Display suggestions for a Mac Mini

I had your exact issue and I tried several different monitors to replace my previous 27" iMac but I found all not acceptable to me as I got spoiled with the sharp 5K resolution and a glossy screen as most others are matt. I ended up getting a 27" 5K LG refurbished from Amazon for <$1100.00 and it was like new. It has a camera, speakers and additional ports. Now you can get one brand new for <$1000:

https://www.amazon.com/LG-27MD5KL-B-Ultrafine-Compatibility-Thunderbolt/dp/B07XV9NQSJ/ref=sr_1_2?crid=KT4OA9U5VHYR&keywords=lg%2B5k%2Bdisplay&qid=1699748999&sprefix=lg%2B5k%2Bdisplay%2Caps%2C135&sr=8-2&ufe=app_do%3Aamzn1.fos.ac2169a1-b668-44b9-8bd0-5ec63b24bcb5&th=1

There are only three 27" 5K (5120x2880 pixel) monitors on the market that I know about: the 27" 5K Apple Studio Display, the 27" LG UltraFine 5K Display, and the Samsung ViewFinity S9.

The 5K Apple and Samsung monitors start at $1599. The LG one is $1299. By the time you buy any of them, and a separate Apple Magic Keyboard and Apple Magic Mouse, you might have spent as much as a 27" Retina iMac used to cost. Except that you still have to add the computer …

4K displays are a lot cheaper. I've seen at least one bare-bones one with an IPS panel and good sRGB coverage for about $300 (though you might have to add a Webcam and speakers).

If you go for a 4K display, I would suggest looking for one with

• An IPS panel
• Near-100% coverage of sRGB
• (Optional) near-100% coverage of DCI-P3 and/or Adobe RGB

but realizing that the image might not be quite as sharp as with a 5K display.

I use the LG 32UN880-B with my M2 Mac mini Pro. It is a 4K ultrafine dot pitch, anti-glare display that is quite sharp. There is a 2020 27" 5K iMac in the other room and I spend most of my time in front of this LG display. I also paired the mini to this display using this Belkin HDMI cable.

FWIW… In the other direction in both resolution and size, Dell has UltraSharp 32 6K (U3224KB) and UltraSharp 32 8K (UP3218K), and in the other direction in size the 5K UltraSharp 40 Curved WUHD (U4021QW).

The Apple Studio Display 5K gets you speakers and a camera, if that matters here.

denis9009 wrote:

Thank you!

If it's written IPS, I'm OK (cause I don't understand the details of that)?

IPS is a reference to the panel construction. IPS panels have very wide viewing angles – monitor specifications often refer to 178 degrees or thereabouts. The benefit is that if you are looking at them slightly off-center, you don't see huge, unwanted color shifts.

With TN panels – found on cheap monitors – you're much more likely to run into that problem.

These aren't the only technologies out there. For instance, I believe that OLED monitors work by having LEDs generate light for the pixels directly, rather than by shining a backlight of some sort through a LCD panel that controls how much of the backlight gets through. But if it's IPS vs. TN, I'd go with IPS every time.

As for the gory technical details of how IPS, TN, VA, etc. work … I'd have to look that up, same as you.

Like here for instance? LG 27UN850-W

That one's description says "IPS" and "sRGB 99% color". sRGB is narrow gamut.

Or this one? LG Ultrafine 27UQ850-W

It's DCI-P3 98% (is this replacing the sRGV value, cause there's nothing about it?).

If a monitor has near-100% coverage of either DCI-P3 or Adobe RGB, I'd expect it to have near-100% coverage of sRGB. DCI-P3 and Adobe RGB can both represent a wider range of colors than sRGB can, though neither DCI-P3 or Adobe RGB fully includes the other.

DCI-P3 comes from the motion picture world – the "DC" stands for "Digital Cinema". It seems to be increasingly prevalent, what with the push from the 4K TV world. I think pretty much all of Apple's screens (either built-in or standalone) these days have "Wide color (P3)" – which is presumably a claim of good coverage of DCI-P3.

Servant of Cats wrote:

For instance, I believe that OLED monitors work by having LEDs generate light for the pixels directly, rather than by shining a backlight of some sort through a LCD panel that controls how much of the backlight gets through.

Correct, OLED displays combine the color with the light emission within each pixel, which means spectacular black levels, as compared with IPS.

IPS pixels are a layer placed in front of the backlight, and each pixel changes the color of the backlight, or blocks the transmission of light from the backlight to produce “black”. Blocking the still-illuminated backlight of a pixel in an IPS design isn’t completely effective, which means black levels are noticeably not black.

On an OLED, the pixel is on and colored, or is off and very, very black.

For those that haven’t seen an OLED next to an IPS, I’d avoid making that comparison. That’s how I ended up with OLED.