A warning: Do not buy a Mac Mini unless you have a high resolution (4K+) display.

[Silly John Fatty]

This will be the same as my Dell's 2560x1440, which is perfectly fine.
Some people will argue till the cows come home, but not everything needs to be retina....

Yeah it's nice on my ipp, but so what.

That will be fine. 27" 2560 x 1440 is what the ASD and 5k iMac actually default to as a "looks like" resolution.
It may not look quite as sharp as an ASD using 1/4 of the pixels that does, however you won't have any issues using it in reality

Right now I have a 5,1 2010 Mac Pro, so I suppose it won't look different than it does now, right? I was just worried that the quality might decrease as compared to what I have now.

Don't need more sharpness for the moment, personally I think the 2010 LED Cinema Display is an awesome monitor and that's why I've been keeping it for so long. The image is still very nice.

 

[mcnallym]

Right now I have a 5,1 2010 Mac Pro, so I suppose it won't look different than it does now, right? I was just worried that the quality might decrease as compared to what I have now.

Don't need more sharpness for the moment, personally I think the 2010 LED Cinema Display is an awesome monitor and that's why I've been keeping it for so long. The image is still very nice.

My parents are using my old 5,1 with the 24" LED version and when I use then is still a good screen (though a little small for my tastes now)

It isn't going to get any worse then is now on your 5,1 and if it is sharp and clear to read then will be sharp and clear on a newer Mac.

 

[dandeco]

I'm using an older Apple 27" Thunderbolt Display, and it works fine with my M1 MacBook Air. So I should be able to use it fine with an M2 Pro Mac Mini once I buy one.

 

[StoneJack]

mac mini 1 and Dell 27 inh 2k monitor are working together just great

 

[HDFan]

what about the 27” LED cinema display?

Had the 30" Cinema display. The difference between it and the iMac Pro display which replaced it was quite dramatic.

 

[Silly John Fatty]

Had the 30" Cinema display. The difference between it and the iMac Pro display which replaced it was quite dramatic.

That one is much older however! But yeah the new Mac screens are amazing. I still like my 27" CD, but I'll see how it is when my new Mini arrives.

 

[laserfan]

mac mini 1 and Dell 27 inh 2k monitor are working together just great

Brand new Mac mini late-2018 and latest Big Sur 11.7.7 and a Dell U2713H 2560x1440 connected via HDMI, and while Display settings recognize the model, the res is 1920x1080 with no way that I can find to increase it to native. HDMI isn't the limitation, is it? Or the cable (I believe it's a 4K cable)? I'm at a loss as to how to fix this.

 

[StoneJack]

Brand new Mac mini late-2018 and latest Big Sur 11.7.7 and a Dell U2713H 2560x1440 connected via HDMI, and while Display settings recognize the model, the res is 1920x1080 with no way that I can find to increase it to native. HDMI isn't the limitation, is it? Or the cable (I believe it's a 4K cable)? I'm at a loss as to how to fix this.

upgrade to monterey
change the cable
report back

 

[laserfan]

upgrade to monterey
change the cable
report back

thanks StoneJack. In wading-thru this thread I had the notion to check the HDMI spec on my Dell, and it's limited to 1080p. Duh.

Sorry for the bandwidth. Gonna have to figure-out how to connect instead to its DP port which is already in use by my Dell/Win7Pro laptop.

 

[Boyd01]

Brand new Mac mini late-2018 and latest Big Sur 11.7.7 and a Dell U2713H 2560x1440 connected via HDMI,

I used a 32" BenQ PD3200Q 2560x1440 screen on my 2018 Mini since 2020 on Catalina with a Belkin Displayport to USB-C cable and it worked fine. Last winter I needed another USB-C port for an external SSD, so I switched the screen to HDMI. I just used an extra HDMI cable I've had since around 2016, don't know the brand. Works fine, although there is a 1-pixel wide green stripe on the right edge of the image. Didn't even notice this for awhile and I just ignore it now, but definitely did not have that problem when using Minidisplayport.

So, you might try a different HDMI cable because 2560x1440 definitely works on the 2018 Mini. However I have read a lot of threads about HDMI problems on this Mini, which is why I decided to use USB-C initially. That could be another option for you, if your screen supports Displayport or Minidisplayport you could get a USB-C cable/adapter and see if that works.

 

[Boyd01]

Gonna have to figure-out how to connect instead to its DP port which is already in use by my Dell/Win7Pro laptop.

We posted at the same time. Yeah, get a USB-C to Displayport cable. As I said, mine worked fine with a Belkin cable.

 

[StoneJack]

We posted at the same time. Yeah, get a USB-C to Displayport cable. As I said, mine worked fine with a Belkin cable.

Yes i use same usb c to dp cable on dell 27 inch 2 k display works normal

 

[Boyd01]

I did discover something very unusual when I switched from the USB-C to HDMI cable on my 2018 Mini. The Mini took a very long time to boot (perhaps 45 sec?) when connected via Displayport/USB-C. I always assumed this was due to the fact that I had two exernal USB-C SSD's.

As soon as I moved the display to HDMI, the boot time was dramatically faster, only takes about 15 sec now. And now I have three USB-C SSD's connected all the time. Never saw anyone else mention this issue here, but (at least in my case) using USB-C for the screen really slows down the boot process. Would be interested to see if you experience something similar.

 

[Silly John Fatty]

So I connected my 2010 or 2011 27" Apple Cinema Display to my new 2023 M2 Pro Mac Mini, and resolution-wise everything is okay. It looks exactly the way it looked before. For me it looks perfect, but then again I've been used to this display for over ten years. I was just scared that there would be some kind of downgrade in terms of resolution in combination with a newer Mac - negative!

I have other issues with this display however, which I've described here.

 

[joloriquelme]

This is all about the user. It's not about a "faulty" monitor. It's because Windows font experience at QHD is MUCH better than macOS at QHD, for those who have tried both systems with the same display.

I have a 14" MBP, with a Dell U2722D (QHD), and text looks frankly horrible. In contrast, the same display connected to a Windows 11 box is much much better.

And this is not my only experience. I've tried several other Macs, other QHD monitors, and even years ago (2016) I've tried a 2013 MBP with also a Dell QHD display of that time, and the same: text is blurry compared to Windows.

It's only the text. GUI, photos and videos looks OK, icons too. Even, when you connect a Windows RDP session from MacOS, text from that Windows session looks exactly the same as a local Windows connected machine: good. It's kind of funny how good the font from the remote window is, and the menues and window title from macOS isn't.

Next week when I will send you a photo (not a screenshot) with a clear comparison between both fonts, at different Windows, under the same display at the same time.

I understand that many users doesn't complain about this behavior (not necessary a problem for several users, because they are used to at this point), but probably is because they don't have access to a Windows machine to compare. When you see the difference, it's quite clear that's Windows experience with text at QHD is MUCH better.

 

[mcnallym]

This is all about the user. It's not about a "faulty" monitor. It's because Windows font experience at QHD is MUCH better than macOS at QHD, for those who have tried both systems with the same display.

I have a 14" MBP, with a Dell U2722D (QHD), and text looks frankly horrible. In contrast, the same display connected to a Windows 11 box is much much better.

And this is not my only experience. I've tried several other Macs, other QHD monitors, and even years ago (2016) I've tried a 2013 MBP with also a Dell QHD display of that time, and the same: text is blurry compared to Windows.

It's only the text. GUI, photos and videos looks OK, icons too. Even, when you connect a Windows RDP session from MacOS, text from that Windows session looks exactly the same as a local Windows connected machine: good. It's kind of funny how good the font from the remote window is, and the menues and window title from macOS isn't.

Next week when I will send you a photo (not a screenshot) with a clear comparison between both fonts, at different Windows, under the same display at the same time.

I understand that many users doesn't complain about this behavior (not necessary a problem for several users, because they are used to at this point), but probably is because they don't have access to a Windows machine to compare. When you see the difference, it's quite clear that's Windows experience with text at QHD is MUCH better.

Will refer you to my previous posts. There is a difference between not as sharp as and blurry.

no one is denying that retina screens have a sharper text output then non-retina display. I can see the difference between my retina iPad Pro and my dell 3008wfp which is 2560x1600 On 30” screen.

however the text on my dell connected to my Mac Studio M1 Max running Ventura still has a defined edge to it and sharp. It is just not as sharp as text on my Retina display iPad Pro. Or when tested ASD in Apple Store.

blurry text will have no defined edge.

my every day work machine is Windows laptop running a pair of Dell U2719D monitors under windows 10. I also nave a windows 10 machine connected to dell 3008wfp which whilst mainly for gaming also do surf forums on.

as such I definitely have comparison available to me of windows and Mac OS on same monitor as well.

not saying is as good as retina however at correct viewing distance and monitor setup properly then 27” QHD is then text is still sharp just not as sharp as a retina. Still has a defined edge whereas blurry text will not have a noticeable edge, the edge is blurred.

I have also worked my way up from original IBM PC with 8088 CPU and mini computer on green monochrome monitor to QHD and have retina iPad Pro which use daily. I know what blurry text is and Mac OS on 27” QHD is not blurry (text has a discernable edge) but is not as sharp as retina displays.

what you mean when you say blurry is “not as sharp as” however they are not in English Language the same meaning.

 

[crsh1976]

I connect my MBP M1 Max to a Dell U2722D display (QHD @ 60 Hz) with a USB-C to DP cable ($15 on Amazon) and everything looks fine - the monitor has a sharpness setting to adjust what may be a little too blurry by default (you can drive the sharpness all the way up to horrible jaggies), but otherwise no issue to report.

Sure it's not a M1/M2 mini, but I can't see why it would be any different - I have never tried using the HDMI port however.

 

[teh_hunterer]

Will refer you to my previous posts. There is a difference between not as sharp as and blurry.

what you mean when you say blurry is “not as sharp as” however they are not in English Language the same meaning.

Sorry to jump into a conversation I was not a part of, but in my experience, on a 1440p 27" screen, text on macOS is completely, unacceptably, hilariously bad.

On Windows, it looks great.

You realise that this is because Apple removed the subpixel antialiasing that allowed text to look OK on these sorts of setups a couple years ago, right?

 

[MarkC426]

Sorry to jump into a conversation I was not a part of, but in my experience, on a 1440p 27" screen, text on macOS is completely, unacceptably, hilariously bad.

Sorry but I have to disagree.....😬

Just set up my M2 Studio with 27" Dell QHD.....Wooww, screen looks better than it did in Mojave on my cMP.
Even after my default task of 'make icons/text/dock smaller operation'.
The default size looks like a fisher price toy....🤪

 

[madmalkav]

It is not about inches, is about certain relations between inches and ppi, fonts looks terrible on some combinations, far worse than any other OS, even hobbyist OSes like Haiku. This wasn’t a problem when MacOS had subpixel antialiasing or whatever it is called

 

[JuicyGoomba]

Text is fine. Windows looks "better" because it messes with the actual structure of the font to make it look more readable. Personally, I find it makes the fonts less readable, and it only works on certain applications anyway.

File explorer, for example, doesn't seem to support it at all on my Windows 11 system. Chrome uses it's own text sharpening methods, and most other apps such as Steam kind of do what they want.

The whole myth about Windows being better is just plain false. At QHD the only difference on MacOS vs Windows is that MacOS preseves the shape of the fonts so that they are true to their design. You can change this by adding font smoothing, which increses readability at QHD at the expense of accuracy.

There's an app to easily change font smoothing settings here: https://www.fontsmoothingadjuster.com/

It also has a demo on the page to show you what text looks like on your monitor before you even buy a Mac.

 

[joloriquelme]

Sorry I forgot: I will take some pictures this week.

 

[JuicyGoomba]

Sorry I forgot: I will take some pictures this week.

It's literally the same as when you install something like Pop_OS with VirtualBox, text is noticeably worse than windows due to the fonts being rendered without subpixel aliasing, but true to how they should look.

Again, it's not bad, and you quickly forget about it.

If slightly worse text bothers you on a QHD display to the point of obsession, there are probably other issues at hand.

 

[bembol]

Somewhat agree.

I got back into desktop with the mini M2 and Best Buy had the monitors on sale. I got the Samsung 27" 1080P on sale for $169.99 CAN.

To be fair my eyes aren't the best and got surgery on my left eye two weeks ago so it didn't help. I knew what I bought but really had trouble reading the text. I got the 32" 4k (sale for $339.99 CAN) and problem solved.

 

[grandM]

Brand new Mac mini late-2018 and latest Big Sur 11.7.7 and a Dell U2713H 2560x1440 connected via HDMI, and while Display settings recognize the model, the res is 1920x1080 with no way that I can find to increase it to native. HDMI isn't the limitation, is it? Or the cable (I believe it's a 4K cable)? I'm at a loss as to how to fix this.

Own the same display. Is it working fine or did you need to install something extra as you had to do several years ago to get it running properly? Any idea how long these displays work before breaking down?