The empty monitor casings have different panel assemblies put in, depending on which series it's destined for. The U-series gets a better panel assembly.
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Finding a monitor for the Mini is an exercise in frustration!
- Thread starter Cassandle
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Can you please confirm? If on your OLED, via the AppleTVapp, it plays your movies in "Dolby Vision" That is if you have any movies in your library that have Dolby Vision/Atmos? I have a few like, "Bladerunner 2049" and "The Lord of the Rings:Fellowship of the Ring"I bought an LG 48” OLED. works great with my M1 mini
I have 2 OLEDS, both 2016 models, LG55C6 & 65E6.
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It is very pricy, but you do get the benefit of being able to keep using the monitor with your next computer, which kind of lets you spread out the cost a bit.
When I was last upgrading my desktop setup, I faced the same dilemma and bought the iMac 5K. It's great, but it's also getting old and I'm looking at having to chuck the whole thing instead of being able to carry the monitor forward and just get a new M1 Mini.
They were really expensive! I could be wrong and am too lazy to look it up but I believe the "Cinema Dispay" was like $1000, which was a big premium even in those early desktop LCD days over what Dell or whatever was charging.
I bought an Apple LED Cinema Display (1900 x 1200 which as someone else said is still better than the 1080p monitors sold today) in October 2008 for, I think, £699. Been through two Mac minis and is now a MacBook Pro 'dock' at home and still in daily use. It was much more expensive than other options at the time but it works out at £58 per year, and dropping as I continue to use it. Speakers, iSight and USB hub still work perfectly.
I used a 1900x1200 screen (at 24") for my old Mini and it's a respectable number of pixels. And yeah, 1080p just looks like trash at this point, especially in a larger screen. I'm impressed yours is still going strong. Wait, are you talking about that cool barrel-shaped iSight camera? Those are really gorgeous, and I'm sad Apple abandoned that line.
Just tried it. HDR works, but Dolby Vision not working. Still need AppleTV device to pull it off. Maybe a software issue that can be fixed on a later date.
I meant, I wondered what it was like in terms of, do people just pay the extra (hence I said 'quasi-consumer priced') cost for the Apple convenience, or did they still try to find non-crap third party options.
I still remember working in a college IT department around 2003-2006 and when the first LCD's arrived (for us, it was a govt department so who knows how long they'd been commercially available) for Dell office machines, they were ~15" or so, still used VGA DSUB connectors and had no concept of things like a USB hub, while my 20" Cinema Display at home was using DVI, had a firewire and USB hub, etc.
Isn't it a shame that you can't use the iMac's 5K as a target display for your M1 ?
It would have been good to keep using the nice sharp iMac displays for the M1 like we used to be able to to with older hardware & OS...
I've generally been happy with 27" WQHD monitors. I have two, one old HP and a viewsonic. My wife has the Acer 32" WHQD and is happy with it.
If you get anything with an IPS panel it'll be fine. TN panels are OK, but the colors have less pop to them. You'll have to read the reviews, generally, to figure out the panel type.
These days monitor quality seems to be an exercise in figuring out if the extra 8% difference matters to you. There are probably only a few panel manufacturers left, so unless you're aiming at the high end the difference probably won't be noticeable.
If you get anything with an IPS panel it'll be fine. TN panels are OK, but the colors have less pop to them. You'll have to read the reviews, generally, to figure out the panel type.
These days monitor quality seems to be an exercise in figuring out if the extra 8% difference matters to you. There are probably only a few panel manufacturers left, so unless you're aiming at the high end the difference probably won't be noticeable.
Yeah, apparently there are a ton of technical reasons why not but it is a shame. LOL too bad I can't just crack it open and put the guts from a Mini in there.
Unfortunately no, the built in one. We had the ones you are talking about at work, so I never needed to buy one myself. Just been shown some eBay listings by Google though for £29!
You can buy another driver board and run the display at 5K with a single cable. It will cost you around $300 and some patience opening the iMac.
No kidding? I did open it up over the summer to replace the HDD with and SSD, so I'm not totally averse to that (doable but a definite PITA). If you have a link to share I'd be interested to see it, thanks!
How much should I pay attention to pixel density? I read somewhere that Mac OS looks best on 110 or 220PPI.
A QHD 27” monitor seems to be closest to this pixel density.
I’m currently deciding between the ASUS PA278QV (QHD), Dell U25220D (QHD, slightly smaller screen) and the Dell S2721QS (4K).
4K on 27” should be nice and sharp, but the PPI is 176. Should I be worried about this? Is scaling likely to be an issue?
A QHD 27” monitor seems to be closest to this pixel density.
I’m currently deciding between the ASUS PA278QV (QHD), Dell U25220D (QHD, slightly smaller screen) and the Dell S2721QS (4K).
4K on 27” should be nice and sharp, but the PPI is 176. Should I be worried about this? Is scaling likely to be an issue?
It depends a lot on how you use it, and how good your eyesight is.
~110 (for 1x, or non hi-dpi mode) and ~220 (for 2x, or hi-dpi mode) are generally what Apple displays use. So the 5K iMac/5K UltraFine display are 27", and display a picture that looks like 2560x1440. The pre-5K 27" iMac and 27" Thunderbolt displays, were 2560x1440 native res.
There are numerous 2560x1440 displays on the market if that's what you want.
If you want a hi-dpi display, that means you're generally looking at either a 4K or 5K display. There are heaps of the former on the market, and only generally one of the latter. A lot of people end up with a 27" or larger display, at 4K. For some this will be fine, however by default in macOS it's going to look like 1920x1080. You can change the resolution it "looks like", but this will mean slightly less 'pixel perfect' display (likely only important if you're doing graphic design) and also means there's more load put on the GPU.
In my experience a 2018 Mac mini's iGPU can do non-default scaling for one 4k display without issue, if you have enough RAM. With two displays it will not be great. Turning off transparency in the UI helps a lot, but it's still not perfect.
If you can afford one, I'd suggest the LG UltraFine displays that Apple sell (either 5K 27" or 4K 24"), simply because they're the closest to "ideal" PPI for macOS.
I have no issues with
LG 27UL550-W - 27 Inch 4K UHD IPS LED HDR Monitor with Radeon Freesync Technology and HDR 10, Silver
^^ THANK YOU
Wow, this was very helpful in the sea of so many displays out there!
I was wondering why after 9 years, I have so many 27" Thunderbolt displays I have been using over the years at home and work were so attractive to me - they are native to the Mac.
Just recently with the M1 Mini, I am re-using the 27" TB display again and loving it - I just wish there was a way to drive 2 of them next to each other (because they would look like an identical pair and have that "Apple" look to them)....
But since I do like to watch 4K content, I did get a 4K Samsung that works quite well and has no issues other than the blacks that aren't as black as the TB display.
Just so I can understand that part better: say I buy a 27" 2560x1440 monitor. If I understand correctly, by running it in 2560x1440 it will look like a 1920x1080 resolution?
No. Itll look like and be 2560x1440.
if you buy a 27” 4K, by default macOS will run it in “hidpi” mode (aka retina) and it will “look like” 1920x1080 (in terms of the sizing of stuff on screen).
you can still tell it to “look like” eg 2560x1440 but it’s less efficient (so more work for the gpu) and you may notice it’s not quite as crisp as the default (I use a non-default scaling on two 24” 4ks and I don’t see any issue, and my eyesight is fine)
Unfortunately the UltraFine's are out of my price range. But your explanation has helped me to understand how the scaling works, which has really helped.
Looks like a choice between the two 27" monitors for me. They are roughly the same price, so it's a question of:
- 4K resolution that looks like 1080p
- QHD resolution that looks like QHD
They are expensive, and its a shame there isn't more competition.
If you can find one, I really like the Dell P2415Q. It's been around for ages (the 15 in the model name refers to 2015), and if you can find one, they're 1/3 to 1/2 the price of the LG 24", but at exactly the same size/resolution (and thus PPI). It seems like Dell either has, or is in the process of discontinuing this model though, so it might be hard to find now.
One thing to keep in mind is, a 'retina' of Hi-DPI screen, regardless of whether it's running at native 2x or even at a 'non-optimal' scaled resolution (e.g. if you wanted the screen resolution of 2560x1440 on a 4K 27"), is going to look much better than any non-Hi-DPI display.
I would generally recommend a display that can do Hi-DPI, because it gives you a lot more options (i.e. choosing different scaled resolutions on a Hi-DPI screen is very doable, and isn't likely to negatively impact most tasks (i.e. things where pixel perfectness isn't a factor), and gives a much clearer picture. If you had one at the time, think about the difference between the pre- and post- retina iPhone/iPad screens. It's exactly the same scenario.
I have to say that this Dell looks very promising. Had a quick look and have found a few places in the UK selling it for around £300-350, which is similar to the other monitors I'd been considering.
As I work at home on my Mac and look at text a lot, clarity is important. My 24" 1080p screen is okay, but a bit grainy when looking at text. I guess I've been spoiled by my iPhone and iPad Pro
I've also got a basic gaming PC. I don't play anything too demanding (no first person shooters or racing games) but I'm certain it won't run at 4K. Presumably I'd still be okay using this monitor but just scaled down to QHD or 1080?