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What's the best external monitor for MacBook Pro?

over 3 years ago from Teodor Decu, Product Designer

  • Jake MauerJake Mauer, over 3 years ago
    1. Apple Retina XDR Display (Likely)
    2. LG Ultrafine 5k
    3. LG Ultrafine 4k or another 4k/ultrawide/etc that fits your requirements.

    I use an LG 5k at work and it's fantastic. It's bright, clear, has great color, and is 2x retina resolution. It has a glossy screen but is bright enough to compensate for it in most circumstances.

    There are two models out there, ones from the first batch and a recent re-release. The recent ones supply 94w of power through the Thunderbolt 3 cable whereas the old ones (which I have) only do 87w I believe. This is only relevant if you have a 2019 16" MacBook Pro as those ship with a 96w power brick and thus can draw more than the 15" models.

    I have never used an Ultrawide so I don't know if that would be good for my workflow or not. It would be fun to try, but to be worth it I would need to be able to run it at 2x resolution.

    1 point
    • Teodor DecuTeodor Decu, over 3 years ago

      The fact that I have the 16" MBP is actually the biggest problem, since no monitor can output the 96w needed. Even the newest Ultrafine 5k has a line on the marketing landing page saying that "for optimal performance, use the 16" MBP power adaptor". :(

      I would really love to get into a "one cable to rule them all" situation, but... seems impossible for now, I guess.

      0 points
      • Paul GasparPaul Gaspar, over 3 years ago

        The power output is not relevant unless you use all cores of your cpu 100% for the whole day. In fact 50 W is more than enough in most situations. On peak situations the MBP will take missing energy from it's battery.

        1 point