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Some of the best monitors for Mac computers in 2018 are: Dell U2415 Ultrasharp Monitor. If you have looked around other people’s configurations, you may have probably seen this monitor in action many times.7. This is one of the best and the most popular monitors to use with Mac Pro and Mac Mini. Also, it’s very affordable with its price tag of something under $300 US Dollars. A new monitor can really freshen up your PC experience, and there’s never been a better time to get one with Black Friday deals. Read on to find our picks of the best monitors of 2018. For 1080P gaming, there are a lot of good monitor options for under $200. And, in this guide, we’ve compared seven of the best gaming monitors under $200. List of Best Monitor for Mac Mini. Most of you will be thinking of going for a monitor that is expensive; Apple users have a tendency to search out for the most expensive out there. We snatched up a bunch of the most loved and best-reviewed monitors under $200, including top contenders from amongst Amazon's 'Best Seller' list, to find out which of these affordable displays were the best of the best—within reason, of course. These are the best computer monitors under $200.

After spending 40 hours researching nearly 50 monitors and testing six finalists, we’ve found that the 27-inch HP Z27 is the best 4K monitor for most people. If you’re buying a new monitor in 2019, it should be a 4K monitor—they don’t cost much more than their non-4K counterparts; 4K apps, movies, and games are becoming the norm; and computers and operating systems all have better support for 4K resolution than they used to.

Our pick

HP Z27

The HP Z27 has great color accuracy, an ergonomic stand, a variety of useful ports—including a USB-C port with DisplayPort and 65 W power delivery—and a three-year warranty.

Buying Options

*At the time of publishing, the price was $495.

The HP Z27 the best 4K monitor, especially if you have a USB-C laptop. In addition to one of the most color-accurate screens we tested and a highly adjustable ergonomic stand, it lets you charge your laptop from the same USB-C connection it uses to display 4K video and connect the two USB 3.0 ports—a feature most of the monitors we tested lack that drastically reduces the number of cables on your desk. It has thin bezels, which means the screen appears larger and the monitor takes up less space than some other monitors. (Thin bezels also just look better.) The Z27 also comes with a three-year warranty and a dead-pixel policy that should be a comfort to anyone buying a 4K monitor.

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Runner-up

Dell UltraSharp U2718Q

The U2718Q is about as color-accurate and ergonomically useful as our top pick and has a similar warranty, but it doesn’t offer any USB-C ports.

The Dell U2718Q proved about as color-accurate as our top pick in testing, it offers a similar amount of adjustability to accommodate different postures at work, and it has a range of ports. It’s a little bit cheaper than the HP Z27, but in most cases, we think the Z27’s USB-C connectivity is worth paying a little bit more for. The U2718Q comes with a useful three-year warranty as well as a Premium Panel Guarantee that covers defective pixels; if there’s even one bright pixel, Dell will replace the whole monitor.

If you buy the Dell U2718Q, make sure it’s running firmware version M2B102 or newer and update it following these steps if necessary; older firmware versions had visibly inaccurate greens and yellows that are fixed by this firmware version.

Upgrade pick

BenQ PD3200U 32″ 4K Designer Monitor

The 32-inch BenQ PD3200U 4K monitor is larger and more expensive than our top pick, but it was just as color-accurate, and it offers a number of useful features that the HP doesn’t have, like an SD card slot and KVM switch.

If you want a monitor that’s big enough to run 4K video without scaling—which can help you avoid blurriness and other issues with third-party apps—we recommend the BenQ PD3200U. Its color accuracy is comparable to our top picks, it has plenty of ports and an SD card slot, and it has interesting features like a built-in KVM switch, which allows you to connect two computers to its dual upstream USB ports and use a single keyboard and mouse to control both. The PD3200U costs nearly a couple hundred more dollars than our pick at the moment and takes up significantly more space, but if you want to avoid scaling or you’re running a two-computer setup, it’s an excellent choice. Without a USB-C port, it's not the one-cable solution our main pick is.

New installers of Office 2019 on the Windows platform will get the OneNote for Windows 10 Universal Windows Platform (UWP) application by default, instead of the desktop version of OneNote, which is called 'OneNote 2016.' Visual studio for mac 2019. However, if an organization had used the OneNote 2016 desktop application and then upgraded to Office 2019, then they'll retain OneNote 2016, according to Microsoft's. It includes Access, Project, Publisher and Visio applications, as well, but only for Windows users. More from Ignite 2018 • • • • • • • • • • • • • In addition to differences in the included apps, the features within Office 2019 differ between the Windows and Mac platforms, too. Microsoft actually checks to see if the OneNote 2016 desktop application has been used.

Also great

Dell P2415Q

A smaller monitor with great colors and similar features to our top pick.

Buying Options

*At the time of publishing, the price was $400.

If you don’t have room on your desk for a 27-inch monitor but you still want a good 4K screen, get Dell’s P2415Q. The P2415Q is about 3 inches smaller than our 27-inch top pick, with extremely accurate colors and similar features. It has HDMI and DisplayPort connections, plus four USB 3.0 ports, and its stand is just as adjustable as the HP Z27. The relatively thick bezel around its screen makes it look chunky next to newer 4K monitors, but it’s still the best 24-inch 4K monitor we’ve tested. It comes with the same dead-pixel policy and warranty as the Dell U2718Q 4K monitor. It doesn't have USB-C support, but we didn't find a 24-inch 4K monitor that does.

Also great

LG UltraFine 5K Display

The UltraFine 5K is the best way to expand your MacBook Pro or iMac, but isn’t recommended for other computers.

If you want to edit 4K-resolution photographs or video on your Mac, the LG UltraFine 5K Display is a great option. It had very precise colors in our tests—even better than our main picks, and unlike them, it also covers 99.45 percent of the DCI-P3 color gamut—and its 27-inch, 5120×2880-pixel display gives you room for native 4K content plus taskbars and user interface. 5K monitors are still rare and usually use wonky multi-cable setups, not unlike 4K monitors from a few years ago, but the UltraFine 5K can get a display signal, charge a MacBook Pro, and connect other USB-C accessories with a single Thunderbolt 3 cable. But the UltraFine 5K Display is expensive, and only Thunderbolt 3 Macs from 2016 or later can run it at its full resolution.

Everything we recommend

Our pick

HP Z27

The HP Z27 has great color accuracy, an ergonomic stand, a variety of useful ports—including a USB-C port with DisplayPort and 65 W power delivery—and a three-year warranty.

Buying Options

*At the time of publishing, the price was $495.

Runner-up

Dell UltraSharp U2718Q

The U2718Q is about as color-accurate and ergonomically useful as our top pick and has a similar warranty, but it doesn’t offer any USB-C ports.

Upgrade pick

BenQ PD3200U 32″ 4K Designer Monitor

The 32-inch BenQ PD3200U 4K monitor is larger and more expensive than our top pick, but it was just as color-accurate, and it offers a number of useful features that the HP doesn’t have, like an SD card slot and KVM switch.

Also great

Dell P2415Q

A smaller monitor with great colors and similar features to our top pick.

Buying Options

*At the time of publishing, the price was $400.

Also great

LG UltraFine 5K Display

The UltraFine 5K is the best way to expand your MacBook Pro or iMac, but isn’t recommended for other computers.

The research

Who should get this

Anyone buying a monitor in 2019 should consider a 4K monitor first, since they aren’t as expensive or as difficult to set up as they once were—these days, good 27-inch 4K monitors don’t cost much more than non-4K monitors with similar features. If you’re viewing or editing 4K-resolution pictures or videos at native resolution, or even if you just want sharper text and images on your screen, it’s worth investing in a 4K monitor.

4K is a loose term that indicates the approximate number of pixels horizontally across the screen; the actual 4K resolution is 3840 pixels by 2160 pixels. That’s four times the pixels in a 1080p display and 2.25 times as many as a 2560-by-1440-pixel display. The pixel density in a 4K display allows for sharper, more detailed images and videos, as well as an increase in usable desktop space—which means you can view a bunch of information on the screen at once—but 4K monitors need a newer computer to run at 60 Hz refresh rates. Your computer needs to support DisplayPort 1.2 or later or HDMI 2.0 or later; most things released in or after 2015 should display your desktop and apps at 60 Hz just fine, though your graphics processor and Internet connection will also determine whether games and streaming video can run at 60 Hz.

Streaming and displaying 4K video also takes more processing power and bandwidth than lower-resolution content, though that can vary depending on encoding and other factors. Streaming Netflix at 4K on a computer, for instance, requires a seventh-generation Intel Core processor or Nvidia’s 120-series graphics cards, the Microsoft Edge web browser, and an Internet connection of at least 25 Mbps. Requirements can vary widely, so check your hardware’s capabilities and your software’s system requirements before buying to make sure that your computer can handle what you want to display.

Anyone buying a monitor in 2019 should consider a 4K monitor first, since they aren’t as expensive or as difficult to set up as they once were—these days, good 27-inch 4K monitors don’t cost much more than non-4K monitors with similar features.

If you can’t afford a monitor with 4K resolution or have an older computer, we have guides for lower-resolution 24-inch and 27-inch monitors, which are still great for browsing the web, multitasking, and gaming at your desktop. Buying either right now will save you one to two hundred dollars.

[Related: Wirecutter Money’s best credit cards of 2019]

How we picked the best 4K monitor

These are the features you should look for in a 4K monitor:

• Size: A 27-inch monitor is large enough to take advantage of some of 4K’s extra screen resolution without being too large to use on a desk. We didn’t look at any 4K monitors bigger than 32 inches because they take up too much desk space.
• Panel type: Your 4K monitor’s display should be IPS, not TN (nor VA), because IPS panels provide far better viewing angles and color reproduction.
• Ports: HDMI and DisplayPort connections are both requirements for any good 4K monitor. HDMI is one of the most common ports in not just computers but also game consoles, media streaming devices, and other electronics. DisplayPort is a similar standard that also allows you to daisy-chain compatible monitors. Great monitors should also include a USB 3.0 hub so you can connect peripherals to your computer while minimizing the number of cables running to a computer sitting under your desk. We considered USB-C an extra rather than a requirement; it allows for the transmission of both data and power over a single cable, which reduces cable clutter on and under your desk. Although the ports are starting to show up on everything, they’re not common yet.
• Color accuracy: The best 4K monitors that come calibrated from their manufacturers will have better color accuracy than ones that don’t. And since most people don’t calibrate their monitors, out-of-the-box color accuracy is key. For the best image quality, your monitor should also cover as much of the sRGB color gamut as possible; the more gamut coverage a monitor provides, the wider the range of colors it can accurately represent. If you’re doing professional image work on the monitor, we recommend either calibrating it yourself or hiring a professional to do it. Though factory-calibrated monitors’ accuracy is generally great, professional calibration can usually improve it.
• Adjustability: Many of us spend hours at a time in front of our monitors; if they aren’t able to be properly aligned for correct posture, our bodies can pay the price. The most ergonomic option, and a requirement for our picks, is the ability to attach the monitor to a monitor arm via a VESA mount. Good monitor arms can be an additional $100 to $200, though, so we prioritized 4K monitors with stands able to tilt, swivel, and pivot; height adjustments are a great start, too.
• Warranty and customer service: A good dead-pixel policy that protects your purchase from bright-pixel defects is important. Three-year warranties are common among 4K monitors, although we did come across a couple of models that offered less-extensive warranties. Responsive customer service is important, too, in case you run into any problems.
• Refresh rate: A 60 Hertz (Hz) refresh rate over either HDMI 2.0 or DisplayPort 1.2 will keep things smooth and prevent laggy, frustrating, mouse movements. Older versions of HDMI and DisplayPort topped out at 30 Hz for 4K monitors or relied on MST (multi-stream transport) to achieve 60 Hz. You can now buy 4K monitors with up to 144 Hz refresh rates, but they’re much more expensive than 60 Hz monitors and most people don’t need them.
• On-screen display: Your 4K monitor’s on-screen display should make it easy to change settings such as text size or brightness. Its buttons—whether capacitive or physical—should also be easy to use.
• Adaptive sync: While adaptive sync helps reduce screen tearing, it’s mainly aimed at gamers, so we look at its inclusion as a bonus, rather than a requirement. “Screen tearing” happens when the number of frames being rendered per second by the graphics card is misaligned with the refresh rate of the monitor. Adaptive sync locks the refresh rate of the monitor to the frame rate of the video card. FreeSync, which is compatible with AMD graphics cards, uses DisplayPort’s adaptive-sync feature. Nvidia has its own version, G-Sync, that requires a Nvidia chip inside the monitor, but those monitors tend to be more expensive.

We looked through the websites of 4K monitor manufacturers like Acer, Asus, BenQ, Dell, HP, LG, and ViewSonic and found around 50 models to consider. We eliminated models from the running that didn’t meet our criteria for this monitor review, weren’t readily available through established retailers, or were too expensive for the other models we considered.

In 2018, we found six new monitors to test alongside the three monitors we’d already tested. The Dell U2718Q, HP Z27, and LG 27UD68P-B were in competition for our top pick; the BenQ PD3200U, HP Z32, and ViewSonic VP3268-4K were candidates for our larger upgrade pick; and the LG 27UD58-B was a promising candidate for a budget pick. The 24-inch Dell P2415 continues to be a great 4K 24-inch monitor and the LG Ultrafine 5K Display is an even higher-resolution option for newer Macs, but there aren’t any new competitors in those categories since the last time we tested.

How we tested

Most people don’t change their monitor settings, and even fewer calibrate their displays, so default performance is critical. We worked with Chris Heinonen, Wirecutter AV writer, to test the color accuracy of each 4K monitor’s display using an X-Rite I1 Pro and an X-Rite OEM I1 Display colorimeter, as well as customized tests in the CalMAN 2017 software calibration suite. The CalMAN tests produce DeltaE 2000 numbers for each screen which show how close the displayed color is to what it’s supposed to be; the lower the number, the better. A DeltaE value under 1.0 is perfect. Under 2.0 is good enough for print-production work, and you wouldn’t notice a difference if you had a perfect reference to compare against. Ratings above 3.0 mean you’d probably see a difference with your naked eye.

Color gamut, or the range of colors that a device can accurately represent, is also important—color accuracy doesn’t mean much if your screen shows only a portion of the colors meant to be displayed—so we used our CalMAN tests to determine how much of the sRGB color gamut each monitor’s screen could reproduce. The ideal score is 100 percent; our numbers don’t go past that, because reporting numbers larger than 100 percent can give the impression of full gamut coverage even in cases where that isn’t true—for example, if the 4K monitor displays many colors outside the gamut without displaying all the ones inside it.

For each round of tests, we adjusted the monitor’s brightness to 140 cd/m²—a good value for everyday use—and set its contrast as high as it could go without losing white details. We left every other setting at the default value. While we tested for picture quality, we used each of our finalists for a few days to get a feel for their features.

The best 4K monitor: HP Z27

Our pick

HP Z27

The HP Z27 has great color accuracy, an ergonomic stand, a variety of useful ports—including a USB-C port with DisplayPort and 65 W power delivery—and a three-year warranty.

Buying Options

*At the time of publishing, the price was $495.

The HP Z27 is the best 4K monitor for most people because it has accurate color; easy ergonomic adjustments that allow you to tilt, swivel, pivot, and adjust the height of the screen; plus a wide variety of useful ports like USB 3.0 and USB-C. The USB-C port lets you transmit data and video and charge a USB-C laptop at 65 W all over a single cable. Many of the 4K monitors we tested are about as color-accurate as the HP and have similar features, but the USB-C port gives it the edge over the competition. It also has tiny bezels around the side and the top, and and it comes with a three-year warranty and dead-pixel policy.

The HP Z27’s DeltaE 2000 values in most of our CalMAN tests were fantastic; we found its color points at 2.31, ColorChecker at 2.68, and saturation sweep at 2.42. Its grayscales were more technically accurate than most of the competition, at 2.97; for reference, our runner-up pick’s grayscale score was 3.88, almost an entire point worse, although we couldn’t spot a practical difference between the two with our naked eyes.

Contrast ratio is the measurement of a fully lit white screen versus an unlit black screen at a fixed brightness level. The contrast ratio of the HP Z27, at 1002:1, was one of the highest of all the 4K monitors we tested. This is an excellent number for a monitor, especially an IPS panel, and it means the bright parts of the screen will look vibrant and really pop out next to blacks.

The HP Z27 comes in two pieces that are straightforward to assemble and can be attached without additional tools. Its four ergonomic adjustments—tilting, swiveling, pivoting, and adjusting its height—work securely and steadily. It tilts 5 degrees forward and 23 degrees backwards, and it can swivel and pivot in a 90-degree rotation. Its height-adjustable stand makes it easy for you to customize it to your liking. If you prefer to use a VESA monitor arm in place of the Z27’s stand, it allows for that, too.

The addition of USB-C allows for the transfer of data, video, and 65 W of power over a single cable.

The HP Z27 4K monitor has very thin side bezels and top bezels, though its bottom bezel is significantly larger. Navigational buttons can be found on the underside of the screen, and using them to quickly scroll through menu options is simple.

The HP Z27 has one HDMI 2.0 port, one DisplayPort 1.2 port, a Mini DisplayPort input, as well as USB 3.0 and USB-C ports for further connections. The addition of USB-C allows for the transfer of data, video, and 65 W of power over a single cable; this is will be incredibly handy for owners of USB-C laptops, and it’s a feature that none of the competition for our top pick shared. The Z27 comes with a three-year standard limited warranty and dead-pixel policy—HP will replace your monitor if it has even one bright pixel or subpixel, or if it has more than four dark subpixels.

The HP’s easy-to-use menu buttons reside on the underside of the screen’s bottom bezel.Photo: Sarah Kobos

The HP has a number of useful ports to choose from—including HDMI, DisplayPort, Mini DisplayPort, USB-C, and USB 3.0.Photo: Sarah Kobos

The HP’s easy-to-use menu buttons reside on the underside of the screen’s bottom bezel.Photo: Sarah Kobos

The HP has a number of useful ports to choose from—including HDMI, DisplayPort, Mini DisplayPort, USB-C, and USB 3.0.Photo: Sarah Kobos

Runner-up 4K monitor: Dell U2718Q

Runner-up

Dell UltraSharp U2718Q

The U2718Q is about as color-accurate and ergonomically useful as our top pick and has a similar warranty, but it doesn’t offer any USB-C ports.

The Dell U2718Q is a great 4K monitor because it has good color accuracy, it offers a wide range of adjustability, it has a bunch of useful ports like USB 3.0, and it has thin bezels. It doesn’t offer USB-C connectivity like the HP Z27 4K monitor, but it’s generally a bit less expensive, and it comes with a solid three-year warranty that includes a Premium Panel Guarantee: if you find even one bright pixel on your U2718Q, Dell will replace the panel for you. (Unlike HP, Dell explicitly does not cover dark or dead pixels or subpixels, only bright ones, but dark pixels are hard to spot even on lower-resolution monitors, so we don't think this is a huge deal.)

The U2718Q’s DeltaE 2000 values in most of our CalMAN tests were accurate, about as good as the HP Z27: When testing at our routine 140 cd/m2 setting, we saw the Dell’s color points at 2.28, ColorChecker at 2.13, and saturation sweep at 2.01. Its accuracy fell to a value of 3.88 when we tested the monitor’s grayscale tracking, though, which means that you may be able to occasionally notice a blue, green, or red cast to shades of gray; ideally we’re looking for a score under 3.0, which means that everything on the screen appears as the creator intended.

Its contrast ratio is good, too, at 1,097:1, which means you’ll see a big difference between white and black on your screen. It was the highest contrast ratio of all the 4K monitors we tested.

The U2718Q 4K monitor comes with Dell’s three-year limited warranty, which covers defects in materials and workmanship, and a Premium Panel Guarantee that allows for a replacement if even one bright pixel is present.

Dell excels at build quality and ergonomics, and this monitor is no exception. It’s easy to assemble without tools. You can adjust the height by 5.1 inches; the stand tilts up to 5 degrees forward and 21 degrees back, and it swivels 45 degrees to the left and right. It can pivot into a portrait orientation either clockwise or counterclockwise. The stand can also detach completely, like our top pick’s, if you prefer to use a VESA monitor arm.

Like recent 4K monitors from HP and LG, the U2718Q has thin bezels around its screen. Four tactile menu buttons and a dedicated power button sit along the underside of the bottom-right bezel. Like our top pick, it’s easy to navigate with its buttons.

The U2718Q has one HDMI 2.0 port, one DisplayPort 1.2 port, and a Mini DisplayPort input; a line-out to connect speakers; and a USB 3.0 hub. The hub, when connected to a computer’s USB 3.0 port with the included cable, enables four USB ports on the monitor: two on the back of the monitor and two on the left side for easier access. One of each pair can charge a device, such as a smartphone, with a power draw of up to 2 amps. The Dell is missing the USB-C connectivity that our top pick has, and for this price, we think the HP’s ability to transfer data, video, and power over a single cable puts it ahead of its competition.

The U2718Q comes with Dell’s three-year limited warranty, which covers defects in materials and workmanship, and a Premium Panel Guarantee that allows for a replacement if even one bright pixel (a stuck pixel that continually allows backlight to shine through) is present. Dell’s Advanced Exchange Service means Dell will ship out a replacement the next business day if the company deems it necessary and you still fall within the limited warranty.

Upgrade 4K monitor: BenQ PD3200U

Upgrade pick

BenQ PD3200U 32″ 4K Designer Monitor

The 32-inch BenQ PD3200U 4K monitor is larger and more expensive than our top pick, but it was just as color-accurate, and it offers a number of useful features that the HP doesn’t have, like an SD card slot and KVM switch.

If a 27-inch monitor isn’t big enough for you, consider the 32-inch BenQ PD3200U 4K monitor. It combines good color and grayscale measurements, four display inputs, a USB hub that can be used by more than one computer, and a puck-style controller that lets you easily switch between picture modes or connected computers on the fly. It’s also big enough that you may be able to use it without needing to scale text to make it readable. However, it costs several hundred dollars more than our top picks, lacks USB-C, and needs significantly more physical space than a 24- or 27-inch screen.

The PD3200U is factory-calibrated, and its measurements are comparable with those of the HP Z27 and the Dell U2718Q. Grayscale tracking DeltaE comes in at 2.77, with the darker values measuring especially well. The six color points—red, green, blue, yellow, cyan, and magenta—average to a DeltaE of 2.67, with red being a bit oversaturated but not excessively so. The saturation sweep is even better (2.02), and the ColorChecker result of 2.08 is better than the HP’s, though the numbers are fairly close and you won’t see a difference between them with your naked eye. The average contrast ratio doesn’t quite hit the 1,000:1 mark that our top picks did, averaging out at 966:1, but the difference is negligible.

The connections are split between three different areas. At the center of the back are four side-facing input ports: two HDMI 2.0 ports, a DisplayPort 1.2 input, and a Mini DisplayPort 1.2 input. Two downstream USB 3.0 ports, an SD card reader, and a headphone jack sit flush with the right bezel on the side of the monitor. And facing down on the back of the monitor are two more downstream USB 3.0 ports, two upstream USB 3.0 ports, a line-out jack, and a Mini-USB for the Hotkey Puck (get it?) on-screen display controller. When the two upstream ports are connected to different computers, it allows for one keyboard and mouse pairing plugged into the USB hub to be used for both computers. All four USB ports work with both upstream ports. The puck can be used to quickly switch between picture modes or control which upstream USB port and input are active or any other menu options. It’s stored on a cradle in the base.

The bezel, though fairly slim, is considerably larger than our main pick’s—10 mm around the top and sides and 18 mm along the bottom. In addition to the menu buttons, the bottom bezel also houses a sensor that can automatically adjust the backlight and shut off the monitor when it detects you’ve left the computer, though both of these options are disabled by default.

The PD3200U 4K monitor has a 5.9-inch range of height adjustment up to a max height of 25.13 inches from the desk to the top of the monitor. It can tilt 5 degrees forward or 20 degrees back, swivel 45 degrees left or right, and pivot 90 degrees to a portrait position. The monitor has VESA-compliant mount points you can use to replace the built-in stand with a monitor arm or another mount.

Monitor Reviews

BenQ has a three-year limited warranty; it doesn’t mention a dead-pixel policy, but a BenQ representative on the company’s support forums said that the policy is “Zero dead pixels at time of purchase. After that: 1 dead center, 3 within an inch, or 5 total.”

A smaller 4K monitor: Dell P2415Q

Also great

Dell P2415Q

A smaller monitor with great colors and similar features to our top pick.

Buying Options

*At the time of publishing, the price was $400.

If you have less space on your desk or just want a smaller 4K monitor, Dell’s P2415Q is a 24-inch model with extremely accurate colors and similar features. Its display is significantly more accurate than that of the other 24-inch 4K monitor we tested, the LG 24UD58-B. The P2415Q has HDMI and DisplayPort connections plus four USB 3.0 ports (but no USB-C); its stand is just as adjustable too, and it comes with the same dead-pixel policy and three-year warranty.

Best Monitor For Mac Mini 2017

The Dell P2415Q’s factory-calibrated picture performed very well in our testing. It had a DeltaE value of 1.2166 for grayscales, measuring more than 2.0 only at its blackest points; it also recorded a 0.8324 value for the ColorChecker test, and at 0.7666, it recorded the best saturation DeltaE value of all the 24-inch monitors we tested. It covered 98 percent of the sRGB color gamut, too. This is a huge improvement over the other 24-inch 4K monitor we tested, the LG 24UD58-B, which had DeltaE values of 2.4576, 3.704, and 2.9383, respectively. The LG 4K monitor did have a higher contrast ratio and darker black levels than the P2415Q, but we didn’t notice a difference in contrast when we compared the two monitors with our naked eyes, and the Dell did better than the LG in every other test.

The Dell P2415Q 4K monitor offers two HDMI 1.4 ports, three DisplayPort 1.2 connections (one Mini DisplayPort and two full-size DisplayPort), and four USB 3.0 ports. Its stand is height-adjustable, and it tilts, rotates, and pivots, just like our runner-up pick. It’s VESA-compatible, and it has the same great Premium Panel Guarantee and three-year warranty from Dell.

For Mac owners: LG UltraFine 5K Display

Also great

LG UltraFine 5K Display

The UltraFine 5K is the best way to expand your MacBook Pro or iMac, but isn’t recommended for other computers.

If you have a Thunderbolt 3–equipped MacBook Pro or iMac from 2016 or later and you need to edit 4K video or photos at their native resolution, the LG UltraFine 5K is a great option for you, though not for anyone else. Its color reproduction is excellent, and because it uses the DCI-P3 color gamut, it can display a wider range of greens and reds than our other picks (which use sRGB). This will mostly appeal to professional video editors, but even modern smartphones can now take pictures that use this wider color gamut. It has one Thunderbolt 3 port to connect to your computer (it can also charge your MacBook from that port), and three USB-C ports for accessories. It doesn’t have on-screen display; all settings are controlled through the operating system software. Don’t buy it to use with a PC: Even if you have a Thunderbolt 3 port, the monitor runs in 4K-resolution mode. We recommend our other picks for PC users.

As the name suggests, the monitor has a 5K native resolution; 5K means 5120×2880 pixels, while 4K resolution means 3840×2160 pixels. If you’re editing 4K photography or 4K video, you can display your content at full resolution and still have space on-screen for menus or toolbars. There is one Thunderbolt 3 input (which will also charge your MacBook while the monitor is connected), and three USB-C ports.

The monitor uses a P3 wide color gamut, which is about 25 percent larger than the sRGB gamut seen on our other picks, and it covers 99.45 percent of the P3 gamut on our tests. Grayscale average DeltaE measured 2.36, and color points (1.70), ColorChecker (2.11), and saturation sweep (1.94) were all better than our top pick, making the UltraFine 5K a great choice for professional editing.

This monitor is a Thunderbolt 3 display. This means that it uses USB-C ports, but Thunderbolt 3 has a throughput of 40 Gbps and requires a separate chip usually found only in more expensive laptops. Non-Thunderbolt 3 USB-C ports top out at 5 or 10 Gbps (the UltraFine’s ports for accessories are rated at 5 Gbps).

Don’t buy the LG UltraFine 5K to use with a PC: Even if you have a Thunderbolt 3 port, the monitor runs in 4K-resolution mode.

In order to get full functionality out of the monitor it needs to be connected to a Thunderbolt 3-enabled Mac for esoteric technical reasons. Like older multi-stream transport (MST) 4K monitors, the UltraFine 5K creates a single high-resolution image by combining two separate DisplayPort signals. But although 4K MST screens actually used two cables to do this, Apple is sending those two DisplayPort signals over a single Thunderbolt 3 cable, and most PCs will only send a single DisplayPort signal over a Thunderbolt 3 cable. As a result, Windows PCs (with few, rare exceptions) connected to the UltraFine 5K via Thunderbolt 3 or USB-C will get only a 4K-resolution image.

The LG UltraFine 5K has a webcam and microphones built into the top bezel, as well as speakers (although we recommend getting some desktop speakers instead). Surprisingly, the monitor doesn’t have controls or menus like most monitors; everything is controlled by software. There isn’t a power button, either, so the monitor will only wake up and go to sleep as the connected Mac does.

The stand has a height-adjustment range of 4.3 inches, can tilt 5 degrees forward or 25 degrees back, and has fine pivot adjustment but cannot be used in portrait mode, and there is no swivel adjustment. Included in the box is a VESA design cover that can replace the attached stand and connect to a VESA-compliant mount like a monitor arm.

Unlike our top picks, the UltraFine 5K has a one-year labor/parts warranty instead of three years. Additionally, LG does not have a bright/dead-pixel policy. Even though it’s sold through the Apple site, Apple does not service or support products that are not Apple-branded, and the Apple Limited Warranty does not apply.

Care and maintenance

Factory-calibrated 4K monitors are generally pretty accurate, so you don’t need to buy a hardware colorimeter to calibrate your display unless you need absolute perfection (as professional photographers, graphic designers, or video editors do). You should adjust the monitor’s brightness to your liking. We use a colorimeter to set our monitors to 140 cd/m² for our testing, but you have no real way to tell your monitor’s exact luminance just by eyeballing it. If your monitor is too bright, you could experience discomfort after extended computing sessions. Too dim, and it’ll look lifeless and drab. Just use a setting that feels good to you.

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It’s worthwhile to take some time to read your monitor’s manual to understand the features. For example, if your 4K monitor has a dynamic contrast feature, turn it off. You’ll get a higher contrast ratio when it’s on, but your screen’s brightness will shift up and down depending on how dark or light a particular scene is. That effect can get annoying.

If your monitor’s screen gets dirty or smudgy, don’t use an ammonia- or alcohol-based cleaner on it (no Windex). Don’t use a paper towel, either. A microfiber cloth and some distilled water (not tap) will work just fine. And don’t spray the screen when cleaning it—spray the cloth, and then wipe the screen.

What to look forward to

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Viewsonic’s new VP2785-4K is a 27-inch 4K monitor that supports HDR10, USB-C, HDMI 2.0, and DisplayPort. It’s on our list to test, but HDR10 content and hardware that supports it isn’t common yet, and at around $900, it’s nearly twice as expensive as our top picks.

The recently finalized HDMI 2.1 spec allows for a third adaptive-sync option in addition to FreeSync and Nvidia’s G-Sync, Game Mode VRR. It will also be capable of resolutions up to 10K with frame rates up to 120 Hz. The spec should start showing up in more products in the coming year.

The competition

The LG 27UD68P-B 4K monitor was our previous top pick. Although it’s less expensive than our top pick and our runner-up and it has great CalMAN scores, the LG lacks USB 3.0 and USB-C ports and comes with only a one-year warranty—even shorter than the warranty on our former budget pick. It’s a good monitor, but when you’re spending this much money on a 4K screen, it’s important to ensure that what you’re buying offers enough support to last you a few years.

Similar to the 27UD68P-B, LG also offers a 27UD68-W that has a white case and silver-colored stand, and the 27UD68-P, which has a stand without height or pivot adjustments and which is a good choice if you already have a monitor arm. Like the 27UD68P-B, they provide one-year warranties, lack USB ports, and only offer surface-level differences otherwise, so we dismissed them.

The Dell P2715Q was our previous runner-up pick. It has a great stand plus VESA support, and it also comes with a built-in USB 3.0 hub. It has fat bezels and it lacks USB-C or an HDMI 2.0 port, which means it can’t display a 60 Hz 4K signal over HDMI, but if you don’t care about those things and you can find it for significantly less than either of our main picks, it’s still a solid 4K monitor.

The LG 27UD58-B was a contender to be a budget pick, as it cost only around $290 at the time of writing. Unfortunately, it performed poorly in CalMAN testing, it has even fewer ports than our former budget pick, the now discontinued Acer KA270HK, and it has a shorter, one-year warranty.

We tested the ViewSonic VP3268-4K and the HP Z32 against our upgrade pick, the BenQ PD3200U. While the ViewSonic VP3268-4K scored well in CalMAN testing, it doesn’t offer the same number of useful ports that the BenQ does, and it costs around $70 more.

The HP Z32 had worse scores than both the BenQ and the ViewSonic in our CalMAN testing; with a DeltaE value of 3.55, its ColorChecker score was the worst of all the monitors we’ve tested this year. Although it offers a range of useful ports (including USB-C), it costs more than our upgrade pick.

Acer’s B326HK was a bit disappointing. The color measurements were off significantly, especially the color points DeltaE at 4.26. It’s more expensive than our 32-inch pick, and the image quality is drastically inferior.

The LG 27MU88-W is similar to our pick with an additional USB 3.0 port, but it didn’t perform as well in the past, particularly in grayscale measurements, and costs a lot more.

Dell’s 27-inch UP2718Q is the company’s first 4K monitor with HDR, and Dell did a stellar job with its design, which is beautiful. But at three times the price of our pick, we would recommend the monitor only to someone who is editing HDR content professionally.

The ViewSonic XG2700-4K is color-accurate and has FreeSync, but it costs more than our pick and past testers have found its configuration menu difficult to understand and navigate.

The BenQ BL2711U shares some of its features with our 32-inch pick such as the Eco sensor. But it has visible color irregularities and a high gamma.

We didn’t find many 24-inch 4K monitors during our research, but we did test the LG 24UD58-B against the Dell P2415Q. The LG’s screen was less accurate than the Dell’s by a wide margin, though. This model also has fewer ports (two HDMI ports and one DisplayPort connection), and it offers limited adjustability—it only tilts—compared with the P2415Q monitor, which tilts, rotates, and swivels. And the 24UD58-B comes with only a one-year warranty, less than the P2415Q’s three-year coverage.

Footnotes

1. If you already have a Dell U2718Q, we recommend updating its firmware to version M2B102 or newer by following these steps. We noticed some dealbreaking color inaccuracies in the U2718Q during our testing in December 2017, but the firmware update fixed these issues. To perform the update, you need a Windows PC and a USB-A–to–B cable like the one included with the monitor—Dell doesn’t offer a version of its firmware update installer for macOS or Linux.

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Sources

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1. Yoni Heisler, Netflix 4K streaming on the PC is here, but the hardware requirements are ridiculous, BGR.com, November 28, 2016

2. Ian Paul, Nvidia quietly opens 4K Netflix streaming on GeForce GTX 10-series graphics cards, PCWorld, May 1, 2017

3. Using 4K displays, 5K displays, and Ultra HD TVs with your Mac, Apple Support, July 28, 2017

4. Definition of Dithering, PCMag

5. Geoffrey Morrison, HDMI 2.1: What you need to know, CNET, January 12, 2017

6. Setting the Contrast Control, 2nd Edition, Spears & Munsil

7. Jason Fitzpatrick, The How-To Geek Guide to Cleaning Your LCD Monitor Screen, How-To Geek, August 12, 2013

8. TN Vs. IPS Vs. VA, TN Panel

9. Monitor Setup & Usage, Healthy Computing