In fact, I was surprised to see better image resolution on this monitor than on my iMac. This makes text much easier to read, without, as far as I can tell, damaging image quality. However, it defaults to Retina Display behavior which means that it changes the screen resolution to 144 ppt, then pixel doubles a 1920 x 1080 image. The total image area is 3840 x 2160 pixels, which equals a UHD display. Scrolling the mouse from one monitor to the other is flawless. System Preferences > Display > Arrangement makes it easy to indicate the physical position of the monitor. NOTE: One of my favorites is “Return to Initial Settings” which allows you to recover in the event you’ve so totally confused this monitor that nothing looks right. There are several controls you can adjust to make this look the way you want. Your sense of color may be different than mine, which is fine. The default settings at power on are pretty near perfect, I just turned the brightness down a bit because my editing suite is pretty dim.
The power switch is located on the underside of the case, immediately under the LG logo.
When you first turn your Mac on, the monitor does not turn on.
I plan to use this as a display, not a piece of furniture. The stand is silver and feels like a heavy-duty plastic. The case is plastic, but doesn’t feel “cheap.” The front of the display is edge-to-edge glass, with 1/4″ black edges. Fortunately, the monitor makes lovely pictures. Well, truthfully, the world’s most beautiful bezel and stand is pretty useless if the monitor doesn’t make good images.
No driver or other software installation is needed. On power up, the monitor automatically figures out which one is connected. There are two HDMI ports on the back of the monitor. Best Buy had three different versions priced from $45 to $69. iMacs require a converter from Thunderbolt 3/USB C to HDMI.
One for DisplayPort and the other a traditional HDMI cable. However, even though the printed instructions are cryptic, you won’t have any problems assembling this. You’ll need a Philips screwdriver to attach the stand. The entire process took 15 minutes I timed it. Website: Model: 27″ 4K UHD IPS LED Monitor (27UL600-W)Īssembly required attaching the stand and connecting the HDMI and power cables. The only disadvantages to this monitor is that it connects via HDMI, which requires a converter cable for all iMacs, and all adjustments are made using a multi-purpose toggle switch at the bottom center of the bezel. However, when powered on, the stand essentially recedes into invisibility, so that all you are looking at is a lovely image. While stable, the stand makes it awkward for the monitor to share space with other devices on a desk. The stand is both curved and wide, running about 2/3 the width of the entire display. There was no comparison, the LG had richer colors, deeper blacks and crisper detail. NOTE: I compared this monitor to seven others that Best Buy had on display. It was right on, no adjustments were needed. In fact, I ran the Apple Display calibration software when I first connected the display. Colors are clean, resolution is crisp, the image holds up extremely well, even when compared to the 27″ iMac it is sitting next to.
NOTE: In the interest of disclosure, this monitor was not a loaner. After extensive online research it came down to the Apple / LG UltraFine 4K Display, sold by Apple, and the LG 27″ UHD 4K Display sold by a variety of outlets. Larry, if you did use for instance this adapter , you could still use your Cinema LED Display. NOTE: After this article was published, Sjoerd told me: While it still worked perfectly after all these many years, it did not work with my Thunderbolt 3 iMac. But, not for my trusty Apple Cinema Display. When I upgraded my computer from a 2013 iMac to a 2017 27″ iMac, I also made the change from Thunderbolt 2 to Thunderbolt 3.įor all my external storage, a TB 3 to TB 2 adapter solved the problem.