I tried to search for premium monitors with a high-refresh rate, but can only find gaming monitors. What is the HN crowd using? Anyone in the same boat as me and solved it for them?
With that said, I've never used any of the "high-refresh rate" ones and also I'm not really sure what is considered a "high-refresh rate" one (above 60?), but here are some I found:
- https://www.benq.com/en-us/monitor/gaming/ex3210u.html
- https://www.benq.com/en-us/monitor/gaming/ex2780q.html
- https://www.benq.com/en-us/monitor/gaming/ex3415r.html
They are labeled "gaming" monitors, but I think that's just because of the high refresh-rate. Not sure if there is any other difference but some features (like AMD FreeSync), why they avoidance of monitors labeled "gaming" specifically, if I may ask?
Personally I use the Benq Designer panels, because the color is more important for me than the refresh-rate, but those don't seem to be available with high refresh-rate.
1. Long bootup time. You are waiting 30 secs to see the ASUS logo and it to initialize.
2. M1 based machines have trouble initializing/re-initializing them after sleep. This is probably a bug in the monitor or maybe the M1 macs. Its annoying when you combine it with the previous issue because to fix this issue you have to switch to a different input or turn the monitor off and on once a day. I have resorted to setting my sleep delay to 3 hours to prevent it going to sleep.
3. The stands are not always the best: things can get wobbly if you are using a cheap table like an Ikea table.
4. The process of changing input can require multiple key presses depending on model.
5. Many of them have super thin bezels(apart from the large ASUS chin at the bottom): looks great but be careful as if you even place the panel gently face down for a second just to wipe the dust off the back you risk cracking the panel(ask me how I know).
6. Terrible speakers (I guess this was a given but i'll throw it in there)
....but they do ship beautiful panels.
On a side note: I am downright fed up with all these "youtube reviewers" never covering any of these quality of life features. I spend hundreds of dollars just to feel like chump when I get stuck with issues like this, none of which are ever discussed on Youtube. I have been burned so many times that I am considering just writing off their opinions altogether. Anyone else starting to feel like that?
I've also got an Macbook Pro and I decided to buy Acer Nitro XV272UKV for my dual setup but I wouldn't recommend them if someone is about to use them next to each other.
Dell and BenQ are the best brands in my experience.
Its only big drawback (preventing me from buying it) is that I occasionally play competitive games, and that monitor has FreeSync but not G-Sync, and I use an Nvidia GPU.
I don't know how they would work on Macs. There are monitors with the exact same specs from multiple manufacturers, and they all seem to use the same Innolux M280DCA-E7B panel. I looked at the equivalent 32" monitors, but a review or two said the 28" ones had less ghosting (AKA 'faster').
I'm 100% satisfied. I wonder when everyone else's ~24" 1080p60 monitors will look old and outdated to me.
For whatever reasons MacOS or the hardware does not perform well unless you using screens that are near or the same PPI as laptop display. Using a 4k monitor will result in some scaling artifacts.
With that said, I know a lot of people who use 4k monitors with their MBPs with no complaint however I also know the reverse who can't stand it. I'm with the latter camp and use a LG5k which is just an OK monitor but everything is crystal clear.
Regardless rtings.com is your friend here they have a pretty decent size review db. fwiw - I wouldn't rule out a monitor just because its a "gaming monitor".
Video seems to rarely go over 30 fps and even more rarely over 60 fps. What else involves fast motion? Rearranging windows and icons?
It has a picture-in-picture mode too, letting you effectively have two monitors for different inputs should you need that.
* Samsung Odyssey Neo G9