Which monitor

markyboy.1967

markyboy.1967

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Mark Molloy
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I will very soon be looking for a new monitor for image editing. I plan on buying an Apple Mac Studio and a monitor will be required. Looking for a decent monitor of around 27” and to be £600 or less. Wont be used gor anything other than editing. What do you sugest?
 
I have been happy with my BenQ SW270C a 27" 2k screen with hardware LUTs

Edit ~ This is one that is aimed at creatives and photo editing rather than gaming, oh and came with a viewing hood in the box....quite useful addition to shade the screen from extraneous light reflections though I edit in in very subdued room lighting.

NB but I have happily watched Prime Video on it when needed.

I think it has now been superceded by a newer version but cannot recall right now what model that is but think they brought in a 2k and a 4k version with similar'ish numbers
:thinking:

PS edit
I have looked and that model is still available and stocked in a few places. But the price is markedly more than what I paid when I bought it from WEX. The newer 2k is also listing as SW272Q
 
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I use an AOC gaming monitor, it's 27" and if memory serves me well, it was around the £290 mark. There are better monitors out there but this one was a huge leap forward from my previous 19" LG. It's used mainly for editing and web use.

I think 27" is about right, I wouldn't go smaller now and probably only a bit larger if I ever have the need to change.

I can't check now as we are still having some connection issues after the storm but I am sure I bought mine from Box.
 
I still favour the Gigabyte M27Q that I bought from Amazon in 2021, but the Asus ProArt series are possibly better for creative use. I calibrated it and have been very happy, although I understand that there's a later version available now that has more faults. About £220 from Amazon

I posted earlier int he week about an AOC monitor I just bought for work, and even though it's IPS (and 4K) there's noticeable light fall off into the corners, though very much less than the 32" VA panel I bought and returned.
 
Just a pointer if you didn't already know. Monitors in large mulitple stores look ok, but they are programmed for instore use and usually at the back as well.
 
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Box Brownie said:
I have been happy with my BenQ SW270C a 27" 2k screen with hardware LUTs

Edit ~ This is one that is aimed at creatives and photo editing rather than gaming, oh and came with a viewing hood in the box....quite useful addition to share screen from extraneous light reflections though I edit in in very subdued room lighting.

NB but I have happily watched Prime Video on it when needed.

I think it has now been superceded by a newer version but cannot recall right now what model that is but think they brought in a 2k and a 4k version with similar'ish numbers
:thinking:

PS edit
I have looked and that model is still available and stocked in a few places. But the price is markedly more than what I paid when I bought it from WEX. The newer 2k is also listing as SW272Q
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I have the same. Terrific monitor with great calibration software.
 
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I am using a BenQ PD2705U 27” 4K Monitor with my Mac Mini M2 Pro. Suits me but it has probably been superseded and with your budget you could probably get a higher spec model.
 
Thanks for the suggestions everyone. I will start going through reviews for those mentioned.

My budgets i thought would be fine to get a decent monitor but i can up that jf ut gets my a decent jump in quality so the £600 isnt fixed. Happy to spend £200 or £800 if i can see where the extra money went. At the moment is use an iMac Retina 5k but its old now so fancy a new Mac and screen
 
markyboy.1967 said:
Thanks for the suggestions everyone. I will start going through reviews for those mentioned.

My budgets i thought would be fine to get a decent monitor but i can up that jf ut gets my a decent jump in quality so the £600 isnt fixed. Happy to spend £200 or £800 if i can see where the extra money went. At the moment is use an iMac Retina 5k but its old now so fancy a new Mac and screen
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If you’re not too concerned with a high colour gamut then one of the PD series monitors from BenQ are also good. I use PD series monitors on my office Mac. They are 100% sRGB whereas the SW series are 99% Adobe RGB.

The Sw series also support hardware calibration whereas the PD series software calibration.
 
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At the moment is use an iMac Retina 5k but its old now so fancy a new Mac and screen
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£600 won’t get you as nice a screen as you’re used to in terms of resolution. Some cheaper 5k screens have been announced but not out yet, best option is still the studio display for 5k.

1440p screens are sharp but low dpi and you can really tell, 4k@27 or 32 are kinda ok even with the fractional scaling but again, noticeable loss in sharpness compared to 5k.

Do you need the GPU or more than 64gb of ram, and is that pushing you to the studio? There’s not a lot the studio would be better at than a M4 Pro mini. Most things the mini would be much faster, as the studio is stuck on a 2 gen old chip.

Do check benchmarks for anything you care about.
 
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w
the_accidental said:
£600 won’t get you as nice a screen as you’re used to. Some cheaper 5k screens have been announced but not out yet, best option is still the studio display for 5k.

Do you need the GPU or more than 64gb of ram, and is that pushing you to the studio? There’s not a lot the studio would be better at than a M4 Pro mini. Most things the mini would be much faster, as the studio is stuck on a 2 gen old chip.

Do check benchmarks for anything you care about.
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that was another thing im looking at. I was just doing a comparison between the mac mini and the studio. Saw a review and it looks like a decent spec. Ini would do fine for me given i dont do much video etc etc. im just wanting something to last several years as i dont change very often.
 
the_accidental said:
1440p screens are sharp but low dpi and you can really tell,
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We all have differnet views, but i would prefer to edit images on a 1440 27" screen than a 4K screen. Viewing 100% I get a much better idea of the actual sharpness and detail of the image, and while it's possible to scale the screen, I've *personally* not felt happy using 4K for that purpose. I like 4K for highly detailed spreadsheets and having a lot of working documents open at the same time, but not for pictures.
 
I'd strongly suggest looking at some physical monitors of the same size to see if you prefer curved or straight. I got a 34"and really would have preferred it if we're curved.
 
Is it possible that i could just use the screen from my Retina 5k and not the Mac part. Connect the new Mac mini or Studio to it?
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It is possible, and this is what I do for home use, but there's a big "but".

You need to open it up, gut the Mac part out and reconnect the screen and backlight to a driver board (you can get these direct from China via Ali Express) and rebuild it all into the case. This isn't simple like building a PC, you need to work out how to mount it all and there's no real documentation to speak of. This is a kinda "if you have to ask how it's probably a bit tricky" situation.

On the mini vs studio, given you can't immediately say why you need the studio I'm 100% certain the studio is the wrong Mac for you. The M4 was such a step up over the M3, let alone the M2 series in the current studio, that unless you know exactly why you need the extra ram or memory bandwidth in the top end studio then the M4 or M4 pro will be faster.

Here's a synthetic benchmark suite of the _base model_ m4 (not pro) mini vs a top end M2 Ultra studio:

Mac mini (2024) vs Mac Studio (2023) - Geekbench

browser.geekbench.com browser.geekbench.com

The M2 Ultra only wins on multi-core stuff, but not by much. Compare to a M4 pro mini and it's all over for the studio: https://browser.geekbench.com/v6/cpu/compare/10053310?baseline=10103270

A base m4 mini vs a M2 Ultra studio is a win for the base m4 mini https://browser.geekbench.com/v6/cpu/compare/10053307?baseline=10116800

Or to put it another way. For most use cases, you need to spend £4200 on a Mac Studio to beat the £600 mini. If I spec a mini to the sam ram and disk as the studio (64gb/1Tb, needs the M4 pro, and 10Gb ethernet to be fair there too) it's now £2300 and faster than the studio for nearly everything, you can buy a studio display to go with it AND STILL SAVE £400 vs the studio.

Viewing 100% I get a much better idea of the actual sharpness and detail of the image, and while it's possible to scale the screen,
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I just have Lightroom set to zoom to 200% when I click in on an image. Provided you're not doing fractional scaling more pixels on the monitor will always be better for evaluating sharpness etc. A 5k screen is still only 218 DPI, you'd print at 300 or 600. On a windows machine don't scale the whole screen, you can set it to be rendering 1:1 and then scale all the fonts/controls up. Then you get sharp text etc and no funny scaling on images etc.

I do see the advantage of lower res screens for photo work, where budget is limited you can probably get a better colour screen for the same money with lower res. And budget is nearly always a limit for home use.
 
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I'd strongly suggest looking at some physical monitors of the same size to see if you prefer curved or straight. I got a 34"and really would have preferred it if we're curved.
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I'd agree with this, if you're looking at ultrawides (I've had 34 and 38 UWs for work use). The curve mostly helps with glare and viewing angles. At 34"+ at the edges of the screen you're at more of an angle to the display on a flat screen so you get a shift in appearance even on fairly nice (~£1k) screens.
 
ancient_mariner said:
We all have differnet views, but i would prefer to edit images on a 1440 27" screen than a 4K screen. Viewing 100% I get a much better idea of the actual sharpness and detail of the image, and while it's possible to scale the screen, I've *personally* not felt happy using 4K for that purpose. I like 4K for highly detailed spreadsheets and having a lot of working documents open at the same time, but not for pictures.
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27" 4k is rather bad combination for windows, however on Mac this has some chances of adjusting properly. 5k is really where you want to be and it works perfectly at 200%. 1440p is rather a throwback from 2010 and there are zero reasons to get one other than severe budget restrictions.

4k plays a lot cleaner on 32" with just small adjustments of font sizes (not scaling!!!!) required. You never ever touch scaling unless straight to 200.00%. 32 6k is even better
 
the_accidental said:
I just have Lightroom set to zoom to 200% when I click in on an image
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I never understood the point of viewing at 200% let alone 300% which is what YouTube not-experts love doing and managed to make conclusions from it. Just don't....


the_accidental said:
The curve mostly helps with glare and viewing angles.
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Decent screen shouldn't have these issues to start with and curvature completely f***s up image geometry. This is insanely bad idea for editing and graphics design work
 
ancient_mariner said:
TBH it's actually been surprisingly good at 125% and scales very cleanly.
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I suggest you take a very good look what it does to image rendering. I nearly threw up when I tried
 
I bought a base M4 Mac Mini, it's so much computer for £600 (I only paid £500 with EDU and I think you can get it for £525 from some Apple authorised retailer too).

The only thing lacking are ports and SD card reader. Spend the money saved on a Caldigit Thunderbolt Pro 4 Dock from Apple UK, do not confuse it with the Caldigit TS4. The one sold from Apple is £80 cheaper and the only difference is that it doesn't do "Eject all" connected and has no support for the Apple SuperDrive, so just connect it straight to the Mac mini if you need to. Also invest in an external SSD Thunderbolt 4 enclosure then you have something as fast as the internal one for half the upgrade cost. 2tb in the OWC enclosure cost the same as the 256GB upgrade from Apple.

As for monitor, put the savings from the Studio to a nice monitor instead. The Studio Display is one that goes nicely with the Mac but I just use the one I already have, a Mateview 4k+ from Huawei I had already and bought a small 16" 3k OLED and put that to the side.

You can use the app BetterDisplay to workaround the non 5k PPI issue that some people have. I personally find the texts perfectly sharp.

BzIfxBU.jpg


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Going to have a look through all the monitor options mentioned over the next week or so-Thanks for all opinions.

As for the new Mac then how much memory is enough for photoshop and the odd other program open. I have 24gig just now and not seeing any real issues but want to future proof ut a little. Is 32gig enough or should i jump yo 64gig( only if required)
 
markyboy.1967 said:
Going to have a look through all the monitor options mentioned over the next week or so-Thanks for all opinions.

As for the new Mac then how much memory is enough for photoshop and the odd other program open. I have 24gig just now and not seeing any real issues but want to future proof ut a little. Is 32gig enough or should i jump yo 64gig( only if required)
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If you want to future proof a little, upgrade to 24GB. Personally, I saved the £200 and stuck with 16GB, because £200 is 40% cost of the machine (what I paid), and if I only get 3 years out of it instead of 4 years, that is fine.
 
Mark, 64 gig memory is way way too much for what you need. It is not a PC running windows, Macs are so much more efficient with memory. Trust me, save the money as it is a big chunk of cash for that upgrade.

Take a bit advice from Raymond above and get a Mac mini as the latest M4 chips are phenomenal you can get a great machine for way less than the studio which is now getting on a bit.

As far as monitors are concerned I use a BenQ 32" and it is excellent, looked at loads of reviews for a new monitor, LG, Asus ProArt, Dell and I went for the BenQ which has not disappointed. BenQ PD3205U is the one I got and just under your £600. LINKY for a review
 
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If you're coming from an Intel Mac either will seem blazingly fast, and if you don't know why you need it, the regular one is probably fine if you'll just have a single display. Multiple high end displays is one of the main reasons to chose the Pro IMO.

As for RAM, I've only 16Gb in my home MBP which does ok, but if I'm e.g. doing a big merge of bracketed exposures or similar in photoshop it does hit the limits. It'll swap to get the work done but I do notice it. My last work machine was a 64Gb Max and that had no problems with basically anything* but I can't justify that kind of spend for home use.


*running larger LLMs was the only thing that gave me problems.
 
For what it's worth, the Intel iMac that this Mac Mini Base model replaced was a late 2012 model that I paid £2200 for and then put in 32GB of RAM after market. Probably cost me like £2400.

£2400 for 12 years' use works out to £200 per year.

My current setup

Main Monitor £350
Mac Mini £500

Things like my Keyboard, mouse, Caldigit dock, external SSD, mic, webcam etc will still be here long after the Mac Mini is replaced. for £850, that is 1/3rd of the iMac that it replaced, meaning I only need it to run for 4 years for it to match the value for money scale. The £200 saved from the RAM upgrade will go towards the next Mac Mini. Essentially....the next Mac Mini only cost me £300 because I have £200 towards it already. If I keep my monitor then i only need it to work for like 2 and a half years really.

So that's my man math. £200 per year is the bar I need the Mac Mini to beat in terms of value.
 
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Another vote here for getting the Mac mini, saving some money and spending that on the Apple display - 27"/5K seems to the sweet spot for Macs, but sadly there are not many options. I use 27"/4K, but would prefer the extra resolution.
 
Just checked on Inflation Calculator....£500 into £3300....that is only 15%. A year and a half into the 12 years! So that means I will be quids in by Christmas 2026.

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I started off looking for a monitor this weekend with a quick visit to the Glasgow Apple shop. Had a look at the Studio monitor(27”). In the shop the colours just looked so deep, blacks were very nice. Not an expert but it did impress me. Wife said should would buy it for me if i didnt. Lol. Want to read a few reviews or see others first but the Studio Display ticked all the boxes- just need to get my head around spending that on a monitor. Cheers.
 
markyboy.1967 said:
I started off looking for a monitor this weekend with a quick visit to the Glasgow Apple shop. Had a look at the Studio monitor(27”). In the shop the colours just looked so deep, blacks were very nice. Not an expert but it did impress me. Wife said should would buy it for me if i didnt. Lol. Want to read a few reviews or see others first but the Studio Display ticked all the boxes- just need to get my head around spending that on a monitor. Cheers.
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The Apple Studio display, the actual panel itself isn't that impressive (as it isn't ground breaking anymore, it's not OLED). It is the same panel that has been in the iMac for like 10 years. And before this, for £1600 it came with an actual computer insid, and for £1600 that they have taken the computer part away so on paper it is a bad deal.

But the problem is the Mac play more nicely with the Studio Display, it is one of the few 5k monitor for a start. The Mac recognises it when it's plugged in, it works seamlessly with it. I am sure you've seen this review. It has over 5mil views.

The Studio Display sits in that niche void that whilst the actual spec is a bad deal, there is however not much competition. There is an LG and Acer I believe but lacks some of the things the Studio Display offers, like you don't need to buy a webcam and speakers if you have it. And perhaps the most important point is that I have never seen any one who actually bought one been disappointed with it.

If I were to get one, I would get the VESA mount version, then add my own monitor arm.

 
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cruso said:
Was looking at going down these lines myself the only difference I have a Macbook pro max so I could use The portability as well .
Mark would be intreated how you get on ? and great info Raymond
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Im away up north just now but when im back i will try and find other monitors mentioned and read more reviews as so far i have only viewed the Apple studio display. Dont mind paying that money if its better than the others i view.
 
cruso said:
Was looking at going down these lines myself the only difference I have a Macbook pro max so I could use The portability as well .
Mark would be intreated how you get on ? and great info Raymond
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markyboy.1967 said:
Im away up north just now but when im back i will try and find other monitors mentioned and read more reviews as so far i have only viewed the Apple studio display. Dont mind paying that money if its better than the others i view.
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This video is also worth a watch.


FYI, part of the reason I bought the Mateview is because it plays nicely with the Mac too, I can plug it my iPad and it scales to it full screen. The input doesn't bother me as I bought a 90 degree adaptor so the cable goes away from me (although i am using Mini Display Port at the moment, oh yes, it has USB-C in, Mini DP and HDMI, 3 different inputs.). Speakers is rubbish, so bad that the built in Mac Mini M4 is better! But aesthetically it is nice and very Mac-esq.
 
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I've gone for the mac studio m2 max as video editing is getting too much for my mac mini 2018 and even though the mac mini m4 and pro look great, the m2 max still has better gpu performance. if i was working only with photos I would have gone for mac mini m4, possibly pro version. for screens, my eizo screen seems to have given up the ghost so I'm left with benq 32 PD and it's working very well with the mac studio.
 
cruso said:
I have been looking at this one myself what's the option? it will be just for photo editing
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I have that monitor and it works well with my M1 MacBook. Plugs in via USB-C and powers the Mac as well is image display. see my post above *27
 
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