Which Mac Mini M2 & Monitor To Replace 2010 27” iMac?

[Terminal_Boy]

Got a friend who’s 2010 27” iMac has gone from occasionally twitchy behaviour over the last year to only booting after a ritual sacrifice since Xmas and he’s looking to replace it with a new M2 Mac Mini and a monitor of a similar screen size and quality to that of the old iMac.

iMac spec: 3.2Ghz CPU, 4GB RAM, 1TB HDD, ATI Radeon HD5670. Screen is 2560x1440 QHD.

iMac is a general office/paperwork machine with occasional Light Room 5 hobbyist RAW image processing. Friend is not a gamer.

I’m 99% sure that the M2 Mac Mini with 8GB unified memory and the 512GB SSD with be a big upgrade over the iMac (even if it working well), but am looking Mac Mini fans to confirm this.

I‘m also looking for the best bang for his buck 4K @ 60Hz non-gaming monitor around the same 27” size as the iMac.

Thanks in advance.

 

[GMac11]

I would recommend the Huawei Mateview 28 based on my own experience. It can divide opinion but I'll just outline why I prefer it for my MacBook:

• Super display and has the full 1.07 billion colours - however I personally believe it's 8bit + dithering and not true 10bit although I have seen articles that claim it is true 10bit
• I love the aspect ratio (this is probably the most divisive bit). I read a lot of documents for work so the extra vertical space is an absolute joy to use, I don't think I could ever go back to a 16:9 display
• Display comes factory calibrated and covers sRGB and DCI-p3 colour spaces (make of that what you want). When I'm not working I'm photo editing and it has been great for this also
• Great aesthetics - subjective I know
• Single cable solution for connecting to MacBook with the USB-C port
• 4k @ 60hz as requested
• Excellent value for money - it's regularly on sale for £399 so I definitely wouldn't pay the full £499 unless it's urgent

 

[HACO]

Mateview 28 is decent, we've got a few of them at the office and general users are happy. As @GMac11 says, it goes on sale every month or so for £399 so watch out for that. There are sometimes cashback offers as well so this can sometimes be had for £350 or even less.

However, I suggest at least getting the 16GB MM. While the 8GB would still be a huge upgrade over your current machine, if you intend to keep this for a while then 8GB will become a limiting factor.

 

[random_matt]

16GB minimum.

 

[Raymond Lin]

I would recommend the Huawei Mateview 28 based on my own experience. It can divide opinion but I'll just outline why I prefer it for my MacBook:

• Super display and has the full 1.07 billion colours - however I personally believe it's 8bit + dithering and not true 10bit although I have seen articles that claim it is true 10bit
• I love the aspect ratio (this is probably the most divisive bit). I read a lot of documents for work so the extra vertical space is an absolute joy to use, I don't think I could ever go back to a 16:9 display
• Display comes factory calibrated and covers sRGB and DCI-p3 colour spaces (make of that what you want). When I'm not working I'm photo editing and it has been great for this also
• Great aesthetics - subjective I know
• Single cable solution for connecting to MacBook with the USB-C port
• 4k @ 60hz as requested
• Excellent value for money - it's regularly on sale for £399 so I definitely wouldn't pay the full £499 unless it's urgent

I got this, almost a year ago now. I use it when i have to work from home and it's great. I only paid £350 (after cashback) and is everything you said. It has a very Mac aesthetics to it, 1 cable use. Not a gaming monitor but everything else it's great.

 

[Terminal_Boy]

Thanks all!

 

[Gangster]

I would recommend the Huawei Mateview 28 based on my own experience. It can divide opinion but I'll just outline why I prefer it for my MacBook:

• Super display and has the full 1.07 billion colours - however I personally believe it's 8bit + dithering and not true 10bit although I have seen articles that claim it is true 10bit
• I love the aspect ratio (this is probably the most divisive bit). I read a lot of documents for work so the extra vertical space is an absolute joy to use, I don't think I could ever go back to a 16:9 display
• Display comes factory calibrated and covers sRGB and DCI-p3 colour spaces (make of that what you want). When I'm not working I'm photo editing and it has been great for this also
• Great aesthetics - subjective I know
• Single cable solution for connecting to MacBook with the USB-C port
• 4k @ 60hz as requested
• Excellent value for money - it's regularly on sale for £399 so I definitely wouldn't pay the full £499 unless it's urgent

Curious if it has the same look as the iMac 5k (glass)? and retina like text? Sounds ideal.

 

[HACO]

Curious if it has the same look as the iMac 5k (glass)? and retina like text? Sounds ideal.

No it doesn't come close. Build quality isn't anywhere close to the 5K iMac, and it doesn't have a glass screen, and it's 160ppi rather than 220ppi of retina displays so text is noticeably less sharp. But remember the price tag, you're paying £350-400 instead of £1000+ for true 5K 220ppi screens.

 

[Raymond Lin]

No it doesn't come close. Build quality isn't anywhere close to the 5K iMac, and it doesn't have a glass screen, and it's 160ppi rather than 220ppi of retina displays so text is noticeably less sharp. But remember the price tag, you're paying £350-400 instead of £1000+ for true 5K 220ppi screens.

It's the value for money proposition that makes it attractive, there are other screens i like to get over this at £700 too but at £350...for a productivity monitor i find it hard to beat. Even when I upgrade from it in the future, it makes a great 2nd monitor to the side, with the taller ratio it's even better for that too.

 

[GMac11]

Curious if it has the same look as the iMac 5k (glass)? and retina like text? Sounds ideal.

As others have said, it's more a 'Value-for-money' proposition.

It has a matte display and it's 4k vs the iMac/Studio Display 5k offering.
In an ideal world I would love to have the Studio Display but at almost 4x the cost it is just insane.
Text and UI elements are still pin sharp (to my eyes) at 4k so I'm more than happy with that.
And as I mentioned in my first reply, the form factor is just heaven when it comes to work/productivity.