Exactly. That LG and the MSI PS341WU are the only 34” ultrawides with a sufficiently high resolution and pixel density for macOS’ HiDPI modes and their vastly better font rendering. I wouldn’t ever consider using any lower-resolution ultrawide for use with macOS. Text looks like utter crap on these non-HiDPI monitors sadly.
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.
Best Monitor for the new 2021 MacBook Pro?
- Thread starter Surfsuprob
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
And this would be better for text/video editing (no gaming) than the bigger 38" you think? I'm ok going down in size a bit if it''ll work ok
Right now I use my M1 macbook with an LG Ultrawide 34WL75C and next to that is my PC that i use most and that has a Samsung 49" G9 Ultrawide monitor.
I get what you're saying about the text on the 34WL75C screen with the Mac as if i open the same webpage on both PC and Mac, the text on the Mac looks bolder (not in a good way) and more blurred.
If i got the LG-34WK95U, I take it the text would be much better yeah?
Yip. The resolution of the LG-34WK95U is 5K and "retina-like" so text on it looks nice and sharp, as it does on the Macs.
There's very, very few ultrawide monitors with suitably high resolutions at the moment. I'm not entirely sure why, but can only guess its down to the cost of the panels?
And maybe also a lack of demand for high-ppi ultrawides from the PC crowd.
Last edited:
Having used an ultra wide for the past more than couple of years, my next is not going to be one because:
I think 21:9 is for gaming especially, but I reflected and the amount I game vs do work is way much heavier on the work side.
I'm not actively looking for a non-ultrawide, but just want the best monitor out there whatever ratio. So that said, my dream monitor is the LG 32" 4K UltraFine OLED Display Monitor (32EP950) which is $1000 less than the Apple's XDR, but so so so much better, but still a very pretty penny.
If I was to go for a monitor, I would go for this OLED monitor over the XDR. Disney has given them out to all its peeps. It doesn't game, but I have my laptop for that.
- The extra width 21:9 is not as good as having the height screen real estate... especially for editing, it widens things out. I don't know how to explain this, but in certain applications, having higher is better than wider.
- Black bars for content started to annoy me. Lots.
I think 21:9 is for gaming especially, but I reflected and the amount I game vs do work is way much heavier on the work side.
I'm not actively looking for a non-ultrawide, but just want the best monitor out there whatever ratio. So that said, my dream monitor is the LG 32" 4K UltraFine OLED Display Monitor (32EP950) which is $1000 less than the Apple's XDR, but so so so much better, but still a very pretty penny.
If I was to go for a monitor, I would go for this OLED monitor over the XDR. Disney has given them out to all its peeps. It doesn't game, but I have my laptop for that.
Last edited:
Depends on your needs, I suppose. A 4k 32” monitor has considerably lower PPI than the 5k/2k 34” (nearly 3 million fewer pixels) - enough that it won’t really look sharp for detail work. I agree that height is important, and beat against the 16:9 format for a long time - however I also realized that this was primarily a problem when screen resolutions were really low (ie. the old MBA @ >1000px height). Once I have more than about 1200, and certainly more than the 1400 or so I get on an ultrawide that’s plenty. The ability to place several documents side by side and fully readable is more important than additional height. Not to mention that most creative software is optimized for extra width, rather than height. Again, the ability to have a huge InDesign or Premier Pro window plus some supporting reference material on the same screen without fighting multiple monitors is a huge boost to productivity.
Side bars are annoying, but I essentially never watch full screen video on my work computer. I have tv’s that are much better suited to that purpose.
Side bars are annoying, but I essentially never watch full screen video on my work computer. I have tv’s that are much better suited to that purpose.
A 4K monitor is also a 4K/2k… it’s clever marketing by LG to call the height 2K… and say 5K/2K when it’s short of 5k. But yes the ppi of a 4K 32” screen is lower than a 5K/2k @34”.
I think also the benefits of OLED are better than an IPS monitor, it terms of contrast, Color accuracy and HDR. If it’s just the number of docs side-by-side then yeah it’s not for your use case.
Edited: clarity
Last edited:
I'm not calling it 5k/2k for marketing, but for clarity that we are not talking about "5k" which is normally 5120x2880.
4k at 32" is 137ppi whereas 5k/2k at 34" is 163ppi. I've had both, and the transition between retina-like and not occurs between those two pixel densities on this size of display.
My work requires retina level resolution to ensure that assets are adequately sharp across a variety of platforms, but absolute color matching is not a major part of my job. If you just need documents side by side, standard ultra-wide at 3440x1440 is fine for most people.
"Best" is subjective based on use case.
I am extremely happy with my dual BenQ SW2700PT monitors even though they are only 2560x1440 resolution. I have considered upgrading to 4K, but at $1600 per monitor for the next level up of the BenQ (SW271C), I cannot justify it.
I do hobby level photo editing and like the color calibration of these monitors. They are the best that I have tried (Never tried an Enzo but heard they are better but like 2 or 3x the price). I do most of my editing in AdobeRGB so it matches the prints best, IMO.
I am extremely happy with my dual BenQ SW2700PT monitors even though they are only 2560x1440 resolution. I have considered upgrading to 4K, but at $1600 per monitor for the next level up of the BenQ (SW271C), I cannot justify it.
I do hobby level photo editing and like the color calibration of these monitors. They are the best that I have tried (Never tried an Enzo but heard they are better but like 2 or 3x the price). I do most of my editing in AdobeRGB so it matches the prints best, IMO.
I can't find it anywhere. I would have gotten that instead, but I am happy with the 31" 4K LG I ended up with. It is retina to my eyes, at my distance.
LG-34WK95U-W arrived and set up. Nice screen but resolution is weird (to what I'm used to) and had to use SwitchResX to give me a custon resolution of 4096x1728.
The native 5120x2160, the text on everything is just way too small and below 4096x1728, everything is to big and can't get enough stuff on screen.
The biggest thing I've noticed is having a curved monitor and flat monitor next to each other (PC and Mac) just does not work as both monitors end up looking weird.
The new monitor looks like its curving back too as I'm so used the curved so its going to take a bit of getting used to.
Need to have x2 curved or x2 flat
The native 5120x2160, the text on everything is just way too small and below 4096x1728, everything is to big and can't get enough stuff on screen.
The biggest thing I've noticed is having a curved monitor and flat monitor next to each other (PC and Mac) just does not work as both monitors end up looking weird.
The new monitor looks like its curving back too as I'm so used the curved so its going to take a bit of getting used to.
Need to have x2 curved or x2 flat
I'm not happy with the current choices, so I just bought the BenQ PD2705Q to hold me over. My thought is to wait a little longer and see if Apple comes out with this rumored cheaper display. I'll use this BenQ for now and eventually transition to it being my secondary once I find something better. Ultimately I want a 5K 27" so I can have true retina at the 27" size due to how my desk is arranged. 32" is too big for me at the distance I sit.
I'm using two LG UltraFine 5K's with my MacBook Pro M1 Max. They work much better on the M1 than on the older Intel machines. The M1 doesn't even get warm driving both screens.
I quite like the displays, visually. Two nits: they (sometimes?) suffer from ghosting, especially if you leave some high contrast window static for a couple of hours. And they apparently don't identify themselves uniquely, so the OS has trouble knowing which screen goes where (e.g. left display doesn't always stay on the left).
Oh, and I just want two of these screens, but then from Apple, made with 2021 versus 2016 technology (for <1500 USD).
I quite like the displays, visually. Two nits: they (sometimes?) suffer from ghosting, especially if you leave some high contrast window static for a couple of hours. And they apparently don't identify themselves uniquely, so the OS has trouble knowing which screen goes where (e.g. left display doesn't always stay on the left).
Oh, and I just want two of these screens, but then from Apple, made with 2021 versus 2016 technology (for <1500 USD).
Hyperlite wrote in #116 above:
"My thought is to wait a little longer and see if Apple comes out with this rumored cheaper display."
Better pour yourself a tall drink, with a wine cellar full of bottles to spare.
It could be like, "Waiting for Godot"...
"My thought is to wait a little longer and see if Apple comes out with this rumored cheaper display."
Better pour yourself a tall drink, with a wine cellar full of bottles to spare.
It could be like, "Waiting for Godot"...
LG Ultrafine 5k arrived. I'm blown away!
It's exactly the same as my iMac 27". Sound is good.
Plug and play no fuss! Perfect size for me.
It's exactly the same as my iMac 27". Sound is good.
Plug and play no fuss! Perfect size for me.
Finally got the Lenovo p40w today (5k2k 40"), really love it, 75hz is really noticeable and the whole screen is just perfect (running it in retina x2 mode).
It's only 65W power supply but enough for daily use, the ports are really nice (the usuals + ethernet) and it even came with a webcam add-on.
It's only 65W power supply but enough for daily use, the ports are really nice (the usuals + ethernet) and it even came with a webcam add-on.