Dell E1916HV 19" Monitor

I was looking for a 2nd display to plug into my 2011 Mac Mini display/thunder port, as my main monitor only works with HDMI. I also wanted something not too big to fit on the desk. So far, this one is working out quite nicely, and definitely fit the budget being under $80. I've had issues with several monitors with displayport connections––none I tried worked. So I decided I needed something with a VGA port, and to get a cable that adapted to the display/thunderport. This fit the bill. (BTW, the cable I got, which works great, is the FOINNEX Mini DisplayPort to VGA Cable, Thunderbolt/Mini DP to VGA Cable 8ft Thunderbolt 2) I noticed other reviews griping about how the display doesn't have HDMI or whatever. I understand the frustration, but it says in the description that the connectivity is specifically VGA and doesn't list anything else, so it's not as though this were a defect, misleading, or anything of the sort. Seeing as VGA is inferior to HDMI and displayport, I wouldn't expect a stellar picture. But for my purposes––which is to use it to have extra room for working with calendars, web-research, PDFs, etc.––it works just fine, especially with the low price tag. The picture seems fine enough for viewing things like YouTube videos and the like, so for all intensive purposes, it is not a bad little screen. Not sure how this would be for non-Mac users, but I had to do a lot of adjusting to get the screen right. In the Apple display preferences I had to "option-click" the "scaled" selection to get a desirable resolution (which gives you all the available options instead of the three or so they provide). In the end, 1360x768 worked best for me, with the color default (a number of other color settings work well enough also). Then I had to adjust the monitor itself to move the screen a big in its menu system under "display" settings; multimedia seems to be the best setting for color for my tastes. So between all that, I was finally able to settle on something that looks good and fills up the entire screen. One oddity is that when I start up my computer, the Apple logo loading screen comes up on this display rather than my main monitor. I'm not sure if this is because the DP is given preference over HDMI or something? Even with this display turned off, the Apple screen still does not load on the main monitor due to VGA still being connected. Not a huge deal, but then I also noticed that when starting up or waking up from sleep, the icons on my desktop started to move around a bit. The only solution I could find was to download a program called SwitchResX. It's got a free trial, and is like $16 to buy after that. If anyone runs into this issue, this program did the trick; so I'm just gonna pay for it since it's cheap enough. As to specifics: I had to run the "SwitchRexX Daemon" on the "About" menu, and then go to "Desktop" menu and mess with settings. I ended up using "Display Sets" option and everything seems to be fine. Not sure if that is specifically an issue with this monitor, or if it is an issue with having an additional display in general. Either way, I figured I'd mention it if anyone came across the same problem. Lastly, the display menu is fairly intuitive. Some are horribly designed and make navigating settings more difficult than it needs to be (e.g. Acer menus). The stand is pretty sturdy as well, and the monitor isn't too heavy. So all in all, if you have a Mac, you will likely need to buy a VGA to display/thunder port cable that fits; since my Mac is older, I had to get the thunderbolt 2 style. You might also want to get something like that SwitchResX program if you have the same icon problem I did (assuming you uses this as a 2nd display). You will also have to mess with the settings and resolution a bit to get the right feel. Once you do, the monitor is great for having a small and inexpensive second display to use for general things that don't need a super nice screen. I know it is annoying to have to get additional things, but with a Mac it is kind of something you have to expect. Since Apple displays are ridiculously expensive and limited in scope, you kind of have to deal with shopping around with other brands if you're on a budget like myself.