There was a time when an Apple II video adapter could generate a VGA image was game-changing: we could finally get away from easily damaged and vintage CRT-based Apple II monitors, many of which were monochrome green-screens, and use “easily available” and “modern” VGA monitors instead. Huzzah! That time was 2015, and we reviewed such a product here. And now we have a problem…
It’s now 2025, and VGA monitors (or LCD monitors with VGA ports) are themselves getting hard to find new, and while there’s lots of used VGA CRTs and LCDs out there, many vintage LCDs are dying thanks to Capacitor Plague, and shipping CRTs are super expensive and frequently causes them damage. We have VGA adapters for our IIe, IIgs, and IIc+ here, and were wondering if there was a high-quality and low-cost way to convert VGA output to modern HDMI? We skeptically tried a couple adapters from Amazon, and are surprised and pleased with the quality and low-cost of one: the BENFEI VGA to HDMI Adapter, and we recommend it.
The BENFEI VGA to HDMI Adapter is a compact adapter with a male VGA port on one end, a female HDMI port on the other end, and a USB Type-A connector on the third end. The USB connector supplies power to the adapter, either via a phone charger (we used chargers from Samsung and LG), or if plugged into a Windows PC (where it also acts as a USB Sound Card, captures the PC Audio, and “injects” it into the HDMI signal – we didn’t test this). There are no jumpers, switches, drivers, or anything to adjust with this: just plug in the connectors and turn on the computer and monitor and it “just works.” And it works well.
40-column text screens, HGR/DHGR graphics screens, and GS/OS screens look very good (though GS/OS screens look very slightly washed out on the capture screens), while 80-column screens look slightly “soft” though completely legible and quite good. Why not take a look for yourself with this video?
There was a time when LCD monitors were intended to work with VGA signals, and back then, those monitors had excellent circuits and chips to make a great image from VGA. These days, LCD monitors are intended to work with HDMI/DVI/DisplayPort digital signals, and we suspect that any that have VGA ports have a cheap VGA-to-HDMI adapter “built-in,” and…would the BENFEI VGA to HDMI Adapter be any worse than a modern LCD monitor with a VGA port to display VGA? In our opinion and after our tests, our answer is “No.” In other words, we think a vintage LCD monitor with a VGA port probably displays VGA slightly better than a modern LCD monitor with a VGA port, or the BENFEI VGA to HDMI Adapter, but not by much, and probably not enough to matter.
The BENFEI VGA to HDMI Adapter costs $13 at Amazon (at time of publishing), so it is cheap enough that just “buying and trying” it makes sense if you need to connect a VGA-equipped computer to a modern HDMI monitor. We bought two and returned one, because the first one had a lose HDMI jack requiring us to wiggle the HDMI cable for a clear signal, but the second is perfect and works perfectly. If you don’t have a spare USB charger, factor in the cost of a new one.
Product Name: BENFEI VGA to HDMI Adapter
Vendor: Amazon
Price: $13
Product URL: https://amzn.to/40D9oPm
The Highs: Generates clean HDMI digital signals from VGA ports on modern and vintage computers.
The Lows: Needs a USB charger; make sure yours is built properly.
The Bottom Line: Keep those new-ish VGA adapters working well with modern LCD monitors.
Rating: 4 Stars out of 5