Side discussion: What are everyone's thoughts when it comes to external HiDPI monitor options to use with this Mac Mini?
Ideally I'd want 5K displays (I'm used to the iMac 5K) but it seems that LG's UltraFine is the only real option and the rest of the industry has settled on 4K/UHD at 27 inches, which results in a) limited screen real estate due to an effective resolution of 1080p at 2x scaling and b) slightly less pixel density.
I maybe fine with b) but both issues considered I'm seriously wondering why UHD displays at 27" are so popular - it seems like a subpar and regretful combination. Are my worries unwarranted?
I’ve been using dell P2415Qs. I run 3 at the HiDPI “looks like 2560x1440”. It’s not perfect 2x scaling, but it is close enough (185 dpi) and the price $300-400 each cant be beat. I’ve considered switching to the 21.5 inch LG ultrafines (220 dpi) but they are $700 and have very limited port choices compared to the dells. I use the dell displays with multiple other machines that don’t have USB-C graphics out. And want to be able to use the displays with eGPUs that won’t have USB-C out.
I just hope the default GPU of the mini can drive 3 UHD displays without choking on the dock animations :|
Well, at least 24“ are more reasonable for UHD or 1080p at 2x scaling. However I currently use a non-retina iMac 27 at home (which I‘m looking to replace) and an iMac 5k at work - I really want both: Screen real estate and retina-level pixel density.
Concerning the Ultrafine: Yes, it‘s too expensive and since I‘d need to connect it to another PC without Thunderbolt it‘s not an option for me.
I love my P2415Q, will probably get a second one as well. My only gripe with it are the rather large bezels, compared to some of Dell's other offerings. It really is a shame that basically no one is focusing on HiDPI monitors, especially when 4K laptop displays are all the rage now.
I too am disappointed by the lack of 5k options. The iMac 5k display is truly outstanding and I wish there were other options. The 1080p aspect ratio is not great in my opinion.
It has great reviews, and while it's a bit different from what you're looking for, you might be able to run it at a higher resolution and get more screen real estate. Food for thought...
I have a 31.5" 4K display I'm using at native resolution with my MacBook Pro and honestly I can't wait for 8K... I wouldn't want to trade off any of this screen space but every day the low ppi bothers me.
Nobody's forcing you to use 2x scaling. I use two 27" UHD displays with Debian/GNOME. The system-level scaling factor is 1, and I adjust application zoom levels as needed.
I typically divide each display in half, and each half comfortably fits one browser window, mail client, terminal, Spotify, etc.
MacOS only works probably with integer-based scaling - 1x, 2x, theoretically 3x. Everything inbetween will lead to blurry text/assets and decreased performance since the output as a whole will be scaled and downsampled by the GPU.
I'm working a lot with text and a sharp/crisp display is important to me. 2x scaling is the only proper option in my opinion.
Everything inbetween will lead to blurry text/assets and decreased performance since the output as a whole will be scaled and downsampled by the GPU.
I run 2 27" 4k displays off a MacBook with integrated graphics, both scaled at 1.5x to "look like" 2560x1440. It works fine; text is not quite as sharp at it would be at 2x, but it's far better than it would be on an actual 1440p display. I haven't noticed decreased performance, but I'm not doing heavy graphics work.
Agreed that display manufacturers are messing this up. 4k displays should be either 20-24" for 2x scaling or 40+ inches for unscaled; 27" displays should be 5k.
Note that Apple uses non-integer scaling _on their own computers_ these days. Default for the 15" MBP, which has a native resolution of 2880x1800, is fake 1680x1050.
There is also Philips 275P4VYKEB. But you need two displays ports to power it. IIRC only some new and not so adopted(both by displays and GPUs) display port standards support 5K. Apple iMac 5K uses same setup of two DPs to power display.
Not high enough DPI for retina, not big enough to avoid scaling. The monitor market seems to be messed up at the moment, there's LG monitor models which were shown at CES 2017 that are barely appearing in some countries today.
The Mac user consensus seems to be that the panel is great, but everything around it is flakey (at least compared to previous Apple displays) - plugging and unplugging doesn't work 100% of the time, stuff like OS integration of brightness and volume keys isn't seamless etc. Looking at user ratings it seems like reliability isn't great either but that could be skewed.
Anecdotally... I bought an LG Ultrafine 5K when they came out - I believe I've got one of the initially faulty ones that can't go too close to a WiFi access point due to lack of shielding.
It was flaky as hell when it first came out but over the course of about a month of receiving it, the problems largely seemed to stop occurring.
I typically unplug and plug it in once per day when I take my Macbook Pro away to sit somewhere else in the evening. But when I'm working during the day I use it as my primary display. For my own experience the integration of brightness and volume is seamless. The speakers are good (although I use some old Genelec monitors instead for this), and the quality of the display is absolutely fantastic as you said.
About one in fifty times plugging it in to the laptop doesn't immediately work, and then I plug it into a different USB-C port on the laptop, and then it does.
Just one data point: I have two of those screens connected to an iMac Pro. This is a setup officially supported by Apple, but sometimes when waking up the Mac one of the displays doesn't turn on and the only option to get it back to work properly is disconnecting either the power or the USB cable.
This is reproducible by connecting both screens to a 15" MBP Pro 2016.
If the screens would at least have an ordinary power switch so I would have to crawl over my desk once every two weeks my life would be a lot better,...
Ideally I'd want 5K displays (I'm used to the iMac 5K) but it seems that LG's UltraFine is the only real option and the rest of the industry has settled on 4K/UHD at 27 inches, which results in a) limited screen real estate due to an effective resolution of 1080p at 2x scaling and b) slightly less pixel density.
I maybe fine with b) but both issues considered I'm seriously wondering why UHD displays at 27" are so popular - it seems like a subpar and regretful combination. Are my worries unwarranted?