M2 Mac Mini Pro monitor recommendation?

[dbrewood]

Guys I’m looking for advice concerning buying a new monitor for the Mac mini M2 pro.

My current monitor is an 8 year old Samsung 34” UW (3440 x 1440) monitor. It works well enough but I can only connect it to the Mini via HDMI (50Hz refresh).


If I try to use DisplayPort (DP) it has issues with the M2 Mini whereby it sees the monitor being disconnected when it goes to sleep resulting in app windows resizing and relocating to bottom left of the screen. I’ve investigated it with Apple and it looks like it’s a DP with the monitor as it only supports version 1.1/1.2.

The 34” UW (S34E790C) specs are:

• DP 1.1 / 1.2 60Hz, HDMI 50Hz, USB 3.0 300 NITS, Ultra WQHD
• Display: 34 in, SVA, W-LED, 3440 × 1440 pixels
• Brightness: 300 cd/m2
• Aspect Ratio. 21:9
• 16.7M Colours
• Fast 4ms Response Time/60Hz Refresh Rate
• Static contrast: 3000: 1, Dynamic contrast: 100000000: 1
• Refresh rate: 24 Hz - 61 Hz
• SRGB: 99 %, Adobe RGB: 76 %, NTSC: 75 %
• Dimensions: 821.5 x 364 x 51.5 mm

So as to the replacement monitors specifications I’d ideally want another ultra-wide display, after using it for many years for ‘work’ as well as consuming media I can’t go with a 27” monitor. I have tried the ’27” resolution’ on the current monitor (black bars on either side of the screen) and watching a movie (film) or TV program using it is horrible. Plus the screen feels too cramped when working.

Ideally to get the best out of the Mini and the monitor I want to connect via Thunderbolt 4 (or 3 I guess), it not then use DP to get the best bandwidths.

I’ve been considering the forthcoming Dell UltraSharp 32 6K Monitor - U3224KB, as I feel the screen would allow media consumption, but I fear it’d be too expensive.

Another contender is the LG UltraWide 40WP95C-W, but as it’s a 5K2K monitor I’ve read that the ‘native resolution’ may display text as too small (taking into account I’ve got 60 year old eyes here), for me and that using display scaling can have other problems.

I’m therefore looking for any recommendations that can be offered as well as any possible mitigations concerning my scaling issues.

Hoping you can help guys.

 

[ToastedCashew]

If you have the space, LG C2 42” oled is glorious.

 

[dbrewood]

Surely that's a TV not a monitor?

 

[ToastedCashew]

There's little difference these days. High refresh OLED is very worth it.

 

[dbrewood]

Hmm maybe it looks like it is 4k, and I could connect to it via HDMI. I still think I'd prefer a proper monitor

 

[vanman1]

If you are doing photography the Rec 2020 color space on the HDR 10, + and Dolby Vision TV's really nice.

 

[dbrewood]

No mainly productivity work (working on my forum etc) and consuming media (films & TV shows).

 

[JamesMay82]

If you have the space, LG C2 42” oled is glorious.

I've always wondered about using a modern TV but then ive read in the past with refresh issues but then also would it not have issues with burn in?

To the op - this isn't helpful but I would just get the 27 inch monitor from apple while I know it would play nice with their computer and you would just get use to the screen difference it in time. I'm not a fan of other monitor brands as they always seem too plastic for my liking, plus the apple monitor looks the part.

 

[dbrewood]

I know what you are saying about the 27" Apple Studio monitor. To see how it'd go I'm (again) setting the UW monitor to use the same screen size as the Studio. I think I can manage most things apart from watching wide screen movies...

 

[JamesMay82]

I know what you are saying about the 27" Apple Studio monitor. To see how it'd go I'm (again) setting the UW monitor to use the same screen size as the Studio. I think I can manage most things apart from watching wide screen movies...

Yeah I think you will be fine once you get use to it. A weird example but I've recently gone from a modern car with all the tech and luxury to an old truck (2004) while we move and renovate a house and I hated it at first but now I'm use to and happy enough with it.. only thing is I forget ive not got parking sensors and keep reversing to things ha

 

[dbrewood]

I've managed for half a day, but have been using the resolution for productivity, and it's been okay with a few changes to my deskop - Goodtask minimised to just a list (no sidebar) for example. I'll have to see how I go on with watching a TV show / movie later.
If I do go with a Studio Display the biggest issue will be mounting it.

My desk is a proper piece of dining room furniture with a faux drawer that opens out to contain the keyboard, that means it's higher than a normal office desk. It's also very deep, over 3 feet from front to back. The back of it also has a carved back 'moulding' about 5 inches deep at the top.

This means I have two choices of mounting - getting the damned expensive up / down mounting stand or finding a suitable VESA mount. The latter looks to be very difficult to fins, most mounts seem to clamp onto a regular 'thin' office desk and can't cope with the carved lip on the back or I'd have to drill through the desk top - you can imagine what my wife thinks of that idea

 

[dbrewood]

I'm now considering (from currently released monitors)

Dell 32 Curved 4K UHD Monitor - S3221QS

BenQ PD3220U

 

[benwiggy]

MacOS no longer supports sub-pixel rendering, so low-density displays look really crappy. The Dell comes in at 138 pixels per inch; the BenQ is a little higher at 140 ppi.

That's somewhere inbetween a 27" 2K display, at 109ppi -- where you will really see problems in text -- and the 218 to 254 ppi of Retina Displays.

I have the Apple Studio Display, and find it needs to be raised anyway to have the top level with my eyes. (And I'm quite short.) I have it mounted on an old metal stand (originally the monitor stand for 80s icon the BBC Micro...!)

 

[dbrewood]

Hmm I know what you are saying, I wish there was a ppi figure for my Samsung 34" UW but no figures were ever published that I've been able to find.

 

[benwiggy]

I wish there was a ppi figure for my Samsung 34" UW but no figures were ever published that I've been able to find.

If only there was some way you could take the number of pixels and the diagonal size in inches, and use them to calculate the density!

Pixel Size Calculator

LCD-panels cross-reference for monitors and notebooks

lcdtech.info

3840 x 1440 (that's a weird ratio) at 37" gives 109 ppi.

(Another way: Manufacturers sometimes give the 'pitch', e.g. size of a pixel, which you can convert from mm to inches, then do 1 divided by that.)

I used to have an Apple Thunderbolt Display, which was 109ppi, and when they removed sub-pixeling, text looked really crappy. The Studio Display is like day after night.

 

[dbrewood]

A very useful link that is It's 3440 x 1440 at 34", so that gives:

So with either of those monitors I'd have a higher DPI than I have now. I would love the DPI of the Studio display but:

• I don't want to pay £2000 for the monitor
• It'd feel way too small after using an UW for watching movies
• I really want a larger monitor, a 32" 4k monitor I'm thinking would be okay for both productivity and movies?

 

[MilaM]

Very interesting discussion.

Would you mind sharing which display you chose and what the pros and cons are?

There are so many displays to choose from. Apple Studio is nice, but too expensive for me.

 

[Fishrrman]

Hmmm...
Coming in "on the late side" here, perhaps the OP has resolved the problems.

Question:

If you connect the 34" display using usbc-->displayport, does the display show up as being "RGB" or "YpBr" (sorry if I don't have that last term right) ??
(you will have to use the display's menus to ascertain this)

IF it's showing up in YpBr mode, BE AWARE that it's possible to "force" the connection to use RGB mode. It does take a little fiddlin' around to do this.

Here are some resources you might check:

Force RGB Color on M1 Mac

Force RGB Color on M1 Mac. GitHub Gist: instantly share code, notes, and snippets.

gist.github.com

There is also a way to do this using a "2-cable" hookup:

Dual-cable method to Force RGB Color on M1 Mac

Dual-cable method to Force RGB Color on M1 Mac. GitHub Gist: instantly share code, notes, and snippets.

gist.github.com

Trying these might provide a solution to get the current display back to full resolution AND 60hz.

Having said all that...
I WOULD NOT buy another "ultrawide" display.

If 27" just isn't "big enough" for you, I'll offer a radical suggestion:
Get a 43" display and run it in 4k "pixel-for-pixel" (i.e., NO HiDPI).
There are a few of these around, at very reasonable prices.

 

[dbrewood]

In the end I bought the Dell 6K U3224KBA monitor as is being discussed in this thread.

 

[audioscribbler]

In the end I bought the Dell 6K U3224KBA monitor as is being discussed in this thread.

How are you finding it? I've just pulled the trigger. Bought a new deeper desk for it!

 

[dbrewood]

Loving it, no regrets at all, the speakers are naf, but that was expected, apart from that I've no issues (now) at all.