Some more info:
The UK850 is a 2018 model. The UL850 is latest.
Using with a Mid 2019 MacbookPro 13" is supported to charge, as its only 60W on the LG USB-C/Tbolt port. A 16" MBP requires a rated 96Watt charger and isn’t supported for charging and display. You need to use the provided USB-C cable from LG to work as Apple’s charger cable is not the same. The BL85U has a 3yr warranty (B is for business) and the 27UL850 model has only 1yr warranty (consumer model–otherwise BOTH are identical in specs).
I have the 27BL85U-W (W is Wide) at home on my Windows PC and it is a game changer. I do not use the Freesync feature, but since 1/2019, certain nvidia GPUs now work with Freesync. Who knew! I may need to investigate this further. I have played a few games on it, and since it replaced a Dell 27" Ultrasharp that had CCFL lamps, I’d say big improvement on power use and image. I also have two of these at work, as a dual display for a Dell Optiplex, along with the 2nd feeding from my 13" MacbookPro (Mid-2019) that charges and displays well enough. Its a few menu steps to switch to the input for the MBP, as there is a little “toggle” under the middle of the display front. Also, I had to force my 13" MBP Later 2019 to see the resolution of the LG and it was really disappointing-it was not an automatic sensing-resolution change.
The speakers work well enough for applications, and I use them to test sources and in a pinch, zoom audio out. However, I personally use external amplified speakers, since iTunes and video editing benefit. I always recommend a DAC or amplified external speakers as display companies focus on the display, not the audio quality. Another issue is that in a multi-platform environment, I only have one set of decent speakers at home. So I may either come up with a switchable amp source or move the Monsoon speakers to the PC and use Bluetooth headset, Airplay or Home pod for audio playback of the mac (not the cleanest method but satisfactory and the benefit of remote control from my phone and Siri).
I know we are mostly Mac Users here, but since I’ve come to accept and profess my Windows work is more reliable, stable, cheaper and faster than my Mac workflow, I admit that I prefer the higher resolution on Windows is better than the MacOS X Finder and font display. Matter of fact, I now hate the look of the anti-aliased type on Mac compared to the same font on Windows (using Opentype). (talking outloud- does the Mac finder look dated and rather…toy like?)
I work with Adobe and Microsoft products on both platforms, and keep finding myself using the Windows side more than ever. Blasphemy? Maybe but I look as this as I type and everything has a fuzz to it. Where on LG using Windows, I can fine typefaces without eye strain - it is sharp, as it should be. If anyone at Apple is listening, a serious revamp of the Finder is long overdue.
I was going to purchase another LG for home, to have dual display setup identical to work, and retire the Ultrasharp for repairs/setups/side hustle as my only Mac Mini display (it can’t do 4K res unless I get tbolt to PCI card interface).
Update: And I just backordered a 27BL85U-W from BHPhoto for $429+tax (total $458 w/free shipping)
(note edits for typos)
Apple’s charging cable is fine, but it’s intended for charging. It doesn’t support data beyond USB 2 so you don’t want to use it for anything but charging. You especially don’t want to use it with a dock or a hub setup (like on this monitor) where you have downstream data ports that could have their bandwidth hobbled by using an insuffient pipe on the uplink side.
Instead, use a USB-C cable rated for 3.1 Gen 2 (ideally, Gen 1 will do if you’re not attaching high b/w storage). Doesn’t have to be expensive, even at 100W power rating.
2m / 6.6’ for $14.39 (discounted)
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0874HH4ZZ
1.8m / 6’ for $16
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07Y86RTSH
Both are fine cables. A bit thick perhaps, but they’re high quality, braided to resist damage, and smooth so no sticking or knots.
This one here is the Wirecutter pick. It’s only 1m and it costs $20. They liked it because it’s USB-IF certified.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B072JYDQ7N
Well, actually there’s even a 27UN850-W now. No idea if there’s any real difference compared to the UL850 or the UK850. In terms of price, Amazon clearly makes the UL850 seem most attractive right now.
UN850 $450
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08CVTTNN4
UL850 $397
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07MKT1W65
UK850 $450
Edit: I see the L has 3.0 uplink (Gen 1), whereas the K still had 3.1 (Gen 2) uplink. It’s a moot point though because the downlink are both 3.0 so it’s not like the user could exploit the better uplink. I guess at some point LG realized this waste and opted for the cost saving Gen 1 uplink. The N has Gen 1 too of course. Also, the K supports DP1.2 but it’s DP1.4 on the L and N.
Sadly, you won’t find support for P3 wide color or Apple’s True Tone technology, but the screen is matte, unlike the iMac’s glossy screen, and it features an anti-glare coating.
If you’ll be even thinking about sending anything out for professional printing, I recommend not even thinking about an anti glare matte screen. It will mess up colors.
When I got my MacBook Pro about a million years ago, my husband talked me into buying one with an anti glare matte screen, and they were getting good reviews in the press. Two other people I knew were unhappy with the color, and the very nice sales guy at the Apple store tried to talk me out of it because of the color issues. I should have listened. It does dull colors, and it’s probably the reason why Apple discontinued the feature in subsequent MacBook Pros.
I’ve been following this discussion thinking about how to replace my 5 year old 21" iMac in the not too distant future.
I may be confused, but it appears to me that none of these 3rd party monitors comes close to the resolution of the iMac’s displays.
I’ve been thinking as well about the complaint about iMacs that to upgrade the CPU, say to whatever Mx iMacs come with next year, you have to ‘throw away’ (or repurpose) a perfectly good monitor.
So, my question to knowledgable folks discussing these 3rd party monitors is, is it possible to create a Mac Mini + 3rd party monitor setup that has as good a screen, and is as economical as a comparably spec’ed iMac?
That’s because these are 4K monitors. The 27" iMac comes with a 5K screen.
There are very few 5K monitors and they aren’t cheap. If you go back and check @jcenters’s article, you’ll find a link to the LG 5K display on the Apple Store. It’s $1300. Amazon has them refurbished for $1000.
This 5K screen would work just fine with a Mac mini.
I have an LG display to which I have attached a sound bar. I can control the volume of the sound bar using SoundSource from Rogue Ameoba
Recent iPhones use the wide gamut color space. A wide gamut monitor will cost about $1000. If you have any interest in using the monitor for digital imaging, I think its worth it. I use one of the NEC wide gamut regular def monitors along with the iMac 5K. A matte screen and lower resolution can actually make editing a bit easier. In a dual screen set up, the color calibration is useful to get the two monitors close - but the iMac will always look different due to the glossy screen. I bought mine in 2014 and the price is about $100 less now and the tech is the same.
Thanks Simon.
Apple’s charging cable is fine, but it’s intended for charging. It doesn’t support data beyond USB 2 so you don’t want to use it for anything but charging. You especially don’t want to use it with a dock or a hub setup (like on this monitor) where you have downstream data ports that could have their bandwidth hobbled by using an insuffient pipe on the uplink side.
Instead, use a USB-C cable rated for 3.1 Gen 2 (ideally, Gen 1 will do if you’re not attaching high b/w storage). Doesn’t have to be expensive, even at 100W power rating.
I mentioned this as the issue: I had assumed the Apple cable would do both video and charging; it does not (nor states it-its just a charging cable) as I just willfully connected the Apple cable to the display and nothing. When I used the LG cable, it charged and displayed fine. Just a cavaet to a lesson I learned.
And thanks for the tip on the newest N model. I just needed the L version to have matching displays and that it was $20 less, and has 3yr warranty vs the consumer 850series with 1yr. A comparison of these two models (UL vs UN) shows no differences other than pricing and some terms (enter and compare models on LG’s site).
Tip: Another good site for display comparisons/specs.
But have you seen the nano-texture option iMac 5K screens?
I can’t speak on the Dell P2721Q as I haven’t seen one. Dell monitors have a good reputation, but as I mentioned in my review, I had a shadow develop in my old Dell.
I’m crossing my fingers and hoping I don’t have reliability issues with this LG display, but it’s such a crapshoot. I’ve had a lot of bad luck with LCD TVs because they’re so flimsy and fragile.
I haven’t been near an Apple Store for months before the pandemic began, and I wasn’t aware of this option. I did some searching and found that these could be problems:
- Price — $500 premium over standard glossy display.
- Extra care required — A special cleaning cloth is required to clean the display.
And especially for anyone who proofs for print or any large format media:
- Reduced sharpness — Text isn’t quite as tack sharp as it is on the glossy 5K iMac display.
Yeah, I personally prefer glossy screens. Many people don’t, but I just don’t find the color on matte screens to be anywhere as good.
One thing you should be aware of in order to make an informed purchase decision is that my personal experience with LG Tech Support and Customer Service has been abysmal. On my 2019 65" $3K OLED TV the motherboard had issues and I had to wait weeks for the service provider replaced it with a refurbished “bastard” board for a TV only a few months old whose serial number did not reflect the model number of the TV. My attempts to get a proper board with escalation ultimately failed as I was basically told to live with it since it is working. Earlier on LG indicated it was going to upgrade the software on all C8 model TV’s to be compatible and then after several months of promises they decided not to with no explanation as to why. In my opinion they LG is not a customer focused or customer centered company. Unfortunately, I did have purchase the LG 5K 27" monitor as it was the only completely compatible monitor for the W5700 GPU in my MacPro 2019 Desktop computer, other than Apple’s $5K RDX monitor (plus $1K for the stand), both which support the GPU’s Thunderbolt connection. It has absolutely no controls, not even a power button. At times it acts a bit flakey. Not sure if it is the monitor or the GPU. Thank goodness I chose to get an extended warranty on it. In any case after attempting to get traction from Apple on a watchdog error at shutdown for the last 8 months, Apple is finally going to replace the GPU in attempt to finally fix the issue. If the monitor intermittently still acts flakey, then I will likely have another nightmare on my hands in having to deal with LG tech support again.
If you have two monitors, as I prefer, Big Sur presents a problem because it will support only one monitor from USB ports. The fix is a second one fed from from the HDMI port
@jcenters, according to a comment on @mjtsai’s blog, you might be able to control the LG monitor’s speaker volume from your Mac by installing:
That’s cool, thanks for pointing that out. I’ll have to try it.
Which makes perfect sense. LCD panel manufacturers are making 4K panels in massive quantities for the TV market, so 4K computer displays aren’t very expensive. But 5K displays are only sold for computer use - they are manufactured in smaller quantities and therefore cost more.
End 2016/start 2017 was a big upgrade (and product investment!) time for me.
Firstly, I bought the first 2016 TB3 15MBP, maxed-out with ACare (£4.5K). A lot at the time, and still now IMO.
Secondly, I bought two of the LG UltraFine 5K’s in Mar 2017 – just after the insulation issue on the late 2016 ones was updated (£1748: £874@).
As some may not remember, when Apple released the first TB3 MBPs, they had some flak about users having to upgrade accessories to TB3, so they announced a temporary 1-yr 25% price reduction on all the TB3 accessories they sold. This included the LG 5K display luckily, hence the price for two fell from £1179 to £884 (a nice ~£600 saving on two).
At that price it was a no brainier if wanting extra displays, given Apple’s own TB Display was £900 a few years earlier (same in US$, AFAIR). So for the same money you got 5K text-crisp Retina res P3 gamut displays with built-in speakers, 1080p webcam, 3x USB-C 5Gb ports, 15MBP charging, and (ultra importantly, so no fiddling about with screen joysticks or similar!) seamless Apple integration (inc. sleep).
Sure they were not the prettiest and still aren’t compared to Apple’s own, but they look utilitarian and business-like –which I prefer– rather than cheap and “made for gamers” looks, which I don’t like. The 218ppi was the most important thing to me, as I absolutely wanted them to match Apple’s own Retina quality displays.
The trouble for buyers now in (nearly) 2021 and 4-yrs later, is it being hard to swing ones head around spending the nearly £1.2K full price on EXACTLY THE SAME display (well the current minor rev. B has vanilla USB-C output functionality along with TB3, but still).
If I was looking around, I’d likely get a used/refurbed, and wait it out until the marketplace moves on to new tech. As the seamless Apple integration and 218ppi are absolutely key over anything else for me.
I’d justify it by suspecting there simply won’t be any new offerings for another 2-3 years until UHD 8K (or even 10K, to match the same 20% greater as the 4K vs 5K difference we have now) will arrive.
While understandable due to 5K’s niche over 4K panels, it’s still a real pity that the marketplace (especially Apple!) hasn’t pushed more (prettier, to match Apple aesthetics!) product options out. Apple are clearly completely uninterested in their non-‘super pro’ market to bother.
One has to wonder –given the LG is the only Apple-seamless option that exists– if the next (8K/10K) generation of displays will ever release a fully-seamless Apple-orientated product. Or will the LG 5K be the last one?
Real shame if so for the Apple eco-system of users. 