to go to the older 2015 one.

 

[rjalex]

"Are any monitors with an high enough pedestal going to fit the open macbook screen under it?"

I seriously doubt that you're going to find any display like that anywhere.

If you want the display to be "that high", you're going to have to buy or build some kind of "pedestal" for the display to sit on, raising it up.

Why not set the MacBook "off to the side" ...?

Because I'd need to have either the neck or the torso in an awkward position to type on the keyboard and look at the side. Spending 8-10 hours a day at my desk working I'm very concerned for my body

 

[ght56]

Thank you so much. The wall mount is a great idea as the desk is against a wall.
I mostly work with the 2018 machine but some times I need to go to the older 2015 one.

In that case, I think a 32-inch QHD display might be a good match for you...you might find you like native 1440p or you might find you prefer scaling to look like 1080 depending on the viewing distance. The viewing distances will probably mean the text will look sufficiently sharp even though it is not 4K sharp. You can find a lot of nice 32-inch QHD displays for not that much money...$250-300 goes a pretty long way here. As Amazon has free returns on many displays, starting with a less-expensive QHD display might be a good route to see what you think about how text looks.

That said, there are also some 32-inch 4K displays that would meet your budget criteria, albeit a little on the higher side. You would get sharper text although at a further distance you may or may not find the difference to be major. If you do want the absolute sharpest text, you can find some more basic 32-inch UHD displays for not a ton more. If you do prioritize the absolute sharpest text and especially sharp tiny text, this is probably the way to go.

If you have a slimmer desk and the viewing distance is super short, 27-inch size may work well too. I position my 27-inch 4K display about 2.5-ish feet from me and scale it to look like 1440p. At this distance a 32-inch would be a bit too large. However, if I mounted it on the wall it would add another 1.5-ish feet and I would definitely want a 32-inch for that situation.

 

[rjalex]

Thank you very very much. My old eyes say thanks too

 

[cdcastillo]

...If you want the display to be "that high", you're going to have to buy or build some kind of "pedestal" for the display to sit on, raising it up...

...As for height, you may find that to clear the 15-inch that you are going to need either a high monitor stand + a height adjustable monitor or a monitor arm that attaches to the desk. You could also do a wall mount depending on where your desk is situated.

There are tons of "monitor elevators", little arched stands that give you anywhere from 3 to 7 inches of height, many double as storage solutions, using the space below them cleverly. I have a cheap one like this, but there are lots of them, like this, this, or this, some of them are stackable. Also, there are "desk arms" like this one.

 

[erthquake]

Ok thanks a lot.
Are any monitors with an high enough pedestal going to fit the open macbook screen under it?

Find a monitor that rotates into portrait mode. Those will have taller pedestals. I have a BenQ SW2700PT, and it's just high enough to get above my late 2013 15" MBP's screen.

 

[RabidMacFan]

If text clarity and lightroom use is important to you, I would suggest any monitor with at least 1440P (2K) or 4K resolution. 1080P will have much lower resolution than the Macbook's retina screen. Be aware that text does start to get small on a 4K screen, but you should be able to downscale it to 1440P in the settings.

Most monitors will have a full-size DisplayPort output port, to which you can buy a DisplayPort to Mini DisplayPort or USB-C cable to connect them to your Macs. This is generally preferred over using the HDMI port on the MacBook Pro.

They should both drive up to a 4K display fine.