I have two minis - late 2012 and late 2014. Both upgraded to SSD. Former uses Dell 20" monitor (lovely display at 1680x1050) and latter uses LG 25" 21:9 (super display at 2560x1080). Both are secondary machines to my primary 5k iMac. All three used for development/code The 25" is mainly for electronics and embedded devices. The 20" is mainly for robotics (mostly Lego Mindstorms). The iMac is the main work machine. I am considering how my upgrades look this year as iMac will be 5 years old and the minis are clearly much older. The displays on minis are superb (especially the UW) but lack of highDPI is always an annoyance - macOS is clearly optimised for highDPI.
One thought was to replace the minis with one MBA. I only use one desk at a time so could easily move between desks. If I want to retain context could even use two workspaces and swipe. Has anyone attempted a similar move from lower DPI larger display to high DPI smaller display? I am a little concerned the MBA display would be a little cramped.
The alternative is one or two M1 Mini. The monitors could be changed to 4K but getting a UHD monitor that has PPI to be regarded as highDPI is not so easy then there is the minefield of external monitors with M1 Mini. I tried this a while back and the mini had to be returned (at suggestion of Apple) as it would not work.
I am thinking now the MBA represents excellent value especially on refurb. Any upgrades to MBA will be "nice to have" but have no real impact on my workflow and will likely push up base price along with refurb and usual delay in getting refurb stock on new models.
Any thoughts and comments would be most welcome.
A
One thought was to replace the minis with one MBA. I only use one desk at a time so could easily move between desks. If I want to retain context could even use two workspaces and swipe. Has anyone attempted a similar move from lower DPI larger display to high DPI smaller display? I am a little concerned the MBA display would be a little cramped.
The alternative is one or two M1 Mini. The monitors could be changed to 4K but getting a UHD monitor that has PPI to be regarded as highDPI is not so easy then there is the minefield of external monitors with M1 Mini. I tried this a while back and the mini had to be returned (at suggestion of Apple) as it would not work.
I am thinking now the MBA represents excellent value especially on refurb. Any upgrades to MBA will be "nice to have" but have no real impact on my workflow and will likely push up base price along with refurb and usual delay in getting refurb stock on new models.
Any thoughts and comments would be most welcome.
A