“Intelligent” Design vs. Evolution: The Macbook Pro Monitor Dilemma
UPDATE: We’ve ultimately decided that the best monitor for the new Macbook Pro is an OLD Cinema Display. Read why here.
Much has been said and written about Apple’s almost incessant need to create new “standards” with almost each new major hardware release… So I’ll assume you know the long history on this topic and we can cut to the present where their complete dismissal of technologies that aren’t USB C or Thunderbolt 3 bork those of us who have invested into an office full of Apple hardware.
Let’s pick up with the release of the latest Macbook and Macbook Pro with no USB, Display Port or HDMI ports around the same time that Apple announces they’ll no longer produce displays and it raises some obvious questions for your average users who works at a desk, with a monitor.
Things were so easy. Everything plugged into your monitor. One cable goes to your laptop. And (most of the time) it just worked.
Now, I’ll come right out and say this:
I understand their vision for the future but here in the present, it just causes problems.
I mean, I have home theater receivers that are Dolby 23.1 with a dozen or two HDMI ports and THEY STILL HAVE S-VIDEO ON THEM! The presence of older connections doesn’t keep people from upgrading.
Think of this from the approach of a small company. Every time someone joined or left the team, as people got new computers, or when computers or displays died.. it was all plug and play:
- Our Project Managers have Macbook Airs… Here’s a 27" Cinema Display.
- Our Design and Dev teams have Macbook Pros.. Here’s a 27" Cinema Display
- That one guy who’s still using the old 17" Macbook Pro… Here’s a 27" Cinema Display
As long as we were all on Macs, everything just worked. No messy cabinet full of cables. No need for power adapters under the desks. The most recent Cinema Displays even had Ethernet jacks to connect to our wired network if needed.
The Problem:
Our team is growing and we’re opening up a second office and would like to commit to a monitor that we can purchase in bulk and use as we’ve used the Apple ones for years. We like the plug-and-play nature of the Cinema Displays but we can’t get those anymore and they don’t work great with the new Macbook Pros anyway.
Must Haves
- Must work easily with both newer and older MacBook Airs and MacBooks Pros
- USB C functionality to future proof us (charging, data, video)
- Great image quality and accurate color rendering — more important for designers than anyone else but want to be able to swap as needed
- No issues with freezing, waking up or display preferences when connecting and disconnecting — which we do about 237 times a day
- No weird artifacts from scaling or awkward resolution where everything is too small or too big
Nice to Haves
- Camera and microphone
- Speakers
- Good looks
- USB ports / hub functionality
The plan of Attack
We did online research and found a bunch of listicles that all basically had the same monitors listed, including Apple’s preferred recommendation, the much maligned LG UltraFine 5k Display. Pretty much every article was like an episode of House Hunters: You can have this, but you can’t have that so pick your poison.
After a while, all the articles and pictures look the same, so we decided it would be more fun to go Fry’s for the afternoon and just start buying monitors to evaluate. Then we bought some online too.
Here’s the round-up:
Dell 27 Ultrathin Monitor: S2718D
Price: $699
Pros: Fantastic design with tidy cable management. Flexible collection of ports. Sturdy. Swivels
Cons: No camera or speakers (though there is an audio line out). Low wattage charging (45 watts) may not be enough for most users. Tilts but does not raise / lower.
Summary: As soon as I unpacked this from the box, there was a crowd around. It’s that good looking. Put it next to a 27" Cinema Display and the Apple monitor looks downright old fashioned. It appears to be built well and the image is great. And for those of you who are used to rotating an entire Cinema Display when you’re reviewing something with a coworker, you’ll be happy with this monitor’s swivel feature. If you’re connecting an older computer, it has the ports you’d need (USB C, USB A, HDMI, Audio). If you’re connecting a newer MBP, it has USB C so you’re good to go there. Mostly anyway, since it only charges at 45w. This should do the job fine for our 13" users but may not be so great for the 15" users.
LG 34UC88: 34" Curved Ultra Wide UltraWide™ QHD IPS Monitor
Price: $999
Pros: Impress visitors to the office
Cons: No speakers. No Camera. No USB-C (Seriously, why’d we even buy this?). The curve is tough for designers b/c straight lines don’t appear straight. No charging for older MBPs
Summary: We saw this at the store, thought it was sexy, and bought it. I wish there was more to it than that. It’s a bombshell sitting amongst a sea of uggoes. It’s huge. It’s crisp. It’s Bright. It’s curved. But it doesn’t check any of the “must have” boxes.
We honestly thought our problem would be that everyone would want one and we didn’t want to tease them with it. We were wrong. Turns out its awkward to design on a curved monitor. I’m sure many people out there already know this, but we didn’t and were drooling over those sexy curves in the store.
LG 27UD88-W: 27" Class 4K UHD IPS LED Monitor
Price: $699
Pros: Decent looking. Matte display. Good 4k image. Ability to rotate 90 degrees. Future proofed (for now)
Cons: No speakers or camera. No charging for older MBPs
Summary: We’ve been really happy with this monitor. It has the range of connectivity options that will help old and new Macs alike. The USB C thing works as expected (once you have the proper cable) though it’s low wattage can’t be trusted to charge heftier machines doing heftier processes . Aside from the bells and whistles (camera and speaker), it works like a Cinema Display. It’s a little rinky dinky feeling if you’re used to Cinema Displays, but it’s at a nice price point. Bonus: smaller visual footprint makes you feel your desk is bigger.
ASUS PB328Q 32"Monitor
Price: $479
Pros: 32 inches of massiveness
Cons: Everything else
Summary: We got this because it was huge. I think it had speakers but we never actually bothered to check or test them. Once we plugged it in, stretching 2560 pixels across a screen that big is not terribly sharp.
LG 27MD5K: LG UltraFine 5K
Price: $974 (for now, then $1299 as of April 1st)
Pros: 5K Display, Camera, Speakers, can charge up to 85W and transfer 5Gbps of data simultaneously over one cable
Cons: No old school USB ports / backwards compatibility
Summary: There’s no doubt that 5K makes a gorgeous image but it’s a bit overkill for what we need. Imagine browsing a typical website where the text is too small to read and the whole thing takes up 5 inches of width on your screen.
With that said, once scaled to a more usable resolution, this is the most analogous to the traditional Cinema Display experience, as long as you have a current generation Mac. One cable for data, video and power is great. We did need to add a USB 3 to USB C Hub which takes away from the clean look of it all. Given its lack of backwards compatibility and everyday uselessness of its best feature (5K resolution), I’m not sure we get enough value to justify its enormous price tag.
The Verdict
I have to admit, we did decide to keep one of the LG UltraFine 5K displays for our Creative Director. He’s already upgraded his Macbook Pro and we’re fairly certain he’s not leaving the company any time soon so it made sense for him.
But…
For versatility and value, we’ve decided on the Dell 27 Ultrathin Monitor: S2718D. We couldn’t get everything we wanted in one monitor and this one made the most sense. The biggest practical drawback to us was the wimpy charging capabilities but since most of the people who will be using these monitors will be on 13" MacBook Pros, we’re willing to roll the dice that the 45w will be enough..
