4k Retina Thunderbolt Display?

Nov 11, 2012 · Comments
AppleComputersHardwareOS XThis vs. That


The Apple Thunderbolt Display, It’s almost perfect…

Pros

1. Tight Pixel Pitch (.233)
2. Thunderbolt connection with docking station capabilities

Cons

1. Lower resolution than the Retina Display
2. You can only use it on a Mac (with Thunderbolt)

Which one to buy?

What I really want is an Apple Thunderbolt Display, but buying the Apple Display has some drawbacks. Number one is that I am pretty spoiled by the Retina Display on my MacBook Pro, and I would really like to get a HiDPI external display to go with it. Right now I’ve got a cheap 20” Samsung display that I picked up on sale at best buy hooked up via the HDMI port.

I mostly use it when I run Linux virtual machines or other software that looks weird on the Retina Display. So this brings me back to my problem. The Apple Display has the tightest pixel pitch (.233) available on an external display at the moment (as do all of the 27” LG panels), but I can only use it on a Mac and a thousand dollars is a lot to spend on an external display that I can only use with my Mac.

Ideally

Ideally Apple would solve this problem for me and produce a 27” 4K Thunderbolt display with a built in graphics card. This should bring the pixel pitch down to around .115, which is pretty close to the Retinal Display on the MacBook Pro. I have no idea what this would cost (too much probably), but it’s good to have dreams right?