Hi,
I'm trying to connect iPad Air 4 to the external display (LG 27UL850 4k monitor). I use USB-C ports on both the iPad and the monitor. I receive only 1440p screen resolution on the monitor. How can I get full 4k resolution? The tech details state that iPad should be cable of displaying 4k in 30Hz on the external screen.
iPad Air, iPadOS 14
Hi namapa,
Welcome to Apple Support Communities. We understand that you're having an issue with the video quality on your external display when connected to your iPad Air 4K. We'd like to help.
Which cable are you using to connect the two devices? Is it a cable that supports high-bandwidth connections? This resource can provide you with some examples of cables that may work: Charge and connect with the USB-C port on your iPad
Hope that helps!
Take care.
namapa,
Thanks for the update.
You may want to test out another cable so you can isolate this a bit more. Once you know how the monitor behaves with a different cable, you can start to troubleshoot the exact cause of the issue.
Keep us updated!
Hi barberlives123,
I finally managed to test the connection with the monitor using the exact the same USBC-USBC cable with iPad Pro M1 and it works properly with full 4k resolution. So why iPad Air 4th cannot do that?
I suspect that IOS somehow gives the priority to 60Hz which is not available for Air - the tech doc says it supports 4k in 30Hz. But there is no switch I can use to select 4k 30Hz instead of 2560x144 60Hz.
BTW iPad Pro M1 falls back to 2560x144 when displaying HDR content.
Do you know if there is a way to get 4k for iPad Air 4th?
Maybe the only solution is USBC-HDMI cable, which I didn't try yet as I don't have one.
Hi bailier,
Thank you for your answer. I looked into the article you linked but unfortunately did not find the reason why it does not work as expected. I use USB-C<>USB-C cable delivered with the monitor (LG 27UL850). iPad is being charged when connected and I can see the mirrored screen. But the resolution on the external display is 2560x1440 instead of the expected 3840x2160. Apple says on their site that iPad Air 4th generation should support 4k in 30Hz only. Maybe this works only through USBC<>HDMI cable and USBC<>USBC connection always requires 60Hz (which can be gained with 1440p only)? I don't know. I would expect that it should be possible to get 4k 30Hz thorough USBC<>USBC cable.
ipad air 4k external display
