LG’s new 16:18 monitor looks like a multitasking powerhouse | Hacker News Reader

LG’s new 16:18 monitor looks like a multitasking powerhouse

theverge.com

15 pointshariswill11 comments

Has the high-dpi external screens market just died? I haven’t really seen anything that can match iMacs except for the 2 LG Ultrafine that were recently pulled from the Apple store.

Replacements for those LG displays are coming: https://www.macrumors.com/2021/12/16/apple-displays-24-and-2...

Probably timed to the Apple silicon Mac Pros.

Why 16:18? Why not 1:1? Is the shape trademarked by Square or something? Hasselblad used it much earlier, except they called it 6x6.

"Standard" ratio is 16:9, so calling it "16:18" draws attention to the fact that it's the same size as two monitors stacked vertically.

Yeah that makes sense. I wonder if it's actually built as two 16:9 pieces somehow.

Very nice form factor but the DPI is just not there for me. At this resolution and screen size we're talking merely 140PPI. I refuse to work on anything below 200 with 250+ being more in the tolerable range. Fuzzy text bothers me a lot (and no, subpixel aliasing is not the answer to this).

so how much display bandwidth do you think most computers have?

140ppi is fine at 18 inches, isn't it? this isn't a phone you're holding 8" away from your eyes.

MacBooks have between 220 and 250 dpi depending on the model.

Text is noticeably clearer on my Mac than on my external screen (or non Mac laptops)

yes but the Mac laptop screens are built-in, and the signalling to the monitor goes through very special connectors with many more pins than HDMI or DisplayPort. Apple can do things here that others can't, because they design their own hardware.

this external monitor must work with pretty much any HDMI 2 or DisplayPort 1.2 (maybe 1.1) connector AND the device it plugs into must be able to drive it.

this pulls the display bandwidth requirements down to where a "retina"-class display just can't work unless only the very latest DP or HDMI versions are supported, and that would minimize the number of people who could use this monitor.

expecting monitors to be like apple MacBook retina displays because "apple can do it" is overlooking the realities of external monitors.

we'll get there, but we aren't there yet.

An interesting form factor, but these days, anything that makes me adopt a different posture carries the risk of causing neck or back problems, and it might be difficult to evaluate this risk without buying the monitor in the first place.

> and it might be difficult to evaluate this risk without buying the monitor in the first place

Just put one monitor over another and you get the same effect (?)

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