LG 5K Display for Mac Pro or Other, Plus Awesome Deal on NEC PA302W
Related: 4K and 5K display, computer display, Mac Pro, NEC, NEC PA302W, NEC professional displays, USB
Update December 2020: for some time now, my LG 5K has had a notable greenish tint which makes it unusable for any color-judgment work. I don’t know what is causing this (some new Apple bug?). It started earlier this year and has persisted for many months.
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Just a quick tip...
I need a 5K display for several reasons. That was built-in to the 2019 iMac 5K, but a 2019 Mac Pro of course has no display built-in.
While the NEC PA302W remains my primary workhorse display, a 5K display is mandatory me; 4K is not acceptable for my purposes, and the 6K Apple Pro Display XDR crapped out on color uniformity issues, though I love the larger usable dimensions (at 2:1 scaling, its 6016 by 3384 resolution “looks like” 3008 X 1692 which is a larger usable area than anything else).
So here are two tips. First, the LG 5K has several flavors whose differences are almost meaningless. Thing is, you can get a 3 year warranty instead of 1 year for $201 less, at least as I write this, as shown—get the LG27MD5KBB.
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A very nice bonus of the LG 5K display is three USB-C ports, a big help on a Mac Pro which has a miserly two USB-A ports and WAY better than the molasses-slow USB 2.0 ports on the Apple Pro Display XDR.
The fabulous NEC PA302W, refurbished
Having damaged my primary NEC PA302W, I needed to replace it. Turns out that the price of a refurbished one is terrific, vs about $2000 new. Thanks to reader Walter K for this tip. I don’t think any panel as good as the NEC PA302W is going to reappear, so I ordered two of them—I count on the PA302W.
- To buy these refurbished displays, you have to use the phone—NEC does not have an online ordering system.
- You’ll want the NEC SpectraView II Display Calibration Software (if you already have a good measurement device), or the NEC Color Sensor and SpectraView II Software Kit.
Update Feb 20: the PA302W sold out a few days after I posted this.
Update Feb 29: this link no longer works, indeed even going to NEC’s main web page is broken the same way as are other links. So the NEC web site is just generally broken as of today.
View refurbished NEC displays...
