Nowadays, small cameras and even some mobile phones can capture videos that support 10bit, Log and other specifications, leaving more space for post-processing. After the hardware threshold has been leveled, image creation is no longer the privilege of a few professional teams, and anyone can shoot high-standard materials.
However, as shooting equipment has become lighter, the requirement for screens in post-production work has not disappeared. No matter how good the quality of the screen of a portable notebook is, it is limited by the physical size of more than ten inches. Once the multi-track timeline, color palette and preview window are spread out at the same time, the field of view is a bit cramped, and it is easy to get tired if you stare down for a long time. Therefore, when returning to the desk, connecting an external large-size monitor is still an urgent need for most people to improve post-production efficiency.
But choosing a monitor is not an easy task – although it is easy to fill up the specifications of monitors now, the “certainty” of real vision is difficult to satisfy. Although almost all mainstream monitors emphasize “99% sRGB”, “99% DCI-P3” or “color accuracy ΔE<1.5", as long as you have tried two different screens for post-processing, you will find that even if the parameters are exactly the same, different brands still have visible differences in dark levels, contrast and color trends.
In the professional film and television and pre-press industries, the solution to this problem is to create rigorously controlled environments—complete with hoods, color correctors, and expensive broadcast reference monitors—that are aligned to a unified industry delivery standard. However, this solution has extremely high requirements on the environment and equipment, and does not meet the daily conditions of most individual creators. Especially for creators who work at desks with natural light and whose works are mainly shared online, they spend hours adjusting the tone in front of the monitor and end up on a variety of mobile screens. Rather than copying the strict standards in the laboratory, we actually need a “color benchmark” that is close to the daily viewing environment and can be easily checked between the devices at hand.
In my daily workflow, this “base ruler” is Apple devices. Although using Apple’s color style as a benchmark is not an absolute truth in color science, in the current delivery reality, it is indeed the least error-prone practical decision.
On the one hand, Apple devices account for the highest proportion of time in digital content circulation today, and the color management is relatively standardized and unified; more importantly, using the device that I deal with the most and have the most familiar visual memory as a reference, I can more clearly judge what I want to adjust the picture to, and it is also convenient to check the results at any time between the MacBook, iPad and iPhone that I use daily.
In the past two years, BenQ has launched the MA series for Mac users specifically around this pain point. In addition to maintaining solid basic panel specifications such as high color gamut and high contrast, its biggest feature is that it directly focuses on “Apple color right out of the box” and has done deep software and hardware linkage at the bottom of macOS. This set of ideas that hit the pain points has received quite good reviews in the Mac user circle, and it is the most worry-free partner besides the original screen.
I am also attracted by this feature. After using the 32-inch 4K model MA320U for a long time, I recently added a 27-inch 5K MA270S to my desktop.
After using the two devices in parallel, I have a very intuitive understanding of their differences. The MA320U provides a solid “extension” – it uses one piece to restore the Mac as much as possible. The large, colorful canvas spreads out materials and operation interfaces, allowing you to switch your gaze between large and small screens without feeling fragmented. The newly added MA270S is more like “zooming in on my MacBook”, allowing me to get the same comfortable visual experience as looking directly at the laptop screen on a spacious desktop.
Understand Apple’s color logic
Sometimes it is difficult to explain the differences between monitors using only color gamut and color accuracy numbers, especially those professional-grade monitors that tend to benchmark against industrial-grade specifications. They generally look colder and have tighter dark areas. The entire Apple device system does not rigidly copy industry standards. On the contrary, its color management incorporates a strong tendency of human eye perception. The hair color style of Apple devices is closer to the visual perception under daily natural light. The transition of dark tones is gentle, and it will not be easily blackened or dull. It also strives to maintain visual coherence within the mobile ecosystem from notebooks, tablets to mobile phones. After long-term use, these familiar performances have become my reference for judging photos.
The BenQ MA series places a high priority on display matching with Mac. M-book mode automatically synchronizes with Display Pilot 2’s ICC color configuration, which can match settings to the corresponding Mac model and reduce the look and feel difference between the two screens. For users who are already accustomed to Apple devices, this is much less troublesome than adapting to an unfamiliar display effect.
In addition to the underlying color calibration, the material treatment of the panel surface will also directly affect the final color perception. These two monitors just represent two different orientations. The MA320U uses a matte screen, which is characterized by being able to disperse the reflections caused by ambient light, and is more tolerant of factors such as windows and lights that are not easy to control, without reflections interfering with the line of sight. The MA270S uses a Nano Gloss mirror screen, which is closer to the MacBook Pro screen texture that I am used to.
Nano Gloss doesn’t just make the surface shiny either. It uses a low-reflective coating to retain the transparency of the mirror while also reducing the interference of environmental reflections. It also takes into account the color and contrast stability when viewed from the front and inside the 30° range. Coupled with the native contrast ratio of 2000:1, it attempts to restore and continue the picture level and viewing texture familiar to Mac users as much as possible.
What’s more interesting is that it not only takes into account static color and look and feel alignment, but also takes into account “daily light changes”. Since most people do not create in a closed darkroom, the light in front of the desk is bound to change constantly from day to night, and the smart dimming function of the MA270S can sense changes in ambient light and coordinately adjust the brightness and color temperature of the screen. When it comes to daily film selection, rough editing, and picture and text layout, whether the sun is shining outside the window at noon or the desk lamp is turned on at night, it can maintain the same visual comfort as the MacBook at hand; when it is necessary to fix the light standard for fine editing, you can also turn off the automatic adjustment directly in the software, so that the screen maintains a fixed brightness and color temperature.
From the factory color calibration to the dynamic matching of daily light, the most direct change in actual use is that when the repaired photos are sent to the iPhone for verification, the tone and brightness are closer to what I expected on the big screen. This alignment is not to try to achieve the limit of paper indicators, but to minimize the uncertainty between cross-devices and allow the screen to quietly serve as a non-distracting canvas.
From the “clearness” of 4K to the “delicacy” of 5K
Before discussing 5K, we must first face a very practical consumer question: Do we really need to pay a higher premium for 5K?
Even without looking at the parameters, everyone knows that the 27-inch 5K is definitely denser in pixels than the 32-inch 4K. But the actual situation is that the 32-inch 4K MA320U I have been using is actually high-definition enough at a desktop viewing distance of about half a meter, and pixel particles are almost unnoticeable in daily life. For most daily office work and regular editing, 4K is more than adequate and comfortable.
It’s just that 32-inch 4K like the MA320U brings standard “clearness” – its pixel density crosses the threshold for distinguishing particles with the naked eye, eliminating mosaics and allowing you to see every content clearly on a large and spacious canvas, which is more than enough for efficient productivity expansion. The 27-inch 5K MA270S brings a further level of “delicacy”. In addition to higher pixel density, this has an advantage related to macOS scaling.
On a 4K screen, in order to balance the workspace area and font size, if you choose the HiDPI scaling level of “2560 × 1440”, the system usually needs to use non-integer compromise scaling – first draw a 5120 × 2880 picture at a 2x ratio in the background, and then compress and adapt it to the 4K physical panel through a resampling algorithm. This kind of non-integer mapping in which each horizontal logical point corresponds to about 1.5 physical pixels will inevitably leave a faint trace of resampling softening when rendering the arc turns and fine lines of vector text.
When the 27-inch 5K also selects “2560 × 1440”, it exactly corresponds to the 2 times integer of the 2560 × 1440 logical space. One logical point is exactly represented by a total of 2 × 2 physical pixels, eliminating the need for resampling when the entire desktop is finally adapted to the panel. As a result, the ending of the text strokes and the edges of the icon curve are stretched out more smoothly and naturally. When retouching pictures or examining layout details for a long time, the solidity of the edges goes beyond mere “invisible pixels” and brings a kind of lasting visual stability and comfort.
This is the biggest difference between the two. The MA320U is responsible for using a large space to solve the “clearness” of daily calmness, while the MA270S is responsible for bringing the MacBook’s pure texture and the smooth “delicacy” of native 2x rendering to the desktop.
A native experience connected in one line
Now I use two monitors on my desktop: the 27-inch MA270S is placed in the middle, responsible for main monitoring, text reading, and daily operations; the 32-inch MA320U is placed on one side to assist in spreading the material library or consulting reference documents.
Because the MA270S supports Thunderbolt 4 daisy chain, the connection of this dual-screen desktop is very simple. The MacBook Pro only needs to be connected to the MA270S through a lightning cable to achieve both screen output and reverse charging up to 96W; the MA320U next to it is directly connected in series through the lightning port on the back of the MA270S.
For notebooks, even if two large screens are connected, the daily connection is still only one line. There is no unnecessary plugging and unplugging burden when taking the computer away or returning to the desktop. More importantly, after this cable is connected, the external screen can provide an experience that is almost the same as the MacBook’s native screen in terms of operation logic.
After installing the supporting Display Pilot 2 software, daily settings such as brightness and volume can directly follow the operating habits of Mac. For example, you can directly use the “F1/F2, F11/F12” shortcut keys on the Mac keyboard to adjust the brightness and volume of the monitor, just like when using the MacBook Pro alone. For two screens that light up at the same time on the desktop, the software also allows you to fine-tune the brightness and darkness of the two monitors made of different materials to a benchmark close to the naked eye, then turn on “Brightness Sync”, and then click the shortcut keys to increase or decrease the brightness of the two screens together.
In addition, FocusSync (focus mode synchronization) in the software can also directly bind the monitor’s color mode, low blue light or volume settings to the “focus mode” that comes with macOS. For example, when switching to “work” mode, it will automatically maintain the standard M-book mode, and when switching to daily “reading” or “do not disturb” at night, it will automatically turn on low blue light and lower the volume. With the automatic matching of ICC color profiles, the two screens can automatically respond to the system status from color rendering, scene switching to light and dark control, bridging the gap between third-party peripherals and macOS to the greatest extent.
at last
After using the MA270S for a while, although I have regained the familiar MacBook Pro internal screen experience on the desktop, I still feel that a good 4K monitor is enough to handle most daily tasks, so the MA320U still remains on the desktop as a secondary screen. In actual use, I do prefer the MA270S on the main screen.
This preference is not entirely for image creation. In addition to using the monitor for editing pictures and editing videos, I also spend a lot of time writing manuscripts, browsing the web, and reading articles. The text looks delicate, the tones of the photos are close to what you are familiar with, and you don’t have to readjust when you switch your eyes from the notebook – even if you don’t have imaging work that requires fine processing at hand, these improvements in daily details are easy to perceive. Moreover, BenQ has used its past professional accumulation to make it easy to use directly after plugging in the line, eliminating a lot of debugging steps.
So whether you want to switch from 4K to 5K depends on whether you are dissatisfied with the current screen. If you are satisfied with your current use, there is no need to rush to replace it because “5K is more suitable for Mac”; but if you have always felt that the internal screen of MacBook Pro looks more pleasing to the eye, and hope that this familiar look and feel can be continued after connecting to a large external screen, then MA270S may be the best choice for you now.
