Which, non Apple, display(s) are you using on your mini (M1/2 and beyond)

[ovbacon]

So I recently needed to replace my Late 2015 27" iMac 5K. I have the good fortune that I have a good friend working for Apple who, not only gives me good advice but also, uses his employee discounts for me. I have had iMac's since the beginning (started when you could still get a G3 clone) for all kinds of design work using Adobe's software. I've always loved the looks, feel and great usability. I've also always had a Mac laptop (starting with a iBook) and a Mac Display when available (starting with a Studio Display).

So back to finding an alternative for the iMac 27"5K.... I didn't want to go back to a 24" iMac and making a long story short I came at the place of... hey a mini would be great (I worked with mini's around '05/'06 and they were pretty handy).

I do a lot of Still photography (DSLR) and design work in Photoshop, Illustrator, Lightroom etc... Of course I do the boring stuff like word, excel etc... But having good photo viewing is important and I did not want to shell out for an Apple screen since I just had to do an enormous investment in my own business (that is not design related but hospitality) and so cash is just limited.

Ok... so on my quest for good alternatives for storage and display I found that the display one caused a lot of stress of "making the right choice".

Storage was easier... I tried a SanDisk Extreme PRO, which failed terribly and returned it and did the "make your own" with a Acasis Enclosure (TBU401E) and a Samsung 980 PRO 2TB (this thing is awesome).

But the display was pretty hard to pin down.... should I stay with 27" or go up and so I looked at tons of reviews and every expert has a different opinion and of course the use is really important. I do not play games and as much as I love my 5K iMac screen I gave up on 5K pretty quick.... So I wanted at least 4K with a good true color option.

I looked at many and would try to find reviews that focused on design and still photo but also a pretty sturdy display that is not super flimsy plasticky AND it needed to work with a mini M2 no problem.

When doing some measuring I figured that a 27" would be fine and a 32" would be interesting depending on the price... again, I just did not want to spend a ton.

I came to the BenQ PD2705U 27 Inch 4K UHD IPS display... It is a solid display with amazing color accuracy and it has a full metal base which makes it really sturdy. It has additional ports and tons of good features for designers including a CAD/CAM Mode.

So I chose this Display and I'm super happy even having it right next to my 5K iMac.. But I think it is good to hear other opinions or simply other choices of displays that you all have and love. This BenQ was $500 and that was right at what I wanted to pay and what I like about having a mini is that I can always get a new display.

So what is your display and why do you like/love it or why do you dislike/hate it and how much did it cost?

 

[rm5]

Okay, first, let me preface this by saying that I am not using a Mac mini, rather a MacBook Air in Closed-Display Mode—so I hope that's good enough for you... I'd imagine the experience is similar on a Mac mini.

I use an LG 27UP600 4K IPS monitor, that I got a few months ago. I bought it on sale at a heavy discount (50% off) for $200 at Best Buy. It's a great monitor, don't get me wrong, especially for the fact that it's 4K, 27-inch, IPS panel, and I got it for $200. But it sure does have its downsides, including:

• When HDR is enabled, colors look AWFUL; flat and dull. I have HDR off for this reason.
• IPS panel - it's no XDR/OLED display, that's for sure. Viewing it from the side, the blacks start to fade into the backlight, if you know what I mean.
• Stand is really flimsy

Those are the only downsides I notice. Otherwise, it's a million times better than my old Cinema Display (which let's be clear, is still a good monitor, but 1680x1050, really???) and the colors are very vibrant and bright, I think it's rated similarly in terms of brightness to the built-in Retina display.

Anyway, that's my monitor. Probably what I'm gonna do is in the future when I get some Mac desktop like an M2 Pro Mac mini or Mac Studio, I'll probably get a second one of these, because they're quite good monitors I think.

 

[blewyn]

Using my M1 mini as a media hub on my Samsung QN90AA telly. Works great

 

[jwyoung]

I went through the same process trying to replace my 2013 27" iMac and not being willing to downgrade to a 24" iMac. So I bought an M1 Mac Mini. After reading some reviews I purchased a 27" Dell UltraSharp U2723QE display. I'm happy with picture quality though I don't have the trained eye of a photographer or artist. However, I'm not happy with the "reliability/stability" of the Dell. I have intermittent problems with major flickering of the display and I notice that lots of people have this problem. There are lots of suggested fixes but none have worked for me. Overall there seem to be lots of other compatibility issues with between the Dell display and my Mac mini. For example, I lose connections between with my Apple wireless keyboard and mouse and sometimes the display freezes. I guess I'm spoiled by the simplicity and robustness of the integrated iMac and am still hoping that Apple releases a new 27" iMac.

 

[Fishrrman]

jw wrote:
"There are lots of suggested fixes but none have worked for me"

Watch this video. It's not exactly the same display, but it may offer some suggestions.
I recently helped a friend set up an m2pro Mini using the S2722QC display, and he's had no "flickering" at all:

There are settings both "on the Mini" and "in the display (internal settings)" that require attention.

 

[Silvestru Hosszu]

Philips 499p9h UWA and m1 mac mini.
It is ok for office work and also some photo editing. It was around 1000€.
The bonus is that it has kvm switch so I can have my PC hooked up as well.

 

[jwyoung]

jw wrote:
"There are lots of suggested fixes but none have worked for me"

Watch this video. It's not exactly the same display, but it may offer some suggestions.
I recently helped a friend set up an m2pro Mini using the S2722QC display, and he's had no "flickering" at all:

There are settings both "on the Mini" and "in the display (internal settings)" that require attention.

Thank you Fisherman, I'll give it a try!

 

[marstan]

An EIZO CS2740. No issues at all on a Mini M2 Pro.

Top notch panel and electronics. Very nice integrated hub. No useless speakers. Love the hardware calibration software.

Gripes: Nothing to do with the display itself, but I hate USB-C connectors for monitors. They don't lock and as a result easily come loose when you rotate/raise/lower your monitor. Stand not as robust as my previous NEC monitor but then it doesn't have to be because it weighs a lot less than the old NEC.

Price? You don't want to know.

 

[ovbacon]

An EIZO CS2740. No issues at all on a Mini M2 Pro.

Top notch panel and electronics. Very nice integrated hub. No useless speakers. Love the hardware calibration software.

Gripes: Nothing to do with the display itself, but I hate USB-C connectors for monitors. They don't lock and as a result easily come loose when you rotate/raise/lower your monitor. Stand not as robust as my previous NEC monitor but then it doesn't have to be because it weighs a lot less than the old NEC.

Price? You don't want to know.

I'm curious why you chose this one? It seems that it is pretty pricy and you could have gotten a 5K monitor as this one seems to be 4K. Just curious no judgment btw.

 

[Silvestru Hosszu]

I'm curious why you chose this one? It seems that it is pretty pricy and you could have gotten a 5K monitor as this one seems to be 4K. Just curious no judgment btw.

Eizo ColorEdge line offers extremely competent monitors for colour critical work.
There is much more to a monitor than resolution. Think colour depth, uniformity, etc.

 

[ovbacon]

Eizo ColorEdge line offers extremely competent monitors for colour critical work.
There is much more to a monitor than resolution. Think colour depth, uniformity, etc.

I know there is more to a monitor than resolution, I was just curious as to why you chose this specific monitor since the price indicated a very deliberate choice. I specifically got the BenQ PD2705U for it's color accuracy at its price level.

 

[marstan]

I know there is more to a monitor than resolution, I was just curious as to why you chose this specific monitor since the price indicated a very deliberate choice. I specifically got the BenQ PD2705U for it's color accuracy at its price level.

EIZO selects the very finest panels and, combined with excellent electronics, produces a screen with very high uniformity across the panel among many other things. The result is just superb performance for color critical work. Easily trumps 5k alone.

I think you chose well for the price but a monitor is of such primary importance when interacting with a computer - especially for color critical work - that it was worth it to me. Actually, my model is not even the highest end one from EIZO. They have higher end models that do blacks better and, of course, cost even more.

 

[ovbacon]

EIZO selects the very finest panels and, combined with excellent electronics, produces a screen with very high uniformity across the panel among many other things. The result is just superb performance for color critical work. Easily trumps 5k alone.

I think you chose well for the price but a monitor is of such primary importance when interacting with a computer - especially for color critical work - that it was worth it to me. Actually, my model is not even the highest end one from EIZO. They have higher end models that do blacks better and, of course, cost even more.

Nice.... I do a lot of photography and photoshop/Illustrator work but, even though some is used professionally, it is not my bread and butter. But I can see that if your livelihood depends on that accuracy you're going to get something absolutely solid. Thanks for the isight and info on that brand of monitors 👍

 

[fisherking]

i got a (non-4k!) dell P2423D for my mini (for mostly running logic pro), and it's perfect for my needs. enough space, legible fonts, and absolutely no flickering. 24" screen, but what i wanted (considering my distance from the monitor).

 

[brucewayne]

Those are the only downsides I notice. Otherwise, it's a million times better than my old Cinema Display (which let's be clear, is still a good monitor, but 1680x1050, really???) and the colors are very vibrant and bright, I think it's rated similarly in terms of brightness to the built-in Retina display.

What is the really for? When the 20" Cinema Display was released in 2003 it was one of the highest resolution monitors you could buy. Most people at that time had 1024x768 or 1280x1024 if you were lucky. 1080p monitors weren't really common or affordable until about 5 years later

 

[rm5]

What is the really for? When the 20" Cinema Display was released in 2003 it was one of the highest resolution monitors you could buy. Most people at that time had 1024x768 or 1280x1024 if you were lucky. 1080p monitors weren't really common or affordable until about 5 years later

That's true, but there are so many better options out there today, like 4K monitors. I think 1680x1050 is not really usable for productivity—music production, and video editing, which is most of the work I do.

 

[keithlm]

I bought a Sony M9 Inzone. I probably could have just bought a good quality 60hz monitor, but I do some gaming sometimes And I wanted a kvm switch. Only negative comment I have is the kvm switch does take longer than it should.

 

[jasnw]

I went through this same exercise when I bought my M2Pro Mini. My final choice was between the BenQ PD2705U and the BenQ PD2700U. I went with the $50 less expensive PD2700U because the '05' didn't really give me anything additional that I wanted/needed. I don't do a lot of work with images, so I might have gone with the '05' otherwise. I am very happy so far with the BenQ monitor, as I have been with an older BenQ I have on an Intel Mini. I'm about to buy another one for my M2Pro.

 

[edubfromktown]

AOC U2790VQ 27" for $239 worked great on Mini M1 and now Studio Max as well.

 

[okkibs]

Still rocking an early adopter's 4k screen in its 10th year. Limited to 60Hz with an 8-bit panel but works perfectly fine with my M1 Max. If I were to get anything right now it would have to have miniLED and proper HDR, something like this Asus ProArt: https://www.asus.com/displays-desktops/monitors/proart/proart-display-pa32ucg/

It is similar to the miniLED display in the Macbooks. It also has Freesync Premium Pro which I now consider an absolute requirement for a new purchase in 2023 and going forward.

Why haven't I bought this? MiniLED is an interim solution that has drawbacks such as the halos around highlights, compared to the superior microLED tech that's still a couple years away. I'll either get this monitor on a sale in a few years, or early-adopt one of the first microLED ones. That ProArt is honestly way too expensive for what it offers, reviews are not that great. In the end pricing doesn't really matter since I keep the monitor for a decade, but I'd still rather get a better monitor with less issues.

If they offered all these features with a 5k panel that would be incredible, as we can see from the Apple Pro Display XDR it's currently not possible to offer all these features on a 5k panel. Latency/response times are also pretty bad on that one.

tl;dr: Get the very best one you can find at a price that isn't completely outrageous, they last forever. Mine has outlasted 4 Macbooks and 2 desktops...

 

[JtheLemur]

It's been [checks watch] like a while year since my last absurd upgrade of my setup, so my plan for new M2 Pro Mini is:

- LG 40" curved 5K2K as primary
- LG DualUp as secondary

Looking forward to this mess <3

 

[b.lam]

LG 32GN600-B here. No problems: works with a Mac Mini M2 Pro, a Macbook Pro M1 14" and a HP Pavillion Desktop.

The only problem is the display's viewing angle stability due to the display being flat (not curved) and 32 size". At the left and right border of the display itself, from a normal viewing angle and distance, there are a few milimeters (<5) not visible. I need to move to the right to see scrollbars 😆

 

[fisherking]

LG 32GN600-B here. No problems: works with a Mac Mini M2 Pro, a Macbook Pro M1 14" and a HP Pavillion Desktop.

The only problem is the display's viewing angle stability due to the display being flat (not curved) and 32 size". At the left and right border of the display itself, from a normal viewing angle and distance, there are a few milimeters (<5) not visible. I need to move to the right to see scrollbars 😆

this is why, for me, and my setup, a 24" 2K screen works; everything is within my field-of-vision, and just large enough to be legible (running at the default resolution). and still more screen real estate than my (previous) 21" imac...

i don't understand people who go for enormous monitors (but am certainly not begrudging anyone). whatever works 👍

 

[ovbacon]

this is why, for me, and my setup, a 24" 2K screen works; everything is within my field-of-vision, and just large enough to be legible (running at the default resolution). and still more screen real estate than my (previous) 21" imac...

i don't understand people who go for enormous monitors (but am certainly not begrudging anyone). whatever works 👍

Same for me... I was used to a iMac 27" and when getting a new mini I was think it would be great to get a 32" screen but when I actually used a measuring tape to see what that would look like I was "hell no". So I went with a 27" and it is perfect for me.

It just really shows that everyone has a different taste and need and so it is good to have as many suggestions as you can get to make a good choice.

 

[roman.stapunov]

I use Dell up2720q and Dell u4021qw with my Mac mini m2 pro base model. Works perfectly fine and makes me very productive.

The same positive experience with my MacBook Air m2 16/256, but I need betterdisplay app to get the same scaling option on u4021qw that available on mini m2 pro by default. Unfortunately air supports only one display at time.

Performance wise both are extremely greate for my day to day work and I couldn’t be happier.