{"id":21142,"date":"2020-06-06T07:00:34","date_gmt":"2020-06-06T14:00:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.podfeet.com\/blog\/?p=21142"},"modified":"2020-06-20T16:22:02","modified_gmt":"2020-06-20T23:22:02","slug":"monitor-4k-lg","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.podfeet.com\/blog\/2020\/06\/monitor-4k-lg\/","title":{"rendered":"Choosing a New Hi-Res Monitor – HP, Dell or LG?\u00a0\u2013\u00a0by NuclearJon"},"content":{"rendered":"

Good morning Allison and the NosillaCastaways, this is Jonathan also known as NuclearJon in the Slack and very occasionally the live chat.<\/p>\n

When the quarantine started, like many others, I began working from home. This meant I had to convert my home office that was generally focused on my aging gaming PC to work with my 16 inch MacBook Pro that I use for work. It also meant adding an extra desk for my girlfriend to also work from home. She\u2019s not very into technology so her home computing has mostly been her iPhone and iPad and very occasionally her gaming laptop, so she didn\u2019t have an external display and after a few days of using the laptop on the couch was definitely ready for something more ergonomic. So we needed a new monitor. But what monitor to get\u2026and who gets the new shiny?<\/p>\n

Needless to say, she let me get the new shiny.<\/p>\n

Monitors for Consideration<\/h2>\n

My gaming monitor was the HP Envy 27-inch UHD 4K IPS Monitor with Micro-Edge Bezel and AMD Freesync (Black) (link in show notes) and I really like this monitor. So it wouldn\u2019t take much convincing for me to just grab a second one. This costs $500 on Amazon.<\/p>\n

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\"HP
Jon’s Current HP Envy 27-inch UHD 4K IPS Monitor ($473)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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The top Wirecutter pick for 4K monitors is the HP Z27 27-inch 4K UHD Monitor. This one has some good reviews and I trust The Wirecutter recommendations so this one is definitely in contention. This one costs $539 from HP.<\/p>\n

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\"HP
HP Z27 27-inch 4K UHD Monitor ($539)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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The top Wirecutter pick for 24-inch monitors is the Dell 24 UltraSharp Monitor: U2415 (link in the show notes) Like the HP I trust The Wirecutter reviews and this one is only $339.99<\/strike> $274.99, so it\u2019s in contention.<\/p>\n

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\"Dell
Dell U2415 Monitor ($275)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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Then there were the two from Apple. The LG UltraFine 4K and the LG UltraFine 5K (both linked in the show notes). They are $699.95 and $1299.95 respectively. Since they are sold and supported by Apple directly (or indirectly?) they were definitely in contention.<\/p>\n

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\"LG
LG Ultrafine 4K Monitor ($700)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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\"LG
LG Ultrafine 5K Monitor ($1300)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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Criteria<\/h2>\n

I was going to plunk down several hundred dollars of hard-earned money for a new monitor so I wanted to know that it was going to last for a while even after the quarantine is over. Since I have this fancy new laptop that has the Port of the Future (USB-C and Thunderbolt 3) I wanted a monitor that could take full advantage of that. That is, run power and data over one cable to the laptop. These criteria turned out to be pretty easy, of the monitors on my list only the Dell doesn\u2019t have this option.<\/p>\n

One of the new hobbies I\u2019ve gotten into over the past few months is programming thanks to Programming By Stealth and Bart Busschots and more specifically I\u2019ve been dabbling in iOS programming. There are a few things that I know iOS can do but I can\u2019t find an app that will do them and there aren\u2019t actions in Shortcuts that can do it either, so I set off on an adventure to solve them myself\u2026but that is another show.<\/p>\n

The guys over on ATP (Accidental Tech Podcast) discuss external monitors and their setups for iOS development from time to time so I knew I wanted a monitor that was at least close to Retina so the iOS simulator works properly.<\/p>\n

This turned out to be a more complicated question than I originally thought. When it was originally introduced on the iPhone 4 (yes retina has been around since 2010) it was basically enough pixels that your eye can\u2019t distinguish between them at normal distances. But the actual specification is much more complicated. And I don\u2019t know that I fully understand it. But I finally found a website that could help make sense of this from Marc Edwards<\/a> (again learned from ATP) . This basically narrowed it down to the LG UltraFine displays. I only had to decide how much money I wanted to spend.<\/p>\n

LG 4K vs 5K Comparison<\/h2>\n

Let’s go through the comparison chart from LG.com to see why you might want to choose one over the other.<\/p>\n

Accessories are the same between the two, as are the stand, IO selection, and speakers. There are really only a few differences:<\/p>\n

The 4K is slightly brighter (540cd vs. 500cd). Side note: Cd is the symbol for Candela a unit of Luminous intensity that has been weighted to model the sensitivity of the human eye. One Candela is approximately the light intensity from a single wax candle, hence the name. You can also use the deprecated (but way cooler sounding) CandlePower to express your units of Luminous Intensity. But let’s get back on track.<\/p>\n

The 5K has a higher resolution (a whole extra K), larger screen (an extra 3 inches on the diagonal), and also a built-in Webcam and Microphone which Allison says is pretty good (the webcam at least). On the other hand, it is almost twice the cost.<\/p>\n