I’m looking at 27" monitors to connect to my MacBook Pro 13" with TB for home use and can’t make up my mind between a Dell S2719DC (£399) or the LG 27UK850 (£489).
The Dell is QHD and the LG is 4K but the Dell has a higher P3 colour gamut which will be favourable for photo editing work.
Anyone have any experience with with of these monitors? Both have USB-C connectivity with charging.
When I edit photos I’m not printing, I’ll preview using a printer profile for the lab I’m using. I haven’t had a gamut issues with a decent sRGB monitor. Creative pros sending work out to clients typically save to sRGB anyway for compatibility.
P3 is half way between sRGB and the Adobe/ProPhoto space - it’s better, and it’s pretty useful when dealing with certain images that would have lots of out of gamut range colors, most especially when you’re printing (often expensively) at home. So if you print a lot at home it’s probably worth the expense - though honestly if you’re really serious about a calibrated high-quality screen you’re better off looking at something like an Eizo ColorEdge, NEC MultiSync or factory-calibrated BenQ monitor, plus a hardware calibration unit (maybe more important than wider gamut for photo printing - I personally recommend the X-Rite i1Display Pro) if it doesn’t come with the monitor.
Right now I use a 27" iMac and I don’t want to put another monitor next to it. I get good results with it, plus calibration unit, plus my Canon photo printer.
I’m not looking at photography as a primary use - I’m just a hobbyist - I’m looking for an all purpose monitor with good colour reproduction.
My question was more along the lines of whether going 4K is worth the extra over QHD. I connect to a cheap and cheerful Dell 24" 1080p monitor at work but the lack of sharpness and resolution is noticeable when compared with the screen on my MBP.
Ah. Well, I can say that going from a good quality basic Dell monitor to the iMac 5K display has been a substantial improvement in everyday use and text sharpness.
I might say that buying the best monitor that you can afford right now is always the best choice right now.
IIRC, I chose my 25" at QHD because of the noticeable improvement in resolution over a cheaper 25" at HD (my MBP will not drive a 4K). I absolutely appreciate this choice every day that I use the monitor. IIRC, I also realized the break point to go to 4K would likely be at 27". Better said, the break point to forget about resolutions at or below QHD is with a monitor size of 27". Finally, somewhere, you should be able to find out how to determine the pixel/inch values and do a cross comparison. By this I mean, the resolution of a 1080p at 24" is equivalent to a QHD at X inches is equivalent to a 4K at Y inches. You might want to calculate whether either X or Y is smaller than 27". So, depending on how close X is to 27", you will end up with a monitor that is just fractionally better in resolution than the 1080p you find so difficult.
Just for fun, I did a search and found this page compares images at different gamut values.
https://webkit.org/blog-files/color-gamut/
After reviewing this Website, as a non-professional hobby photographer, I’d be hard pressed to push for me to buy the less expensive higher gamut lower resolution monitor over the lower gamut higher resolution one when I could afford either one. Otherwise, I’d take the notes from @bowline about true photo-editing quality monitors to heart.
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JJW
Even a hobby photographer should probably consider (eventually) factoring into the budget a colorimeter to calibrate the monitor, if they print at home. Bang for the buck is probably the $150 Colormunki (decent review here). But since monitors belonging to most people looking at photos are usually all uncalibrated, if you’re just sharing pics online the need for calibration is significantly reduced, possibly even unneeded.
Monitors tend to last a long time and since it would be your main interface with your MBP at home it’s not something you probably want to skimp on. I am unfamiliar with the specific models listed but I’ve owned a couple of Dell monitors in the last decade and liked them.
The Dell UltraSharp U2719DC is a better option than the S2719DC as a) it has a higher power delivery over USB-C, and b) it has a VESA mount rather than a built-in stand, and is more or less the same price as the LG, circa £500.
I’ve had several friends recommend both Dell and LG. A guy at work has an LG 34" ultrawide at home which he uses with a MPB and rates it very highly.
I’m going to be working from home two days a week for the foreseeable future so having a decent screen is going to be quite important if I’m going to be staring at for 8+ hours a day.
Buy it right, buy it once.
…and don’t care that much about resoultion but proper color rendition and color space. That’s why I don’t have a 4K monitor yet, still to pricey for me.
I really like my LG 4K monitors. Don’t use the one at home since I bought the iMac Pro. Here are some thoughts:
Given my photography hobby, if I had $1000 to throw around I’d probably look at something like this 27" 4K BenQ monitor, discussed below by Keith Cooper of NorthLight Images. (Keith is an awesome resource on all things involving printing photos off computers, with soem excellent tips, tricks and product reviews.)
The BenQ SW271 looks very promising…4K and AdobeRGB. I am spoiled by Eizo, I’d like to see it next to a ColorEdge.
This may have been an “old” topic, but it was exactly what I was searching for today, and this YouTube was superb to me, bringing out multiple topics of interest. Thank you for originally linking it.
Same here. And the 4K wide-gamut Eizo’s are quite expensive. So I am sticking to my 2Kish Eizo.