I am looking for a good deal on an external UHD monitor (3840x2160) that is height adjustable and has USB-C connectivity.
External Monitor for MacBook
![](https://files.ozbargain.com.au/g/38.jpg)
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The 27 and 32-inch displays typically don't include height adjustment because it's not needed. Do you prefer IPS over VA? Amazon is doing $363 for a 32-inch LG
I have the Philips 328P6VUBREB but it’s out of stock everywhere. The other option is Dell U3223QE which I use at work, excellent monitor
Some advice - I just got my 2 monitors last week, I got the ProArt PA27CRV. I knew buying them that people had said in 4k mode I wouldn't be able to see anything.. That is definitely the case, I need to run them in 1440p so everything is readable.
The arguments I saw online is that a 4k monitor is still better than a 1440p monitor even if doing this with scaling. I really like the picture quality and am happy with them. However, part of me thinks that I could have just got 1440p monitors, and then I saw this deal https://www.ozbargain.com.au/node/831503 and would have gone for it
I was waiting for OLED, but I don't game and really don't want to risk any burn in, so ended up buying what I did. Also thought the picture modes were a good idea, I am using Adobe mode now and colours are amazing. the HDR I didn't know was its own mode and really would never need to use it, so happy I didn't prioritise that.
Another learning was that MAC doesn't support daisy chain over USB-C. Which was my intention for 1 cable life. I have to use a HDMI to the MAC for 1 monitor which isn't the end of the world. The USBs on the monitor with HDMI cable run my Benq light bar, and wireless charger. The one with the USBC has my camera connected by Elgato cam link.
All in all I spent hours on rtings and watching YouTube. These are good and were on eBay with digidirect. $781 each
sounds like you don't even know how to set up correct DPI scaling.
Yep I don’t know what DPI is please help
However, part of me thinks that I could have just got 1440p monitors
Not really. I mean they're perfectly good but for some dumb reason, in the last few years Macs just don't scale to 1440p.They'll look amazing at 4k, maybe even the perfectly divisible 1080p, but at 1440p they are blurry. It's kinda ridiculous, and a known issue you can look up.
I have a coding job, so I spend all day staring at an identical screen of monospaced fonts. I use a 1440p ultrawide, and when I changed from a Windows work laptop to Mac, the difference was immediately obvious that it was all fuzzy. Looked worse than an old 1080p.
It's a known issue and I tried a few fixes online, which helped, but Windows is still a bit crisper.
I think I just upped my font size a bit and after a while I stopped noticing. Or maybe the blur made my eyesight worse so I can't see the difference anymore.Now I'm used to it and it's fine. I recently picked up a 4K screen and have them side by side, and still use the 1440p as my main, only because the ultrawide is great. But the 4K is a noticeably nicer panel otherwise, and I can comfortably use that with smaller font sizes.
The really dumb thing is that until 2016, they were selling the 1440p Apple Thunderbolt Display.
I can try later today but are you saying to set the resolution to 4k and get used to it? I found it was all pretty small?
No I wasn't suggesting anything. Just saying that Macs don't output 1440p properly so your 4k screens are good.
But if you're setting your resolution to 1440p on a 4k screen, stop it. Always use native.
And then, use the scaling slider in display settings to adjust how big things should look. This is the slider that says "More space" "Less space" or something along those lines, instead of actual numbers.The difference is that the actual screen pixels are literally 4k dots of light, while the software can make the fonts any size it wants. Text can be tiny or huge, and always 4k. So you want to set the hardware to what it needs to be, and adjust the software to what you want to see.
It's like if you want to zoom in on an image, you just pinch and zoom. You don't change the screen resolution.
Also 1440p doesn't divide neatly into 4k, so it would worse than a real 1440p monitor.
Thank you for this. I was thinking that the slider thing was like making it it 1440p anyway so I just changed the resolution
Very happy now
Mac OS is designed to run optimally on a 218ppi display. My iMac 5K is 5120x2880 (218ppi) but 4K is 2840x2160 (163ppi). The native iMac display gives me five options for text size (larger text—default—more space) whereas my 4K Dell offers 18 resolution options. To get my desktops to look similar I set the 5K display at default and the 4K at 1440p. For demanding use-cases the external display needs to be 5K: Apple Studio Display ($2,500), Samsung ViewFinity S9 ($1,800), Dell Ultrasharp 32 6K (expensive!). But for less-demanding users a 27 or 32-inch 4K display is considerably cheaper (e.g. Dell S2721QS 4K $299) and certainly good enough for me… for now.
@sumyungguy: Maybe I just don't get it? setting the slider changes the resolution. e.g. If I say larger text and move towards 1440p then close settings/ reopen the native resolution is 1440p now
@FreshPrinceofKP: I think the System Settings are different for native displays versus externals. At least they are on my iMac compared with my Mac mini.
Get the Dell S2722QC. Better if it's on sale.
Go into the display settings and choose a scaling mode that suits you.
That's it. Don't overthink it.
(and by 'don't overthink it' I mean: choose a non-native scaling if you want to fix more on your screen. It'll be oh so slightly blurrier than native but seriously, you won't notice it)
I've had that monitor, which I ran at the largest scale (most space). Though I've since moved to an Apple Studio Display, which I also run at 'Most space', which is 3200x1800 @ 2x
https://www.ozbargain.com.au/tag/uhd-monitor