MacBook Air M1 to Dell monitor - improve quality?

I’ve got access to my partners Dell 22 inch monitor (P2219H) to use with my M1 MacBook Air when working from home. It’s connected via USB-C → Dell dock → Display port.

The display quality is really bad, to someone used to a 2015 iMac retina. Text is pixelated.

I’ve realised I know nothing really about displays and resolution so am after some advice please.

It’s full HD 1920 x 1080 pixels.

Does it look so bad simply because my Retina iMac is 4096 x 2304 which is orders off magnitude better? is there anything I can do to improve the display?

Most likely it’s because the display is too close to you since it’s only 1080p. If you scale down your other displays to 1080 you will see the same thing!

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It’s very subjective, but for a true 1080p you’d need to sit back to not see the pixelation, as jsingh was saying.
This site suggests you should be 87 cm away to not detect any pixelation.

Retina screens have ruined us. The same site puts your iMac at 44 cm.

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Retina screens have ruined us

That’s probably it. And - looking at the prices of 4K monitors - especially the ones Apple put in iMacs so cheaply!

It has a pixel density of only 102 ppi. That is to be expected.

You may want to get a 4K monitor. These typically have at least around 160 ppi. While not true retina screens, these will be quite okay to work with.

Oh definitely, plugging my M1 MBA into my work monitor feels like something scratching my eyes :eyes: