Comment by tshaddox | Hacker News Reader

Comment by tshaddox | Hacker News Reader

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I bought that original 5k iMac on release day in 2014. I was thrilled with that display, and stoked to see the entire display industry go the route of true quadruple-resolution just like smartphone displays did.

Sadly, it basically never happened. There was the LG display that came out a couple of years later. It didn't have great reviews, and it was like two thirds the cost of an entire 5k iMac.

It took Apple over 7 years to release their standalone 5k display, and there are a few other true 5k displays (1440p screen real estate with quadruple-resolution, not the ultrawide 2160p displays branded as "5k") on the market now with prices just starting to drop below 1,000 USD.

Unfortunately in that time I've gotten used to the screen real estate of the ultrawide 1440p monitors (which are now ubiquitous, and hitting ridiculous sub-$300 prices). As of now, my perfect display for office work (gaming, video/photo work, or heavy media playback are different topics) would be 21:9 with 1440p screen real estate with quadruple-resolution—essentially just a wider version of that original 5k iMac display.

I bought an LG Ultrafine 5k at the time and felt kind of stupid for being spending on it. But nearly 10 years later... its still my daily driver. Best ROI of any tech equipment I've bought. It changed my mind about how to think about it, not just the monitor, but having speaker / camera / mac built in, and all over one cable, its been such a joy when I bounce around the house to be able to plugin / unplug so easily; or when I swap from work to personal laptop. Its such a simple setup. Im definitely considering the Apple one, basically regardless of what it costs, once its time. Its simply been too convenient to have a one-plug solution for the laptop that has everything I need, never breaks (my LG may be exception here lol), and that has somehow taken forever to be super ceded by something better.

Only thing that holds back that thought lately is, I'm suddenly spending more and more time in multi-pane terminals, and my screen real estate needs have dropped. The only two things I greatly miss now on my laptop is keyboard quality and general comfort (monitor height, etc).

The iMac Pro is nearly 9 years old at this point. At the time, there was no other option for a retina-quality 27" display, but you could get a 4k 27" for $400.

A decade later, it boggles my mind that it's so hard to find a retina-class desktop monitor. The successor to the Cinema Display is basically an iMac, and priced like it. There have very recently been releases from ASUS and BenQ, but it still feels like an underserved niche, rather than standard expectation.

All that is to say: hard cosign.

You can get a 27 inch 5k from Asus for $750. A 31.5 inch 6K goes for around $1200. A 28 inch 4K is around $350-$400.

Anyone reading this I am begging to please thoroughly test anything that comes out of ASUS before committing. Maybe only purchase with a generous return policy and possibly insurance. They are decent panels but everything around the panel is horrendous. Random connection errors with different machines, poor UX for switching inputs, takes a millenium to boot up and connect to the screen, forget about any support, if you have built in speakers you'd be better off with a tin can connected to your computer.

You get what you pay for with ASUS.

I’ve frankly have had worse experience with Samsung and better experiences with LG. The model I have is pretty bare bones, which is much better than the Samsung 27 inch 5k I had that just died on me after a couple of years. The LG 28 inch 4k is going on its 6th year. I think if I buy a 6K, I’ll wait for the LG to come down in price a bit ($2k for LG vs $1300 for Asus on Amazon).

They all suck in their own ways. In my experience LG, has random hardware failures (like one audio channel just dying how? I dont know), still kinda slow booting but this has gotten better, and their designs can be hit or miss(terrible stands, aesthetics are not ergonomic enough etc.). Samsung has been better for me but suffers from variations of the above.

These brands all have glowing fans online pushing their products(the flamewars about ASUS made me even hesitate to comment) but they burn their reputations customer by customer and I guess enough have been burned that Apple is able to maintain enough sales.

It was also really disappointing to see 24" 4k displays disappear from the market instead of becoming the new standard resolution for that size. A few years ago, there were several options including a cheap LG that was usually around $300 or less. Those all seem to be gone, likely for good, even though there are still plenty of 24" displays with 1080p and even a fair number with 1440p.

I've been very pleased with my ViewSonic VP2488-4K. A little steep for $550, but if you spend any significant time in front of the screen I think it's very much worth it. I'm planning to buy a second one.

Indeed. I’m holding on to my 24” Dell P2415Q that I got like 10 years ago because it’s the perfect size for my desk and there just isn’t anything in that size to replace it with.

The LG UltraFine's were garbage, but got better over time as either the firmware improved or macOS added drivers that worked around the nonsense. For a while I ran with two of them on an iMac Pro with a 5K itself, but switched to a single Pro Display XDR with a laptop eventually. I'm very sad to see the 6K/32" form disappear, it's by far the best screen I've ever used.

Asus ProArt Display 6K PA32QCV

Since about six months ago, 4th quarter of 2025.

I haven't got one yet, but it has the magic Mac 218 dpi for $1289

The entire monitor market is completely dominated by televisions and it's really, really obvious.

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