Dell’s Alienware isn’t exactly the first name in Mac accessories, but its newest monitor looks like a fantastic fit for any discriminating Apple fan who wants the best without spending a fortune.
Announced last month, the 34-inch 3440×1440 curved (1800R) monitor uses Samsung’s latest Quantum Dot OLED tech and is loaded with eye-popping specs, including 1,000 nits of max brightness, 99.3 percent DCI-P3 color coverage, Nvidia’s G-Sync Ultimate hardware, .1ms response time, and 175Hz native refresh rate. It uses DisplayPort 1.4 and HDMI 2.0 as connections and will plug into any M1 Mac.
The resolution isn’t quite as high as the 27-inch LG UltraFine 5K Display that’s available at the Apple Store, but it’s bigger, faster, and brighter than the IPS LED and looks better, too, with slimmer bezels and cable management—all for the same price. Dell announced that the MSRP for the new display will be $1,299 when it launches later this spring, a surprisingly affordable price for such a stacked monitor. The only rub is the keyboard controls on your Mac won’t control the monitor like LG’s UltraFine Mac displays.
Apple is rumored to be launching a mini-LED standalone monitor some time this year, but it will likely still cost upwards of $2,000, if not more. Its most recent consumer monitor, the Apple Thunderbolt Display, cost $999 for a 2560×1440 4K LCD screen when it launched in 2011. The only display Apple still sells is the high-end Pro Display XDR for $4,999.
Rumors have swirled for years that Apple is working on a consumer-level standalone monitor for the Mac mini and MacBook Pro. The latest reports say it will be 27 inches with a mini-LED screen, ProMotion, and a slim-bezel design like the latest MacBook Pro.
Author: Michael Simon, Executive Editor
Michael Simon has been covering Apple since the iPod was the iWalk. His obsession with technology goes back to his first PC—the IBM Thinkpad with the lift-up keyboard for swapping out the drive. He's still waiting for that to come back in style tbh.