Moah screens

We round up the best multi-monitor Mac setups.

Author

Leander Kahney
August 15, 2025

In partnership with

I can remember how indulgent it felt to add a second monitor to my Mac setup, circa sometime in the early/mid-2000s.

With two screens in front of me, I felt like the king of the monitors. Since then, I’ve added more, and ever bigger, screens to my desktop.

Until recently, I used an Apple Studio Display as my main screen, flanked by a pair of 28-inch LG DualUp monitors (unusual displays that are square-shaped).

Plus, off to the far right, I connected a rotating BenQ monitor in portrait mode. That’s four large screens total, all plugged into my Mac Studio.

But I didn’t make use of all that screen real estate at all. When I set it up, I had ambitions to fill the screens with useful data feeds. Stuff like real-time updates about the Cult of Mac site, streams of RSS news feeds and X posts and the like — but I never got around to it.

Instead, two of the screens were left mostly blank, while I tended to use only the main screen and the LG monitor immediately to the right of it. This is where I parked Slack, our main messaging tool for work, to make it easily accessible.

Since then, I’ve moved my home office from the basement to an old pantry off our kitchen that’s about the size of a phone booth.

By necessity, I had to ditch all the screens except the Studio Display, and to my surprise, I’ve been just fine with it. Turns out, I needed only one screen after all.

This downsizing runs against current trends of going maximal. As our top post today about multiscreen Mac setups shows, when it comes to displays, a lot of Mac users think more is better.

Some of these setups are comically over the top. But it’s a great breakdown of the geometry and the gear needed to configure your own massive wall of screens.

Also in today’s newsletter:

  • Apple Intelligence is set to come to a much wider variety of Apple devices, thanks to speedy chip upgrades.

  • Get your Peanuts on with Snoopy Presents: A Summer Musical, which is now streaming. It’s not quite the same, but I’ll bet it’s way better than Alien: Earth on Disney/Hulu, which I’d really been looking forward to but is a horrible, wretched mess. I’m so disappointed. I’d love to see a Snoopy/Alien mashup, though.

  • Apple Maps is pretty good for finding EV charging stations, detailing charger availability, charging speeds and connector types. Here’s how to use it.

  • Cult of Mac’s Mr. iPad — Ed Hardy — loves his ultra-slim and powerful M4 iPad Pro. Don’t miss his five-star review of the tablet, which is on sale at Amazon right now.

  • What on earth is this? This mini keyboard — which is about the size of an iPhone — is also a motion-sensitive mouse. I’m sorry, say what? In our hands-on testing, we found it’s better and faster than typing using the iPhone’s virtual keyboard, albeit with a bit of practice. It’s a winner, according to our review.

— Leander Kahney, EIC.

Screenfest: Top 15 multidisplay computer setups

When it comes to the best multi-monitor setup, users often choose between the biggest displays and the most displays. Many go for both.

Faster chip will bring Apple Intelligence to next-gen iPad

Apple is working on upgrades for the entry-level iPad, Apple TV 4K and iPad mini, each set to get faster processors for improved performance.

A message from the Cult of Mac Deals team

Get the M4 iPad Pro I love at $200 off

Right now, a hot M4 iPad Pro deal can get you up to $200 off on various models of the tablet I use as my primary computer.

‘Peanuts’ summer musical brings big-time talent [Now streaming!]

Watch the new "Snoopy Presents: A Summer Musical" special for a taste of music by Ben Folds and other award-winning musicians.

A message from the Cult of Mac Deals team

Save even more on a lifetime of Babbel language learning

Gain lifetime access to all 14 of the languages offered in the Babbel app with this great limited-time deal.

Find electric car charging stations in Apple Maps

Apple Maps helps your EV routing while you’re on the road. It shows charger availability, charging speed and connector types.

Today in Apple history: Original iMac arrives to save Apple

On August 15, 1998, the colorful iMac G3 went on sale to a rabid audience. The original iMac was the world's first internet-ready computer.

Mini keyboard saves you from typing on cramped iPhone screen [Review]

The Winmaxle Mobdel B1 can serve as a physical keyboard for typing on your iPhone or as a keyboard/mouse for iPad. We go hands-on.

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Tweets of the day

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One more thing ...

❝

I discovered that the best innovation is sometimes the company, the way you organize a company. The whole notion of how you build a company is fascinating.

— Steve Jobs, 2011.

Today’s poll

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Results from yesterday’s poll: Do you use Apple Watch's blood oxygen testing?

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