Understand your displays

Be mindful of optimal resolutions… As well as a screen’s size, consider its pixel dimensions

Apple tends to simplify where connectors are concerned; the original iMac obliterated old-school ports in favour of USB, and the new MacBook Pro has only USB-C/Thunderbolt 3 and a headphone jack. However, Macs have featured various display connectors over the past decade or so, and their different capabilities potentially complicates buying a display.

If you have a new MacBook Pro and the money, go for a Thunderbolt 3 display. They’re pricey, but look great and simplify connectivity – including data for their USB ports – to a single cable. However, you’ll find cheaper options from the likes of Dell, which also tend to offer a larger selection of ports. For example, Dell’s U2715H has HDMI, Mini DisplayPort, and DisplayPort, enabling it to work with a wide range of recent (and not so recent) Macs. You would just have to ensure before buying that your Mac’s capable of driving it – see “What your Mac can do” to the left.

Be mindful of optimal resolutions. As well as a screen’s size, consider its pixel dimensions; if two have a 2560x1440-pixel resolution but one of them is several inches larger than the other, content on the bigger one will appear less sharp since there are fewer pixels per inch. Displays with a high pixel density (Apple calls its own “Retina display”) vastly increase the pixel count, but they are more costly – and need a fairly recent Mac to run them. See apple.co/29ZPMM9 for info.