Macworld
The monitor might be the second-most important part of your Mac’s setup after the Mac, of course–you can’t use any desktop computer without one and even the 16-inch screen on the MacBook Pro feels cramped if you are having a particularly productive morning. Spread your work out by plugging in multiple monitors to your Mac and extending your desktop over a wider space.
Because you’ll spend a lot of time looking at the display, you’ll want to invest wisely. Not only will you want a monitor that provides a pleasing experience, but the quality of the images on the screen can also affect your work.
However, picking a new monitor can be daunting. Not only are there many manufacturers to choose from, but there are also lots of sizes, resolutions, and features to consider—and when we say lots, we mean lots. We’re here to help guide you while you shop, and we have some tips on what to look for in a monitor plus advice on how many monitors each Mac can handle.
Best Mac monitors 2026These are the best desktop Mac monitors we have tested. We round up the best portable displays for Mac separately if you want to take a larger display out on the road or easily store one out of sight when you’re not using it.
We’ve included Apple’s Pro Display XDR and the Apple Studio Display, not because they are necessarily the best choice, but for comparative purposes.
BenQ MA270U or MA270UP – Best budget 4K displayPros
- Great image quality
- More affordable than Apple Studio Display
- Glossy option for more vivid image
- Matte Panel cuts down glare and reflections
- Height-adjustable stand
Cons
- No webcam
Size: 27-inch
Resolution: 4K (3840 x 2160 pixels)
Connections: USB-C (90W PD), 5Gbps USB-C (15W), 2x HDMI 2.0, 2x 5Gbps USB-A, audio mini-jack
Webcam: No
Stand: Height, Tilt, Rotation
Orientation: Landscape and portrait
There are two screen options with this affordable 4K display: matte (MA270U) and glossy (MA270UP). If you want the most vivid radiant picture with deeper blacks and brighter whites, go for the Nano Gloss screen. If you want to banish glare and reflections more so than with the pricey Nano texture glass on the Apple Studio Display, got for Nano Matte.
Some displays sell the stand separately so there’s an additional cost consideration, but that’s not the case here as the stand is included. It offers a great range of adjustment: -5 to 20 degrees of tilt, swivels 15 degrees left or right, and 115 mm of height. The display can also pivot 90 degrees to Portrait mode, a far greater range of motion than the Studio Display.
The MA270U/P can connect to a Mac through HDMI or USB-C. The USB-C connection offers 90 watts of power so it can charge your MacBook at the same time. If you want to use the display as a connection hub, you need to connect to the Mac via USB-C. Its built-in spare USB-C port offers 15W of power output and the USB-A 7.5W. There are two HDMI ports so you can connect to another device for multitasking.
The one thing that’s immediately noticeable with the MA270U/P is its impressive image quality. Colors are full of life and the detail is excellent. One standout aspect of the image quality is how sharp text appears. This is great for production and design work, but it can even make it more enjoyable to read and write.
It offers image quality that could satisfy users in a production environment–that’s one way of saying that its quality is better than what general users usually get. You might be able to find a 27-inch 4K display that’s a little cheaper, but it won’t look this good.–Roman Loyola
Read the full BenQ MA270UP Monitor review.
The 27-inch BenQ MA270U/P provides a very affordable alternative to Apple’s expensive 5K Studio Display. The BenQ 32-inch MA320U is slightly more expensive, but as well as providing a larger screen it produces a brighter display with bolder, crisper colors, although also at 4K. Read our review of the 32-inch Ben-Q MA320U.
Apple Studio Display (2026) – Lovely but very expensive Apple 5KPros
- Handsome design
- Good image quality
- Impressive spatial audio
- Webcam much impproved
- Dual Thunderbolt 5 ports
Cons
- The same panel tech from 2017 (or earlier)
- Webcam and speakers are just serviceable
- Included stand is tilt-only and upgrades are expensive
Size: 27-inch
Resolution: 5K (5120 x 2880 pixels)
Panel: IPS LCD
Connections: Thunderbolt 5 (96W PD), 2x USB-C (10Gbps)
Webcam: 12-megapixel Center Stage camera with Desk View
Stand: Tilt. Height-adjustable stand costs extra $400/£400
Orientation: Landscape; Portrait with VESA mount adapter
As a production display, the Studio Display is still expensive but looks affordable compared to the Apple Studio Display XDR. Buyers will enjoy its handsome design, good image quality, and impressive spatial audio, but you can save a lot of money by going with a non-Apple display.
Apple displays have always produced very good image quality, and the Studio Display continues that tradition. Colors are rich, contrast is good, and the brightness is suitable for most tasks.
The Studio Display has a tilt-adjustable stand, but it does not pivot between landscape and portrait modes—a WESA mount beings you a portrait option with the right monitor arm or stand. You can get a stand that provides about four inches of height adjustment but it doesn’t come cheap. The price tag for the tilt- and height-adjustable stand is a whopping $400/£400 more. That Apple stand on its own is about half the price of a comparable third-party 5K monitor with its own height-adjustable stand, such as the BenQ MA270S, reviewed below.
The Studio Display has six speakers (four force-canceling woofers, and two high-performance tweeters) that sound better than most displays we’ve used but are no match for a decent independent speaker.
There’s nothing wrong with this display. Brightness uniformity is good, and color accuracy is excellent. It’s just an old panel, with poor motion clarity from a slow pixel response and a complete lack of modern expected display properties. It’s 2026, and all but the very cheapest monitors have refresh rates over 60Hz, adaptive refresh, HDR, or all of the above.
For a monitor being sold new in 2026, the Studio Display looks like what a nice $999 5K display should. But it costs $1,000 more than that (with a decent stand), and the addition of the webcam, speakers, and Thunderbolt ports doesn’t make up the difference..–Jason Cross
Read our full Apple Studio Display (2026) review
BenQ MA270S – Excellent Apple Studio alternative 5K Mac displayPros
- Great image and text quality
- Height-adjustable stand is standard
- Excellent connectivity hub
Cons
- No built-in webcam
Size: 27-inch
Resolution: 5K (5120 x 2880 pixels)
Panel: IPS LED
Connections: Thunderbolt 4 (96W PD), 1x Thunderbolt 4, 2x USB-C, 2x USB-A (10Gbps), 2x HDMI
Webcam: No
Stand: Height, Tilt, Swivel
Orientation: Landscape; Portrait
BenQ has been doing a great job with its displays geared towards Mac users. I’ve reviewed the MA270U and the MA270UP (see above) and recommend them. But those 27-inch displays do have one specific feature that may be a no-go for some customers: They are 4K displays, not 5K like the Apple Studio Display. Most people will be fine with 4K, but for others, that’s a deal breaker.
Good news: BenQ now has a 5K offering, the new MA270S. It basically looks the same as the others, except it’s now a direct competitor to the high-resolution Studio Display. More good news: the MA270S lives up to the standard set by its two predecessors, with a great combination of image quality, features, and price. The 70Hz refresh rate might not satisfy gamers but it’s a touch better than most monitors’ 60Hz maximum.
If you’ve been holding out for a 5K 27-inch display, take a look at the BenQ MA270S. It’s a good alternative to the super-expensive Apple Studio Display. If color accuracy is a must-have, BenQ’s PD2730S 5K Designer Monitor (reviewed below) is one of the company’s DesignVue lineup of displays geared towards designers, graphics professionals, video producers, and anyone else who demands color accuracy and consistency, and top-notch image quality.
Read our full BenQ MA270S review
Apple Studio Display XDR – Best no-expense-spared 5K display for MacsPros
- Extreme color accuracy
- Really good built-in webcam
- Very good HDR brightness
Cons
- Costs a fortune
- Speakers are mediocre
Size: 27-inch
Resolution: 5K (5120 x 2880)
Panel: IPS LED
Connections: 2x Thunderbolt 5 (140W PD), 2x USB-C
Webcam: 12MP Center Stage camera with Desk View
Stand: Tilt- and height-adjustable stand
Orientation: Landscape; Portrait with VESA mount
Apple has replaced its 32-inch 6K Pro Display XDR with a new version of its 27-inch 5K Studio Display but with the higher XDR specs.
The XDR version has a mini-LED backlight array with up to 2304 dimming zones that can crank the brightness up to 1000 nits for SDR content and a peak of 2000 nits for HDR content. It supports resolutions up to 120Hz and variable refresh rates, too. (A note on 120Hz support: Macs with M1, M1 Pro, M1 Max, M1 Ultra, M2, and M3 will only drive the display up to 60Hz. You still get HDR and all the other display features, though.)
While both Studio Display models support P3 wide color, the XDR model adds a host of additional color reference modes, including P3 + Adobe RGB, and even DICOM medical imaging.
The webcam is Apple’s 12MP Center Stage camera with Desk View. The image quality is vastly improved on previous Studio Displays. White balance, clarity, resolution, and smoothness are all so much better.
Connected via one of the two Thunderbolt 5 ports, it can charge a MacBook at up to 140W—enough to fast-charge even the top-end 16-inch MacBook Pro.
For well-heeled Mac (and only Mac) users, this is just the display to make your content shine. It should cost a lot less, and should be 32 inches (like the old XDR) instead of 27, but there’s no denying that the color gamut and accuracy are top-notch, HDR picture quality is fantastic, and even the webcam is really good this time.
it’s hard not to criticize the price. At $3,299 it’s three times what it should cost, even for an Apple product. At least the price includes the tilt-and-height adjustable stand, a whopping $400 upgrade for the regular Studio Display.–Jason Cross
Alogic Clarity 6K Touch 32-inch Monitor – Best Mac touchscreen displayPros
- Impressive 6K 60Hz touchscreen
- Adjustable folding stand
Cons
- No webcam
- Hub doesn’t daisy-chain extra displays
Size: 32-inch
Resolution: 6K (6016 x 3384 pixels)
Panel: IPS 8-bit + HiFRC
Connections: USB-C (90W PD), 2x USB-A, 1x USB-B, 2x HDMI, DisplayPort 1.4, audio mini-jack
Webcam: No
Stand: Height, Tilt, Swivel
Orientation: Landscape
The Alogic Clarity 6K Touch offers Mac users a large, premium touchscreen on a dedicated stand that enables the 32-inch screen to tilt down flat for drawing or sketching and can be lifted to a more comfortable upright angle for viewing, much like a drafting board. It creates a sturdy, wobble-free surface for tablet-like stylus use in a downward-angled workspace. It can rotate 360° so that you can share work with colleagues.
The Clarity Touch is a precision, 10-point multitouch, One Glass Solution (OGS) touchscreen that combines the monitor’s protective layer with its input layer via a conductive medium keeps the Clarity Touch’s screen as thin as the other Clarity monitors, while maintaining the monitor’s bright picture.
Touchscreens are useful for artists and video professionals, with many pro tools having accurate touch functionality that beats using a mouse. It’s a more intuitive way to fine-tune levels and effects in photo-editing or music mixing, in applications such as Adobe Lightroom and Audition, and Apple Pro Logic. We did find the touchscreen setup a little fiddly as you have to install drivers for Mac, but once up and running, the operation was smooth.
Alogic had offered the Fold stand as a $219 optional accessory but it is now the default stand for the touchscreen monitor. One drawback is that you can’t adjust it to a portrait orientation without remounting the display.
Mac touchscreen alternatives
Alogic also offers a 27-inch Clarity 5K Touch, two 4K (3840 x 2160 pixels) touchscreen models: the 27-inch Clarity Pro Touch ($1,499, also available with a fold stand) and 32-inch Clarity Max Touch ($1,699). Aside from the lower resolution and price-tag, the only real other difference is the retractable webcam that automatically raises itself from within the monitor when an app requires it, and then auto-retracts when it’s no longer needed. The 5K and 6K Touch monitors lack a built-in webcam, with Alogic instead recommending its own $189 Illuminate USB-C Light Bar with 4K Autofocus Webcam. Read our Alogic Clarity Pro Touch review and Alogic Clarity Max Touch review
Simon Jary
Also new is the appealing Alogic Aspekt 4K Touch (pictured above, from $1,799) that is available with an innovatove and neat Mac mini M4 cradle built into the Omni fold Stand. Read our Alogic Aspekt 4K Touch review. –Simon Jary
Read our full Alogic Clarity 6K Touch 32-inch Monitor review
KTC 27-inch 5K2K Monitor – Best budget 5K Mac displayPros
- Great-value 5K display
- Fine color accuracy and tone
- 2K at 120Hz mode for gamers
Cons
- Not for high-end color professionals
- Basic stand
- No webcam