Good 27" monitor to connect to late-2010 MacBook Air

December 2, 2014 9:12 AM

Looking for a good 27" monitor to connect to my late-2010 MacBook Air. The Wirecutter's recommendation, however, is nearly three years old, and Apple's Thunderbolt monitor is more than three years old. Are there more recent guides? Or do you have any specific recommendations? P.S. I have to make this purchase before Dec. 31, so I can't wait for some new monitor that won't be available until next year. Thanks!
posted by Conrad Cornelius o'Donald o'Dell to Computers & Internet (11 answers total)

I have an Apple Thunderbolt display at work, and despite being old, it works great. Similarly, I have a Dell display at home (I forget the exact model but it's at least very similar to the Wirecutter recommendation), and it also works very well. I like that the Apple has an integrated Thunderbolt hub which keeps the wiring on my desk much neater. I like that the Dell has a matte screen. The integrated speakers and camera on the Apple display are a bonus, but the speakers aren't that great, so if I had it at home I'd probably still use my external speakers (at work I don't use them for anything except the occasional Hangout, so it's not a big deal).

The only thing I'd hope for from a newer display would be Retina-class resolution, but that's not going to be supported by the Thunderbolt port on a current MacBook Air anyway, so it's kind of a moot point. What are you worried about missing out on by getting an older display model? I don't think there have been major revolutions in the technology in the last three years beyond the super high res "Retina" stuff.
posted by primethyme at 9:20 AM on December 2, 2014

That dell is still a very, very good monitor.

Right now monitors are in a weird place, with 1440p 27" monitors as kind of a half-step between commodity 1080p panels and 4k monitors that aren't quite there yet.

There's also the whole business with Nvidia (G-Sync) and AMD (Freesync) battling out over new tech that puts some GPU logic inside the monitor that draws frames when they're ready, eliminating tearing and dramatically improving gaming. One of the first monitors to come out with this, the ASUS ROG Swift is so popular it's sold out basically everywhere, and is going for hundreds of dollars over the $800 MSRP.
posted by Oktober at 9:22 AM on December 2, 2014

Response by poster: primethyme: "What are you worried about missing out on by getting an older display model?"

Nothing specifically, but I don't follow monitor technology particularly closely, which is why I asked this question. Put another way, if I were buying a cell phone based on three-year-old recommendations, I'd be getting an iPhone 4. While it might be very cheap to get one of those these days, I don't think anyone would reasonably suggest that.
posted by Conrad Cornelius o'Donald o'Dell at 9:45 AM on December 2, 2014

I have the 2012 version Thunderbolt display and still satisfied with it to connect to my 2012 Retina MBP. My gut feeling is that they'll update it soon, but not before the end of the year.

For what it's worth, I've used a few other 27" displays on PCs in the same time and have never been nearly as satisfied with the screen appearance as I am with the Apple, though the top-end Dell Pro, Samsung, or LGs might be close.
posted by a halcyon day at 9:48 AM on December 2, 2014

To be fair, your computer won't drive a 4k monitor, so a lot of the newest tech is lost on you. If I was you, I'd get the dell, and then down the road splurge on a 4k monitor once I had a more capable computer.

Or, you could drop $2500 on one of those new 5k Imacs.
posted by Oktober at 9:52 AM on December 2, 2014

I have both the Thunderbolt (work) and the Dell UltraSharp (home). The Thunderbolt is about $1k and the Dell is about $700. For $300 extra bucks, you get an ethernet port, 3 USB ports, a couple of ports I don't know about, and speakers that work seamlessly. I've had the Thunderbolt for a couple of years -- early on it was wonky but I think Apple has upgraded the firmware and now the ethernet port and USB ports work great. I just got the Dell -- it rotates into a portrait mode. I couldn't get the speakers working initially but I haven't worked that hard to troubleshoot as it hasn't been that important to me.

I think either one is a good choice and the MacBook Air is the best laptop I've ever had.
posted by elmay at 11:25 AM on December 2, 2014

Best answer: An updated version of the Dell was just released a few weeks ago - I would get that.
posted by kickingtheground at 12:16 PM on December 2, 2014

To mostly echo what everyone else is saying, a Dell UltraSharp or HP Z-series monitor would work fine. The Thunderbolt display is nice as it essentially becomes a dock for your laptop - it has its own set of Thunderbolt ports and USB, FireWire, camera, speakers, and Ethernet. There are also these cheap Korean things from Monoprice - they're supposedly pretty decent displays and can be way cheaper than name-brand options, though you have to be careful to get one that has connections you can use. (The real cheap ones just have dual-link DVI only and you then have to get a Mini DisplayPort->dual link DVI converter, and the specific one you need is another $99 or so because just the simple mini DP->DVI one won't do it.)

I personally prefer the HP Z-series over the Dells because the base thingy goes up way higher on the HP than on the Dells I've had. I dunno if that's changed recently - mine is old enough to still be CFL-backlit (i.e. not an LED one). Monitors don't change much, really. The 24" I bought 4 years ago is pretty well the same to the 24" I had for the 4 years prior, other than the new one is actually mine and the old one wasn't.
posted by mrg at 1:03 PM on December 2, 2014

I just did this last month for a client. We got a 27" ASUS (2560x1440) monitor and connected it with a mini-DisplayPort to DisplayPort cable. (Both items came from Amazon.) Works great, total spend was ~$400. (~$330 for the monitor, ~$12 for the cable, plus tax)
posted by Wild_Eep at 1:48 PM on December 2, 2014

Displayport monoprice monitor and a mini displayport to displayport cable. mission complete.

I really don't think that what you get with the more expensive monitors makes them worth it at all, with 4k on the horizon. I wouldn't spend more than that $300~ tbh, and i'd NEVER buy the overpriced apple lightning monitor(or even a used one of the older version)
posted by emptythought at 6:40 PM on December 2, 2014

Response by poster: I wound up getting the Dell UltraSharp U2715H that kickingtheground suggested. It's a huge, gorgeous monitor. The only issue is that my late-2010 MacBook Air seems a bit underpowered for it, so things are slower now than they used to be. But I can't complain about the screen quality!
posted by Conrad Cornelius o'Donald o'Dell at 12:36 PM on January 19, 2015