Luna Display in 2024

Hardware Reviews
1

My gear:
beloved iMac 5k (late 2020)
M3 Max Macbook Pro
Belkin Thunderbolt Cable
Luna Display

tldr: if you want to do a pseudo target display mode with a modern iMac. This is the way.

I love my iMac 5k 2020 for its Mac power and its boot camp’d Windows power but my Macbook Pro has become my preferred Xcode machine. I did not want to toss the iMac and get a Dell or Samsung monitor for the Macbook Pro so I floated the idea of using Screens from Edovia to make a fake “target diplay mode” on the iMac. @cornchip suggested Luna Diplay. I took a quick look at the web page and decided to try it. It took about a week to arrive. I connected the two macs with a thunderbolt 3 cable, and lets just say “Wow”. Any lag is barely noticeable (mostly when I use the arrow keys or backspace). I am typing this post on the iMac powered by M3 Max Macbook Pro and I would rate it 9/10 for response and fluidity. Xcode feels great. They warn us about games and video, but normal graphics use seems fine. I am getting Retina, so I fired up Campaign Cartographer 3+ and messed around with some map creations, works and looks great. Photoshop looks great for non-professional needs. Everything was done with my macbook pro lid closed sitting on the desk out of the way.

Bottom line: I cannot find any faults. This is a quality little piece of hardware and it has probably saved the life of my iMac.

5 Likes
2

More testing: I am watching youtube with no issues. Not fullscreen, just the normal youtube browser display and the video has no issues at 1080p. However the sound comes out of the macbook pro.

3

Thank you so much for the cable specs. I’ve just made the same move this week with my M1 MBP and 5k 2018 iMac. It’s working fine over Wi-Fi as I am just using Word, Safari and Endnote, but I was going to explore using Thunderbolt for more video-intensive applications. You’ve just saved me a job speccing the cable :pray:

1 Like
4

It’s so smooth that I forget I am using it.

1 Like
5

1.5 Month Update.

It’s awesome. I cannot think of a better way to do this.

3 Likes
6

I use Adobe Creative Suite predominantly Indesign, illustrator, Lightroom classic and Photoshop. Not video intensive sounds like the Thunderbolt cable would be the best way for a Close toseamless Operation.