I recently bought one of these but have been on the fence the whole time. I really think it is overpriced and the design is ugly yes - but more concern is the screen unifromity isnt that great for the price... that being said i have tried various other 4k monitors and the screen on this one just looked the best but it's not perfect. Its hard to know what to do... I like having an external display but I just wish apple would release a new 27 inch disoplay that mirrors the display in their 2020 5k imac. The new imacs screens are BETTER than this LG 5K for sure - noticeably (better contrast and gammut). maybe they are updating that? I'm not sure... i feel they might release stand alone displays when they release the new imac design... it would make sense - especially since the apple silicon will have no problem driving these things... but back to the current dilemma... do I keep this thing or send it back... time is running out and I sure like having a monitor. Also worth noting - im using the 2017 Macbook 12 inch with this. Pretty amazing that is possible. The 12 Inch Macbook is my favorite computer of all time (to date). I hope they re-release the new apple silicon in this form factor with new keyboard and smaller bezels making it the 13.3 with smaller footprint. Call it the new Air and be done with it.
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LG UltraFine 5K Display 'Currently Unavailable' From Apple
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I hope this monitor isn't being replaced by a newer model soon - I literally just bought it 2 weeks ago from an Apple Store. I hesitated for months given the overall age of the monitor with very little updates. To be honest - I couldn't be happier with it. Like others have said there just simply isn't an equivalent 5K, 500nits brightness monitor to compete with it (except the $5k pro display). Even after 3 years nothing else comes close to it. The Mac integration is flawless. Is it ugly? No - it's "industrial looking" for sure but honestly I don't mind the black boxy look though I do wish it wasn't plastic.
On a white screen do you notice any uniformity issues - ie color cast in areas? Look closely - also did you find it was color accurate out of the box?
I avoid doing any kind of in depth testing, such as you suggest. Then, any defects don’t irritate me endlessly. Ignorance is bliss, when you can’t do anything to fix them.
In advance of WWDC I wargamed pricing / features on a mid-market display for people who didn't want the XDR:
Discussion Here
Also if you are considering or are getting an XDR, come join XDR discussion here.
Discussion Here
Also if you are considering or are getting an XDR, come join XDR discussion here.
The reason for the drawback might be that Apple realized that the recent Macbook Pro 2020 models have bad incompatibility issues with the Ultrafine 5K (camera of the Ultrafine not working and occasional system crashes). There is a Forum thread in Apples Support Forum; Apple Support acts like it would be an individual problem of each machine, but it appears that no single MBP 2020 model is free of this problem when paired with the Ultrafine 5K. Some owners of the Ultrafine 5K are considering to downgrade to an older Macbook Pro for that reason.
discussions.apple.com
External camera laggy - low frame rate - Apple Community
Honestly I think the pundits at the time were coming up with stuff like this to rationalize the 5K resolution any which way they could (like they usually do with Apple's decisions).
In reality the rationale for me and 5K is much simpler ... text is a decent amount sharper, and the PPI is so high that scaling to non integer divisible resolutions still looks excellent.
I hope they wouldn't ask LG to withdraw the monitor until they figure out the cause. It does give you pause though - the webcam is one of the best features and of course now I used almost all day.The reason for the drawback might be that Apple realized that the recent Macbook Pro 2020 models have bad incompatibility issues with the Ultrafine 5K (camera of the Ultrafine not working and occasional system crashes). There is a Forum thread in Apples Support Forum; Apple Support acts like it would be an individual problem of each machine, but it appears that no single MBP 2020 model is free of this problem when paired with the Ultrafine 5K. Some owners of the Ultrafine 5K are considering to downgrade to an older Macbook Pro for that reason.
External camera laggy - low frame rate - Apple Community
Ditto, and one that supports 5k on a trashcan Mac Pro. It can drive three 5k or 6 4K displays and it was sold new up until November of last year so they need to support it better
Not just white screen, it's even worse with gray uniformity. I have returned at least 2 of this garbage in the last 2 weeks because of that and severe image retention. My 2 years old LG 5K recently developed image retention that wouldn't go away for up to 5-10 minutes, but at least uniformity isn't as bad as these new one.
Yah if it was $700 I wouldn't be stressing about this... but for $1300... maybe I should just retunr it whiole I still can... but then what? I do enjoy the screen even thiough it's not perfect and has issues and is WAY overpriced.... good to know though that i'm not just imagining these issues.
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Are you going to keep any of the new ones? Are you buying a new one because of the image retention issue? Can I ask where you bought from? I was wondering if this was an issue with Amazon sellers... maybe selling factory rejects or something.
I bought the new one directly from Apple because old one starting to have crazy image retention problem that instantly burn into the display after only few seconds on mid brightness. It seems to be a common problem and guarantee to happen based on user reports.
Bought a Acer CP7271k from amazon and waiting for its arrival. Then decide if I should keep the new LG 5K or not....
Came back into stock in Australia two days ago. I ordered one. Terrible backlight uniformity:
forums.macrumors.com
LG 5K UltraFine, 27MD5KL-B — uniformity/uneven brightness?
Bad backlight bleed on mine which arrived today. It is noticeably red in the corners and much more bleed than a mid range LG 4K display that is almost two years old. Raw photo off my phone - emphasises the problem Adjusted as close as I can to what it looks like in real life to me but in real...
forums.macrumors.com
Came back into stock in Australia two days ago. I ordered one. Terrible backlight uniformity:
LG 5K UltraFine, 27MD5KL-B — uniformity/uneven brightness?
Bad backlight bleed on mine which arrived today. It is noticeably red in the corners and much more bleed than a mid range LG 4K display that is almost two years old. Raw photo off my phone - emphasises the problem Adjusted as close as I can to what it looks like in real life to me but in real...
here is my white uniformity....
This is really how it looks from eye sights
It is really bizarre to use, where my eyes are straining from the dark patch of the screen from all around the center. The right side is even worse to look at.
After last three months I came to conclusion that the stock availability of the iMac 5K and those LG 5K displays is influenced mostly because of the pandemic, not because something new is around the corner.
It's a very specific panel so I guess they are not producing those in many factories.
This LG 5K became "discontinued" in Czech republic about two months ago (at all the Apple Premium Resellers). It seems to be back in stock at Apple.com/cz, but not everywhere else. iMac 5K availability was like +1-1.5 months since March.
It's a very specific panel so I guess they are not producing those in many factories.
This LG 5K became "discontinued" in Czech republic about two months ago (at all the Apple Premium Resellers). It seems to be back in stock at Apple.com/cz, but not everywhere else. iMac 5K availability was like +1-1.5 months since March.
On the "seamless macOS integration, you can control volume and brightness on your 5K display without the need for physical buttons" (from Apple product page for this monitor), with utilities like MonitorControl (which works great with other monitors too), is there anything I'm missing here in terms of macOS integration or is that marketing a bit overblown?
Why oh why can Apple not just package the same displays on the 4K and 5K iMac in a modest aluminum shell, and sell it for around what LG charges for their 4K and 5K displays?
So what if I buy one of these displays and then a $900 Mac mini? They've still basically sold me an iMac in terms of profit. Why do they care? Why can they not provide people with what they want? There is no cannibalism or loss to be afraid of. I don't get it. Not at all.
What I really want them to make is an 8K ultra wide display. Basically (2) 4K displays attached. 48", 8k resolution. That's all anyone would ever need I recon. The problem would be then they would have make a Mac mini that has a decent graphics card. A Mac medium, I suspect.
So what if I buy one of these displays and then a $900 Mac mini? They've still basically sold me an iMac in terms of profit. Why do they care? Why can they not provide people with what they want? There is no cannibalism or loss to be afraid of. I don't get it. Not at all.
What I really want them to make is an 8K ultra wide display. Basically (2) 4K displays attached. 48", 8k resolution. That's all anyone would ever need I recon. The problem would be then they would have make a Mac mini that has a decent graphics card. A Mac medium, I suspect.
I run in dark mode so don't notice the white uniformity as much. I've got a replacement happening - hopefully it's better otherwise it'll go back and I'll sit it out and see if the QC improves.
Depite the surprising low 164ppi, I have this monitor and cannot discern noticable pixel structure and it appears 'retina' resolution to me, at least as sharp as my 13" MBP which apparently has 227ppi.
It's weird to me they sell all these laptops and give users few options to plug them into.
It depends on distance from your eye to the monitor as well as PPI. A higher PPI can be closer than a monitor that has a lower PPI and have no discernible pixels. So you need to consider monitor position when making a decision. This is a good calculator that tells you how far away your monitor needs to be to have no discernible pixels.
Is This Retina? - DPI/PPI Display Calculator
Calculate aspect ratio, DPI/PPI, and minimum Retina viewing distance.
www.designcompaniesranked.com
These LGs look terrible. I may have to just spring for the $6K XDR display for my 16" MBP upgrade.... really hoping that we see a consumer 5K display from Apple this fall.