Monitor help

[chukwithak]

Hey gents, sold the MacBook Pro and am ready to pull the trigger on a Mac mini, but before I do I need to address the monitor department. Looking for my best bang for the buck. What should I bee looking for? LED/LCD? ANy particular typ of connection? I don’t need anything fancy. It’s going to be used for school and general web browsing, maybe reading ebooks (school books) with annotation/markup. That’s about it for now.

Is USB C to USB C an option for displays? Or is that power? Monitors is one of things I know very little about. Appreciate it.

 

[mikehalloran]

start here. Follow the links. Once you know what everything means, you'll be able to make your own decision.

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT209224

If your needs are basic, a nice HDMI display will look ok and not cost very much.

 

[chukwithak]

I know this much. I’m competent. What’s the difference in a 100$ Samsung LED and a 900$ gaming monitor? Refresh and Hertz?

 

[F-Train]

Here's 27 pages of discussion about choosing a monitor for a Mac mini: https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/best-monitor-for-new-mini.2151340/

It covers the questions that you're raising.

 

[Fishrrman]

Number one question:
What's your budget?

Do you want 4k?
Or... 1080p?
Or... 1440p?
Or... widescreen?

A list that might be of a little help:
https://www.pchardwarehelp.com/guides/s-ips-lcd-list.php

Insofar as "connection" is concerned, I would look for a display that has a displayport connector (minidisplayport will do as well, they are identical except for "size").

Then, get a USB-c (Mac end) to displayport (display end) connecting cable.
MAKE SURE you read the reviews and product descriptions before you buy.
Some older cables worked ok with 2016 MacBooks (with USB-c), but did not work properly with 2017/2018 Macs. Pay attention to this.

 

[Ploki]

yes USB-C is an option however not many displays have it.
Check the thread F-train linked.

I personally use LG UltraFine 4K.

Difference between 100$ and 900$ monitor?
Could be: Color Gamut, resolution, brightness, pixel density, latency, refresh rate, bit depth, speakers, additional ports, angle of view, panel tech or simply brand.

it's hard to say. you're not asking the right questions really, since you didn't ask anything.

Best bang for the buck for the mini if you like HiDPI seems to be Dell P2415Q.

 

[chukwithak]

Thanks guys. I’ll do some more research. Something ined to learn.

 

[Ploki]

if you tell us a few more wishes it will be easier to give you advice. if you don't have any, just grab what's cheap and HDMI.

 

[lixeza]

You may get Dell full LED HD monitor 21.5''