Mac Mini with old school Thunderbolt Display?

[MasterHowl]

Does anybody have an experience using a modern Mac with the latest version of macOS with one of the old 27-inch Thunderbolt displays? I've read comments on this forum about text not looking great on low-ppi displays.

I'm in the market for a Mac Mini (casual photo editing, Keynote, and research/writing), but the monitor situation is what's stopping me. I'd love a Studio Display but it's too expensive for me. I love the Apple aesthetic and haven't found a monitor from Dell/LEG/etc. that quite suits my tastes.

 

[xraydoc]

Does anybody have an experience using a modern Mac with the latest version of macOS with one of the old 27-inch Thunderbolt displays? I've read comments on this forum about text not looking great on low-ppi displays.

I'm in the market for a Mac Mini (casual photo editing, Keynote, and research/writing), but the monitor situation is what's stopping me. I'd love a Studio Display but it's too expensive for me. I love the Apple aesthetic and haven't found a monitor from Dell/LEG/etc. that quite suits my tastes.

While the long-since discontinued Thunderbolt Display works fine on current Macs (with a $50 TB2-TB3 adapter), you’ll get better image quality from a modern high-quality 4K display. You don’t need to spend Studio Display prices to get a very decent display.

I understand the aesthetic aspect, but unless you’re spending more time looking at it off rather than on, I’d go for function over form.

With modern versions of macOS, it’s very hard to recommend something other than a high DPI display.

 

[MasterHowl]

While the long-since discontinued Thunderbolt Display works fine on current Macs (with a $50 TB2-TB3 adapter), you’ll get better image quality from a modern high-quality 4K display. You don’t need to spend Studio Display prices to get a very decent display.

I understand the aesthetic aspect, but unless you’re spending more time looking at it off rather than on, I’d go for function over form.

With modern versions of macOS, it’s very hard to recommend something other than a high DPI display.

It really is only the aesthetics that stops me. Perhaps I need to get over it and take the dive. I'm most tempted by the Dell U2723QE (which I can get for ~ half the price of an Apple Studio Display), but you know what it's like once you've been spoiled with Apple hardware…!

 

[xraydoc]

It really is only the aesthetics that stops me. Perhaps I need to get over it and take the dive. I'm most tempted by the Dell U2723QE (which I can get for ~ half the price of an Apple Studio Display), but you know what it's like once you've been spoiled with Apple hardware…!

Oh, I get it, believe me

The interesting thing about this monitor is that the "Dell" logo is only on the stand, not the display itself. Put it on a VESA mount, and you'll never know it's a Dell display.

 

[MasterHowl]

Oh, I get it, believe me

The interesting thing about this monitor is that the "Dell" logo is only on the stand, not the display itself. Put it on a VESA mount, and you'll never know it's a Dell display.

That is a really good point. I just watched some YouTube reviews of it (after reading lots about it on these forums over the past few weeks) and it might be exactly what I’m after.