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external monitor

punio75

punio75

macrumors member
Original poster
Before trawling the net is anyone using a good external monitor.

Loving my macbook on the go but on my office desk I feel the need for a slightly larger screen.
Have a small desk so something reasonably discrete.


Thanks everyone.
 
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Thanks guys, are you connecting by hdmi?
If so presumably I need some kind of adaptor from apple for the macbook?
 
Yes, you will need the Apple digital AV adapter as well which includes an HDMI port. If you attach a small hub and an extra power supply, this becomes a single-connection docking station which is pretty slick.
 
I have the great, sleek asus 27" that has 2 hdmi inputs. Works great with my rmb, mba, mac mini, etc. Amazon has it for $239 us. You will need the apple adapter for hdmi out for the rmb. Btw, the asus has built in speakers, dell does not, and the asus is much easier to setup than the dell, which i returned. Also, look for the adapter on ebay. I saved $30.
 
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I have a 21inch Samsung connected to my Macbook Pro. $149 on sale at Staples a few years ago. I prefer the matte finish of the external to the glossy screen on the Macbook.
 
punio75 said:
Think i may have to look a little smaller.
Anything around the 20" mark?
Click to expand...
I had an old 20" display I wanted to upgrade to a more modern one with LED backlighting so it would draw less power. I quickly found out that this was a rather difficult task. Most displays are now around 23". The plus side is that modern displays have a much smaller footprint than those older ones so in reality the 23" one I got wasn't that much bigger than the 20". Measure your desk and take a look at the actual sizes of the displays. Says a lot more.
 
I use an AOC 23-inch monitor I got from Best Buy, both at work and at home. It's not 4K, but it gives me the extra workspace when I want it. Only cost me about $120 USD, and paired with an Apple wireless keyboard and magic mouse, it's a great setup.
 
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Alexappleusa said:
I just purchased this:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/LG-25UM57-U...ie=UTF8&qid=1452613616&sr=8-1&keywords=25um57

Bit cheaper here in the US, but it seemed like a good choice that way I can have three windows open at once, two on the monitor and one on the macbook. I'll update my experiences when I receive it later this week.

Not 4k but budget friendly.
Click to expand...

Wow this looks pretty damn nice! Not a massive fan of the glossy plastic finish though, but never mind. Could make this a good combo when in the office for full days.
 
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xDKP said:
Wow this looks pretty damn nice! Not a massive fan of the glossy plastic finish though, but never mind. Could make this a good combo when in the office for full days.
Click to expand...
- While it is pretty cheap, 2560x1080 monitors have never made sense to me. When 2560x1440 monitors are readily available, there's no point to the ultrawide aspect ratio, which just means you'd be losing real estate compared to 1440p.
 
Im so confused by all these ratio's and resolutions!

Still not sure what I should be particularly looking for in a 20-24" for my macbook.
Obviously I want a decent picture to use on a daily basis.
 
punio75 said:
Im so confused by all these ratio's and resolutions!

Still not sure what I should be particularly looking for in a 20-24" for my macbook.
Obviously I want a decent picture to use on a daily basis.
Click to expand...
- Well, do ask. You should be looking for, in my most humble opinion, an IPS panel and a resolution of 2560x1440. The Dell UltraSharp I mentioned above is excellent - I have it myself.
 
BenTrovato said:
Is your macbook retina? If no, then you can go less than 2560 x 1440. If yes, then you'll want 2560 x 1440 to keep the retina quality. I've been shopping for a while... this one seems to be the lowest priced one at the moment. I'd rather have the Dell with height adjustment but it's still quite expensive.

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/produ...257hu_smidpx_25_widescreen.html#Specification
Click to expand...
- Interesting how we all just assumed he had a 12" Retina MacBook. It isn't actually stated anywhere.

That Acer seems like a pretty decent budget choice.
 
punio75 said:
Before trawling the net is anyone using a good external monitor.

Loving my macbook on the go but on my office desk I feel the need for a slightly larger screen.
Have a small desk so something reasonably discrete.


Thanks everyone.
Click to expand...
I have a 15" mid-2012 rMBP. I picked up a Samsung 23.6" LCD monitor (S24E390HL) at BestBuy a while ago to use with it. I know it's not the absolute best resolution and all that. But for $179 on sale, what the heck. It's really pretty good. No adapter needed for that since the rMBP has an HDMI port. I use a Lenovo Yoga with it, too, and that does require an adapter. I got a Benfi USB-C to HDMI adapter on Amazon for 20 bucks. Not expensive, works fine.

I really like having the extra screen real estate with both systems.
 
punio75 said:
Might try this one I think.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Dell-U2515H...8&qid=1453231159&sr=8-1&keywords=2560+monitor

Got the right resolution, but need to measure footprint as still worried may look too big.
Click to expand...

That's a very nice monitor, and while I'm a huge proponent of buying the highest resolution monitor you can afford, I'm not sure that one meets the sweet spot of price vs. value. The monitor I originally linked earlier in the thread is 1920x1200 at 24" vs. this one at 2560x1440 at 27". Yes, it's higher resolution, but it's also much larger which negates some of that advantage, and it costs 3x as much.
 
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