Help me choose a monitor: Dell UltraSharp U2723QE or ASUS ProArt Display PA278QV

[sppunk]

Buying a new Mac Studio this weekend and need a monitor. I was going to bite the bullet for the Apple Studio Display but due to poor vision it likely would be a waste of cash. I have narrowed my scope to to monitors:

Dell UltraSharp U2723QE
ASUS ProArt Display PA278QV

This machine will be for work - connecting via VMWare to a PC, photo editing and graphic design (no animation, very little video work) work via Adobe CS, and Cricut (a crafting program) work. I will have to scale upward to read text due to my poor vision. For instance, my current iMac (2560 x 1440 native) I scale at 2048 x 1152 (2K on this old machine).

Which would work best for this? FWIW my wife will use this in the evenings and not need to scale (different user profiles).

I am leaning toward the ASUS due to its calibration and built-in speaker (used only for Webex/teams and the occasional informational YouTube video, no entertainment).

 

[umbilical]

help: https://forums.macrumors.com/thread...0-on-macminim2-text-looks-really-bad.2395476/

 

[kvic]

Hmm...this is kinda dramatic outcome. lol. I kind of got the impression you could not decide between a 4K LG and a Dell with the same IPS Black panel (link).

MacOS isn't that great for 3rd party compatibility out of the box. When I first connected my brand new 4K LG, MacOS was in low-DPI mode for unknown reason, colour profile not properly loaded, no scaled resolutions to click in DisplaysExt (Ventura OS) and etc...everything seemed not right! After tweaking here and there for a little while, everything was perfect to my eyes. So much so that I declared 5K only has fringe advantage over 4K, and not worth the large sum of price premium.

Also did a comparison of 4K in 'look like 1440p' scaled resolution against plain old 1440p 2k display, and concluded that I finally got the point from those people who are perfectly fine with their 2k monitors (link).

So I'm pretty sure it's just some tweaks and hidden knobs here and there. Hopefully users with Apple Silicon or better yet M2 Mini could help you out there.

 

[umbilical]

Hmm...this is kinda dramatic outcome. lol. I kind of got the impression you could not decide between a 4K LG and a Dell with the same IPS Black panel (link).

MacOS isn't that great for 3rd party compatibility out of the box. When I first connected my brand new 4K LG, MacOS was in low-DPI mode for unknown reason, colour profile not properly loaded, no scaled resolutions to click in DisplaysExt (Ventura OS) and etc...everything seemed not right! After tweaking here and there for a little while, everything was perfect to my eyes. So much so that I declared 5K only has fringe advantage over 4K, and not worth the large sum of price premium.

Also did a comparison of 4K in 'look like 1440p' scaled resolution against plain old 1440p 2k display, and concluded that I finally got the point from those people who are perfectly fine with their 2k monitors (link).

So I'm pretty sure it's just some tweaks and hidden knobs here and there. Hopefully users with Apple Silicon or better yet M2 Mini could help you out there.

I start to thinking on buy the Studio Display, I'm sick of dealing with problems with non Apple monitors, just read my post: https://forums.macrumors.com/thread...0-on-macminim2-text-looks-really-bad.2395476/

 

[kvic]

I start to thinking on buy the Studio Display, I'm sick of dealing with problems with non Apple monitors, just read my post: https://forums.macrumors.com/thread...0-on-macminim2-text-looks-really-bad.2395476/

I'm not on Apple Silicon yet. But I guess some general advice might help.

Uninstall any 3rd party adjustment apps if you don't know how exactly they work or in what way they would have helped you. E.g. PA278QV is a 2560x1440 (2k) display. There is no reason* you need to enable HiDPI in MacOS.

Clearly define what's 'blurry,' 'horrific' text i.e. your problem with the monitor, your viewing distance. Sentimental descriptions do not tell your issue other than you aren't happy. The monitor and setup could well be fine and expected. The issue could be it's not in your imaginary expectation or simply you're pixel sniffing too close in from of the display.

Check in your monitor menu. There should one item tell you current resolution. If it's something 2560x1440@60 or 2560x1440@75, then it's already at its native resolution. From a viewing distance between 55-60cm, to my eyes it's actually pretty close to a 4k display at "look like 1440p" scaled resolution.

Good luck.

*(not until you're into very advanced stage of hacking your monitor, if that's even possible with PA278QV)