r/HiDPI_monitors

Apple has always considered 218 ppi as Retina for monitors in the products they manufacture, and Windows designed their Surface Studio at 192 ppi. Both of these allow these OSs to be displayed as designed with 200% scaling.

Gnome and KDE will also only auto-switch to 200% above those thresholds.

Exceedingly few 185 ppi monitors have ever been produced, and having owned 2 personally were never satisfactory for the HiDPI experience. In fact Gnome will auto-set 166% scaling when you plug one in.

I have also not seen a single definition outside this subreddit that sets the threshold at 185 ppi. There are some that set it at 160 ppi. Feel free to correct me if wrong.

Personally I would class 185 ppi monitors in the same group as 123 ppi and 163 ppi: significantly sharper than standard, but needs fractional scaling.

Thinking about moving up to 6K for my main work monitor, but I keep seeing completely different opinions on which ones are worth it.

Mostly coding, browsing, and a lot of text, so sharpness matters more to me than gaming features.

If you've actually used a 6K monitor for a while, which one would you buy again? Anything that looked great on paper but disappointed in real use?

I've been using DELL AW3418DW since 2017 and it's dying soon (almost 10 years old), so it's time to find a new monitor for my setup. My budget is $1,500 max.

I recently bought a 16" MacBook Pro M5, and I also have a desktop with an RTX 3080 graphics card. I am wondering if there is a 27" monitor with a 5K resolution, a high refresh rate, and a built-in KVM switch?

I have searched around, but I can only find the following types of options:

1. 27" with 5K and a KVM switch, but the refresh rate is only 60/70Hz (e.g., BenQ MA270S or Asus ProArt PA27JCV).
2. LG GM9 27" with 5K and a 160Hz refresh rate, but I'd need to buy an external USB switch to share my USB keyboard, mouse, and speakers.

Am I overlooking any other options or brands?

Long time lurker here,

Been using dell 34 inch WQHD for many years and have been in the market searching for monitor upgrades.

I first tried LG 39gx950b — really liked it, but ultimately 39 inch was too big for my liking, texts felt clear but slightly lacking compared to gaming.

Now comes G8 G80HS — for limited time, I can buy it at 799.99, a lot of reviews say the monitor is not worth it at 1599.99 but wanted to hear if it’s competitive enough at 799.99 or if people have other recommendations. It feels right to me on paper, but buying the ‘right’ monitor is hard😅, would love to consult with people

Thanks 🙏

I saw this on a post today over at r/monitors here

Titan Army announced a new 5K MiniLED option =

• 27"
• 5120x2880p 165Hz resolution (5K)
• 2560x1440p 330Hz Dual Mode
• "Overclock" 180-360Hz
• Fast IPS with static Contrast of 1500:1 (BOE ADS most likely)
• ATW- Polarizer
• AR-Coating
• 2304 Dimming Zones
• HDR 1400
• 2000nits peak / SDR fullscreen 450nits
• DC Dimming
• DyDs 2.0 motion enhancer

Hi to everybody ,

I need a monitor for my Mac , what do you suggest me to buy ? I was in doubt between a ASUS PROART DISPLAY PA27JCV 5k 60 hz for 470 euro and Dell 27 Plus Monitor - S2725QS 120 hz 4k for 250 euro .. I will use it for everyday activities such us coding , reading , watching films , nothing professional in terms of editing or intensive gaming , does plus than 200 euro justify the upgrade from 4k to 5k with Mac ?

I’ve had the LG for a couple of days now and wanted to share my impressions.

I will compare it against another 6k monitor, the Asus ProArt PA32QCV and the 5k Apple Studio Display XDR.

In addition to the LG, I have another 32” monitor on my desk, an older 4K Philips with a VA panel.

My main use case is text editing, coding and SDR video editing. Light gaming on the side.

I use the monitors in both Windows and MacOS. In Win, the 4K monitor is set to 150% scaling and the LG to 225% scaling.

On Windows, the improvements in text legibility of 6K over 4K are less than I expected. In Word and web browsers at my viewing distance the 4K already looks great and the 6K is a very modest improvement. In Teams, however, the 6K comes across as noticeably sharper. In WinExplorer the side folder view is again much cleaner on the 6K, but in the main window view both are excellent. The biggest difference I’ve noticed is Task Manager: on 4K it is visibly blurry whereas on the 6K it is perfectly sharp. I attribute this to inconsistent Windows rendering engines.

In MacOS the difference is far more noticeable. The 4K never looked great and the 6K is a major improvement in any app.

Surprisingly, the biggest improvement in image quality was in games. Civ7 looks way better in 6K than in 4K: aliasing pretty much becomes unnoticeable. The same in Victoria 3.

Compared to the 6K Asus, the LG has better viewing angles - but not as good as my old VA panel. The blacks are actually quite good and in a dark room not much behind the VA panel that was measured at 3500:1. However, with ambient light, the coating LG used results in a less darker black than my Philips. Speaking of the coating, I would rank it as medium coarse. The Asus was definitely better in this aspect. From my viewing distance it is OK, even on a purely white background. Obviously, the closer you sit the more distractive it becomes.

Wakeup time is very fast on the LG, whereas the Asus would take up 10s. Also, adjusting color modes is immediate on the LG, whereas it took upwards of 5s on the Asus.

I have the Mac connected via TB5 and my Windows PC via Display Port.

The default pixel response time looks better on the LG compared to the Asus. Even though the XDR is 120Hz and the LG 60Hz, motion clarity is not that much better to be honest. All of them are a far cry from an OLED.

The LG gets very bright in HDR, and is noticeably brighter than the ASUS, but highlights are a far cry from the XDR even if the overall full screen brightness does not feel that much behind.

On the Eizo monitor test, the LG looked more stable in the frequency patterns, whereas the ASUS exhibited strange temporal instability: visible flickering.

The Asus had a noticeable brightness fall off towards the left and right edges. The LG is much better in that regard. However there is some vertical banding non-uniformity: if I pan a photo of a bright sky sideways I can see it. Otherwise it is not noticeable.

Overall, I am quite satisfied with the LG, except the viewing angles which for a 32” screen should be better. It is most noticeable in the bottom right on Windows where the date and time are shown. Compared to the Philips VA it is visibly worse.

It just says antiglare. So nothing glass?

BH has for $200 off plus $100 off in cart for $1199 after everything,

Hey all — been going down a rabbit hole trying to find the right portable monitor and could use some real-world recommendations. My setup: MacBook, budget is under $200 CAD, buying from Amazon Canada.

What I’m looking for, ranked by priority:
**Touchscreen** — doesn’t need to be full multi-touch, single-finger tap/scroll is totally fine
**• Built-in battery** — so I’m not tethered to a power outlet, want to actually carry it around the house
**• Wireless connectivity** — ideally able to cast/mirror from my MacBook without a cable (AirPlay, Miracast, whatever works)
**• Works with MacBook** — happy if it also doubles as a display for a tablet, but MacBook compatibility is the priority

I know Mac doesn’t officially support external touchscreens the way Windows does, so I’m not expecting a full iPad-like experience — just want something that lets me tap, scroll, and browse comfortably when I mirror my screen to it.

Has anyone actually used one of these day-to-day? Trying to avoid the generic AliExpress-reskinned units that overpromise on the “wireless + touch” combo — if you’ve got a model that’s actually delivered on this, or a hard pass to save me the money, I’d really appreciate it.

Hey everyone,

I got a chance to get a dual monitor setup that will be covered by my employer. Normally I'd go for Apple Studio, but the company offers a somewhat limited (and quite random) selection from LG/Samsung lineups which makes the selection somewhat tricky and I was hoping to get some advice on what would be the best pick out of the available options, which are:

- LG 32U990A-S

- LG 27GM950B-B

- Samsung G80HF

- Samsung S90PC

- Samsung S80HF

For context monitors will be almost exclusively used as macbook external displays for programming / day-to-day use.

I was originally thinking about taking LG 32U990A-S + LG 27GM950B-B as on paper specs match the macbook setup pretty much perfectly. But 27GM950B-B seems to have a ton of issues with firmware while 32U990A-S seems to have problems with banding and questionable matte coating. Samsung monitors at the same time either have bad reviews or no reviews at all. Does anyone has experience with these monitors? Which ones would you recommend?

I’m a full stack developer, so my monitor use is basically IDE + browser, including frontend design. I use both Windows and macOS.

I never understood why the Studio Display looked so good until I saw one in person. Even the Google homepage looked great. Text was extremely crisp and the whites looked really clean. My MacBook Air also looks much better to me than my first-gen Samsung G8 QD-OLED.

After some digging, I noticed the Studio Display combines 5K, IPS, good white uniformity, high SDR brightness, and glossy coating. Maybe that combination is what I’m actually liking.

I’d consider just buying one, but I also use a Dell Pro Plus HX 370 and I’m not sure how well the Studio Display works with Windows.

The PA27JCV seems like the closest practical option. It’s also 27” 5K and well calibrated, but I keep seeing complaints about its matte coating being grainy.

So my main question is: if I really like the Studio Display/MacBook look, do I need glossy, or would the PA27JCV still get me most of the way there?

I’ve also looked at Meirro Pro and Kuycon, but international warranty is a concern and their glossy finish looks almost mirror-like.

What are the chances of a Kuycon/Meirro type glossy version become available? Is there a precedent of Samsung selling their panels to this sort of provider? Both high refresh rate and glossiness are very important. Right now I would chose glossy and 60Hz, but I would pull my hair if in a few months I could have both.

So, I was looking for this before purchasing anything and couldn't find anything. So here it is, I am going from M4 Max macbook to Apple Studio XDR to LG 27GM950B-B. Both 5k, 120 Hertz (XDR) and 144 Hertz (LG). Also connected USB-A device (Stream deck) to LG and its working fine too. I guess I am surprised because I wasn't expecting apple to play nice with other monitors.

Also, True Tone is now applying to both XDR and LG.

Are there any downsides to this setup that I am missing?

Please let me know if you have any questions also.

Hello, I’m a bit new into this space, and was hoping to get some feedback and suggestions for a good quality monitor.

I am based in the USA

I am mainly wanting a display that is tailored for developing video games and working on videos. And something akin to a proper main monitor setup.

I don’t have a price range yet, but I should like to say that I have tried quite a few monitors :

- Samsung G80HF
- Dell U3225QE
- msi MPG 274URDFW E16M
- INNOCN 32M2V
- MSI MPG 491CQP

And I have had yet to find something that truly resonates in a distinct manner.

My current monitor setup consists of a Gaming Monitor in the LG ‎32GS95UE and a Secondary Monitor in the Dell S2725QC. Both are displays I am quite content with. And have been what I have tested other monitors against as well.

As for desired specs, 4K 120hz is the minimum.

I do not know whether I want MiniLED, IPS, or OLED. Nor am I certain I want a higher resolution, as I wasn’t particularly impressed with the Samsung Odyssey I tried. But it may be perhaps that I have found rather mediocre implementations, as I have experienced with the INNOCN MiniLED I tried as well.

At this point, I get the impression that I should just wait and see what comes out soon. I do truly feel like I’ve exhausted the options I know about.

The only thing I have yet to really experience is a Glossy Display. Which may or may not be what I am looking for.

I would like to know if there are any more obscure or upcoming monitors that might meet my criteria.

I went to the Apple store to see if I would miss the 120hz on the XDR model if I purchased just the standard Studio Display. At the store they had 2 Studio Display set up side by side, and around the other side of the island was the XDR model (so you could not even compare them side by side). I went to the settings, and the XDR was set to Variable Rate, capped at 60hz (45hz-60hz) or similar. I asked the guy working and he said, "They are locked at 60hz for demo purposes" I explained my purpose for being here was to see the differences side by side and he just went on to say that unless I game I 'probably wont notice' the difference. Has anyone else had this experience or is this store just obtuse? Thank you!

BH.

I am kinda worried about 8k content. Every year, the iphone upgrades seem so minimal. So now the 18 pro may not even have 8k video recording. Maybe the industry is saying that 8k is not worth it.

I have a Mac Studio coming in a couple months, and I want to upgrade my monitor because currently I'm just using a 48in 4k TV as a monitor which obviously is not ideal. The problem is I want "the best" but that doesn't exist since you can't get both HiDPI *and* OLED together currently. I know I'm asking in the HiDPI sub which obviously will be biased, so I might ask the same thing in the OLED sub as well. However, I'm sure some of you have experiences with both types of monitor.

Essentially what is the easier sacrifice to make? OLED or HiDPI?

My current ASUS ProArt is showing some shadow veiny marks on the screen, so it is time to start deciding which monitor I want to buy next. Unfortunately, PC components and monitors are expensive where I'm based, and these are some of the options that are available:

ViewSonic VP3256-4K $796

ASUS ProArt PA329CRV $892

ASUS ROG Strix XG32UCDS $1292

MSI MPG 322URX QD-OLED $1,464

ASUS ProArt PA32QCV $1572

My last post has some positive feedback about the ASUS 6K, but just checking if any of the other ones is a better buy. Any advise and user experience is much appreciated.

I'd like the monitor to last me a long time, so maybe OLED isn't a great idea? Please advise.

My use case: Movies, tv series mostly. I do a lot of archiving so almost always works with multi-windows. I rarely play games, so 60Hz is ok for me.