The LG Ultra Fine 4K Display: A Game-Changer for Mac Users

In recent years, Apple has dominated the display market with its sleek and minimalist designs. However, when it comes to sheer performance and features, the LG Ultra Fine 4K Display is a force to be reckoned with. With a price tag of $699, this display is a significant investment, but for Mac users who demand the best, it may just be worth every penny.

One of the standout features of the LG Ultra Fine 4K Display is its power delivery capabilities. While previous models were limited to delivering up to 60 watts of power to your Mac, this latest iteration can deliver up to 85 watts of power. This means that you can charge or recharge your MacBook Pro at full speed, without worrying about running out of juice.

But what really sets the LG Ultra Fine 4K Display apart is its ability to daisy chain using a second Thunderbolt 3 port. This feature allows you to connect multiple devices to the display, including SSDs, 10-Gigabit Ethernet adapters, and audio interfaces, all connected via one cable. This is a game-changer for professionals who need to work with multiple devices at once. For instance, you can connect your MacBook Pro to an external monitor, an SSD, and an audio interface, all connected through the same Thunderbolt 3 port.

The LG Ultra Fine 4K Display also features a second Thunderbolt 3 port on its back, making it easy to daisy chain devices from the display itself. This means that you can connect an eGPU (External Graphics Processing Unit) directly to your Mac, maintaining full performance and rendering capabilities. However, if you're planning to use the display for work or creative projects, make sure to connect the eGPU directly to the display, as daisy chaining through a second Thunderbolt 3 port may affect performance.

Another exciting feature of the LG Ultra Fine 4K Display is its ability to mirror content from your Mac. With an iPad Pro or any other compatible device, you can mirror the screen onto the display, allowing you to use multiple devices simultaneously. For instance, you can connect your 11-inch iPad Pro to the display using a single cable and start working on documents, emails, or presentations on both devices.

The LG Ultra Fine 4K Display also features impressive build quality, with a sturdy metal frame that exudes premium feel. The display itself is glossy, which may be a drawback for some users, but it's worth noting that this is a common feature in many third-party displays. Additionally, the PPI (Pixel Density) of 300 pixels per inch is still extremely sharp and clear, making text reading a breeze.

The LG Ultra Fine 4K Display also supports features like White Color Gamut and Greek Contrast Ratio, which provide excellent color accuracy and deep blacks for an immersive viewing experience. While some may find the glossy finish to be a drawback, the display's performance more than makes up for it.

The question on everyone's mind is: is the LG Ultra Fine 4K Display worth $700? While the price may seem steep at first glance, consider the features and capabilities that this display offers. With its power delivery capabilities, daisy chaining feature, and eGPU connectivity, this display is a serious contender for anyone in need of a high-performance display.

Additionally, with Apple rumored to be stepping back into the display market with a new 6K display later this year, now may not be the best time to invest in a premium display. However, if you're in the market for a display that can handle demanding workloads or creative projects, the LG Ultra Fine 4K Display is an excellent choice.

The LG Ultra Fine 4K Display is available for purchase now and comes with a warranty. With its impressive features, build quality, and performance, it's clear why this display is a top contender in the market. Whether you're a professional, content creator, or just someone who wants the best display for their Mac, the LG Ultra Fine 4K Display is definitely worth considering.

A Word from Sponsor

We'd like to take a moment to thank our sponsor, iFixit, for supporting nine-to-five mac on YouTube. As the creators of the iPhone and MacBook Pro fix kits, they understand the importance of reliable repairs and maintenance. With their all-in-one repair kit, you can easily fix your device and extend its lifespan. Head over to the iFixit website using the link in our description and get your kit today.

Disclaimer: The author is not affiliated with LG or Apple in any way.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enhow's it going folks in this video we review the new 23 point seven inch LG ultra fine display is it worth the $700 asking price check it out thanks for watching nine-to-five Mac be sure to thumbs up click the subscribe button and then enable notifications with the Bell icon so you won't miss any upcoming videos before starting a review let me take a brief moment to thank our sponsor repairing and upgrading your Apple products is easy with iFixit all in one fix kits iphone fix kits have everything you need to replace a cracked screen or a dying battery the kit includes a custom driver steel bits opening tools and more and Mac fix kits let you replace your MacBook Pros battery upgrade the RAM or swap in an SSD both kits include all the parts and tools you need and are backed by an industry leading warranty plus each kit includes a free illustrated step-by-step repair guide to show you the way click the link in the description to get your all-in-one repair kit today and special things to I fix it for sponsoring 905 Mac on YouTube how's it going ladies and gentlemen boys and girls dogs and cats this guy just arrived in the studio so we're gonna unbox it right now and review it this is the new LG ultra fine display which sort of stealth launched alongside the new macbook pro earlier this week and it was definitely overshadowed by that MacBook Pro and by the way that also arrived in the office if you want to see coverage of that leave me a thumbs up let me know in the comments section so this display has a model number of 24 MD 4 KL just in case you're taking notes alright so let's go ahead and get it unboxed here and for the most part even with these displays that are sold at Apple stores the unboxing process is pretty much the same of course you have your accessory box with all your cables and power connections and then you have to display itself and there are some differences between regular LG displays in the display sold in Apple stores under the ultra fine branding we'll talk about that in a little bit ok so let's look inside the accessory box you get a getting started guide to get some regulatory information get this little vessel plate and that can replace the stand to use at their party arm or mounted on the wall etc you also have a USBC cable notice it says MacBook and iPad pro that's interesting and you also have a Thunderbolt 3 cable this is a 2 metre cable it's an active cable and it's a very high quality cable it comes in black like that and then you have this power connector and notice no power brick so normally LG displays come with these massive external power supplies but not the ones designated for Apple stores because the power supply is internal on these models alright so let's proceed with the rest of the unpacking here so we'll take the little protective layer off the stand alright and we have one last little thing to address of course the Energy Star sticker in the upper left hand corner will just remove that like that alright so we're ready to go this is the LG ultra fine display it is a 4k UHD display it's a really clean looking display but you do have that LG logo on the bottom bezel the display stand includes an arm that can pivot up and down about 4.5 inches it also has a fairly large degree of positive tilt and also a little bit of negative tilt as well so this allows you to angle the screen at an ideal viewing angle to meet your needs the monitor head can also move slightly left or right to level it on an uneven desktop working surface so that's super handy you can't however rotate the display of full 90 degrees to view it in portrait mode like you can with some LG displays you also can't rotate the display from side to side from its arm to do that you'd have to move the entire stand on the rear you'll see three USB type-c ports and two two Thunderbolt 3 ports that supports daisy chaining so that's really the big difference with this display we'll talk about that in depth here in a few on the opposite side you'll see a case lot for locking down the display and you'll see this little release latch and this allows you to detach the stand and replace it with that vessel plate that I showed you at the outset alright so let's go ahead and pop that baby back on there and one thing I really appreciate about these displays is just how clean they look they are completely devoid of any buttons there's not so much as a power button on this display in fact the only thing you'll find on the bottom of the housing our speaker ports for the stereo speakers now just like the previous LG ultra fine 4k display there is no webcam you will however find an ambient light sensor to automatically adjust brightness and while the entire display housing is all made of high-quality plastic but plastic nonetheless the base is comprised entirely of metal and that's a good thing because it helps keep the display stable but you will notice that when you raise it all the way to the topic sort of jolts the display it makes the stand hop a little bit even though it's metal and heavy still not heavy enough to keep it totally grounded when raising up the display okay so now let's talk about the biggest differentiating factor when comparing this display to the previous two ultra fine branded displays that Apple sold in stores to them to both three ports not one Thunderbolt 3 port but to whereas the previous LG ultra fine 4k display outright lacked Thunderbolt 3 compatibility and the LG ultra fine 5k display only had one Thunderbolt 3 port this one as you can see has two so that means you can daisy chain using this display it can work as part of the chain so it will allow your MacBook for instance to interface with whatever is connected to that extra Thunder both report on your display but let's not get ahead of ourselves here first of all I want to show you how easy it is to connect to the lg ultra fine display a single Thunderbolt 3 cable to my MacBook Air and look it's connected just like that and ready to go so there's no power button to mess with no you simply connected Thunderbolt 3 cable to your Mac and it powers own it's ready to go just like that and when you disconnect it it powers off you don't have to turn the display off because it does so automatically so this display is a true u HD display with a 3840 by 2160 native resolution in the default resolution is 1920 by 1080 pixel double so you get that super sharp text that Retina displays are known for and the assets home screen will be large enough for you to view at verbal viewing distance now if you hold option and click scaled you'll also be able to choose from a variety of scaled resolutions along with the native 3840 by 2160 UHD resolution just keep in mind that if you choose that the on-screen assets will be really small now let's talk about some other properties it's an IPS panel so you get create viewing angles and the display also supports the p3 wide color gamut as you can see here now if you're upgrading from the 21.5 inch LG ultra fine 4k display you need to keep in mind a couple of things number one this display actually has less resolution it's a true u HD display 3840 by 2160 while the smaller 21.5 inch model featured a native resolution of 4096 by 2304 so that means that the old display actually had a higher ppi so that means that tax is gonna look slightly sharper on the old display when compared to the new one but I think it's almost to the point of diminishing returns it's sharp enough for me now because these displays are devoid of any buttons there's Mac OS integration which I love that allows you to adjust brightness just like you would with the internal display on your Mac can you can adjust sound the same way just like that it is so nice not to have to finagle with these buttons and clunky menus just to adjust brightness or volume this is such an underrated feature in my opinion and if you own a MacBook Pro a touch bar it's even cooler because you can adjust the brightness not only for the internal display but also for the external display just like that and as mentioned earlier there is a built-in ambient light sensor that will automatically adjust brightness based on your environment and if the Mac you're connecting to supports true tone it will automatically adjust the white balance on the external display along with the internal display really cool now one big difference between this display in the old 21.5 inch LG ultra-fine 4k display is power delivery that display was only capable of delivering up to 60 watts of power to your Mac while this one delivers up to 85 watts of power to recharge or 15-inch MacBook Pro at b-but again let's talk about perhaps the most compelling thing about this $699 display and that is the ability to daisy chain using that second Thunderbolt 3 port so you can connect to it an SSD 10 Gigabit Ethernet adapter an audio interface all connected via Thunderbolt 3 and that's something that the previous LG ultra fine displays were not capable of doing so with one cable I can connect to this display and it automatically connects to my audio interface or automatically to my SSD or even a second LG ultra fine display so in this example I connect to the display with a single cable and I instantly have access to all the files on my Thunderbolt 3 SSD now all that being said one thing you don't want a daisy chained to your display is an e GPU like this you want to make sure an e GPU is directly connected to your mat for the best performance the great thing about the Blackmagic EGP you lineup is that they include a second Thunderbolt 3 port so you can daisy chain from the e GPU and maintain full performance now remember this little guy we talked about at the outset this is for connecting a 12 inch MacBook or an iPad pro directly to the display just like this so here is my 11 inch iPad pro with the screen mirrored to the lg ultra fine display now admittedly if functionality at least right now in iOS is limited but it can still be useful here I have a Bluetooth keyboard connected to my iPad pro and now I'm able to type just like them and type in on a desktop almost I think iOS 13 will go a long way towards improving this functionality but even right now you can see the integration is there for instance we go to the Settings app here under display and brightness when I connect the LG ultrafine display it recognizes it here and that allows me to adjust the brightness right there from within iOS so you can see it mirrors tap that and now I can adjust the brightness just by using the little slider here so let's go ahead and adjust it now pretty cool in some apps have the ability to extend your working area so here with iMovie this really shows the potential of connecting an iPad to an external display again limited functionality right now but I think iOS 13 is really gonna open up the floodgates as far as professional workflows are concerned so watch this I press this button I extend the working area so now I have a full screen viewer on the external display and I can go and still edit on my iPad this is really cool I really kind of just shows the potential or at least hints at the potential of such a set up so is the new LG ultra fine display worth $700 that's the question given the build quality in the PPI I do think it is a little bit overpriced but having that second Thunderbolt 3 cable means a lot and if you're a Mac user to be honest this is the best 4k display out there not only does it have great Mac OS integration not only will it power your MacBook Pro at full speed not only does it have that second Thunderbolt 3 port for daisy-chaining but I think it looks pretty good as well no you definitely won't mistake it for an apple design display and the build quality can admittedly be sometimes questionable but to me it looks better than 99% of third party offerings it has Greek contrast ratio supports white color and even though the PPI isn't as good as the outgoing model text is still really sharp now bear in mind this is a glossy display just like all the other LG Ultra finds unlike the iMac in the MacBook lineup so you'll have to be able to put up with that the rumor has it that Apple will be stepping back into the display business this year with a new 6k display now you can expect that to be crazy from a technological standpoint and also crazy from a price standpoint so if you're in the market for a display right now you don't want to break the bank you know apples display is gonna cost a fortune probably I think this is a solid option and I think 24 inches is sort of the sweet spot for 4k what do you guys think let me know down below in the comments section and please stay tuned for a brief word from sponsor this is Jeff with nine-to-five Mack special things to iFixit creator of the iPhone fix kits and MacBook Pro fix kits for sponsoring nine-to-five mac on youtube head over to i fix it using the link in the description and get your all-in-one repair kit todayhow's it going folks in this video we review the new 23 point seven inch LG ultra fine display is it worth the $700 asking price check it out thanks for watching nine-to-five Mac be sure to thumbs up click the subscribe button and then enable notifications with the Bell icon so you won't miss any upcoming videos before starting a review let me take a brief moment to thank our sponsor repairing and upgrading your Apple products is easy with iFixit all in one fix kits iphone fix kits have everything you need to replace a cracked screen or a dying battery the kit includes a custom driver steel bits opening tools and more and Mac fix kits let you replace your MacBook Pros battery upgrade the RAM or swap in an SSD both kits include all the parts and tools you need and are backed by an industry leading warranty plus each kit includes a free illustrated step-by-step repair guide to show you the way click the link in the description to get your all-in-one repair kit today and special things to I fix it for sponsoring 905 Mac on YouTube how's it going ladies and gentlemen boys and girls dogs and cats this guy just arrived in the studio so we're gonna unbox it right now and review it this is the new LG ultra fine display which sort of stealth launched alongside the new macbook pro earlier this week and it was definitely overshadowed by that MacBook Pro and by the way that also arrived in the office if you want to see coverage of that leave me a thumbs up let me know in the comments section so this display has a model number of 24 MD 4 KL just in case you're taking notes alright so let's go ahead and get it unboxed here and for the most part even with these displays that are sold at Apple stores the unboxing process is pretty much the same of course you have your accessory box with all your cables and power connections and then you have to display itself and there are some differences between regular LG displays in the display sold in Apple stores under the ultra fine branding we'll talk about that in a little bit ok so let's look inside the accessory box you get a getting started guide to get some regulatory information get this little vessel plate and that can replace the stand to use at their party arm or mounted on the wall etc you also have a USBC cable notice it says MacBook and iPad pro that's interesting and you also have a Thunderbolt 3 cable this is a 2 metre cable it's an active cable and it's a very high quality cable it comes in black like that and then you have this power connector and notice no power brick so normally LG displays come with these massive external power supplies but not the ones designated for Apple stores because the power supply is internal on these models alright so let's proceed with the rest of the unpacking here so we'll take the little protective layer off the stand alright and we have one last little thing to address of course the Energy Star sticker in the upper left hand corner will just remove that like that alright so we're ready to go this is the LG ultra fine display it is a 4k UHD display it's a really clean looking display but you do have that LG logo on the bottom bezel the display stand includes an arm that can pivot up and down about 4.5 inches it also has a fairly large degree of positive tilt and also a little bit of negative tilt as well so this allows you to angle the screen at an ideal viewing angle to meet your needs the monitor head can also move slightly left or right to level it on an uneven desktop working surface so that's super handy you can't however rotate the display of full 90 degrees to view it in portrait mode like you can with some LG displays you also can't rotate the display from side to side from its arm to do that you'd have to move the entire stand on the rear you'll see three USB type-c ports and two two Thunderbolt 3 ports that supports daisy chaining so that's really the big difference with this display we'll talk about that in depth here in a few on the opposite side you'll see a case lot for locking down the display and you'll see this little release latch and this allows you to detach the stand and replace it with that vessel plate that I showed you at the outset alright so let's go ahead and pop that baby back on there and one thing I really appreciate about these displays is just how clean they look they are completely devoid of any buttons there's not so much as a power button on this display in fact the only thing you'll find on the bottom of the housing our speaker ports for the stereo speakers now just like the previous LG ultra fine 4k display there is no webcam you will however find an ambient light sensor to automatically adjust brightness and while the entire display housing is all made of high-quality plastic but plastic nonetheless the base is comprised entirely of metal and that's a good thing because it helps keep the display stable but you will notice that when you raise it all the way to the topic sort of jolts the display it makes the stand hop a little bit even though it's metal and heavy still not heavy enough to keep it totally grounded when raising up the display okay so now let's talk about the biggest differentiating factor when comparing this display to the previous two ultra fine branded displays that Apple sold in stores to them to both three ports not one Thunderbolt 3 port but to whereas the previous LG ultra fine 4k display outright lacked Thunderbolt 3 compatibility and the LG ultra fine 5k display only had one Thunderbolt 3 port this one as you can see has two so that means you can daisy chain using this display it can work as part of the chain so it will allow your MacBook for instance to interface with whatever is connected to that extra Thunder both report on your display but let's not get ahead of ourselves here first of all I want to show you how easy it is to connect to the lg ultra fine display a single Thunderbolt 3 cable to my MacBook Air and look it's connected just like that and ready to go so there's no power button to mess with no you simply connected Thunderbolt 3 cable to your Mac and it powers own it's ready to go just like that and when you disconnect it it powers off you don't have to turn the display off because it does so automatically so this display is a true u HD display with a 3840 by 2160 native resolution in the default resolution is 1920 by 1080 pixel double so you get that super sharp text that Retina displays are known for and the assets home screen will be large enough for you to view at verbal viewing distance now if you hold option and click scaled you'll also be able to choose from a variety of scaled resolutions along with the native 3840 by 2160 UHD resolution just keep in mind that if you choose that the on-screen assets will be really small now let's talk about some other properties it's an IPS panel so you get create viewing angles and the display also supports the p3 wide color gamut as you can see here now if you're upgrading from the 21.5 inch LG ultra fine 4k display you need to keep in mind a couple of things number one this display actually has less resolution it's a true u HD display 3840 by 2160 while the smaller 21.5 inch model featured a native resolution of 4096 by 2304 so that means that the old display actually had a higher ppi so that means that tax is gonna look slightly sharper on the old display when compared to the new one but I think it's almost to the point of diminishing returns it's sharp enough for me now because these displays are devoid of any buttons there's Mac OS integration which I love that allows you to adjust brightness just like you would with the internal display on your Mac can you can adjust sound the same way just like that it is so nice not to have to finagle with these buttons and clunky menus just to adjust brightness or volume this is such an underrated feature in my opinion and if you own a MacBook Pro a touch bar it's even cooler because you can adjust the brightness not only for the internal display but also for the external display just like that and as mentioned earlier there is a built-in ambient light sensor that will automatically adjust brightness based on your environment and if the Mac you're connecting to supports true tone it will automatically adjust the white balance on the external display along with the internal display really cool now one big difference between this display in the old 21.5 inch LG ultra-fine 4k display is power delivery that display was only capable of delivering up to 60 watts of power to your Mac while this one delivers up to 85 watts of power to recharge or 15-inch MacBook Pro at b-but again let's talk about perhaps the most compelling thing about this $699 display and that is the ability to daisy chain using that second Thunderbolt 3 port so you can connect to it an SSD 10 Gigabit Ethernet adapter an audio interface all connected via Thunderbolt 3 and that's something that the previous LG ultra fine displays were not capable of doing so with one cable I can connect to this display and it automatically connects to my audio interface or automatically to my SSD or even a second LG ultra fine display so in this example I connect to the display with a single cable and I instantly have access to all the files on my Thunderbolt 3 SSD now all that being said one thing you don't want a daisy chained to your display is an e GPU like this you want to make sure an e GPU is directly connected to your mat for the best performance the great thing about the Blackmagic EGP you lineup is that they include a second Thunderbolt 3 port so you can daisy chain from the e GPU and maintain full performance now remember this little guy we talked about at the outset this is for connecting a 12 inch MacBook or an iPad pro directly to the display just like this so here is my 11 inch iPad pro with the screen mirrored to the lg ultra fine display now admittedly if functionality at least right now in iOS is limited but it can still be useful here I have a Bluetooth keyboard connected to my iPad pro and now I'm able to type just like them and type in on a desktop almost I think iOS 13 will go a long way towards improving this functionality but even right now you can see the integration is there for instance we go to the Settings app here under display and brightness when I connect the LG ultrafine display it recognizes it here and that allows me to adjust the brightness right there from within iOS so you can see it mirrors tap that and now I can adjust the brightness just by using the little slider here so let's go ahead and adjust it now pretty cool in some apps have the ability to extend your working area so here with iMovie this really shows the potential of connecting an iPad to an external display again limited functionality right now but I think iOS 13 is really gonna open up the floodgates as far as professional workflows are concerned so watch this I press this button I extend the working area so now I have a full screen viewer on the external display and I can go and still edit on my iPad this is really cool I really kind of just shows the potential or at least hints at the potential of such a set up so is the new LG ultra fine display worth $700 that's the question given the build quality in the PPI I do think it is a little bit overpriced but having that second Thunderbolt 3 cable means a lot and if you're a Mac user to be honest this is the best 4k display out there not only does it have great Mac OS integration not only will it power your MacBook Pro at full speed not only does it have that second Thunderbolt 3 port for daisy-chaining but I think it looks pretty good as well no you definitely won't mistake it for an apple design display and the build quality can admittedly be sometimes questionable but to me it looks better than 99% of third party offerings it has Greek contrast ratio supports white color and even though the PPI isn't as good as the outgoing model text is still really sharp now bear in mind this is a glossy display just like all the other LG Ultra finds unlike the iMac in the MacBook lineup so you'll have to be able to put up with that the rumor has it that Apple will be stepping back into the display business this year with a new 6k display now you can expect that to be crazy from a technological standpoint and also crazy from a price standpoint so if you're in the market for a display right now you don't want to break the bank you know apples display is gonna cost a fortune probably I think this is a solid option and I think 24 inches is sort of the sweet spot for 4k what do you guys think let me know down below in the comments section and please stay tuned for a brief word from sponsor this is Jeff with nine-to-five Mack special things to iFixit creator of the iPhone fix kits and MacBook Pro fix kits for sponsoring nine-to-five mac on youtube head over to i fix it using the link in the description and get your all-in-one repair kit today\n"