Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

under 300.00 monitor ?

E

endoftheroad

macrumors member
Original poster
Aug 2, 2021
77
13
Ive a 2012 mini, and a 2018 mini
using my very old Dell 2209WA monitor now at 1680x1050
Im looking for more space :)

can someone suggest a 27inch (even a 32inch if its possible) - colorful,crisp, easy on old eyes monitor from "Best Buy" (i have one close by) I do NOT want to do shipping
that will work with both of the above Mini's
I sit about 18 inches away from the screen on my desk now
email, utube vids, group postings, and TextEdit (poetry) is what i mostly do

ive been doing alot of reading on here about monitors but im just getting myself more and more confused
im looking for the best bang for my measly bucks

thank you very very much for your help and patience

cheers
John
 
  • Like
Reactions: Panther61
My experience with newer versions of MacOS (since at least El Capitan) and third party monitors has been frustrating. They look like crap on MacOS.
For some baffling reason, MacOS gets dimmer, smaller fainter and more difficult to see with every new interation. Text is lighter shades of gray and smaller, everything is harder to see — for no reason.
On a non- Retina display, it looks really bad and it's difficult to see, but on an Apple Retina display (their laptops or iMac) it looks fine.

The only chance you've got to get a monitor that won't be yucky looking when plugged into a Mac is buy the highest resolution monitor you can afford.
1680x1050p resolution looks abominable on Mac OS and 1920x 1080p only a little bit better.

I can't give you a precise monitor suggestion to buy (others will have actual experience with them) but your guiding criteria should be high resolution. The higher the better.
 
  • Like
Reactions: macsound1
now i see it said:
On a non- Retina display, it looks really bad and it's difficult to see, but on an Apple Retina display (their laptops or iMac) it looks fine.

The only chance you've got to get a monitor that won't be yucky looking when plugged into a Mac is buy the highest resolution monitor you can afford.
Click to expand...

OP is already accustomed to just ~90 Pixels-Per-Inch on their Dell, so is probably blessed with not being as picky as some of us on here can be.
 
im running Mojave on both Mini's
me being unacknowledged
if i buy one with the 2560x1440 capability with they work on both Mini's 2018 and 2012 ?

Fishrrman --thank you ill be looking through the list, but as "Now i see it" states
will the Mini look yeckie?
 
now i see it said:
The only chance you've got to get a monitor that won't be yucky looking when plugged into a Mac is buy the highest resolution monitor you can afford.
1680x1050p resolution looks abominable on Mac OS and 1920x 1080p only a little bit better.

I can't give you a precise monitor suggestion to buy (others will have actual experience with them) but your guiding criteria should be high resolution. The higher the better.
Click to expand...
im confused, your saying 1920x1080 looks better than 1680x1050,
so
will 2560x1440 look better than the two you stated above?
 
What you should consider is the PPI, or pixels per inch. That is the size of the individual dots that make up the image. Assuming that @frou is correct, if you choose another display with a PPI in the range of about 90 to 100, then text will be about the same size as your old monitor on the new screen.

My 72-year-old eyes were happy with an old 23" Apple Cinema Display for many years and it was 100 PPI. So, when I wanted a new monitor for my 2018 Mini, that was the spec I looked for. I ended up with a 32" 2560x1440 BenQ PD3200Q at about 93 PPI. IIRC, it cost $400 and Best Buy didn't have it, so probably not what you are looking for, but I love it. FYI, 2560x1440 is often called "QHD" resolution.

Anyway, if you want a QHD monitor you will probably want to go up to 32" to get text that's about the same size as your old screen. Everything would look pretty small on a 27" QHD monitor but many people would still find it acceptable. I don't think you would want QHD resolution on a 24" screen, that would make text very small and hard to read.

Now, you don't have to use the native resolution of the monitor on your Mac, you can select a scaled resolution in the Displays System Preferences. This causes the graphics chip on the Mini to work much harder and I think you'd have lots of problems doing that on a 2012 Mini. The 2018 Mini is a bit better, but can still struggle with scaled resolutions. This was discussed pretty extensively a few years ago here. It *might* make your Mini run hotter, which will slow everything down as the processor "throttles" to keep from overheating. I just didn't want to deal with any of that on my 2018 Mini, which is why I chose the 32" QHD monitor that looks good at its native resolution and doesn't stress the integrated graphics chip.
 
I've never bought a monitor new.

I've been running used 2x Dell Ultrasharps for 5 years now and they're great monitors even though they're a decade old.
Look around for used 27 and 30 inch Ultrasharps on Craigslist. They pop up fairly often and will be under $300.
 
  • Like
Reactions: MateoDeLaLuz
I'm using a fairly inexpensive Lenovo 24" QHD monitor scaled to 2048 X 1152, and it's doing fine for me. The static screen elements were just too small at standard 2K resolution. I tried scaling to 1920 X 1080, but it made things feel a bit too big and cramped. Note: I'm using an M1 Mini on Big Sur.
 
TechRunner said:
Note: I'm using an M1 Mini on Big Sur.
Click to expand...

That makes all the difference in the world. The M1 Mini uses Apple's custom graphics processor and has no problems scaling the display. That is not the case with the Intel UHD630 graphics chip on the OP's 2018 Mini, and certainly not with the Intel HD4000 chip on the 2012 Mini. :)
 
  • Like
Reactions: TechRunner
Why not try Amazon?

I have a pair of (see below) on my desk.
Whether my Mac, Thinkpad, iPad … they work great.

Right at $300.
4EB7261C-D388-4F96-92B7-102198E6EAB5.jpeg
 
just talked to best buy
and they said I can bring in my Mac-Mini and plug in the monitor to see if i like it
so im going to try the 29 and 34inch, and maybe others
i didnt know they'd let you do that
ill be driving them crazy :) for a whole day

but now trying to decide on the 2012 mini or 2018 mini ?
 
  • Like
Reactions: Moonjumper
went in to Best Buy OMG with my 2018 Mini and Mouse :)
I tried a bunch of them
ended up bringing home a Samsung S32A70 4K monitor
now im having fun :) this things got some serious relestate compared to my old moitor
at 2560X1440 havnt played with the internal setting yet
need to do some reading
do some cutting on my desk shelves to fit it in
 
  • Like
Reactions: dk001
Cool! :cool: but you may not be happy on the 2012 Mini, I believe it will only support 4k screens at 30hz. I have never tried myself, but many others here have said that isn't a good experience. Also, do you mean that you're scaling the 4k screen to 2560x1440? That has been problematic for some people, the graphics chip must work much harder to do that than it would on a native 2560x1440 screen.

Hope it works out, let us know what you think after a few days!
 
so, first attempt with my 2012 Mini and the SA32A70 (Non-TV Version)
first no screen at all, then unplugged the HDMI and replugged it in, screen came up
the size compared to the 2018 is larger fonts are fine
its "self-scaling to 1920x1080 at 60 Hertz
ill be watching to see if i start heating up :)

I was Bummed when I read yr post, thought about taking it back
ive got 10 days to decideScreen Shot 2021-08-29 at 12.30.45 AM.png
 
so, what I see, and im a "Certified Dummy" when it comes to computers :)
on my old monitor, my 2012 would get very hot to touch when watching utube vids or vids i have saved on a thumb drive
the thumb drive would get hot also, all within 20-30 minutes

Now on this new monitor
after an hr of watching vids, about hydroponics with 5 pages opened up (nice to be able to spread them out instead of having to stack them)
2012 Mini is NOT hot
thumb drive is NOT hot

is it a perfect set up? perfectly crisp like a imac or like my macbook pro "NO"
but is it enjoyable having a larger screen?
YES

now im thunkin of getting a KVM switch :)
 
  • Like
Reactions: Boyd01
1080p on a 30" display is going to result in text that is "kinda large" (at least to me) -- the image will seem "blown up a bit too much".

I have a 27" 1080p display (Viewsonic), and most folks here would consider THAT one to be "too much" -- at least for them.

However... if you're older, or if your vision isn't what it could be, a display with "oversized text" could be what you need.

If you wanted a larger display, my advice would be:
Get a 32" size display with a NATIVE 1440p resolution (also known as "QHD").
 
Don't know about your specifics on eyesight, but definitely follow the PPI suggestions. I personally find that 2K (2560x1440 or QHD) works fine at 27", but 30-32" required 4K for me but might still be fine (or even perfect) for you.

I would also suggest IPS screens only. You aren't gaming, so don't care about a 2ms lag at a cost of viewing angle and other visible oddities you may experience at that size.
 
I use a TCL 4k tv for my monitor super cheap and I can scale the windows down to the size that is comfortable for my viewing distance, I think is a 42 inch. My xbox one is also connected to its and it has a built in ROKU for Netflix etc.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back