Thank you.
Thank you for posting the stats for nerds picture to confirm that the video playback is 4k.
I think you are correct, macos will downscale the signal from 5k to 4k resolution. Macos scaling confuses me.
Perpetual Monitors for Macs (and iPads!) Thread
- Thread starter cateye
- Start date
The thought of upcoming tariffs (and the fact that I have been thinking so hard about this purchase for a long time) meant that I just want to the Apple Store over the weekend and picked up a Studio Display. They must not sell very many of them, because the guy running the specialist session gave me a big "OOOOOHHHH" when it came out.
Maybe I'm just getting older, but the speculation about new displays would have previously caused me to hold off. But last week, I read a review that said "if you like Apple products, you will like this one, despite the price." That set something off in my brain, and now I have a Studio Display.
Maybe I'm just getting older, but the speculation about new displays would have previously caused me to hold off. But last week, I read a review that said "if you like Apple products, you will like this one, despite the price." That set something off in my brain, and now I have a Studio Display.
That's it in a nutshell, really. It's under spec'ed and over-priced. Yet at the same time it's basically perfect and unmatched.
Ross Young via MacRumors:
Apple Working on New 27-Inch Mini-LED Studio Display
HDR for the masses…. er, at least the retina-faithful Mac-enthusiast masses. Will be shocked if it isn’t ProMotion too.
Any guesses on pricing?
Apple Working on New 27-Inch Mini-LED Studio Display
HDR for the masses…. er, at least the retina-faithful Mac-enthusiast masses. Will be shocked if it isn’t ProMotion too.
Any guesses on pricing?
I wouldn't be shocked if they slapped a $3000 ($2999) price on it.
Because it would be pretty unique in the market, just like the Cinema Display XDR was/is.
It may depend on what kind of volumes they'd produce. The people who buy M4 MacBook Pros and the rumored M4 Mac Studios would all be target customers for this display, which will no doubt have have "XDR" in the name.
Because it would be pretty unique in the market, just like the Cinema Display XDR was/is.
It may depend on what kind of volumes they'd produce. The people who buy M4 MacBook Pros and the rumored M4 Mac Studios would all be target customers for this display, which will no doubt have have "XDR" in the name.
This is because I just bought one. You're welcome, everybody.
Vincent Hanna
Ars Scholae Palatinae
Now that 27” 5K 60Hz LCD monitors are going mainstream at the $799 price point, a combo of mini LED and 120Hz ProMotion could go a long way toward justifying the existing $1599 price point.
Or maybe Apple does bump the price up and rebrands the Studio Display as a Pro Display XDR, now in two sizes: 27” and 32”.
Or maybe Apple does bump the price up and rebrands the Studio Display as a Pro Display XDR, now in two sizes: 27” and 32”.
Agree with you on the price point. $1599 always felt like an ambitious anchor price that, IMHO, the current feature set doesn't fully justify. Adding HDR and ProMotion should rectify that.
I'll bet they keep 'Studio' and append 'XDR' or a similar suffix.
For improved spatial audio, couldn't Apple leverage the top-facing vents to add upward-firing drivers?
IFixIt shows the speaker chambers extend across the full height of the display. AFAICT these are only downward-firing though; current Studio Display owners, please confirm.
IFixIt shows the speaker chambers extend across the full height of the display. AFAICT these are only downward-firing though; current Studio Display owners, please confirm.
Vincent Hanna
Ars Scholae Palatinae
I hope they don’t mix the Studio and XDR branding, they make a nice logical separation now.
The Ross Young report says late 2025, which gives me hope the 32” XDR will get updated first at WWDC, especially since the 6K LG UltraFine will probably be out by then.
The Ross Young report says late 2025, which gives me hope the 32” XDR will get updated first at WWDC, especially since the 6K LG UltraFine will probably be out by then.
They sound like they only fire down. Honestly, the speakers are both notable (they're better than pretty much any other crappy monitor speakers) and forgettable (they still sound like monitor speakers). I don't mind them at all for casual background music while working, but I don't think any amount of spatial nonsense would change their fundamental limitations.
If they add HDR then they’ll brand it as such. “XDR” is just Apple’s naming for HDR support on their displays (it’s like high dynamic range, but XTREME!!!). It’s not limited to their monitors either; they list the iPhone (both standard and Pro), iPad Pro, and MBP as having XDR displays.
Come on people who buy $1600 or more displays aren't using the built in speakers.
They're buying $2000 KEF computer speakers.
Some, perhaps. But just because I buy a nice Apple display doesn't mean I also want to go way past diminishing returns on an expensive set of speakers. Internal speakers and a set of Audio Technica headphones cover my desktop audio needs quite nicely.
Nope. Music gets played via the HomePods And everything else is through the monitor.
At this point in time for a $1200 monitor you might as well wait and see what Apple's refresh looks like. Can't be more than a year?
Looking at the wording in the MacRumors post, and considering the history of Apple rumors...maybe?
"could come as soon as late 2025"
"Back in 2023, Young claimed that Apple had been working on a Studio Display Pro with ProMotion technology, but Apple allegedly canceled the project. Young at the time said that Apple wasn't working on another 27-inch display, but Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo has maintained that Apple plans to launch some kind of display in 2025."
"Bloomberg's Mark Gurman has confirmed the rumor of Apple's work on a 27-inch mini-LED display, and he believes that it will be coming in 2026."
Plus with timing of Apple announcements who knows, maybe they'd save it for some Pro Mac event god knows when in the year.
I'm definitely holding off until at least WWDC before even looking at the market for options. The bare bones cheap 1440 panel has done fine so far, it can do fine for a few more months.
Considering that nobody else is putting out the kind of specs this display would have, Apple is either in no hurry or they are waiting to source the components at optimal costs.
I was watching Only Murders in the Building and the difference between my LG OLED and my iPhone or OLED iPad Pro is big.
On the LG, you see a lot of noise and the sharpness and HDR highlights are muted.
On iPhone, no sign of noise and the images are sharp and the highlights are bright.
HDR also looks good on MacBook Pro 14-inch with M1 Pro, not as good as the OLED but still very good.
I was watching Only Murders in the Building and the difference between my LG OLED and my iPhone or OLED iPad Pro is big.
On the LG, you see a lot of noise and the sharpness and HDR highlights are muted.
On iPhone, no sign of noise and the images are sharp and the highlights are bright.
HDR also looks good on MacBook Pro 14-inch with M1 Pro, not as good as the OLED but still very good.
Apple is having a sale on Studios right now, which I guess means they're moving inventory. Might come sooner than later?
Vincent Hanna
Ars Scholae Palatinae
No the same price at Apple's site.
But $1299 at Amazon.
No sale on Nano-Texture though, still $1849!
While I think everyone has done a great job of covering the top- and middle-end stuff, I just wanted to throw out something that covers the bottom.
Recently picked up one of the Arzopa Z1RC 16" 2.5K portable monitors. Resolution is 2560x1600 at 60Hz and can be driven off of USB-C at around 15W. I'm running it in vertical using the Mac default 800 x 1280 resolution. Absolutely perfect for my needs, which were: cheap, portable, and good enough.
Not a lot of usable space at that resolution, but it's crisp given the intersection of resolution and size, and great for long form documents. A little bit of tweaking with ColorSync on advanced mode and it color matches my MacBook Air well (100% sRGB coverage), with 500 nits of brightness and a built-in stand.
It regularly goes on sale for around $120. Highly recommended if you are looking for something that checks the above boxes. Importantly, it wakes and sleeps with my MacBook display.
Recently picked up one of the Arzopa Z1RC 16" 2.5K portable monitors. Resolution is 2560x1600 at 60Hz and can be driven off of USB-C at around 15W. I'm running it in vertical using the Mac default 800 x 1280 resolution. Absolutely perfect for my needs, which were: cheap, portable, and good enough.
Not a lot of usable space at that resolution, but it's crisp given the intersection of resolution and size, and great for long form documents. A little bit of tweaking with ColorSync on advanced mode and it color matches my MacBook Air well (100% sRGB coverage), with 500 nits of brightness and a built-in stand.
It regularly goes on sale for around $120. Highly recommended if you are looking for something that checks the above boxes. Importantly, it wakes and sleeps with my MacBook display.
Thanks, I wanted a second monitor for my backpack and it’s on sale at Amazon for $110 right now. I thought that resolution looked familiar — it’s the same as my 32” Dell U3014 which was $1100 when I bought it in 2013! Same resolution, half the size, 10% the price (and doesn’t require dual-link DVI lol)
Ooof. I've stayed off news mostly since the election for my sanity, and you just reminded me that maybe the time to get that new monitor I was contemplating is now. (Or more sensically for me, maybe the time to not get anything is now...)
I've been using a 32" 2k monitor with my macbook pro, and not a high end one (I think it was $260 a couple years ago). I use my mac exclusively for Logic, no image-related stuff, so it's fine....except I've been considering 4k to get more "logic stuff" on the screen. I don't like multiple monitors or i'd just add another one. That would also mean I'd have to be better about wearing my glasses, but I'm getting to the point where that really isn't optional anyway
No way I can justify an Apple display for my use case but I'll take a peek at the 32 to 35 inch 4k models.
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Does the same setting apply to the scaled resolution to 3008 x 1692?
According to Macos > System Report > Display it is outputting a 6k signal.
Theoretically (still) yeah, it's not anything to do with 4K vs 5K or whatever specifically as much as just native vs scaled resolutions and output. The apps can be aware of the native res regardless of the current scaled setting, and request to draw unscaled where applicable.
As for that 3008 number, it's just like pre retina equivalent pixels, for the sake of relative resolution understanding I guess? They roll the 2x UI scaling into it instead of having separate settings. The actual resolution being run is the 6k number. This is all stuff that's just more complicated the more you think about it. It's something that generally just works, and the more you get into the weeds of how it makes it happen you get into unnecessary minutiae.
My workplace has finally agreed to replace my 10-year old MacBook Pro with a new Mac mini. I also need to identify a monitor to buy to go with it.
I need to place the order ASAP, before the end of the financial year. My workflow is text, text, text all the time. Ars Hive Mind, what Retina display do you suggest for about $£500?
Current monitors:
I need to place the order ASAP, before the end of the financial year. My workflow is text, text, text all the time. Ars Hive Mind, what Retina display do you suggest for about $£500?
Current monitors:
- Home: 34" LG widescreen 5k 5120 x 2160 with 164ppi. It was the #1 widescreen reccomndation on RTings for MacOS. I frankly regret buying it. It's a bit dim and the OS elements are too small at native resolution and the text is blurry when downscaled.
- Workplace: 2014(?) iMac Pro as external display for the MBP. Love it, but it won't work with the new Mac mini. A similar screen would be good to have.
That’s a bummer about your LG. I’ve been there: too dim in a well lit environment, and the pixel density is stuck in an awkward spot between too small UI or too fuzzy. That’s why 5k seems the ideal resolution to me, for larger monitors, because you get a great 1440p upscaled.
It’s been a while since I’ve had an external Apple monitor, but I feel like screens (whether built-in or separate) is one area where Apple always makes good choices (for most use cases). It feels like someone at Apple actually uses the screens before they put them in their devices. They might not max out every bullet point specification, but somehow they always seem to look better in real life than all but super expensive alternatives.
Anyway, in the $500 range, I recently got a nice 32” Dell, 4K, USB C etc. They have a few options around that price range, and I just noticed that the new wave of Dell monitors now seems to be appearing on their site which generally go brighter, in addition to other improvements. I think for general purpose productivity, the Dells are a safe buy, work well with Macs. Crucially, they seem to work well at reduced resolutions — I’m not running at the full 4K, and mostly I’m working with text, but the text still looks sharp. Check the nits brightness rating for each.
I know a Dell recommendation is pretty obvious, but it sounds like for your needs it could be the way to go.
Definitely noticing new monitors appearing right now from various manufacturers. Who knows what Trump’s import taxes are going to do to prices though?
So basically macos will output a high resolution and macos or the monitor will downscale the signal to the 4k resolution and It should not a problem in most cases? Thank you.
This won't be what you want to hear but you'd need to up your budget and buy one of the new less expensive 5120x2880 5K monitors (Asus, Viewsonic, BenQ). There are no "retina" displays for 500 pounds. There are one or two 4K at 24 inch monitors but none are particularly good.
Or try to find a used LG UltraFine 5K.
Since they just announced the M4 Max and M3 Ultra Studio, maybe Apple will introduce the rumored updates to their displays this year.
If they have the improvements people are hoping for, like Pro Motion and 1000 nits on the Studio Display, maybe it will take some time to get the supply chain up.
Certainly the new Studio and the expected new Mac Pro will be more attractive products with new Apple displays.
If they have the improvements people are hoping for, like Pro Motion and 1000 nits on the Studio Display, maybe it will take some time to get the supply chain up.
Certainly the new Studio and the expected new Mac Pro will be more attractive products with new Apple displays.
Vincent Hanna
Ars Scholae Palatinae
I don't think they will update the Studio Display without adding TB5, and I don't think they will do that until the M5 MacBook Air also has TB5. So spring 2026, one year from now.
I can see them wanting to support their laptops but the Air owners? They're presumably more price-sensitive or else they'd have bought the MacBook Pros.
So they wouldn't seem to be the target market for a display which runs $1600 or more.
Does the MBA even have retina displays and the HDR of the MBP models?
So they wouldn't seem to be the target market for a display which runs $1600 or more.
Does the MBA even have retina displays and the HDR of the MBP models?
Vincent Hanna
Ars Scholae Palatinae
I'm just talking about base compatibility, as the MBAs have enjoyed with the Studio Display since its release via TB3.
It'll be confusing in an Apple Store to tell a customer that they can't (fully) use a brand new TB5 Studio Display with a brand new M4 MacBook Air.
It'll be confusing in an Apple Store to tell a customer that they can't (fully) use a brand new TB5 Studio Display with a brand new M4 MacBook Air.
I'd think a TB5 Studio Display would have a TB3 fallback mode (which would presumably not be ProMotion capable).
It's not too hard to explain that on a spec sheet: "ProMotion available only with MacBook Pro or Mac mini with M4 Pro or better chip, or Mac Studio with M4 Max or M3 Ultra chip."
It's not too hard to explain that on a spec sheet: "ProMotion available only with MacBook Pro or Mac mini with M4 Pro or better chip, or Mac Studio with M4 Max or M3 Ultra chip."
Vincent Hanna
Ars Scholae Palatinae
Perhaps, but the simplest and most Apple-like solution is to simply go another year on an old display until they can offer full compatibility across the entire range of currently shipping Macs. The Mac mini will have TB5 by Spring 2026 too.
What resolution are you running it at? Wondering if macOS is only giving you the lower res options, in which case you'd need BetterDisplay or something to enable the higher res scaled options.
For your budget 4K is your only real option...but that'll be at the same pixel density you're seeing. At high DPI scaled resolutions I thought the 4K (27") I tried was more than fine enough.
Short answer, yeah basically it just works and you don't need to worry about it.
Longer answer yeah internally it's rendering whatever high resolution (5k or whatever higher res you pick) and it'll scale to the screen output. On retina resolution displays the scaling is pretty much imperceptible. At 4K it's debatably good enough, ymmv though, as these monitor threads attest. Personally the jump from like old ~110 ppl to 4K is more noticeable than the jump between 4K and 5K, diminishing returns and all.