LG 27UL850-W monitor with M1 Mac

[Falcon9]

A number of tech reviewers on YouTube seem to recommend this monitor (LG 27UL850-W) for use with with the M1 Macs. Anyone here using this monitor with their M1 Mac? Do you have any issues with how the image is displayed? It seems like a very nice screen with USB-C connectivity for the price. My current HP 1080p monitor exhibits vertical lines when connected to my M1 MacBook Pro (as do a couple other similar 1080p Dell monitors at work) and I want to make sure as best as I can that this will not be the case with the 27UL850-W.

27" Class 4K UHD IPS LED Monitor - 27UL850-W | LG USA

Discover the 27" Class 4K UHD IPS LED Monitor that features VESA DisplayHDR 400 and USB-C Type-C. Find reviews, specs, and more for 27UL850-W.

www.lg.com

 

[tommiy]

Its a nice monitor and works well as a single external device on a M1. Or at least my earlier version of this monitor does. Just note that the ppi is 160 (frm memory) which means that it requires scaling more than likely for the text to be readable. There seems to be alot of issues with M1 and scaling rather than running native. At full 4k the text will be very small. I note your planning a direct connection but if your not and planning on going via display link to have multiple external monitors then it does not work well at all. Display link does not appear to be capable of HiDPI/scaling on anything above 1920x1080 which means you get large text on the screen that makes it almost unusable. You can use RDM/switchresx to get other unlisted resolutions but they are blurry. If going that path I recommend looking at the displaylink forum. The M1 really is not working well with displaylink and anything that is a 4k monitor above 1080p.

 

[loby]

I use it with my M1 mac mini using HDMI. Works well. Used it also with USB-C, no issues.

Recommend it for the M1 (unless Apple comes out with a lower price monitor soon.

 

[AAPLGeek]

I use it with my M1 mac mini using HDMI. Works well. Used it also with USB-C, no issues.

Recommend it for the M1 (unless Apple comes out with a lower price monitor soon.

Do you see any font blurriness when scaling at looks like 1440p?

 

[Krevnik]

Do you see any font blurriness when scaling at looks like 1440p?

Depends on what you compare it to. It’s much better than a 1440p 27” display, but not as good as a 5K 27” display. I tried one of these for a bit, and for work where you need pixel accuracy, it isn’t ideal because of the “1.5x” scale factor. But for text it’s fine. I’d still prefer the LG 5K over it if in a mac-only setup, but if you are going to hook up multiple devices to it, it’s not a bad choice in the 27” range.

 

[AAPLGeek]

Depends on what you compare it to. It’s much better than a 1440p 27” display, but not as good as a 5K 27” display. I tried one of these for a bit, and for work where you need pixel accuracy, it isn’t ideal because of the “1.5x” scale factor. But for text it’s fine. I’d still prefer the LG 5K over it if in a mac-only setup, but if you are going to hook up multiple devices to it, it’s not a bad choice in the 27” range.

Thanks. I’ve seen a few posts here saying that it’s almost on par with the 5k iMac display and unless you’re comparing them side by side, you won’t notice a difference.
I work with a lot of vector assets and text so I’m concerned if I’ll experience any artifacts or blurriness with 1.5x scaling.

 

[Krevnik]

Thanks. I’ve seen a few posts here saying that it’s almost on par with the 5k iMac display and unless you’re comparing them side by side, you won’t notice a difference.
I work with a lot of vector assets and text so I’m concerned if I’ll experience any artifacts or blurriness with 1.5x scaling.

Non-integer scaling will never be as sharp as integer scaling. However, for people who aren’t looking for the areas where it can’t keep up with a proper 2x screen, it is quite comfortable.

Keep in mind that Apple by default uses non-integer scaling on their laptops. But I think it’s something like 1.7x for the 16” MBP. The 24” LG 4K Ultrafine also works best in a non-integer scale. Artifacts aren’t really a problem, IMO.

Blurriness is unavoidable though as the image is softened by downsampling from the 2x scaled screen buffer. However, with artwork and the like, to me it was more defined 1x which was an improvement, but a bit softer than 1x or 2x. For photography, it was generally fine, and I liked it for that. But artwork that needs to be pixel aligned is going to be hard to proof on a 27” 4K monitor without dropping it into 1080p@2x every so often.

All this said, for the sort of creation you describe, I’d probably skip the 4K. I tried it because I had to share a screen with my gaming PC, and so the 5K iMac wasn’t really an option to keep around anymore. I still miss that 5K iMac, to be honest.