1. Quick List
2. Best overall
3. Best for artists
4. Best budget
5. Best for gamers
6. Best luxe
7. Best all rounder
8. Q&A
Picking out one of the best monitors for Mac Studio makes one of the most impressive Macs around even better. Potentially the best Mac on the market thanks to its M2 Max or M2 Ultra chip, the Mac Studio is a force to be reckoned with.
Because of that, it just makes sense to add on the best Mac Studio monitor. Unlike the iMac or the best MacBooks, it’s a standalone desktop with its aluminum cuboid design crying out for a good display to be hooked up.
Below, we’ve picked out a selection of monitors that fit most needs. That includes something to match most budgets. If you’ve already invested in a shiny new Mac Studio M2 Max, but we won’t judge if you want to keep your monitor budget a little lower. All the products below have been thoroughly tested to ensure they deserve an iMore recommendation.
Quick list
An incredible monitor for Mac Studio, the Philips 27B1U7903 truly impressed us when we reviewed it. We were wowed by the monitor’s 4K display and HDR capabilities with the screen providing impressive colors and great contrast. The 27-inch monitor also offers a wide range of connection ports, including Thunderbolt.
The Apple Studio Display is expensive but it’s the go-to monitor choice for Mac Studio. A 27-inch 5K display, it has four ports including three USB-C ports and one Thunderbolt port that can deliver up to 96W of power. It also comes with a 6-speaker array that sounds great along with a 12MP camera at the top, although be aware of its image processing issues at launch.
This quick and responsive 4K monitor might not be super cheap, but if you’re on a budget it’s excellent value. It has a great-looking 31.5-inch curved screen and is a solid choice for gamers with a 165Hz refresh rate and 1ms response time. There’s a 99% sRGB color gamut as well as AMD FreeSync Premium Adaptive-Sync Technology.
The Dough Spectrum 4K is fantastic value for money. You get a 4K 144Hz display that’s gorgeously glossy. The premium display ensures your games look and feel incredibly smooth. It also has an excellent selection of ports too with DisplayPort 1.4, two HDMI 2.1 ports for modern consoles, one USB Type-C, one USB Type-B (USB hub), along with two USB Type-A, and even a 3.5mm audio jack.
If you’re looking for peak brightness and beautiful images, the Apple Pro Display XDR is your 6K stunner. This 32-inch monitor comes in standard and Nano-texture glass options and the choice of different stands. There’s a huge peak brightness of 1600 nits, which is hard to beat. Unfortunately there’s no camera or speaker system here, it’s all about the bright screen.
If you’re looking for a monitor that ticks all of the boxes without costing a small fortune, this LG options is worth considering. It’s a 5K monitor with an impressive 27-inch display and DCI-P3 99% Color Gamut. Spec-wise, you’re getting a great response time and 500 nits of top brightness, as well as a camera, a microphone, built-in speakers and three USB Type-C ports. A fantastic LG monitor that makes an excellent companion for Mac.
Best overall
The Philips 27B1U7903 is a stunning piece of display, and easily the best allround on this list. It’s colorful, with great color accuracy, and its 4K resolution makes it super sharp. 27-inches is the perfect size for productivity without getting to the region of having a TV on your desk, and the stand is good to boot.
The speakers are a bit rubbish and the meny buttons for controlling the on screen display could be better, but those small issues barely make a mark on the luster of this excellent monitor. Well priced, super powered and with great connectivity, no Mac Studio user will regret picking this monitor up.
Best for artists
Lets get one thing out of the way here first — the Apple Studio Display is an expensive monitor. If you’re an artist, however, you’re not going to find much better than the incredible resolution on display here. It features a 5K display, which makes it sharper and more detailed than the other displays on the list, making it perfect for when you need to see every single detail on an image or a drawing.
It doesn’t have the most connection options, although it will connect to your Mac Studio with a USB-C cable, so you won’t have to worry too much. The supply issues that plagued the monitor on its release are all but gone now, however, so you won’t have any issues getting a hold of one.
Best budget
If you don’t mind about the Monitor being 4K, then this Dell is an excellent budget option. It’s less than $400, for a start, making it the cheapest monitor on the list, and you get loads of performance for the money. It’s got a blazing fast refresh rate of up to 165Hz depending on the connection you use on the back, and it’s massive screen has a 1440p resolution that might not make it quite 4K, but does make it a great deal more impressive than the equivalent 1080p display.
You won’t get a thunderbolt port on the back here, so you’ll have to connect over DisplayPort or HDMI, but your Mac Studio has all the ports you’ll need for this one. It does look a little ‘gamery’ as well, but you’ll soon not notice when you give it a try.
Best for gamers
Looking to some gaming on your Mac Studio? Look no further than the Dough Spectrum 27-inch. For the gamers amongst us its got loads of cool features, cheifly its monster 144Hz refresh rate. That’ll make all those games you have running on your Mac run well, and crucially, really smoothly.
The 4K resolution will do you well too, making sure that your games are looking their best behind the glossy screen. That latter part means that you’ll have to make sure that you’re not using the display in a room filled with glare, but if you do, you’ll be in for a high res treat. Connectivity is good too, with loads of ways to plug your Mac in. There’s support for both Nvidia’s Gsync and AMD’s Freesync too, making sure that it’s got all the features a modern gamer needs.
Best luxe
The Apple Pro Display XDR is, put simply, the best looking screen that you can pick up for an Apple machine. It’s designed with content creation in mind, with ridiculous color accuracy and wonderful clarity. It’s 6K, which means that while it might not be quite as detailed and sharp as an 8K display, it’ll wow you more than a 4K display would. And at 32-inches, the differences between it and an 8K display are going to be almost entirely negligible.
All this does come at a price — a big price. The monitor will set you back $4,599. That’s a lot for a monitor, but you’re getting the tippity-toppiest Mac monitor for the price. It’s not a bargain, but if you need the best display ever then you’ll not regret the incredible expense.
Best all rounder
One of the best competitors to the Apple Studio Display here. It’s got that important 5K resolution, and while it might not quite have the metal build and seamless Apple compatibility, it also often comes in a great deal cheaper than the Apple option. This is a proper stunner of a monitor for creators, and will do well for everyone else as well.
There’s a built in camera powered by its thunderbolt port, and there are speakers on the bottom with reasonable sound quality. Most people are going to want to use different speakers, but other than that, this is a top quality monitor for the money.
Q&A
What to look for in a monitor for your Mac Studio
You can always trust iMore.
Our team of Apple experts have years of experience testing all kinds of tech and gadgets, so you can be sure our recommendations and criticisms are accurate and helpful. Find out more about how we test.
You’ve invested a lot into buying the Mac Studio, whether it’s the latest M2 variety or the older Mac Studio M1. One of the main reasons why you’ve been tempted by it over the Mac Mini is likely to be due to how well the Mac Studio’s GPU performs with creative apps like Final Cut Pro, Compressor, Affinity Photo, Boris FX Sapphire 2022, Maxon Cinema 4D, and Blackmagic DaVinci Resolve Studio.
To take advantage of such fantastic raw power, you need to match it with a similarly superior monitor, otherwise you’re just missing out. Here are a few things to consider when picking the best monitor for your Mac Studio:
- Size – this is an obvious one, but the size of a monitor is very important. A larger display will mean more information and content shown on screen, while a smaller display will take up less room, be cheaper, and use less energy
- Resolution – the number of pixels in a display determine how much detail you see and how good the picture is. A 4K monitor is the standard these days. A 5K monitor like the Apple Studio Display will offer twice as much detail while keeping the proportions of macOS just right, but at a cost. You may also want to consider a normal 1080p HD monitor, which will have lower visual fidelity but cost much less.
- Colors – Monitors will offer various color modes that can be used for things like photo and video editing, this is particularly important if you want to undertake visual heavy tasks using your new monitor.
- Ports and connectivity – A monitor will take up one of your Mac Studio’s ports, but the right monitor can actually expand and increase connectivity, with the best options listed here also acting like hubs to add USB connectivity, charging, and more
How we test monitors
All of these Mac Studio monitors have been reviewed by iMore, and we’ve put them through their paces in a number of different ways. A monitor review includes testing in day-to-day use, and viewing in various scenarios to test performance in specific areas. That includes viewing videos, photo and video editing, gaming, and more. We also test these products over an extended period of time to ensure that products are reliable when it comes to durability and build quality, and are designed and built to last.
Does any monitor work with Mac Studio?
The Mac Studio’s HDMI connection is a standard type so it will work with all monitors that have HDMI capabilities. You can also connect the Mac Studio to any Thunderbolt-compatible monitors as well as through DisplayPort.
What is the best resolution for Mac Studio display?
The best resolution for a Mac Studio display is 5120 x 2880.
Can I use MacBook as monitor for Mac Studio?
No, you can’t use a MacBook as a monitor for your Mac Studio.
Lots of screens to go around
Picking out the best monitor for you varies depending on how you plan to use your setup and your budget. Sometimes, it simply comes down to personal preference. That said, we’re confident that all the monitors showcased above are worth considering thanks to their high quality.