I’m purchasing a new Mac Mini M2 Pro and I’m just not sure what monitor to buy. I've read quite a few articles on the forum about resolutions, HiDPI and other things that you might encounter when buying a monitor for a Mac Mini. So I'm choosing between a monitor with a resolution of 1440p (2560x1440 or 3440x1440), but there is a problem with blurry text. And I can’t fully understand this thing, are there programs (for example BetterDisplay) that can solve this problem, but they reduce the resolution or is it possible to enable HighDPI at the native resolution? I want to say right away that there is no choice between 4k or 5k monitors, since they are too expensive for my budget (i want more than 60 hertz). So tell me (if possible, send screenshots with text at these resolutions, where the difference is visible) solutions to the problem for monitors with these resolutions that can enable HiDPI and remove blurry text without reducing the resolution by half (or maybe u know better decision). I have seen many people encounter this problem, but there is no exact solution to the problem and can someone tell me how to solve this problem 100% (I don’t want to have problems with the monitor in the future)
Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
Need help choosing a monitor for my Mac Mini M2
- Thread starter isawmessi
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
I use a 24" monitor with my M1 Mini at its native 2560X1440 resolution and while the OS elements are small, the text clarity is fine. You can then scale up individual sites/apps/programs using CMD and +.
Last edited:
Take the native resolution of the monitor, divide it in half, and that is basically HiDPI, i.e. retina resolution. Retina uses 4x pixels per 1 native pixel. That is why text is sharp. If you want HiDPI, 4K or 5K is your only real options. For non-retina, 1440p (2560x1440 or 3440x1440), no smaller than 27” display size ( I’m old. I hate squinting.) I still use an Apple Thunderbolt 2K display. It’s old, but it’s still an awesome display.
apple studio display. There's nothing in the market like apple's expensive monitor. Even tried the LG OLED 120hz screen, but the studio display is king
Helpful. The OP states they don't have the budget for a 4k or 5k monitor so you recommend a $1600+ monitor as the only choice.
There are plenty of 27" 4k displays at reasonable prices. No need to get anything less.
HiDPI mode on these gives you "looks like 1080p" (which is very good for old guys like myself).
Or, you can scale it to 1440p. I've heard that "Better Display" can help with this, but I have no experience in that regard.
HiDPI mode on these gives you "looks like 1080p" (which is very good for old guys like myself).
Or, you can scale it to 1440p. I've heard that "Better Display" can help with this, but I have no experience in that regard.
On what basis do you say studio display is king? When you say LG OLED 120hz, which monitor are you comparing with the studio display?
please share your experience and thoughts in this matter.
I'm using this with my M2 Mac Mini and it's damn near perfect!
LG 34WL500-B 34" 21:9 UltraWide Full HD HDR10 IPS LED Monitor, Black
Monitor has 21:9 UltraWide Full HD resolution (2560x1080) Eligible for fast, easy control of essential monitor settings including picture, audio and Screen Split with just a few clicks of your mouse.
www.amazon.com
But that is not the real intention of why Apple used the English word "Retina" to describe their display strategy.
The angular resolution of the human eye is the controlling variable for Apple's idea of what a display should be. (Yes I believe you know that, but many readers to this forum apparently do not.)
So for the original poster, the problem becomes one of display size versus viewing distance.
With a small enough display, or large enough viewing distance, 1440 lines of picture elements on a display can be more than sufficient to surpass human vision.
There are plenty of people in this forum who claim that 4k displays on macOS look like crap because of the way that the system handles fractional scaling (it renders the display at 2x resolution and downsamples).
I have dual Dell 4k displays I switch between my PC work laptop and my MBP and at normal viewing distances the text on both is crisp and everything looks good. Will you possibly see some fuzzy text edges or slight distortion if you lean in close and pixel peep? Sure. Normal people don't do that though.
What are you going to use the display for? That should be your bigger guide. If it's general productivity, web surfing, email, etc. then any old cheap 4K display would do great. If you're going to be doing photo or video editing then go for something with at least okay color quality. Either way you have options. I would, however, opt for 4k over QHD. macOS really isn't designed for non-HiDPI displays anymore.
I have dual Dell 4k displays I switch between my PC work laptop and my MBP and at normal viewing distances the text on both is crisp and everything looks good. Will you possibly see some fuzzy text edges or slight distortion if you lean in close and pixel peep? Sure. Normal people don't do that though.
What are you going to use the display for? That should be your bigger guide. If it's general productivity, web surfing, email, etc. then any old cheap 4K display would do great. If you're going to be doing photo or video editing then go for something with at least okay color quality. Either way you have options. I would, however, opt for 4k over QHD. macOS really isn't designed for non-HiDPI displays anymore.
- if you ever tried a 4k monitor you will not like. Because of the scaling, or you get a crisp scaled display that limits your userspace to qhd or you get unscaled fonts and display that doesnt look nice as the scaled alternative and usable 4k space. So its a loss-loss game and the culprit is apple which ditched the subpixel anti aliasing (see https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17476873
- so to have the best, you should seek for 5k or 6k displays. With a 5K display you can use a scaled display (retina) and still have great usable space. With 6k its even better.
- then its also really nice to be able to control the display directly from macos because you’ll want to use nightshift, truetone, be able to change brightness seamless from apple keyboard
- and also id be also nice to have decent speakers and camera integrated on the display
So to have that, you need displays that support thunderbolt connection (to get all the controls and features on macos) and 5K to get great rendering and fonts and also usable space.
If you start to look for options with those two requirements you end up with 5 or 6 options only.. apple, lg, and some others that have its own flaws (eg samsung with poor colors and display, dell that costs more, etc)
So studio display its the way to go for mac. If you do the research you will realize that.
But this for people that can really notice difference, that want a great experience, with decent colors, great integration etc…. Thats me.
I bought the LG oled C2 tv the smaller one which i think its 41 inches.
Nice tv, you can have the great oled colors, hdr and 120hz on mac… but theres a dealbreaker that youll soon figure out, the oled screen varies brightness depending ont the light or dark colors on the screen.
If you open a small white window the display is very bright, if you maximize or enlarge that window you can see the display dynamically reducing brightness on the screen and this will hurt your eyes and will really bothers you.
Thats why I sold the lg oled and bought the studio display. And im very happy. Its the best for the mac
Its my 2 cents… I’ve just shared my experience. Sory if it bothered you.
I forgot to answer that he will not be able to have highdpi on native resolution. So again thats why he’ll need 5k and unfortunatelly its expensive….
Noticed that some of the replies skip this part of the requirement.
The OP correctly notes that 4K monitors with more than 60Hz refresh rate go up in price, considerably, over their 60Hz cousins.
I had the same problem with my LG CX. I recently upgraded to Sony A95L with QD-OLED and the brightness is not an issue anymore.
The colors are way better and text is smooth enough. But yes you will not get the same crispness as a studio display since the PPI is higher. But in the colors department i think Sony A95 wins. But then again this is not a fair comparison.