{"id":34382,"date":"2021-12-07T17:00:44","date_gmt":"2021-12-07T22:00:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/?p=34382"},"modified":"2022-01-31T14:43:15","modified_gmt":"2022-01-31T19:43:15","slug":"the-state-of-external-retina-displays","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/2021\/12\/07\/the-state-of-external-retina-displays\/","title":{"rendered":"The State of External Retina Displays"},"content":{"rendered":"

Casey Liss<\/a> (tweet<\/a>):<\/p>\n

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In [effectively] 2022, there are four<\/em>\noptions for retina-quality monitors to attach to your Mac.<\/p>\n

[…]<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Only two are 5K or greater. The LG still seems to have problems, and the Apple Pro Display XDR costs $6,000.<\/p>\n\n

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Over the last year or two, Apple has been doing a phenomenal<\/em> job of filling the holes\nin their product line. For my money, the completely embarrasing monitor situation\nis the lowest-hanging fruit. By a mile.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n

Jack Wellborn<\/a>:<\/p>\n

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While I’d also love to see Apple release a not ridiculously expensive but still very expensive monitor, I don’t think that addresses the problem. Before Retina was a thing, Casey and I could choose from a variety QHD displays. Ideally we’d have that same variety with 5K displays.<\/p>\n

When I wrote about this, I noticed that macOS and Windows treat my 27” 4K display differently. By default, macOS uses the display’s native resolution while Windows scales to pseudo 5K. I wonder if there might have been a better display market had Windows not pretended 4K was 5K.<\/p>\n

Here’s what I wrote (an attempt to explain why 4K 27” displays aren’t great<\/a>).<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n

Dan Moren<\/a>:<\/p>\n

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It remains quite surprising that there isn’t an option for those who can’t afford and don’t need the $6000 reference-monitor quality of the Pro Display XDR to pair with a MacBook or Mac Pro, even two and a half years after Apple released its foray back into the external monitor market. Even the iPad can connect to external displays, though its utility remains a bit limited.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n

Josh Centers<\/a>:<\/p>\n

Macs don’t provide HiDPI (or Retina) scaling for sharp text on monitors with less than 4K resolution, including those with a 1440p resolution (2560 by 1440 pixels), and existing workarounds for Intel-based Macs don’t work with M1-based Macs. Macworld’s Jared Newman<\/a> highlights BetterDummy<\/a>, a clever utility that addresses this limitation in a roundabout way. It lets you trick macOS by mirroring the contents of a fake 5K display of the right aspect ratio onto your actual 1440p screen.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n

Fernando Cassia<\/a> (via Hacker News<\/a>):<\/p>\n

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Nobody can explain it better than the guy behind the code. So we decided to chat with him so he can tell us more about his project, where he thinks Apple could improve, and why Intel-based Macs are more flexible when it comes to supporting non-Apple monitors, among other things.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n

Previously:<\/p>\n