Best monitors for Mac mini: budget visual heavyweights for the smallest Mac

If you've acquired an M4 Mac mini, you probably want a display to match. Here are the best monitors for the Mac mini that you should be looking at to go with your new hardware.

The Mac mini is an ideal device if you're switching over from PC, but it's also a great workhorse for Mac traditionalists. However, while it's a very capable device, you do have to supply your own display.

If you're switching, you've obviously got one at hand, but it may be too old or too low-resolution for modern computing needs. If it's for a brand-new setup, a monitor's a must-buy.

However, since you've gone to the trouble of getting a great value and lowest-cost Mac Apple sells, you won't necessarily want to blow the bank on the display. With options easily ramping up in price, it can be daunting to get the right one.

What follows are AppleInsider's recommendations for budget-friendly displays to go with your wallet-pleasing Mac mini purchase. The best bang for your buck in terms of visuals.

Best Mac mini monitor for tight budgets - Acer KB272 EBI 27-inch

If you want a low-cost monitor to save on cost, or you fancy using two monitors, consider the Acer KB272 EBI. It's a display with a 27-inch IPS panel, making it large enough to be easily seen by most users.

Acer KB272 EBI 27-inch - Image credit: Acer

It has a 1080p resolution, complete with a refresh rate of 100Hz, as well as a 1ms response time for gaming and 250 nits of brightness. Ports consist of a single HDMI 1.4 port and a VGA connection.

It has a stand with a tilt range between -5 degrees and 15 degrees. If needed, you can also use it with a standard 100mm VESA mount.

Buy on Amazon

The Acer KB272 EBI doesn't have the fancy bells and whistles of other more expensive monitors. But, at $99.99 on Amazon, it does the job at a very cheap price.

Best portable Mac mini monitor - Asus ZenScreen 15.6

While the Mac mini isn't really designed to be carried around between workplaces, the small size makes it entirely possible to do. To go with that, you'll need a display that's equally as portable.

The Asus ZenScreen 15.6-inch Portable USB Monitor is, as the name describes, one such option. Rather than being a larger display, you instead have a smaller screen that can fold up flat for easy transportation.

Asus ZenScreen 15.6-inch Portable USB Monitorn- Image credit: Asus

Its 15.6-inch screen is anti-glare with an IPS panel, with its 1080p resolution being usable on such a small scale. The screen is also certified to be flicker-free and uses low blue light technologies to aid with eye fatigue.

Buy on Amazon

The screen plugs in using USB-C and uses DisplayPort Alt Mode to run off a host Mac, as well as supplying the screen with power. You don't even have to use it in landscape, as it can be rotated to a portrait orientation.

Amazon is currently selling the Asus ZenScreen 15.6-inch Portable USB Monitor for $89.

Best Mac mini monitor with a wide screen - Samsung 34-inch Viewfinity S50GC

Two monitors can be great for productivity, but sometimes just having one larger screen is better. The Samsung ViewFinity S50GC offers the best of both worlds, by being an extremely wide display.

Using a 21:9 aspect ratio, it has a QHD Ultra Wide 1440p resolution, and can easily take the place of two screens side by side. By using its two HDMI 2.2 and one DisplayPort 1.2 inputs around the back, you can even view two different video sources at the same time with picture-by-picture or picture-in-picture mode.

Samsung 34-inch Viewfinity S50GC - Image credit: Samsung

The display also has HDR10 support, can display over a billion colors, has a 300-nit brightness, and a static contrast ratio of 3,000:1. It uses an ambient light sensor to adjust the brightness, as well as having flicker-free and eye-saver mode features to save your eyesight.

Buy on Amazon

The Samsung 34-inch Viewfinity S50GC is priced at $219.99 on Amazon.

Best Mac mini 4K monitor - Samsung 32-inch UJ59 4K

If you need a lot of digital workspace on one screen, it's hard to go wrong with a 4K screen. The Samsung UJ59 is one such example, with a resolution of 3,840 by 2,160.

That's put onto a 32-inch display panel, giving ample space for the massive resolution, without looking too small. There's also seamless upscaling so you'll see SD, HD, and Full HD content at the UHD resolution.

Samsung 32-inch UJ59 4K - Image credit: Samsung

Supporting a billion colors, it also has AMD FreeSync support for gaming, a low input lag mode, a game mode that optimizes screen contrast, and picture-by-picture and picture-in-picture modes for multi-source viewing.

Buy on Amazon

While the UJ59 is a 2018 model of display, the core features still hold up to modern standards. The $218.99 price tag on Amazon also makes it an attractive prospect for productivity-focused consumers who don't want to shell out too much on a screen.

Best Mac mini monitor if money is no object - Dell 6K or Apple Studio Display

If you've decided to blow the budget on the highest-specification M4 Pro Mac mini, you'll probably want to do the same for the display. In this case, we have two recommendations for you.

First, there's the Dell UltraSharp 32 6K Monitor, also known as the U3224KB. It's a 32-inch display with a 6K resolution and an IPS black panel. It's capable of displaying 1.07 billion colors and covering 99 percent of the P3 wide color gamut, at a brightness of up to 600 nits.

Dell UltraSharp 32 6K Monitor - Image credit: Dell

Supplied on a height-adjustable stand that can also rotate 90 degrees, it has a pair of dual 14W speakers and echo-cancellation microphones for audio. Camera-wise, there's a built-in one at the top that uses on-device AI to mimic Center Stage.

Buy at B&H

For connectivity, it has HDMI 2.1, Mini DisplayPort 2.1, a quartet of USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-A ports, Ethernet that can work at up to 2.5Gbps, a Thunderbolt 4 upstream with 140W of PD and DSC support, a Thunderbolt 4 downstream with 15W of power, and a USB Type-C data-only port.

The Dell UltraSharp 32 6K Monitor is on sale at B&H, with a limited-time discounted price of $2,049.99.

Best Mac mini monitor made by Apple

The other high-priced option on this list is the Apple Studio Display. This is intended as the option to get if you want all of your hardware to be made by Apple.

There is the Pro Display XDR, of course, but the Apple Studio Display offers a lot without the massive price tag.

Apple Studio Display

A 27-inch 5K Retina display, it can display 14.7 million pixels and over 1 billion colors covering the Wide Color (P3) gamut. For image editors and videographers, there are also multiple reference modes available to use.

Buy at Best Buy

On top is a 12MP Center Stage camera, while audio is handled by a six-speaker system with force-cancelling woofers and Spatial Audio support. There's also a trio of microphones in an array, complete with a high signal-to-noise ratio and directional beamforming, which certainly helps its support for "Hey Siri."

Around the back are four ports, with one Thunderbolt 3 upstream connection with 96W of host charging joined by three USB-C ports.

The Apple Studio Display starts from $1,599 with standard glass, or $1,899 with Nano-texture glass. You can also choose from three stands, including a Tilt-adjustable stand, VESA mount, or a Tilt- and Height-adjustable stand for $400 more.

You can get the Apple Studio Display for $1,299.99 at Best Buy, a $300 discount that's valid on Dec. 12 only. Read our full Apple Studio Display review to learn more about the 27-inch display.