mini paired with Hauwei's new 4.5K 3:2 monitor = iMac killer?

[tornado99]

@uller6 , I've noticed that with Big Sur the difference in font crispness between scaled modes and pixel-doubled is almost unnoticeable. The only difference seems to be very slightly sharper window controls and toolbar icons in the doubled mode. This was not the the case in Catalina so perhaps they adjusted font rendering. This is on my 185 dpi display, but I imagine it wouldn't be very different on a 160dpi display.

I also found this extremely comprehensive review of the monitor.

出道即巅峰？华为MateView显示器评测

华为MateView是华为首款显示器产品，拥有28.2英寸的屏幕，3：2的4K（3840*2560）超高分辨率，10bit色深，以及sRGB、DCI P3和原彩三种色域。机身超薄，最厚处也不到13mm，此外，还能支持无线投屏功能。价格为4699元…

translate.google.com

Interesting brightness curve:

This is their conclusion:

In the past, only Apple monitors were able to achieve both ultra-thin and excellent performance, but the price of Apple monitors is too expensive (Pro Display XDR requires a minimum of 36,000 yuan), so it will not threaten other monitors on the market. Now, Huawei's strong entry, the first product has such amazing performance, this is undoubtedly a huge slap in the face of existing display manufacturers. The release of MateView may open a new era in the display field.

 

[Amethyst1]

ultra-thin

Ultra-thin what?

 

[tornado99]

Ultra-thin what?

Referring to the thinness of the display.

 

[Amethyst1]

Referring to the thinness of the display.

Who gives a thing about that? Thin bezels - fine, but the actual thickness of the display?

 

[tornado99]

Who gives a thing about that? Thin bezels - fine, but the actual thickness of the display?

I personally don't. But you could say the same about Apple's design strategy for their newest iMac!

 

[Kenjutsuz]

Goes to show you can have a height adjustable stand and display for a reasonable price.

Let's hope rumours of a standalone display from Apple will not be astronomically priced out of the reach of many Mac mini owners.

Looks like what I have been looking for..hmm

 

[InuNacho]

Any updates on this monitor or any way to get it here in the States?

 

[tornado99]

Are the Hauwei Matebooks sold in the States? If not, then it may never be officially released there.

People in Germany seem to be getting their hands on the Mateview now. Perhaps you could find a 3rd party agent who would ship from Germany to the US, or Amazon.de

 

[tornado99]

An English language review: https://www.t3.com/reviews/huawei-mateview-review

not v detailed, but matte coating confirmed.

 

[PeterJP]

An English language review: https://www.t3.com/reviews/huawei-mateview-review

not v detailed, but matte coating confirmed.

It's a horrendous website dying a death of a billion pop-ups, but the review was revealing. I really like the general concept of the screen. But the review mentions there are only limited display settings. That's definitely a minus. It's always helpful if a quality screen also allows careful finetuning of that good panel.

 

[tornado99]

They didn't really specify what they meant by display settings, but if you want to fine-tune gamma, colour temperature, etc. you're always better with a hardware colorimeter and creating your own .icc profile. I recommend a second hand i1Display Studio if you don't have one.

As long as you can adjust brightness and set the RGB levels, that's all you need on the monitor itself.

 

[PeterJP]

Just coming back to this topic - and well aware that probably nobody has laid their hands on one yet.
When I look up scaling for 4K screens on an M1 mac, I notice that with DP, people can get the funny HiDPI resolution of 3008x1692. Now, that's 16:9. The Huawei being 3:2, would the M1 be capable of rendering 3008x2005 HiDPI and to transmit it to the Huawei? I'm finding 2560x1440 (2560x1920 Huawei) to be too big for applications like Logic Pro X that require a lot of screen real estate.

 

[LFO8]

Hauwei just released their new 28 inch 3:2 3840 x 2520 160 dpi 500 nits DCI-P3 matte monitor for 600 (edit: 699) euros in Europe. Pair that with a Mac mini, and for the same price as the new iMac, you get a much better productivity machine.

As a coder, writer, and reader, I'm definitely excited about this. My scroll wheel can finally take a rest!

View attachment 1786054View attachment 1786053

From these pictures the color and brightness seem off compared to the iMac screen.

And wouldn’t this + a Mac mini put the price over that what you would pay for an iMac?

And that is sans microphone array, FaceTime camera and speakers.
I am trying to get the case being made here (apart from slightly more vertical screen real estate) that this with a Mac mini would be an iMac killer..

 

[tornado99]

@LFO8 Many reviewers have measured the maximum brightness of the Mateview with a colorimeter, and it is 500 nits or more, identical to the iMac. I even posted a graph at the top of this page showing that. I believe the Mateview default brightness is set at around 300 nits though, so that probably explains what you see.

As for color, the iMac could have a different color profile set. The Mateview calibrates to delta E < 1 which is extremely good color accuracy.

Also 3:2 is not slightly more vertical estate, it's a lot more. You can have a full letter/A4 page document open and see the whole thing at once at a readable size.

It does have a microphone array.

The iMac webcam is no better than an average standalone webcam, and the iMac speakers are worse than a pair of standalone $30 2.1 speakers from a decent manufacturer.

So I think my case is valid. The Mac Mini is intended to be a "bring your own" concept anyway, rather than an all-in-one.

 

[LFO8]

@LFO8 Many reviewers have measured the maximum brightness of the Mateview with a colorimeter, and it is 500 nits or more, identical to the iMac. I even posted a graph at the top of this page showing that. I believe the Mateview default brightness is set at around 300 nits though, so that probably explains what you see.

As for color, the iMac could have a different color profile set. The Mateview calibrates to delta E < 1 which is extremely good color accuracy.

Also 3:2 is not slightly more vertical estate, it's a lot more. You can have a full letter/A4 page document open and see the whole thing at once at a readable size.

It does have a microphone array.

The iMac webcam is no better than an average standalone webcam, and the iMac speakers are worse than a pair of standalone $30 2.1 speakers from a decent manufacturer.

So I think my case is valid. The Mac Mini is intended to be a "bring your own" concept anyway, rather than an all-in-one.

Thank you for elaborating. I guess the difference in brightness could explain it.
Does anyone know if this would come close enough to retina?

I am tempted to get an iMac as my next machine (coming from a cMP 5,1) but it has a few limitations that a mini would solve (ports mainly) but this setup has got me wondering, but price wise they come in at around the same cost.

 

[tornado99]

It's 160dpi which is in the ballpark of Retina, but whether it is sharp enough for you depends on many different variables. Best to see it in person, or buy it from somewhere you can return it. Very hard to gauge something like that online.

Interestingly, if they had gone for a higher pixel density, they would have excluded a lot of older devices, as 3840x2560 is only just in the bandwidth of DP 1.2. Any more pixels and you get into DP 1.4 only land.

 

[LFO8]

It’s up on the Dutch site now as wel:

HUAWEI MateView - HUAWEI Nederland

HUAWEI MateView, een monitor die elk aspect van de ervaring beter maakt. Maak kennis met het elegante ontwerp en het schitterende 4K+ scherm. De draadloze verbinding met meerdere apparaten maakt slim werken mogelijk.

consumer.huawei.com

 

[ignatius345]

back view

View attachment 1786619

This looks nice, but for a fair comparison, imagine it with a webcam, a mic and speakers plugged in. For a lot of people I'm sure this doesn't matter, but having worked with a Mini setup for a few years, it really does add quite a bit of clutter. I went to an iMac after the Mini and I've come to really appreciate the simplicity of the all-in-one design.

 

[satchmo]

I'd love to have the Surface Studio's 28" 4500×3000 panel as a stand-alone monitor. It's 193 ppi so quite a bit closer to macOS' ideal range (215-230 ppi) than the Huawei. However, as you say it's still a nice deal.

I wonder how discernible it is once you get into that PPI range?

I suspect not much between 193 and 220, but this display at 160 dpi and larger 28” size might look ‘fuzzy’ compared to the current 24” iMac.

 

[the future]

@LFO8 The iMac webcam is no better than an average standalone webcam, and the iMac speakers are worse than a pair of standalone $30 2.1 speakers from a decent manufacturer.

Have you heard the new iMac speakers?I doubt you could get getter speakers for 30 USD. But that is beside the point anyway.

So I think my case is valid. The Mac Mini is intended to be a "bring your own" concept anyway, rather than an all-in-one.

And this is exactly why your case is not valid. In the end, you‘re comparing very different desktop setups, i.e. apples and oranges. The allure of the all-in-one form factor, the whole point of it, is to make things as easy, convenient and clutter-free as possible. Your proposed setup does not meet these criteria, hence it could never „kill“ the iMac for its intended/typical customer.

This looks nice, but for a fair comparison, imagine it with a webcam, a mic and speakers plugged in. For a lot of people I'm sure this doesn't matter, but having worked with a Mini setup for a few years, it really does add quite a bit of clutter. I went to an iMac after the Mini and I've come to really appreciate the simplicity of the all-in-one design.

Exactly.

 

[nicho]

This looks nice, but for a fair comparison, imagine it with a webcam, a mic and speakers plugged in. For a lot of people I'm sure this doesn't matter, but having worked with a Mini setup for a few years, it really does add quite a bit of clutter. I went to an iMac after the Mini and I've come to really appreciate the simplicity of the all-in-one design.

Exactly.

Not exactly.

 

[LFO8]

I can't find any reviews where people are actually using this thing. I'm curious.

 

[the future]

Not exactly.

View attachment 1807105

Where is the computer in this picture? Where is the webcam? …

 

[nicho]

Where is the computer in this picture? Where is the webcam? …

Where is the need to plug in an external microphone? Where is the need to plug in speakers?

As I said, not exactly a fair comparison to say it needs all of these things.

 

[the future]

Where is the need to plug in an external microphone? Where is the need to plug in speakers?

As I said, not exactly a fair comparison to say it needs all of these things.

This doesn‘t change the fact that a mac mini + MateView setup is inherently more cluttered than an iMac, which is why most of the iMac customers wouldn‘t even consider this alternative. Which is why the title of this thread is misguided (and click-baity).