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m3 24" iMac useable screen dimensions
- Thread starter xxxray
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Off of some simple math (using the pythagorean theorem), it comes to roughly 20.1" x 11.8". A little bigger than what was said above.
Apple provides the PPI and number of pixels of the display. You can determine the exact inches based on that info alone.
I'm not sure if I am adding useless information at this point, but when I am comparing screen sizes, I am mostly interested in what effective resolution I will be able to use.
The 27" 5K iMac is 5120 x 2880 pixels and the default effective resolution is 2560 x 1440 (218 PPI)
The 24" 4.5K iMac is 4480 x 2520 pixels and the default effective resolution is 2240 x 1260 (219 PPI)
I find both of those resolutions very usable and quite similar for fitting work on the display.
I'm a big fan of dual monitors anyway, so 2240x1260 is way more than enough screen real estate for me.
As a side note:
I do not have an iMac, but my favorite monitors are 24" 4K monitors because of how sharp the text is when scaling 2x to an effective resolution of 1920 x 1080 from the native 3840 x 2160. I much prefer this over scaling a 27" 4K monitor to other resolutions (like 2560 x 1440). The worse part about a 27" 4K monitor is that at its best 2x scaling rate of 1920 x 1080, everything looks way too big. Plus, as the monitor size increases you are losing pixels per inch and the sharpness that we come to expect nowadays.
There is a reason why Apple made 27" displays 5K instead of 4K. The fact that the iMac 24" is actually 4.5K instead of 4K is really nice, since you are getting a bit more real estate than 1920 x 1080. Even though I don't need another Mac, the fact that really nice 24" displays are hard to find - and Apple is making one for the iMac, makes me kind of want one....
The 27" 5K iMac is 5120 x 2880 pixels and the default effective resolution is 2560 x 1440 (218 PPI)
The 24" 4.5K iMac is 4480 x 2520 pixels and the default effective resolution is 2240 x 1260 (219 PPI)
I find both of those resolutions very usable and quite similar for fitting work on the display.
I'm a big fan of dual monitors anyway, so 2240x1260 is way more than enough screen real estate for me.
As a side note:
I do not have an iMac, but my favorite monitors are 24" 4K monitors because of how sharp the text is when scaling 2x to an effective resolution of 1920 x 1080 from the native 3840 x 2160. I much prefer this over scaling a 27" 4K monitor to other resolutions (like 2560 x 1440). The worse part about a 27" 4K monitor is that at its best 2x scaling rate of 1920 x 1080, everything looks way too big. Plus, as the monitor size increases you are losing pixels per inch and the sharpness that we come to expect nowadays.
There is a reason why Apple made 27" displays 5K instead of 4K. The fact that the iMac 24" is actually 4.5K instead of 4K is really nice, since you are getting a bit more real estate than 1920 x 1080. Even though I don't need another Mac, the fact that really nice 24" displays are hard to find - and Apple is making one for the iMac, makes me kind of want one....