Apple Studio Display

As a connoisseur of excellent displays - my main computer monitor is an Apple Pro Display XDR, and my TV is an LG OLED - what interests me most from yesterday’s Apple event is the new Apple Studio Display. They essentially took the panel from the 27-inch iMac, put it in an Apple-worthy aluminum enclosure, give it top-spec webcam, mic and speakers, then voila. For a princely sum of (starting at) $1599, there’s finally another external display option from Apple other than the aforementioned Pro Display XDR. That one commands a kingly sum of $4999.

Fan boys on the Mac forums are mad they’re not getting Pro Display XDR technology - namely full local LED dimming and HDR capabilities - at a smaller size for less than half the price. Of course, that was never going to happen. What we have with the Apple Studio Display is the LG UltraFine 5K monitor but in far nicer packaging. The LG still retails for $1299, so the Apple premium of $300 doesn’t seem absurd at all. I bet that aluminum enclosure is lovely to touch!

Would I have bought the Studio Display if it had been available at the time I bought the Pro Display XDR? Most likely. The price gulf between the two products is difficult to ignore (I could have bought two and still have money left over). Plus the Studio Display has speakers and a webcam, features that come in handy for a home office setup if you’re a minimalist like myself. Besides, I wasn’t yet spoiled by the wonderful black levels and high contrast of the Pro Display XDR.

But now that I am spoiled by the good stuff, there’s no coming down from the nicer of the two Apple displays. I can see why certain fan boys are frustrated: $4999 is a ton of money to spend on a monitor. Apple recycling a six-year-old display with none of the latest technologies like HDR or high refresh rate is probably not the progress we hope to see. However, just because something is old doesn’t mean it’s awful. I’ve had an 27-inch iMac, and that 5K display is still absolutely fine in 2022.

Not Pro Display XDR fine, but as ever, quality cost money. Suck it up, fan boys.

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Drake’s fortune.

All you plebs

I don’t think I’ll ever get tired of staring at the gorgeous Apple Pro Display XDR. So much so that I’ve yet to take my new M1 Max MacBook Pro out of clamshell mode. I’m sure I’ll eventually use the portability of the notebook in the future, fingers crossed. But for now, a large external display on a desk is far better for the eyes and ergonomics. And there is none better for the Mac platform than the $5,000 Pro Display XDR. It is worth every single penny.

All you plebs whinging about how Apple should produce a cheaper display (and yet somehow keep the local-dimming LEDs and HDR capabilities) because the Pro Display XDR is vastly unaffordable (no arguments from me there) should simply save up some more. The Pro Display XDR is the one you really want. Stop kidding yourselves.

It’s interesting how quickly I got used to the 32-inch size of the Apple display, even though it’s the largest monitor I’ve ever had. The thin bezels really mask how large the display surface is. An equivalently-sized monitor from another manufacturer feels bigger. Apple design sure knows how to make things exquisite! I remember my first ever HD television back in the day: a Sony 32-inch 1080p Bravia. The bezels on that were two inches thick, and it made the TV look absolutely huge, even though the pane size is the same as this Pro Display XDR I’m staring at right now.

Heck, a 27-inch iMac feels bigger. Because of the inch-thick bezels. Thine eyes play tricks upon thee.

If I had to wish for another display from Apple, I would actually say a larger Pro Display XDR. The price for one of those would be hilarious. Moot point, however: I intend to keep this one for at least 10 years. That’s the only way I can justify spending $5,000 on a display: amortized it over a very long period. Says the guy who switches to a new iPhone every year, but that’s a different topic…

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Built like a tank.

Pro Display XDR

Bottom line: the Apple Pro Display XDR is absolutely amazing, and worth the super hefty $5,000 entry cost.

In my search for an external monitor that led to the disappointing Dell UP3221Q monitor - one of the company’s very highest end displays - I was stuck with the realization that the best displays for Macs are the ones that are “sanctioned” by Apple. ‘It just works’ only applies to those monitors; everything else third-party have compromises few and many.

Unfortunately, as of current writing, there are only three monitors that Apple officially sells at their store: two LG UltraFine displays at 24 and 27 inch sizes, and the aforementioned Pro Display XDR. That is it, those are the only options. You either pay through the nose for the XDR, or pay reasonable amounts for the two LG monitors that’s been out since the mid 2010s.

Nothing against the LG Ultrafine: as a former 27-inch iMac owner, the LG 5K display has the same exact panel as the iMac. You absolutely cannot find this high quality and pixel density anywhere else. The problem is one of vanity: I find the LG to be incredibly ugly, with an industrial design that’s nowhere near the aluminum and glass enclosures of Apple-made products. We had a unit in at work, and the whole thing looks and feel of cheap plastic.

If Apple had taken that 27-inch display and encased it in an enclosure similar to that of the Pro Display XDR, I probably would have bought that instead, and pocketed the significant extra change. But Apple doesn’t, so here am I staring at the glorious 6K resolution of the XDR as I type these words.

I did not pay the extra thousand dollars for the Pro Stand. Instead I paid the (still expensive) $200 dollars for the VESA mount adapter, and about $190 for an Ergotron LX monitor arm.

The Pro Display XDR is the epitome of ‘you get what you pay for’. I would say to anyone that’s also looking for a display for their Mac laptops to look no further: this is the one you want. Delay the purchase and save up a bit more if you have to. A monitor is something we stare at for hours every single day; wouldn’t you want to invest and get the ultimate? The XDR’s quality and clarity is simply unmatched. Its aluminum casing is a work of art. It’s as good to look at from the back as it is from the front, a centerpiece in any home office.

It is a delight every morning when I press a button on the keyboard and the Pro Display XDR wakes from sleep immediately. A stark contrast to my experience with the Dell UP3221Q.

As with most things in life, save a bit more and get the thing you really want. The Pro Display XDR’s prohibitive price tag steered me towards a lesser option that constantly reminded me of its shortcomings. That’s not something I want to live with for the next 10 years. I’m happy I was able to return the Dell and get the display I wanted all along.

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Coup de grace.

Doesn't play nice with Dell

As an owner of an Apple MacBook Pro, I’ve been on the lookout for an external display. Sadly, the only monitor that Apple itself makes is the extremely expensive Pro Display XDR, infamous for a starting price of $4,999 dollars for just the display. A bit too rich for my blood, though I can understand the high cost. Competitive 32-inch HDR 10-bit displays with hundreds (and thousands) of LED dimming zones are all above $4,000 dollars. Unlike Apple though, other manufactures throw in a display stand for free, rather than make you pay extra.

On a chance scroll through the Amazon app one morning, I found a refurbished Dell UP3221Q 32-inch 4K HDR monitor on sale for about half its then $3,999 street price. There was only one available, so I acted super quickly with the buy now button. A week later, the 50 pound behemoth of a package arrived at my door. After nearly two years of only using a laptop display (I previously had a 27-inch iMac), it was strange to suddenly have four times as much screen real-estate again.

A month after purchase, I returned the Dell monitor. The quirks of the UP3221Q vis a vis using it with my MacBook Pro can’t overcome the admittedly spectacular images when viewing video. And buying it for half off MSRP.

The first problem is the 4K resolution. Due to how macOS handles high DPI with essentially a doubling of pixel density, the ideal pixels-per-inch is around 220. This is why the similarly sized Pro Display XDR is 6K in resolution, instead of 4: to achieve that all important retina pixel density. The UP3221Q has a PPI of only 140, and text looks relatively horrible compared to the MacBook Pro’s internal retina display. The sharpest possible would be to run the Dell at native resolution, but the UI is unusually tiny at that scale.

The second problem is the display has trouble with waking from sleep after a prolonged off period, such as overnight. Nearly every morning I had to unplug and reinsert the thunderbolt cable from the MacBook Pro to get the UP3221Q to show the login screen. A real pain in the neck when all I want to do is start my day with a scroll of twitter. This isn’t really Dell’s fault: from what I’ve gathered on the issue, modern Apple laptops simply don’t play as nicely with third-party displays as one would expect.

The third problem is something I didn’t realize until I got to handle a Pro Display XDR for work. With the Apple monitor, you’re able to show both HDR and SDR content at the same time. Meaning, you can have a windowed video running in HDR whilst the rest of the UI is still in SDR. This is not possible with the Dell: it’s either or. I have to switch to the HDR color space every time I want to watch a Youtube HDR video. Because the macOS UI isn’t HDR, it looks like crap in that mode. I have to switch the UP3221Q back to SDR during normal use.

Which presents a fourth problem: the Dell monitor doesn’t do local dimming in SDR mode - only in HDR! Those sweet 2,000 dimming zones isn’t worth anything unless I am watching HDR content, which as of right now is very seldom. No such issue with the Pro Display XDR: it performs local dimming no matter what content is being shown on screen. It just works.

These compromises combined is far too jarring for a monitor that, even at half off, represents a hefty investment. I hope to get at least 10 years out of the monitor, and I don’t want to be constantly reminded of the tradeoffs with the UP3221Q. The choice is simple: save up some more and buy the Pro Display XDR (I’ll skip the $1,000 dollar stand).

Good thing Amazon’s refurb program - called Amazon Renewed - has a generous 90-day satisfaction return policy. The seller even paid shipping back, which is lovely.

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I hardly knew ye.