04/23/24
I use this monitor as my “second” monitor with a two 27" monitor set-up run by MacStudio. My primary monitor is an Apple Studio Display. I am quite happy with this. The Apple monitor is, to my eyes, slightly better and I spend more of my time looking at it, but the Dell Monitor is fine. I am one of those people who totally believes in ample screen real-estate.
Anyway, the Dell Monitor, for the moment is available at a very good price ($250) on Amazon. In case anyone is interested. This sharp price drop ( it usually fluctuates between $300 and $390) is unusually good. Probably won’t last long at this price.
Now back up to $350. The price of this monitor fluctuates wildly. If you are interested I would just keep an eye out for it to drop at least below $300 which it seems to do fairly often.
I am retiring in May and plan to treat myself to a really good monitor. The Amazon.com: Dell UltraSharp U2723QE 27" 4K UHD WLED LCD Monitor - 16:9 - Black, Silver : Electronics is currently around $400. The Apple studio display is $1K more. @rlivingston Are you still convinced of the superiority of the Apple Studio display? I have glare on my monitor (window to my right) at least an hour every morning. My post-retirement plans include a lot of photo editing, learning Final Cut Pro and blog posting.
No 4K display can beat the clarity of the Studio Display. If you’re looking for a lower price point check out the new Asus 5K ProArt, similar to the Studio Display if you don’t the build quality, speakers, camera and microphone.
I got the Dell S2722QC for $249 on Amazon, and it’s by far the best bang for my buck. I connect my Macbook Pro thru USB-C, m4 mini to hdm1, and my gaming pc to hdmi2. I have checked it out, but even people selling Studio Displays admit that the difference between it and a monitor half the cost is barely noticeable so that monitor is a nonstarter for me.
It also depends on your wealth at this point in life. I know people who have amassed such wealth that they’d be silly to not buy the best display on the market. For them I’d recommend a studio display even though they’re only using it a few hours a week. They can afford nice things.
I may add a different perspective: what brings you joy?
I have both monitors - studio display at my home and that exact Dell display when at my parents and working from there. Is the Dell display a decent monitor with height adjustment, ports and the like … yeah for sure and I’d recommend it.
But for me the studio display triggers something different in me … it brings me joy to look at my desk and I actually wantto use it. It looks elegant, the display quality is top, the camera surprisingly decent for video conferences, the audio quality is top as well.
So for me no other display really worked for me - except maybe for the Pro Display XDR - and untried a bunch. And seeing that I genuinely enjoy that monitor is worth it for me to spend the money.
Sorry if that’s not a real rational decision idea .
I use two Apple Studio Display monitors and the Dell UltraSharp U2723QE 27" 4K UHD monitor in a 3-display setup (see photo). Note that the U2723QE is not the same model specified by @rlivingston in the title of this thread. The U2723QE is quite good and acceptable for use with an M-series Mac, but not quite the same as the Studio Display. The cost of the U2723QE is about $1,000 less, and there is a tradeoff in resolution, brightness and dynamic range. This is probably a worthwhile tradeoff, especially for a second or third monitor in a multi-display setup. I would of course use one of the Studio Displays for critical photo or video editing.
In past years some have criticized the display resolution on 4K 27" displays connected to a Mac, but my experience with M1 Max and M4 Max Macs has been good. My take is that the Apple Silicon Macs finally have enough CPU and/or GPU power to accommodate the scaling needed to display text appropriately for the 27" display size. Older Intel Macs apparently had a problem with the display scaling needed to display text adequately on a Mac.
My display resolution settings are 2560 x 1440 (Default) for the Studio Displays and 2560 x 1440 (scaled) for the Dell U2723QE. See Display Settings screenshots below.
- and untried a bunch. And seeing that I genuinely enjoy that monitor is worth it for me to spend the money.
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