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igetit

macrumors member
Original poster
Oct 22, 2005
77
23
Snoqualmie, WA
I am torn between a setup with one Ultrafine 5K or two Ultrafine 4K. Based on price alone it looks like the extra +/- $100 will give you quite a bit of screen real estate on two screens with daisy chaining at 4K which in turn is less resolution than a 5K Ultrafine and you also get a webcam with a 5K.

Am I missing anything else? It has become a hard decision and i wonder if anyone else has gone through this decision and what did you choose?

My main uses will be for work with Word, Excel and Browser and also for fun stuff like Logic Pro, Final Cut Pro and Reaper.

Thanks for any insights!
 

Stephen.R

Suspended
Nov 2, 2018
4,356
4,747
Thailand
It will depend a lot on how you use apps/how you work.

I use 2x 24" 4Ks (Dell P2415Q - so biggest difference is DP input not USB-C, and the style) side-by-side. I guess I'd manage with a bigger screen if I had to, but IMO macOS window management won't quite scale out as well on one big display as it does on two small ones - particularly in split fullscreen mode. I've also dabbled once or twice with turning one or both displays vertical orientation. I'm going to try this again once I have a standing desk + more adjustable monitor arms (the included dell stands are only just tall enough to have them vertical).

If you like to focus on one thing at a time, with an uninterrupted canvas, you might prefer the 27".
 
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frou

macrumors 65816
Mar 14, 2009
1,391
2,001
If they were the 22" version of the UltraFine (4096x2304 → 219 PPI) then I'd definitely go for that because two of them for close to the price of one 5K would be much better value. But the 24" panel has the wrong PPI (3840x2160 → 184) for macOS Retina. You don't want to be display scaling if you can avoid it.
 
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