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I'm buying a MacBook Pro soon but have a Dell IN2020M widescreen monitor with 16:9 aspect ratio. Can I hook up my MacBook Pro to this?

The supported resolutions for MacBooks seem to be as follows.

Supported resolutions at 16:10 aspect ratio:

  • 1440 by 900 (native)
  • 1280 by 800
  • 1152 by 720
  • 1024 by 640
  • 800 by 500 pixels

Supported resolutions at 4:3 aspect ratio (stretched and non-stretched):

  • 1024 by 768
  • 800 by 600
  • 640 by 480

Supported resolutions at 3:2 aspect ratio (stretched and non-stretched):

  • 720 by 480 pixels
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    Is the monitor DVI compatible? VGA Will give inferior image quality and requires manual positioning/sizing of the imaging.
    – Alexander
    Sep 7, 2012 at 7:36

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The supported resolutions defined on the Apple pages are for the built-in screen which is, pardon the pun, comparing apples to oranges in this case.

Plugging an external monitor in will show those resolutions that the monitor supports and you will be able to achieve the maximum resolution of the Dell monitor which is 1600x900

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  • so it will be stretched then?
    – cdub
    Sep 7, 2012 at 8:22
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    if you add the monitor as a second monitor so that your display is extended onto the second monitor then no it will not be stretched. If you add the monitor in mirror mode then yes it probably will be unless the resolution of the macBook Pro screen is greater then than resolution of the Dell monitor.
    – Stu Wilson
    Sep 7, 2012 at 8:26
  • sounds like i should get a 16:10 one anyway and also have dvi instead of vga
    – cdub
    Sep 7, 2012 at 8:31

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