Best MacBook Pro Monitor | BenQ PD3225U

[@NaveenSantharam]

Hi John, which would you prefer for photographers and videographers, who uses Mac, MA270U or PD2725U or PD2705U?

[@bearded_fotog]

But, how does this deal with he scaling issue on a 4k compared to a 1440p monitor? Did they fix that since Apple use 4K and 5K for their screen resolutions.

[@jbivphotography]

I'm not sure I'm familiar with a scaling issue. I was able to set in the settings where I would like my scaling to be based on how MacOS handles that and everything looked good to me. Can you give further information on the scaling issue?

[@bearded_fotog]

@@jbivphotography Scaling issues or rather resolution issues with Mac. A 4K monitor resolves over what you find in the Mac Display setup. A 2k monitor resolves at 109/110 PPI (1440P) which helps with the font spacing and less work on the GPU. A 4K monitor will tax the GPU and slow performance to make it readable (scaling). that is why Apple on has 5K and 6K monitors for now so it can match the 220 PPI required for Retina display and the video aspects. Follow this link. kzbin.info/www/bejne/a3m9gGCqm9iEY6M. But my main concern is the performance issue when editing video and photo. Hope I explained that well enough.

[@SXZ-dev]

​@@bearded_fotog This is all a myth, no measurable performance difference exists or should exist between a 4K display rendered as 1080p or a 5K studio display rendering as 1440p it's the exact same scaling operation, it's simply rendering and then halving the resolution in both cases. The only time it gets awkward is if you run a 4K display at 1440p because then MacOS renders it internally at 5K, then halves it to 1440p and then has to figure out how to render that on a 4K display with fractional scaling that's more resource-heavy than simply doubling/halving the resolution That's why you always halve the resolution to get smooth HiDPI on MacOS, you can do this with 4K without issues, simply run it with "looks like 1080p" Absolutely DO NOT get a 2K display, non-retina pictures you get with 1440p displays WILL look less sharp than a 4K display i have both and have tested them myself, the difference is noticeable and if you work with a lot of text it sucks.

[@mcphotographynymariocastro6313]

Hi may I ask which vesa mount you use. Also it's compatible with vesa mount out the box ?

[@carlitogbede]

Hello, what do you think off the PD2700U

[@beszaid9245]

Appreciate the honesty

[@daleclark4160]

Very informative review. I'm now going with Benq. I run a two monitor set up, plus my viewing distance is short, so a 27 inch Benq may be best. The connectivity to Mac is a huge plus for me

[@brothervic9893]

may i know what ergo monitor mount you use?

[@JohnShockey]

Hi John, Besides the high price why did you select the PD model over the SW272U. I like the fact that the PD has Thunderbolt as a Mac user but the Screen to Print feature is nice on the SW model. I'm sold on BenQ but not sure which one to replace my 16 year old monitor.

[@jbivphotography]

For me the PD models were just better for overall use. Since I split my time between photo editing, video editing, and occasional video games (that's the least of my time) I wanted something that could fit all of those needs. Because of this I've always stuck with the PD line of BenQ monitors. I've actually never used an SW line however they look AMAZING in person when I have seen them.

[@Lucamitm]

Hi, do you need a separate device to recalibrate as time goes on ? Like a spyder or the monitor includes that? Do you not feel like its brightness is too low ?

[@jbivphotography]

The brightness was awesome. The biggest thing you have to make sure is that you have the uniformity feature turned off to get the monitors full brightness. I usually never calibrate my BenQ monitors and I’ve always had great success with them throughout their life. However, if you are looking to calibrate I would suggest one of the Spyder devices. They’re great.

[@byjacobfrancois]

what arm are you using on this monitor ?

[@rojankhatri5496]

I have the same question.

[@WIL_FPV]

So my monitor looks pretty dim, like it's only 80 percent of what it's capable of. I use m-book mode. But if I turn on dual view m-book vs m-book it looks much brighter. The question is how to fix it so that it is bright in normal mode?

[@jbivphotography]

So I did some digging into your question and it looks like the option in your settings called "uniformity" might be the culprit. Basically uniformity is making sure that all of the colors are going to be the same across the whole monitor but it does impact the brightness a bit. If you turn that off you should see the full brightness you speak of. I tested it out on my end and I can see that the monitor goes dim if you turn on uniformity. Let me know if this helps you out.

[@WIL_FPV]

@@jbivphotography We won't find out. I returned the monitor to the manufacturer yesterday and bought apple studio. But i do appreciate for your help

[@NewWalls98]

@@WIL_FPV oh really , I wanted Apple Studio as well . Apple need to upgrade the Studio Display with thin bezels and webcam like M1/3 iMac. Maybe easy removable cord.

[@WIL_FPV]

@@NewWalls98 Maybe I’ll change it to XDR, who knows

[@vboi5897]

does this monitor fix the resolution scaling issue?

[@SXZ-dev]

no monitor can do that, it's a MacOS issue, basically to get Retina picture quality you need macOS to display at half the resolution your monitor supports natively, you can get a 4K display and run it at 1080p to get HiDPI retina image quality, or, you can get a 5K display and run it at 1440p But whatver you use, if you want retina quality, you need double native resolution compared to whatever you're setting MacOS to

[@akyhne]

I don't know if Mac fanbois will ever realize, that it's Apple screwing them over. Apple needs to fix this, not the monitor vendors.

[@alexroye1982]

Hello John, which monitor do you prefer and think is the best, this Benq or the Display Studio. and I also wanted to ask you if this is also the best for games or would you go for another

[@photobydrea867]

What monitor arm are you using?

[@clarence-theregularcat7708]

I wish these videos would also adresse the scaling issus when using macs. It seems almost every video falls into a bad dpi range affecting performance.

[@SXZ-dev]

there is no real scaling issue, it's bs, if you run a 4K display at 1080p that's 2x integer scaling, exactly the same as the Studio Display running at 1440p there is no difference. All the "scaling issue" means is that MacOS doesn't do fractional scaling well, so you shouldn't run a 4K display at 1440p, you should run it at half resolution, 1080p. Beyond that it's the same and MacOS supports 4K displays without problems, all the DPI nonsense is because Apple TENDS to make their own displays either 1440p or 5K (double the 1440p resolution) so people presume their graphics are somehow better on displays matching the DPI of Apple's own displays. But this is not really true, the image on a 4K display with 160+ DPI running at 1080p is exactly as sharp as a 5K Studio Display would be running at 1440p and it performs the exact same scaling (half resolution) in both cases. Depends on you really, are you capable of working at 1080p? Are used to 1440p and find 1080p too large? If so get a 5K monitor, if not you don't need to splurge on it

[@christianlonnquist]

What arm do you have for that monitor?

[@Lucamitm]

Do you need to be calibrating it often? Thanks

[@jbivphotography]

I usually don’t and I’ve never had a problem with the colors before.

[@ericshepherdphotography]

Is the BenQ PD2725U Thunderbolt 3 Monitor for Macbook 27" 4K UHD the same as the PD3225U 32 Inch, only difference is the size…???

[@jbivphotography]

Its size and also the new IPS panel. The PD3225U is basically their updated model where as the PD2725U and PD3220U are the old models (to my understanding)

[@falothman]

hi John , I just got this monitor and I'm a little disappointed. There is a red hue on the left and grey on the right. Unless you use uniformity , which ruins contrast and brightness, the hues are visible. Any tips please ? This is an investment for me and I ordered it shipped from the US to my country. Using it currently with M3 Max. Thank you :)

[@jbivphotography]

Oh no! Sorry to hear that. I would get in touch with BenQ support on that one. I’ve used 4 of their different monitors long term now. All PD models and I’ve never had an issue like that. I’m not sure if it could be the computer as I’m on an M1 MAX. I’d be surprised if it was the computer making the issue. Sorry to hear you’re having a hard time with the monitor.

[@malonephotography]

I just bought M2 pro Macbookpro, i am confused about choosing Studio Display or Benq…………😅

[@jbivphotography]

If you want to save yourself some money with great features the BenQ is a great choice

[@johnwhite5202]

@@jbivphotographythey are practically the same price in the uk 😢

[@Lucamitm]

Have you noticed the upgrade from delta 3 to 2 ? Thanks

[@tatianaverbiesen]

What macbook pro are you using? M1 max i heard, but what is the gpu cpu etc. Thnx

[@simpleandsnug]

Great recommendation - will check these monitors out. What laptop are you using by the way? Many thanks :)

[@jbivphotography]

I have the M1 Max MacBook Pro. Looking to upgrade to the Mac Studio at some point.

[@hero3616]

MacOS isn’t designed to work with 4k ppi’s. Either ~110 or ~220 ppi would work the best with macs.

[@akyhne]

Who cares. This is about the best monitor for photography. Besides, PPI has no influence on photography, the way you think it has. PS: Ask Apple to fix their OS.

[@kikiwora]

I am amazed that people still do not know that dozens of apps exist to allow users control brightness of their non-Apple monitors on macOS. MonitorControll, BetterDisplay, Lunar, etc... They even do integrate with macOS UI.

[@Lucamitm]

They increase brightness of a screen?

[@JaiPrakash-uy9dm]

Bro, Use some background music to improve your videos

[@rippedvelvet]

another awesome video! how do you ask your couples if you can bring someone to film your process? i need bts content for my socials and would love to bring a friend to film me, kinda like you do in your bts videos