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sigamy

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Mar 7, 2003
1,403
194
NJ USA
So, I just purchased the Studio Display. As a long time iMac user, it was a long, hard decision. Sorry for the long post.

Over the years I've had 17" iMac G4, then Core2 Duo iMac, then a 2011. I loved the iLife apps--I have 45,000 phots, I've made countless home movies, burned DVDs, edited short films. I never thought the iMac was "too consumer" for me. I pushed it a bit and they were great for my uses.

I used my 2011 iMac until 2020 when it finally fully died. I had been booting it from external SSD for few years, then display went and random reboots.

So I desperately needed a home computer and went with M1 MBA when they came out. (couldn't get mini, as I didn't have a decent display). So I've been using MBA M1 and its been great. Final Cut Pro with 4K footage is awesome. No more proxies.

When the new iMac came, I was surprised it was just a base M1 with same specs. Being that I just purchased the Air, I decided to wait for v2 of iMac. But I did go back and forth on selling the MBA and going with 24" iMac.

I have a 2017 MBA from work and I now work form home 80% to 100% of the time. I had been working for 1.5 year on just MBA screen. Not good. I occasionally connect to a basic HP 1080p monitor for work. It's fine and at 50 years old I can't tell if issues are my eyes or the bad monitor.

I just learned this week that my work 2017 MBA is being upgraded to M1 MBA. So now I will have two Retina modern Macs on my desk.

So, being that I will be working from home, I figured I needed to figure out monitor situation and probably leave iMac behind. (probably)

I was trying to find a way to share monitor between two machines, using it during the day for work, then switch it to my home Mac for evenings and weekends.

I looked at the LG 24" 4K for last few days, but I just decided to go for the Studio Display. I was back and forth. You can get a refurb 2020 Intel iMac for same price, lol!

I got $100 off with EDU discount and had $300 of gift cards from my wife and kids over the past few years as they all knew I needed a new Mac.

So..as a long time iMac user I am going to try this separate display life. I know all the reasons people prefer it, but I really loved the AOI concept and cleanliness, less cables, etc of an iMac.

I will run it with the MBA for a while and then see what the M2 Macs bring. So now I'll be one of those people with staggered upgrades of computer and display. Interesting, lol.

Wish me luck.
 
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