Is 4k better on the M1 Mac Mini?

[nemofish]

Recently upgraded my Mac Mini to a M1 and currently looking to upgrade my monitor along with it.

Currently using a VP2770 Viewsonic monitor which is a 27" 2k professional grade monitor and when I brought this back in 2015, the general consensus was that 2,560 x 1,440 was the sweet spot for Macs at that time and there were all kinds of scaling issues with Adobe software back then.

Fast forward to 2021 and I am reading that 4k is now better for newer Macs? Is that correct?

Advice is very conflicting and unfortunately I don't have any place near to me where I can look in person. Some say 1440 is still sweet spot, others say 4k at 27" is good, and others say not because of scaling and some say 32 at 100% is perfect.

I am happy with 27" and my eye-to-screen is about 60cm. However I am also entertaining the idea of 32" as I could potentially move this about 30cm backwards with the more modern stands such as the one on the LG 32UN880-B.

I am a designer and need to be fairly accurate in terms of colour accuracy.

Models I am looking at

LG 32UN880
Dell U2720Q
ASUS PA329CV
BenQ PD3200U

 

[Amethyst1]

Fast forward to 2021 and I am reading that 4k is now better for newer Macs? Is that correct?

My (purely subjective) opinion is that on macOS, a 27” “4K” monitor scaled to 2560×1440 looks much better than a native 2560×1440 monitor, despite the peculiarities associated with the way macOS handles non-integer scaling.

 

[MikeDr206]

I’d argue that 27-inch, 5K is the sweet spot, and am still disappointed that this size hasn’t caught on. There is one option, the LG. I have an older Dell UP2715K that’s 5K, and which works well -- and which aesthetically matches the Mac.

 

[Amethyst1]

I’d argue that 27-inch, 5K is the sweet spot,

Yep. Pin-sharp 2560×1440 real estate without the peculiarities of non-integer scaling. But if you’re not looking for second-hand monitors or going the DIY route, “4K” in 16:9 or 3:2 is all there is at around 27”.

 

[MikeDr206]

Yep. Pin-sharp 2560×1440 real estate without the peculiarities of non-integer scaling. But if you’re not looking for second-hand monitors or going the DIY route, “4K” in 16:9 or 3:2 is all there is at around 27”.

Well, the LG UltraFine is still available.

 

[StoneJack]

Recently upgraded my Mac Mini to a M1 and currently looking to upgrade my monitor along with it.

Currently using a VP2770 Viewsonic monitor which is a 27" 2k professional grade monitor and when I brought this back in 2015, the general consensus was that 2,560 x 1,440 was the sweet spot for Macs at that time and there were all kinds of scaling issues with Adobe software back then.

Fast forward to 2021 and I am reading that 4k is now better for newer Macs? Is that correct?

Advice is very conflicting and unfortunately I don't have any place near to me where I can look in person. Some say 1440 is still sweet spot, others say 4k at 27" is good, and others say not because of scaling and some say 32 at 100% is perfect.

I am happy with 27" and my eye-to-screen is about 60cm. However I am also entertaining the idea of 32" as I could potentially move this about 30cm backwards with the more modern stands such as the one on the LG 32UN880-B.

I am a designer and need to be fairly accurate in terms of colour accuracy.

Models I am looking at

LG 32UN880
Dell U2720Q
ASUS PA329CV
BenQ PD3200U

isn't it that 4k best for 32 inch monitors?

 

[omeletpants]

Recently upgraded my Mac Mini to a M1 and currently looking to upgrade my monitor along with it.

Currently using a VP2770 Viewsonic monitor which is a 27" 2k professional grade monitor and when I brought this back in 2015, the general consensus was that 2,560 x 1,440 was the sweet spot for Macs at that time and there were all kinds of scaling issues with Adobe software back then.

Fast forward to 2021 and I am reading that 4k is now better for newer Macs? Is that correct?

Advice is very conflicting and unfortunately I don't have any place near to me where I can look in person. Some say 1440 is still sweet spot, others say 4k at 27" is good, and others say not because of scaling and some say 32 at 100% is perfect.

I am happy with 27" and my eye-to-screen is about 60cm. However I am also entertaining the idea of 32" as I could potentially move this about 30cm backwards with the more modern stands such as the one on the LG 32UN880-B.

I am a designer and need to be fairly accurate in terms of colour accuracy.

Models I am looking at

LG 32UN880
Dell U2720Q
ASUS PA329CV
BenQ PD3200U

I just bought the LG32un880 and connected to my M1 Mini. I returned it the next day. If you are looking to match Apple Retina 5K quality, no 4k monitor will achieve that. The LG whites were white-grey. Text was grey not black and there was a veiled dull look overall. I tried all 10 picture modes and make many color adjustments and nothing worked. I was so disappointed because I wanted this to work out.

 

[Amethyst1]

If you are looking to match Apple Retina 5K quality, no 4k monitor will achieve that.

The discontinued 21.5” LG UltraFine 4K is the only 4K monitor that matches the 5K in terms of pixel density, and it’s also a decent panel (DCI-P3 etc.).

 

[nemofish]

I just bought the LG32un880 and connected to my M1 Mini. I returned it the next day. If you are looking to match Apple Retina 5K quality, no 4k monitor will achieve that. The LG whites were white-grey. Text was grey not black and there was a veiled dull look overall. I tried all 10 picture modes and make many color adjustments and nothing worked. I was so disappointed because I wanted this to work out.

I was looking to get that model.

Did you calibrate it? The color is well regarded.

 

[omeletpants]

I was looking to get that model.

Did you calibrate it? The color is well regarded.

I did my best to make adjustments. There are 10 modes to choose from: HDR, vivid, etc. Then I tried to adjust individual color settings. Nothing I could do to make those white-grey backgrounds anything close to the retina whites. The type was a greyish black not true black and there was an overall veiled tint to the picture. Not even close to being acceptable for me. I really wanted this to work out but it didnt

 

[Fishrrman]

I have a Viewsonic VX2770SMH-LED display that's on it's "second Mini" (first was 2012, this one is 2018).

It still looks good, even though it's only a 1080p display.

I've thought about replacing it, but then I consider, "this one still looks good enough to me", so I keep using it.