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A warning: Do not buy a Mac Mini unless you have a high resolution (4K+) display.
- Thread starter staypuftforums
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I think it will!
My wife bought the Dell S2722QC 4K monitor a couple of weeks ago for her home office w10 laptop and I was really curious to see how it would look (163ppi) on our m1 macs since I've read all alarming reports on how horrible everything looks. I've since learned that it is all mostly hyperbole because the m1 mba with monterey handles the screen just perfectly.
We connect it thru USB C and you get 5 options of resolutions and they all look fine, with of course the "x2" option being the best (but a bit boring when it comes to screen real estate). I didn't even bothered to install the Dell Display tools!
The biggest surprize is that the w10 HP laptop doesn't like it at all! It defaults to 1920 x 1200 resolution on w10 (only option too, tinkering with the w10 display settings doesn't change anything) and everything really is as "blurry and pixelated" as the OP says about the mac (but isn't the case on this and the 3 monitors I have access to).
The w10 work laptop is heavily locked down so there's nothing we are allowed to install to fix this issue but I will check if a factory reset of the screen will give us any new start up options on w10 (we saw that we got that on first start up but didn't change anything since it looked so good on the mac and just assumed it would on w10 too)
I would like to thank the OP for reminding me of my Nan.
When it was pointed out to her that my name is spelt Michael, and not Micheal her response was that she had always spelt my name that way.
The possibility that she had always spelt my name wrong was inconceivable to her.
On my Dell 3008wfp @ 2560x1600 then under windows and Mac OS 11 then text is fine and clear where see no point replacing the monitor.
I was in the Apple Store picking up new SE last weekend and got to see some Mac Studio with Studio display in the store whilst waiting so I certainly know what Monterey looks like on that screen.
I am not going to claim that my Dell display as good as the Studio Display output in terms of what is onscreen but it is still clear on my Dell and certainly not blurry.
In much the same way as my A5 Sportback is still a fast accelerator. Is it is fast as my previous Golf GTI, no, but still accelerates fast enough for overtaking. My A5 is certainly not slow when put the accelerator down.
Same as I have no problem with a 27” 1080p Tv with subtitles. Is it as pin sharp as parents 4K 39” tv. No, but is still clear output on my TV.
When it was pointed out to her that my name is spelt Michael, and not Micheal her response was that she had always spelt my name that way.
The possibility that she had always spelt my name wrong was inconceivable to her.
On my Dell 3008wfp @ 2560x1600 then under windows and Mac OS 11 then text is fine and clear where see no point replacing the monitor.
I was in the Apple Store picking up new SE last weekend and got to see some Mac Studio with Studio display in the store whilst waiting so I certainly know what Monterey looks like on that screen.
I am not going to claim that my Dell display as good as the Studio Display output in terms of what is onscreen but it is still clear on my Dell and certainly not blurry.
In much the same way as my A5 Sportback is still a fast accelerator. Is it is fast as my previous Golf GTI, no, but still accelerates fast enough for overtaking. My A5 is certainly not slow when put the accelerator down.
Same as I have no problem with a 27” 1080p Tv with subtitles. Is it as pin sharp as parents 4K 39” tv. No, but is still clear output on my TV.
Can't say I've ever noticed any obvious blurriness with my FHD and QHD displays. It looks the same as it does on Windows computers. I've been using these monitors for years for text-based work.
Maybe I don't know what I'm missing, but it certainly doesn't show the typical signs of aliasing issues.
Well... that screen grab you posted is fuzzy, for a start...
Not a 5K monitor, perfectly legible. (Dell U3011 ultrasharpe, mojave).
Is there a bunch of monitor snobbery going on around here
Ouch! I tried my 16 inch M1 Pro MBP plugged into a 43 inch 4K LG TV and the text looked painfully blurry to me, compared to what I was used to on my 24 inch iMac.
So I did a little research and found that a 4K display of 40 inch size has a pixel density of only 110 ppi. Increase that size to 46 inches and the PPI drops to 96. For 39 inch it's 113. All this is to say that the pixel density of a 4K display at normal television sizes is WAY below the 4.5 K resolution (218 PPI) I have been used to for a year. It may not appear blurry to some people but it certainly does to me.
In the end, because text clarity is crucial to me, I decided to get a Studio Display (also 218 PPI pixel density) to provide me the increased screen size I needed with the text clarity I want. Obviously YMMV. For the lucky folks who find sub-retina text clarity looks fine, I envy you. Unfortunately, that's not the case for me and it evidently isn't the case for the OP.
BTW, I still have a 23 inch and a 30 inch Apple Cinema Display. Not sure why, since I never use them, image too blurry for me but... For those of you contemplating using one of the older Apple Cinema Displays here are the pixel densities for those two displays:
23 inch ACD 94 PPI (1920x1200 @ 24").
30 inch ACD: 101 PPI. 2560x1600 @ 30"
No wonder modern Macs connected to these displays produce images that look like garbage--at least to me. My eyes have been attuned to Retina display pixel densities for nearly a decade.
No snobbery. I bought a $1300 LG 4K and the blacks were gray. Everything was faded compared to the 5K retina. Endless numbers of members here have posted similar comments about 4K monitors. Maybe it's an issue of having standards?View attachment 1988416
Not a 5K monitor, perfectly legible. (Dell U3011 ultrasharpe, mojave).
Is there a bunch of monitor snobbery going on around here
Or maybe it's just that some of us are more sensitive to certain things than others. I have had an iPad mini 6 since day 1 of their release and I have never once perceived the "jelly scrolling" issue. That doesn't mean it doesn't exist, it just means that it exists below my personal threshold for detection. OTOH, I notice the slightest blurriness of text, where others might not. Again, I suspect it's at least partly due to a difference in detection threshold.
No, but a lot of examples of people clearly needing to think about getting their eyes tested ?View attachment 1988416
Not a 5K monitor, perfectly legible. (Dell U3011 ultrasharpe, mojave).
Is there a bunch of monitor snobbery going on around here
Not sure where you are going with that. But based on your previous comment somehow getting a 5K monitor fixes those issues. ?♂️
Standards just another way of being snobbery, I've already proven text is legible on a none retina screen and you come back that... oy vey
That's a shame. I think Benq has good displays in 24" but I'm not sure if they are 4k or just QHD.
I know exactly what the OP is referring to, and it's not just the Mini. Here's a thread showing how my M1 MBA looked absolutely AWFUL connected to a Dell D3218HN 31.5" 1080p display, yet my Windows computer displayed perfectly sharp on the same monitor. Once I bought an LG 4K monitor for my MBA, the problem was solved. But the M1 MBA was basically unusable with the 1080p Dell monitor.
forums.macrumors.com
MacBook looks awful on external monitor
At work, I now use a 2-way HDMI switcher to connect both our Windows 10 PC and my MacBook Air to one 32" 1080p display and I switch between them using the button the switcher. For some reason, my Windows 10 PC looks nice and crisp on the display, but the MacBook's output looks awful in...
forums.macrumors.com
How do I find out what ppi it has? I don't see it in the description.
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Unfortunately it was discontinued several years ago. I had my eye on it for a long time, and now that I have e the money to buy one it’s no longer fur sale.
You read what I wrote or you click on the "Tech Specs"-tab and then click on "See more tech specs"-link down to the left on the Dell website for each monitor.
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That is not surprising....I know exactly what the OP is referring to, and it's not just the Mini. Here's a thread showing how my M1 MBA looked absolutely AWFUL connected to a Dell D3218HN 31.5" 1080p display, yet my Windows computer displayed perfectly sharp on the same monitor. Once I bought an LG 4K monitor for my MBA, the problem was solved. But the M1 MBA was basically unusable with the 1080p Dell monitor.
MacBook looks awful on external monitor
At work, I now use a 2-way HDMI switcher to connect both our Windows 10 PC and my MacBook Air to one 32" 1080p display and I switch between them using the button the switcher. For some reason, my Windows 10 PC looks nice and crisp on the display, but the MacBook's output looks awful in...
1080p on a 32" is just wrong, it's basically a tv.
My old 24" monitors where 1920x1200.
Yet my Windows machine looks nice and sharp on it. Mac looks awful on it. In fact, I'm still using my Windows machine with it as we speak. Perfectly fine display - nothing "wrong" at all about it. The issue is the Mac, not the display.
I had an iMac 5K and for the second and third monitors on it I used my ASUS VA32AQ 2560/1440 monitors. To tell the truth the image quality difference was minimal at best to my eyes between the iMac display and the external ones. I then replaced the iMac 3 years ago with an Intel Mac Mini using the same two ASUS monitors and they looked great with no pixelation and images/video looked sharp.
I now have both an M1 Mac Mini and a M1Max MBP, both connected to two of the ASUS VA32AQ monitors (Yes, I have 4 of them....) and still no pixelation or image issues. They are all nice and sharp.
I did have a 49in UWS 4K monitor and was not really happy with it, the image quality was not much (if any) better to my eyes than the $300 ASUS monitors so I returned it and went back to my old ones.
I now have both an M1 Mac Mini and a M1Max MBP, both connected to two of the ASUS VA32AQ monitors (Yes, I have 4 of them....) and still no pixelation or image issues. They are all nice and sharp.
I did have a 49in UWS 4K monitor and was not really happy with it, the image quality was not much (if any) better to my eyes than the $300 ASUS monitors so I returned it and went back to my old ones.
I put it in 1080p mode on a 4K tv , in native 4K it is laughably tiny text wise . 😂