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Help me choose a HiDPI monitor for work

Posted by Greg
Tags: ask.recommendations, monitors.hidpi, displays, hardware, shopping

It looks like we’re finally getting some real options in the space, so I’m interested in people’s thoughts and experiences!

I’ve been running a pair of LG 27MD5KL monitors forever, and they’ve been largely great - but they’re really showing their age at this point, and I’m being forced to upgrade either way because my new job requires using a Windows laptop (likely a Dell Pro 14, but TBC), and those old LGs use an esoteric dual link DP variant that only Apple supports. I’ll also be keeping my personal MacBook Pro, so smooth compatibility with both is a must. Use will largely be software work: lots of documentation, lots of terminal windows, lots of dark mode, but some design review work as well where decent colour accuracy helps.

Options I’m seeing at the moment are:

  • Asus ProArt PA27JCV
  • Asus ROG Strix XG27JCG
  • LG 27GM950B
  • BenQ MA270S
  • Apple Studio Display
  • Apple Studio Display XDR

I get the impression that Apple’s the better option where possible, but I’m concerned about compatibility, especially when I don’t directly control the choice of laptop. If anyone has real world experience on that one I’d be interested, especially the difference between “technically works on non-Apple laptops” vs “is an equivalently good experience on non-Apple laptops”.

I’m guessing just using separate inputs for each laptop will be fine on whatever I go for, but I’m open to getting a KVM if needed (L1Techs? I haven’t actually checked how hard it is to find one that supports 2x 5K yet…). Couldn’t immediately see anything that’ll take Thunderbolt input from the Mac and HDMI input from the Windows laptop and push both to Thunderbolt output, which might otherwise have been a way to bridge the Apple display question.

Probably going for 27” 5K rather than 32” 6K, unless there’s a compelling argument for the latter. I briefly tried a Dell 32” 6K a few years back and other than horrible backlight bleed, sitting that close to a 32” display ended up feeling like I was craning my neck rather than moving my eyes to see edge to edge.

So, what do people think would be best here?

Sending up a bat signal for @gary and @ButteredToast - you guys both know your stuff on this one!

1 comment

  1. Greg
    (edited )
    Link
    Some updates, after going down a bit of a search rabbit hole: ProArt is the cheapest (as low as £500 right now), but 60Hz only and a matte display. Mixed reports on uniformity and overall quality,...

    Some updates, after going down a bit of a search rabbit hole:

    • ProArt is the cheapest (as low as £500 right now), but 60Hz only and a matte display. Mixed reports on uniformity and overall quality, no local dimming - but at this price it’s easier to overlook those things
    • ROG is next up, around £700, still matte but up to 180Hz (or 300Hz at reduced resolution, but that’s not especially relevant to me). Similarly mixed reports, again no local dimming
    • BenQ is about £900, and placed as a direct competitor to the Apple Studio Display. Glossy display, Thunderbolt, generally good feedback on uniformity and quality - but only 70Hz, still no local dimming
    • LG is £1100, matte, 165Hz, full array local dimming. But a lot of reports of quality control and uniformity issues, and potentially flaky firmware
    • Apple’s “basic” (lol) model is £1,500 and everyone loves it, but it’s also 60Hz only which I think is kind of a deal breaker at that price
    • Apple XDR is the undisputed king in basically every way, but near enough three fucking grand. I don’t really need the local dimming, and I might well have paid the premium for the non-XDR over the others if it were 120Hz, but it’s really hard to justify doubling the price of the next most expensive option just to get a decent refresh rate
    • The Apple displays do apparently play well enough with Windows as long as you have a Mac to configure them with, but you’ll also need a Thunderbolt KVM because they only have one input, so that adds ~£300-400 to the overall cost
    • DP alt mode (if available) or a DP-USBC cable apparently does the job for most Windows machines on the Apple monitors as long as you don’t need to change any monitor settings [edit: specifically a bidirectional cable, and you’ll still lose camera and audio I think, so using an alt mode capable port seems to be preferred if possible]
    • If you do need to use an HDMI-only machine on an Apple display, it looks like choices are either an active HDMI-DP converter (which mostly seem a bit janky, and loses the camera and audio feed) or a £650 THK401-X4-V3 KVM. Which only supports one monitor…
    1 vote