While I was writing, I was too in the zone to think of something fairly obvious I've since considered. Maybe-just *maybe*-it's also over-engineered because they had been intending to put in a different (perhaps mini-LED panel) but had to scrap stuff late into the project due to supply chain and/or tech reasons. Would explain why this monitor is engineered out the wazoo in every other way. Perhaps it was supposed to be a loaded, crazy, insane $2,500-3,000 monitor but the panel wasn't ready in time and they had to ship this weirdo thing. Just some potential food for thought!
The Studio Display pricing kind of sits in "poor value no man's land". It would be great value at $999 (adjustable stand included by default obviously). Or as you say, it could use a better panel and cost significantly more. This is bordering on high end pricing with a mid-tier panel.
@@goldennight3 It could also have always been the plan to use this display shell for all of 1) studio display 2) rumoured higher end 27inch display 3) iMac 27inch (pro and non pro)
It's a shame that Apple does this from time to time. They release a product that just fuels all the haters who believe everything Apple releases is overpriced. Well, in this case they are right. Anyone who buys this display is getting a terrible deal.
I knew about the a13, actually makes some sense overall. But the 64GB of storage is hilarious. That means the studio display is both more powerful and equal in storage to the very HIGHEST END Apple TV. Why didn’t they take advantage of that? A built in Apple TV would’ve been a neat selling point, and an included remote would’ve been a pittance at $1600.
When Apple can easily sell both of those products without much hassle or trouble, why would they go out of their way to combine the too. Like they say, if ain't broke, don't fix. Besides, 27 inches is probably not big enough for those interested in Apple TV and not very desirable for those interested in a monitor.
Would I love to have one of these? Absolutely. Would I pay retail for it? Absolutely not. Had they launched this around $1k I would very seriously consider it, but at $1600 there is no shot. Great review, Quinn.
$1k, you’ve got to be joking. It’s worth more than that. I have a $1k BenQ monitor and it’s worse in almost every category compared to the Studio Display.
@@stevenaziz You can get a pretty good 27" 4k monitor (eg Acer Predator XB273K) with a much better stand, 144 hertz refresh rate, better color accuracy, for $650. 4k is slightly lower resolution, but I know I can't see the difference,
@@TheRickyH no you can’t I looked. I looked at over 400 monitor listings on B&H and there is simply NOTHING like the Studio Display. There is literally nothing equal.
@@oscarsmith3942 “better color accuracy” lol that’s got to be an April Fools Day joke. The Studio Display literally has among the best out of the box color accuracy of any monitor ever sold. If you’re too poor to justify buying the Studio Display don’t try to convince yourself it’s a bad display. That’s a losing battle, my friend.
Part of me wonders if the A13 design was an earlier prototype attempt at what became the M1 iMac, and they decided to recycle the internals and sell it as a monitor rather than scrapping the R&D work. It's a truly bizarre set of internals otherwise.
or they planned on selling WAY more iphones/ipads and had to do something with all the extra chipsets, but didnt want to cannibalize M1 sales. thus locked down monitor
@@johnsmith-v9t8o They would do it for sure if it did not meet their expectations or plans and wanted to still make a buck out of it rather than put them in the shredder. Manufacturers do this all the time , for example batches of computer chips that do not quite perform to the top level often end up in the cheaper models , waste nothing that you can make a buck out of. Even parts that are goos but not sold from the year before often end up in cheaper models . Waste not want not.
Funniest part of this display is that it can detect what orientation it’s in and automatically change the content to match, but neither of the stand options let you rotate it
I will say, I do wish other OEMs considered offering glossy display options. I was trying to shop around for a 4K panel at 120Hz (or higher) with a glossy finish, and I wasn’t finding many options.
I definitely think a miniLED ProMotion panel was intended for this thing, we've been hearing about that panel's existence for ages and it seems like it would fit in this chassis perfectly. But then again, why release a desktop without giving us a monitor to go next to it? Slap the ol trusty iMac panel in it (not making it anymore so there's plenty of spares) and bob's your uncle. Wait a few months for a Mac Pro announcement, stick the miniLED panel in it and re-use the other stuff, you're good to go!
I also think so. The fans seem like they are slightly overkill for the power supply and could be used to cool an array of LEDs used as a backlight in a possible later model
Good review Quinn and definitely some fair points. I was thinking the same thing about the mini-LED panel being a possibility, but production may have been a problem with shortages.
For the same price, in Belgium (because its almost 1800€ here), you could buy *four LG 4k monitors with USB C and a thunderbolt dock*. It's ridiculous. No amount of cool features and nice design by Apple could possibly make this a compelling product. And since basically no one needs 5k anyway (especially when they have four 4k monitors), I think no one should buy this.
People are buying it. It’s sold out for months so you’re clearly wrong, buddy. That is unless everyone else with money to spend out there is wrong and only you get it, right? Is that how that works?
@@stevenaziz I'm not saying people are not buying it, and neither am I saying that people don't want it. I'm just making the argument that no one can possibly justify buying this for any other reason than being an Apple enthusiast, or not caring about how much they spend.
@@wta1518 you don’t even know what I’m talking about. Where did you learn English?? I’m talking about the Studio Display!!!! I want to bury my face in the ground.
OR....this WAS the 27 inch iMac and they scrapped it but used the idea to make a monitor. Like, this was literally the 5K M1 iMac right through production and then they changed course and made it a monitor. Or maybe it's just the weed talking.
I like the theory that the iMac Pro will be identical in design, but with M2 Max/Pro chips instead of the A13. Clearly having the same design means that the display was cheaper to design and manufacture. They basically killed two birds with one stone. But it also doesn't really make sense to do this either, because the display ends up being too expensive (because its too much like a computer). I wonder if covid supply chain issues caused this, somehow. Like maybe they had planned to make the display and iMacPro more substantially different but then realised that it would delay the product releases too much. OR they scrapped the iMac Pro at the last minute, but having put all these effort in the design, decided to repurpose it for a display.
@@vyeung it is odd - I guess it was either ‘in or out’ and with the space they had left in there with no motherboard, they went for ‘in’ to keep it tidy. They still could have made the shallow connection magnetic, so it’s an odd decision. It’s nice to have the power built in, but not sure many folks would have been too bothered if the power supply was outside.
I think a 27" "normal" iMac makes much more sense than a iMac Pro. The "Pro" consumers are better off with the Mac Studio + a professional Display. It was a big mistake from Apple to cut off the 27" iMac....
@@brucekennedy5274 The 143W power supply on the 24" iMac is already the size of an Apple TV. No one wants a larger one to power everything needed on this unit.
Great perspective of the Studio Display. I probably shouldn’t of bought one. We are just in a weird place where the Pro Display XDR is probably going to get a refresh as well. Everything else I can probably deal with the but the single backlight sheesh.
We will see a 32" iMac with a better screen & M2 chip - imagine docking an Intel Mac to an Apple screen & being able to run different apps on diff CPUs. - 1 dock, - but if the app is x86 - its runs on my intel Macbook, and if there is an M1 version - it runs on the screen. - Chrome for instance, - run that on the screen so it doesnt take resources from my work stuff.
@@dominicstocker5144 - How do I know there will be a 32" iMac? - simple - why didnt they put an M1 in the 27" StudioDisplay? - easy - because they realised that it would kill sales on their other products - Who would buy a Mac-Studio then? - so they are gonna sell some Mac-Studios and in about 8 months, they will release a 32" iMac-Pro with a professional screen - and an M2 but it will cost like $5000. - Why does the Studio-Display have apple-silicon? - so you can have a fancy web-cam. - this product is literally yuppie-fluff.
As a creative professional and Mac user I could not get myself excited or be able to justify the over-price on the Studio Display. For many creatives out there, total color gamut (Adobe RGB, P3), display uniformity, and calibration are more important than peak brightness or even 5k.
ugh, no. 5K is the TOP priority of professionals where sharp text is an absolute priority. If you don't care about that, you would have a ton of 4k 32" panels already and have ZERO use for ASD. It was never meant for you anyways. Apple built a niche product ... like iMacPro. Going from iMacPro display to 4k display is a STEP DOWN.
@@RunForPeace-hk1cu the Studio Display does not support Adobe RGB, nor is it's color gamut greater than P3. If you're a photographer or creatively work producing print work, this would be a priority over 5K. The studio Display does not support hardware calibration (or vaguely even allows precise software based calibration, the reference modes are nice, but not the same). If you're doing professional work, calibrating to a specific profile and luminance is a priority over 5K. Panel uniformity across different reference modes is also a priority over 5K. At 27" the difference between 5k and 4k won't be noticeable for most at regular viewing distances. The Studio Display is a great niche product, however it's an over priced one for what it offers, and lack many of the features creative professionals would seek over 5K or being 600 nits of brightness.
I most certainly prefer no local dimming on a professional work monitor than having the issues that comes with local dimming. I don't mind having no "pure" black, because that doesn't exist anyway in the end result of what I'm working with. The perceived black is more than well enough and it's really, really annoying to have some zones lighting up instead of having the complete display having a conform black level. An oled on the other hand. Now that's something I'd certainly like to see. But that would be three or four times the price I guess. And then maybe we would also be having a display with less pixel density-which I do not want. I'm a very big fan of Apple's 218 dpi pixel density compared to about 140 or so on other displays.
The web uses sRGB, not P3 (CSS3 spec). That's why the color looks off there. The CSS4 spec introduces a way to specify the color space, but is still not implemented by most browsers, except for Safari.
The Iiyama runs at 6bit on macOS only. On Windows with 2 DisplayPort cables it does run at proper 8bit. The panel is the identical LG 5K panel (from the 2015 5K Imac)
I enjoyed this review a lot, great work! For me, and I guess many others, I have a laptop that I mostly want to dock with a display, ideally via one cable. In spite of its weirdness, is this the best thing I can buy for under $6k? What should I buy instead? A 4K? I hope this doesn’t sound sarcastic, it’s an honest question. (I should say I am not doing any video or photo work, and I don’t want to get two displays)
Awesome review! If I may humbly suggest, please make a series of into to intermediate audiophile videos. I want that Snazzy Labs combo of common sense, technical depth, and pithy style to shine a light on this dark and perilous landscape.
Such a good review, best I’ve seen for this display. Wish I would have seen it first to save my time, but I’m glad you did the work and put in the effort. Excited to see the iMac Pro with this design, it makes so much sense. Great review. Thank you.
I really love my studio display but I have a feeling that 4K 120HZ would be better for most users who are interested in a high end display for their mac. That makes it all the more annoying that macs DON'T. HAVE. HDMI. 2.1!!!!! Having ranted about that, the display is for people like me who want an iMac panel to pair with my 14" MacBook pro for general computing tasks that has build quality on par with the laptop. Is it a good value? No. But if you want a first party display to use with your mac that costs less than the pro display XDR, the studio display is your only option.
@@Haru08816 Why not allow both then? Run at 4K 120hz or 5k 60HZ. They already have dynamic refresh rate frameworks built into iOS. Even if it took a minute to switch between modes it would still be nice to have
@@Haru08816 DisplayPort 2.0 is capable of doing that but there is no way apple is putting DisplayPort on their monitors despite its widespread use in just about every modern monitor
@@KHudso You cant just display a 4k image on a 5k monitor, the scaling would destroy the image quality and text would be a blurry mess unfortunately. However display port 2.0 is around the corner and it has the capability to do 5k 120
The color grading in this video made me think it's HDR but it's not lol (I switched on HDR and it didn't change, as in what usually happens with HDR content. Usually have it off because my PC lags sometimes with it on.)
All great points BUT it’s still one of the best options for me. Probably the best. That Dell would be another one: it’s contrast ratio is 1300 to 1, vs the Studio Display’s unlisted 1200 to 1, and it looks decent, but really, it’s the color coverage of the Adobe RGB gamut that is really the only thing it has over the Studio Display at the same (discounted) price point. However, I don’t do photo work. P3 and SRGB are perfect for me for digital and video work (the Dell is the same coverage with those, not better) So now with the Dell I’m left with a monitor that doesn’t look as nice, is less OS compatible/wakes slowly, doesn’t offer an opportunity for less desk clutter (speakers and camera), is almost half the resolution (this is big), doesn’t offer an improved HDR-ish experience (see Max Tech’s test of the Studio Display), and provides less charge to my macbook (though it’s close at 90W). The first four points really push me toward the Studio Display as the more rational and enjoyable decision for a day-day monitor for my professional needs. If they’d released a $2500 monitor with promotion and mini-led, I may have been interested but $1600 (maybe $2k) is probably at the top end of my range. This thing really does hit the sweet spot for me.
Good video, addressing many interesting, underdiscussed points. You entirely missed the #1 problem that occurred for me, though: The display is only 60hz. It's jarring to use this alongside a ProMotion MacBook Pro display and feels laggy and outdated in comparison.
@@noenken Well, I have a studio, ordered the monitor on launch day, used it for 2 weeks and just sent it back for that exact reason, so I beg to differ. It was very important to me.
@@a097f7g I wasn't trying to downplay your personal reasoning for the decision, that would be silly. Sorry if it came across that way. I just think that the other obvious reasons like the lack of self calibration, HDR support, touch/pen input as well as the size and the price you have to pay for all those built-in things you might not need are way bigger issues for most studios. Personally I'm editing photos on two 32" 4k LG IPS panels and I don't think the 5k resolution would help me as much as the size of my screens does now. I also would not want to pay twice the money per screen for webcams and speakers I would never use.
I appreciate your insight and thanks for not being another channel parrot’ing the same information. btw, the 64Gigs of storage could be for apps. Maybe there will be a new category of iOS apps that run on the display unit only. Maybe the display will function as a home automation hub?
I always thought Apple originally intended for this to be the new iMac Pro, but then bailed on that idea due to thinness and abandoned the all in one design.
One theory i did come across was that this was originally intended to be a 27 inch iMac of some sort (Possibly an iMac Pro), but due to thermal issues, they ended up canning it, and instead releasing the Mac Studio and Studio Display
This is (subjectively 😉) the BEST video I have seen from you yet. Splendid job, so unbiased I just loved this approach and taking it apart and the video footage just such high production value. Great work
I agree. I would guess parts shortages caused them to change some aspects. This might be the 27” iMac but they could not get the cpu parts, so are calling it a monitor.
I think there's simple answers to everything you wondered about. Despite the "studio" name, this is largely for the very vocal contingent that have been begging for an Apple-made display that's just an iMac without the computer. They are mostly programmers, and there are not many of them, but they are also a core market for Apple. But Apple hates the idea of doing anything like a PC manufacturer. They started work on what became the 2019 Mac Pro in 2017, and they could have simply thrown components in a cheese grater and had it out by 2018 or even late 2017. But they did it their way, and we have what we have. Maybe you're right that they wanted it to be mini LED, but even if it weren't it still tracks with how they roll. So you have a product that probably is a bit overengineered but still makes a hefty profit on every unit sold because it's priced accordingly for how many units they likely envision selling.
I completely agree with this. The 5k panel that is laminated to the glass is much nicer to look at for programming all day. And it’s easier to use a laptop + monitor than mess with having two computers when the laptop is plenty of horsepower for my local work. Too bad it turned out so expensive, but it is nice to never deal with scaling issues and and get the sharpest text available with better quality over the Lg.
Excellent video Quinn! You did a great job covering the highs and lows of a ‘weird’ product. This display would have made a lot more sense three (or more) years ago. I was expecting a NEW apple display in 2022 to fall somewhere between the iMac 27” and the Pro Display XDR. So this does feel weird.
I (and I would imagine many others) would have thrown them my money had Apple just matched the Studio display’s spec with the 16” M1 (Pro/Max) MBP screen. They sorely missed the mark on this one.
How much do you think it would cost to scale that 16” screen to 27”? That monitor would replace the $5,000 Pro Display XDR; this monitor is for an entirely different market
you kind of touched on this point, but it's also probably worth noting that if you're looking to get an LG ultrafine 5k and if you find yourself on ebay, you could be spending... ~$750 to $1000? which really, really makes the marginal improvements of the LCD panel extremely frustrating. when it gets down to that, nothing about better USB I/O or nicer speakers makes up for the disappointment of this still being an 8-bit LCD panel with no local dimming, no HDR, etc...
Almost everyone has criticized the monitor, maybe you live under the rock. At this moment an original thinker (even if wrong ) will say that the monitor is good. In fact the original part was when he measure the deltas, I was not expecting them to be so good enough exactly because everyone is telling that the monitor is crappy. I am not buying it because, from the reviews I get is not worthy, but almost none of the main channels is saying is good.
I disagree, I find LCD monitors with few dimming zones more annoying than edge-lit monitors with more or even the same number of LEDs, as long as there isn't any backlight uniformity issues. My favorite screen tech list would be 1. OLED 2. miniLED 3. edge-lit LCD 4. LCDs with stupidly few local dimming zones. With miniLEDs despite Apple's extremely dense miniLED backlight Apple still can't prevent blooming when, say, you're reading white text on a dark background. With low density local dimming it gets disgusting. So I don't get the criticism that the Studio Display doesn't "even" have a few dimming zones, it shouldn't, it should either be miniLED or normal LCD.
You should check out the LG c2 42inch or 48inch for computer use, they are essentially the same price but oled 4k 120hz 10bit and have great hdr, only real problem would be burn in but even my old LG cx seems to be fine after years of pc use
4K is ridiculously low res for 42”. It’d be equivalent to like 1440p at 27”. Apple would only release a 4K screen at 24” or below, and even that would fall short of their target PPI. What I’m learning from these comments is that (a) Quinn has a lot of PC user viewers and (b) a lot of people are coping with some bad monitor resolutions in 2022
I bought one recently and it’s perfect, even for the price. All the Apple integration stuff (scaling) and the screen is very nice. But for me it’s the pure joy of having a beautiful thing like this on my desk. I have a 18th century Oxford style desk made from massive wood with leather accents. Putting a cheap looking plastic monitor on it just didn’t feel right. And the build in speakers are also good enough adding to a less clustered workspace.
I imagine the timeline of this product goes something like: 2017: "Time to design a new 27' iMac to release sometime in 2019" 2018: "Man, we can not get an Intel chip to thermally play nice in this design... get the Apple silicon team" 2020: "Next year, we're putting the biggest baddest M1 processor we can fit in here.. oh wait...Covid supply disruptions...." 2021: "Screw it. Just put an A13 in it and ship this as a monitor" 2022: "Why do people hate us?"
So picking a less expensive 4k display should be a better deal, but there’s one thing hardly mentioned anywhere: mac os scaling. From what I’ve heard, mac os can’t really render sharp text on 4k display. As I programmer this is a big deal for me. From what I have, I can confirm this is true for 1080 and 1440p displays. I’ve used 5k iMac before and the text sharpness is just outstanding. Also, probably not a problem with the monitors themselves, I’m getting minor blinking or turning off for few seconds issues on my Dell displays. Using Apple own hardware should save you from these annoying issues. What do you think?
There is something deeply weird going on with this Studio pair or products. For the last 2 years Apple have been crowing about the energy-efficiency of the M1, with some products needing absolutely no active cooling (fan), and some that need only minimal active cooling (fan). Now there’s 2 variants of the Mac Studio, both of which have ENORMOUS cooling solutions, one of which is the identical M2 Max as in the Macbook Pros with their minimal active cooling solution, and yielding near-identical performance/benchmarks. Huh? This makes no sense at all. Is all that cooling really needed for the Mac Studio’s PSU??? As an EE, I don’t think so. And at stage left, we have this Studio Display with built-in PSU where they’ve gone to extraordinary lengths to cram in that 120V/220V mains PSU without the centre bulge of the now-former iMac, and which is an entirely different form-factor to the new 24” iMac with an external PSU. The space taken up by the A13 CPU board is enough for a full-blown M1-Pro, maybe even a M1-Max, given all that cooling capacity on the Studio display, but instead they’ve used that cooling capacity for an insane internal PSU. So yeah, is this the form-factor of a future iMac Pro? Regarding the 64GB Flash on the A13 CPU board, DO NOT underestimate ‘chipageddon’, and that maybe it was the ‘best’ option for this product, insofar as its something they had a lot of stock of, and lets face it, they’re not going to sell many of these Studio Displays, compared to the iPhones/iPads for which they are/were intended. This Studio pair makes no sense at all, insofar as the inconsistency of design language and the bizarre cooling capacity and the choices they’ve made on what to cool with that cooling capacity - a Mac Studio that ostensible doesn’t need al that cooling, and a Studio Display with internal PSU that flies in the face of the M1 iMac with its external PSU / Ethernet brick. No sense at all!
I would not go off of Netflix's guidelines. There is not a single black pixel in any video they have ever produced. Every dark scene is a washed out gray mess.
Great video. Would’ve loved an exploration of any other displays that are actually pixel-dense. AFAIK, there are no other displays other this and the LG that even have a PPI over 200. Even at 4k, it’s impossible to get something smaller that 27”
@@timtjtim While that fits the bill of UHD below 27in making you technically correct, it doesn't hit any of the other "more important things" (@12:05) from either Quinn or Naman Goel. The PPI is still below 200, it still only has a 60Hz refresh rate, it only goes up to 250 nits, it doesn't have lighting zones, it doesn't have any better color accuracy, etc.
OK; Sure. Luminance isn't necessarily a boon in professional grading. But the built in profiles for colour work do also limit luminance to the correct values, and it is nice for day-to-day use. Plus, while it may not be HDR per-se, it does work with Apple's EDR system so you can kinda use it for HDR-600
Just ordered the VESA version 😅 I just want 5k resolution to code with pristine quality text. I use glasses and 4k is good but I can see the ghosty pixels around text. Also Studio Display just works, plug and play no scaling no hassles and screen turns on instantly, other monitors are a pain on every wakeup.
I'll give it a like and I agree with you. It's a confusing product. I personally like my Lenovo and Dell displays. They work fine and don't have all this fancy fandango stuff.
You can sort of see why it is so expensive, but it is mostly fluff that you don't really need. At the end of the day it is just an old 5K panel much the same as we have had in the iMac for many years. I would rather save a lot of money and get a larger 32" 4K monitor. I doubt I would really notice the difference between 4K and 5K unless they are side by side.
I was actually hoping for a 24” display like this to go next to the iMac. I would pay $1,400 for that if it was otherwise the same. I have old man eyes at this point and the 4.5k display on the iMac looks beautiful to me. So in my opinion, this 27” display is not a pro display, it’s an enthusiast display for those that like nice stuff. If you think the price is too high, there are plenty of Samsung or LG displays in 27” available for you. But there isn’t any reason to get upset over it. Apple offer this, and that’s what they’re offering.
@@TolarRay what I think Is that like the Thunderbolt Display or the Cinema Display this one is a monitor that would hold its value for at least 5-6 years, is the monitor that all apple users wanted since the Thunderbolt Display was discontinued and the transition to usbC began
What I find funny, is how many people say they would never pay that price but apple seems to have no issues at all selling them. I went to order mine and they are currently out of stock and it’s a 6 week wait. Plus, a sub $1000 price is not realistic for the quality and contruction of this monitor.
It wouldn’t shock me if the A13 chip was used in the future for a Sidecar-esq wireless display functionality, eliminating the need for a display cable.
Sadly, all the UA-cam reviews of this monitor are by people with UA-camr brain; they can’t understand how there is a market for a premium monitor that isn’t specifically tailored to videography. If you’re a pro videographer or photographer, your monitor is professional kit, and you should probably be buying something like an XDR. A monitor that’s less than $2,000 should be irrelevant to you. Half of the comments on UA-cam videos also seem to be from gamers who wouldn’t accept less than 120Hz. This monitor is not for gamers either. It’s for Mac users and grown-ups. Why gamers even follow apple news baffles me. This monitor is for people who don’t work with video for their income, but want a really nice looking monitor that displays text perfectly in macOS. This would fit perfectly in a publishing house or a lawyer’s office. Even leaving aside 5K, it’s pretty much the only display out there that isn’t encased in cheap looking plastic. The new Samsung M8s look nice (it’s extraordinary how closely they nailed the look of the apple studio display) and so does that Huawei one, with the unusual aspect ratio. But then you’re back to 4K with the benefit of Samsung bloatware and alleged Huawei spyware. I’m working with a fairly nice looking HP 4K monitor, with a solid aluminium stand. But the monitor itself is cased in space-grey, ‘aluminium look’ plastic. Which I’m not thrilled with. *Like most non-UA-camrs in the world*, I don’t work with video. I spend all day reading and typing text on a screen, so any degree of text blurriness gives me eye fatigue, and I don’t want my work space to look like a gamer den. It feels like this monitor is designed specifically for me, and it doesn’t matter that there are far cheaper monitors that have similar specs, or specs that are superior in ways that don’t matter to me at all. That’s why Quinn’s comment about proofing Alex mini if footage is so odd to me. If you’re proofing footage from a professional grade camera, why would you be doing it on a consumer-grade and consumer-priced monitor? This monitor isn’t that customer’s ‘only option’. Arguably it isn’t even *an* option for them. The XDR is apparently designed for that kind of work, and is supposedly fantastic value for it. This monitor has very different specs and a very different value proposition. It’s for Mac users who want an iMac-like display with high build quality but don’t care about refresh rates and HDR, because those features are not relevant to what they use their Macs for. tldr: UA-camrs as a class are almost uniquely unqualified to review this monitor. If you’re thought is ‘this should have these additional features and cost almost twice as much’, you’ve misidentified the people who actually want this monitor and what they are willing to pay for.
I went to Apple store to se it , the web especially looked to have a lot of wasted space. As an enthusiast photographer & wanted 27 “ iMacs there’s no getting around it very nice design & build but very expensive & there’s the feeling without the computer bit it should have been a good bit less. Although it maybe old tech it wasn’t a bad screen. Apple is normally very good at marketing, perceived widely to be of poor value. It’s a hard call to buy this or go with something else far cheaper, which may need some speakers & studio pulls some perceived value back The use of the word pro is very much abused on YT & the web , pro may use comparable screen to this or more expensive again or monitor for less than half what Apple are asking. A pro is simply paid to do the work & they too will have a varying budget range. A few maybe an iPad will do? It is deservingly a very controversial, splitting product
Y'all I'm not saying it would make sense I'm just saying it would help justify the cost a little more and there's already absurd amount of processing power in this monitor going to waste
One UA-camr showed people the guts of the Apple Studio Display and the guts of an iMac and asked which was the computer. About half picked the Apple Studio Display.
The issue with the Ultrafine monitors is they develop panel problems. I've had 3 of these and they've all ended up with severe image retention and the pink tint around the edges gets worse over time. Happens with the 4K version also. So they're dead to me. The only other option is the Samsung Viewfinity which is inferior in quality in all aspects, has a matte coating and has to be controlled using a stupid little remote (and has no hardware DDC support to get around this). So that leaves nothing but the studio display....
It all makes sense when you imagine this exact design housing a screen with either mini LED local dimming or a modern OLED panel either from Samsung or JOLED. Apple dropped the low-end of their display lineup first, likely because the high end panels they want to include aren’t ready yet at scale.
One more thing is I wouldn’t worry too much about the panel’s use of 8-bit FRC to generate its color gamut. This is a mature technology and is really, really hard to detect unless you’re using this for the most demanding color-accurate applications. Although for a $1600 base price, yeah true 10-bit would have been nice.
I do hope that Apple will bring a 27" iMac replacement for the common user, not only the pro. I use them since they entered the market and do not want a smaller screen or less resolution. A device in the same price range as the old Intel 27" - the only other thing I would really like it to have is a input to use it as screen for other devices. It is a shame that there are lots of old Intel 27" iMacs with good (working) 5K Displays that cannot be used with a new M1 computer and are discontinued since OS 12.
You went in to say this was overpriced and showed a 1600 4K display to compare it to... I m a software engineer. I don’t need the best display panel. I want a traditional ratio 27” 5k monitor and NO ONE ELSE offers that. I need the resolution to fit as much CODE as possible on a screen. So I NEED THE RESOLUTION aka not a 4K monitor. If you are a photographer or do gaming or other things that require better quality display...pay up. 5k and not the resolution $5,000 dollars for the XDR lol I currently own the 5k Ultrafine and the amount of times the Bluetooth disconnects and disrupts my work flow alone is worth an additional 300 bucks. If I m going to complain about something being overpriced, it’s the Ultrafine display When the “competition” is selling a slightly better display by “picture” standards with a crappy plastic finish that doesn’t look as crisp on a Mac...that’s a NO Too much is being made of this panel and when the LED version comes out to replace the XDR panel ya will probably complain at the price of that too even though I don’t think there is a 6k mini led monitor on the market... For Apple users, this is your only option. If you don’t need a 5k monitor then there are a million 4K options that do not work as well as this does anyhow Be happy apple is giving mini led in iPad and MacBooks and stop expecting a mini led monitor on such a large screen for 1600. If they made it LED it would have been 3500 lol
It’s still overpriced. The lack of competition in the space is exactly why it’s so expensive because apple knows they can sell it there. If other manufacturers started to make 5k displays apple would really look stupid because of their pricing. Having a few backlit zones would not make the monitor super expensive and would keep it below 1500. Apple is doing this because they are the only ones selling a 5k monitor
@@crestofhonor2349 And rolls Royce charges you what a house cost because they are the only ones who can do it and make money “If every manufacture started making rolls Royces” It don’t work that way. Apple actually has huge control over their parts and engineering and manufacturing. Other manufactures WOULD NOT be able to give you this SAME monitor for LESS They could in a cheap plastic casing maybe with crappy speakers etc It isn’t overpriced until there is a solution that makes it overpriced and the only other panel like this cost 1300 and is a 6 year old model w plastics and crappy speakers and camera I do think it’s too high but overpriced...that can’t really be proven for the display and build quality. There is NOTHING TO COMPARE IT TO Every 5k monitor in the market whether wide screen or this same ratio is in this price range or higher. Dude showed a 16-1700 4K monitor in this same video lol
@@UrbanBDKNY Except Rolls Royce isn't the only one making luxury cars and SUVs in the market. Yes what they offer is very expensive but they have other competitors who make very similar cars that appeal to the same market. Apple does not have this and they are the ONLY ones offering the 5K monitors on the market. Yes they are very much overpriced and sell it there because no one else makes 5K markets. Rolls Royce was a bad comparison considering all the other brands competing in the same market. Yes Apple does have a unique offering and sync between their hardware and software but it still doesn't justify this behavior they have of putting a stupid high price tag on it. They charge $400 for a height adjustable stand, how is that justified?
@@crestofhonor2349 This is a good conversation. So let's keep it going as long as it's not offensive 1) Rolls is a good example because when compared to a full loaded S-Class for example, it still cost more than double. Is it twice as good? or is it just twice as expensive? a Rolls is damn near twice as expensive as a Bentley which is ultra luxury already it self. It is not twice as good... 2) That stand is straight aluminum and likely machined out of ONE PIECE of aluminum. My question to you is, how much would this cost you for any other usage? I agree that apple products are EXPENSIVE but overpriced is TRICKY again because NO ONE else makes a stand out of a solid piece of Aluminum like this. Apple is charging a lot of money for things no one else provides The housing market right now is on FIRE because of demand and supply. A shortage in housing has ballooned the cost of housing. Apple does charge more because they don't have anyone competing with them but that leads back to my original point that to make it overpriced there has to be someone offering something similar for less.
@@UrbanBDKNY As it is yes aluminum builds are quite expensive to do with computing hardware. However Apple has one major advantage in this market compared to other companies, an aluminum market economy of scale. It's probably much cheaper for apple to do CNC aluminum casing for their products than most other companies because they already have the necessary facilities set up to produce such products. Other companies it would be far harder and more expensive because they'd have to commission other companies to do the CNC themselves or build their own production factory. That would cost quite a lot more money for them to produce since they would need to spend their own money for someone else to produce it for them. Apple, since they've been doing this for over a decade, has already had the places setup for in house production making the process far less expensive overall to produce. And yes the point about Rolls, they have had a long history of selling to the most rich of clients. Of the various reviews I've seen of these cars Bently just doesn't compare to the feel of a Rolls. I've heard that Rolls drive like no other car out there and its so smooth that they can't even compare to other companies. Tons of other factors involved the average user just won't see unless you have the ability to take one apart and just see what they do. Rolls also produces much of the parts inside their cars which is possibly the reason they ae more expensive. I believe they make their own custom engines and many other parts unlike Bently who might purchase their stuff from other manufacturers
This is the best video about the Studio Display I know of. Thanks guys! 💜 I wonder: will this display become obsolete shortly after the software updates for the A13 based system stop?
As an Apple shareholder, these are the kind of products that we love. Apple knows their main audience will buy anything with an Apple logo on it and will line up to buy these regardless of the price.
Fact: Snazzy Labs will aggrandize any perceived microscopic negative as complete failure of an apple product. No product is absolutely perfect, but the Snazzy's way of thinking is, if a product is less than absolutely perfect the item should be criticized into oblivion.
While I was writing, I was too in the zone to think of something fairly obvious I've since considered. Maybe-just *maybe*-it's also over-engineered because they had been intending to put in a different (perhaps mini-LED panel) but had to scrap stuff late into the project due to supply chain and/or tech reasons. Would explain why this monitor is engineered out the wazoo in every other way. Perhaps it was supposed to be a loaded, crazy, insane $2,500-3,000 monitor but the panel wasn't ready in time and they had to ship this weirdo thing. Just some potential food for thought!
The Studio Display pricing kind of sits in "poor value no man's land". It would be great value at $999 (adjustable stand included by default obviously). Or as you say, it could use a better panel and cost significantly more. This is bordering on high end pricing with a mid-tier panel.
This idea makes more sense to me than anything else I've heard.
@@goldennight3 It could also have always been the plan to use this display shell for all of 1) studio display 2) rumoured higher end 27inch display 3) iMac 27inch (pro and non pro)
It's a shame that Apple does this from time to time. They release a product that just fuels all the haters who believe everything Apple releases is overpriced. Well, in this case they are right. Anyone who buys this display is getting a terrible deal.
@@siriax1691 it has almost 15 million RGBs
I knew about the a13, actually makes some sense overall. But the 64GB of storage is hilarious. That means the studio display is both more powerful and equal in storage to the very HIGHEST END Apple TV. Why didn’t they take advantage of that? A built in Apple TV would’ve been a neat selling point, and an included remote would’ve been a pittance at $1600.
When Apple can easily sell both of those products without much hassle or trouble, why would they go out of their way to combine the too. Like they say, if ain't broke, don't fix.
Besides, 27 inches is probably not big enough for those interested in Apple TV and not very desirable for those interested in a monitor.
The M1 is basically just an a14 with more cores. So the a13 should run macOS as well.
This is basically an iMac!!
@@user-bm9fo5kr1l it’s all about improving!!!
@@spaceowl5957 yeah shame they don’t do a DEX competitor. Run macOS when phone connected to a monitor, would be fucking awesome.
In 2022, the size of monitor firmware is over 1GB.
Would I love to have one of these? Absolutely. Would I pay retail for it? Absolutely not. Had they launched this around $1k I would very seriously consider it, but at $1600 there is no shot. Great review, Quinn.
$1k, you’ve got to be joking. It’s worth more than that. I have a $1k BenQ monitor and it’s worse in almost every category compared to the Studio Display.
@@stevenaziz You can get a pretty good 27" 4k monitor (eg Acer Predator XB273K) with a much better stand, 144 hertz refresh rate, better color accuracy, for $650. 4k is slightly lower resolution, but I know I can't see the difference,
@@stevenaziz if you go from 5k to 4k, you can get an equal in every way monitor for about $800 to $1000
@@TheRickyH no you can’t I looked. I looked at over 400 monitor listings on B&H and there is simply NOTHING like the Studio Display. There is literally nothing equal.
@@oscarsmith3942 “better color accuracy” lol that’s got to be an April Fools Day joke. The Studio Display literally has among the best out of the box color accuracy of any monitor ever sold. If you’re too poor to justify buying the Studio Display don’t try to convince yourself it’s a bad display. That’s a losing battle, my friend.
Part of me wonders if the A13 design was an earlier prototype attempt at what became the M1 iMac, and they decided to recycle the internals and sell it as a monitor rather than scrapping the R&D work. It's a truly bizarre set of internals otherwise.
good point.
But why would they do that? It’s all so strange.
or they planned on selling WAY more iphones/ipads and had to do something with all the extra chipsets, but didnt want to cannibalize M1 sales. thus locked down monitor
@@johnsmith-v9t8o They would probably do it like that so they could develop macOS to work on arm while working on the M1 chip
@@johnsmith-v9t8o They would do it for sure if it did not meet their expectations or plans and wanted to still make a buck out of it rather than put them in the shredder.
Manufacturers do this all the time , for example batches of computer chips that do not quite perform to the top level often end up in the cheaper models , waste nothing that you can make a buck out of.
Even parts that are goos but not sold from the year before often end up in cheaper models .
Waste not want not.
Funniest part of this display is that it can detect what orientation it’s in and automatically change the content to match, but neither of the stand options let you rotate it
vesa?
LOL
@@cerpowsprout what?
only for Vesa mount users T0T
Such an apple move 😂
Snazzy Labs, I am so happy that this isn't an April fools prank. Thank you!!!!
definitely the most well thought through and comprehensive review on this. always appreciate your take.
I will say, I do wish other OEMs considered offering glossy display options. I was trying to shop around for a 4K panel at 120Hz (or higher) with a glossy finish, and I wasn’t finding many options.
You’re in luck. evedevices.com/pages/spectrum-order
I definitely think a miniLED ProMotion panel was intended for this thing, we've been hearing about that panel's existence for ages and it seems like it would fit in this chassis perfectly. But then again, why release a desktop without giving us a monitor to go next to it? Slap the ol trusty iMac panel in it (not making it anymore so there's plenty of spares) and bob's your uncle. Wait a few months for a Mac Pro announcement, stick the miniLED panel in it and re-use the other stuff, you're good to go!
I also think so. The fans seem like they are slightly overkill for the power supply and could be used to cool an array of LEDs used as a backlight in a possible later model
Thunderbolt 4/HDMI 2.1 can only support up to 4K120 to 8K60
@@paganizondar1295 Have you seen DisplayPort 2.0? That can do even higher resolutions and frame rates compared to HDMI 2.1
@@paganizondar1295 not true, thunderbolt 4 can do 5k/120 with DSC
The only thing wrong with this monitor is that it’s just 27” and not true 5K at a bigger screen size.
Thanks!
Good review Quinn and definitely some fair points. I was thinking the same thing about the mini-LED panel being a possibility, but production may have been a problem with shortages.
For the same price, in Belgium (because its almost 1800€ here), you could buy *four LG 4k monitors with USB C and a thunderbolt dock*. It's ridiculous. No amount of cool features and nice design by Apple could possibly make this a compelling product. And since basically no one needs 5k anyway (especially when they have four 4k monitors), I think no one should buy this.
People are buying it. It’s sold out for months so you’re clearly wrong, buddy. That is unless everyone else with money to spend out there is wrong and only you get it, right? Is that how that works?
Especially considering with those 4 4k monitors you've got yourself an 8k display.
@@stevenaziz it's in stock right now and it was released less than 3 weeks ago. Please stop lying.
@@stevenaziz I'm not saying people are not buying it, and neither am I saying that people don't want it. I'm just making the argument that no one can possibly justify buying this for any other reason than being an Apple enthusiast, or not caring about how much they spend.
@@wta1518 you don’t even know what I’m talking about. Where did you learn English?? I’m talking about the Studio Display!!!! I want to bury my face in the ground.
OR....this WAS the 27 inch iMac and they scrapped it but used the idea to make a monitor. Like, this was literally the 5K M1 iMac right through production and then they changed course and made it a monitor. Or maybe it's just the weed talking.
Every time I hear you say "Fact:"
Bears, Beets, Battlestar Galactica 😂
Had a good laugh in your review of HE500 when you mentioned speaker cable burn-in?
xD
I feel like this was designed to move old materials they had lying around - wait for the 2nd gen to see what this is truly capable of.
I like the theory that the iMac Pro will be identical in design, but with M2 Max/Pro chips instead of the A13. Clearly having the same design means that the display was cheaper to design and manufacture. They basically killed two birds with one stone. But it also doesn't really make sense to do this either, because the display ends up being too expensive (because its too much like a computer). I wonder if covid supply chain issues caused this, somehow. Like maybe they had planned to make the display and iMacPro more substantially different but then realised that it would delay the product releases too much. OR they scrapped the iMac Pro at the last minute, but having put all these effort in the design, decided to repurpose it for a display.
I think it’s the latter
@@vyeung it is odd - I guess it was either ‘in or out’ and with the space they had left in there with no motherboard, they went for ‘in’ to keep it tidy. They still could have made the shallow connection magnetic, so it’s an odd decision. It’s nice to have the power built in, but not sure many folks would have been too bothered if the power supply was outside.
I think a 27" "normal" iMac makes much more sense than a iMac Pro. The "Pro" consumers are better off with the Mac Studio + a professional Display. It was a big mistake from Apple to cut off the 27" iMac....
@@simpromovie Agreed.
@@brucekennedy5274 The 143W power supply on the 24" iMac is already the size of an Apple TV. No one wants a larger one to power everything needed on this unit.
Great perspective of the Studio Display. I probably shouldn’t of bought one. We are just in a weird place where the Pro Display XDR is probably going to get a refresh as well. Everything else I can probably deal with the but the single backlight sheesh.
How do you like your display?
have
We will see a 32" iMac with a better screen & M2 chip - imagine docking an Intel Mac to an Apple screen & being able to run different apps on diff CPUs. - 1 dock, - but if the app is x86 - its runs on my intel Macbook, and if there is an M1 version - it runs on the screen. - Chrome for instance, - run that on the screen so it doesnt take resources from my work stuff.
@@brentgreeff1115 how do you know that?
@@dominicstocker5144 - How do I know there will be a 32" iMac? - simple - why didnt they put an M1 in the 27" StudioDisplay? - easy - because they realised that it would kill sales on their other products - Who would buy a Mac-Studio then? - so they are gonna sell some Mac-Studios and in about 8 months, they will release a 32" iMac-Pro with a professional screen - and an M2 but it will cost like $5000. - Why does the Studio-Display have apple-silicon? - so you can have a fancy web-cam. - this product is literally yuppie-fluff.
Amazing video. Amazing conversation.
By far one of the best voices in this space. Thank you, Quinn.
Thank you!
Literal simp for a fake eceleb. cringe
Very good review. Feels like how I would review this. What’s the next best option other than the LG. Dell 4K..
As a creative professional and Mac user I could not get myself excited or be able to justify the over-price on the Studio Display. For many creatives out there, total color gamut (Adobe RGB, P3), display uniformity, and calibration are more important than peak brightness or even 5k.
ugh, no. 5K is the TOP priority of professionals where sharp text is an absolute priority.
If you don't care about that, you would have a ton of 4k 32" panels already and have ZERO use for ASD.
It was never meant for you anyways.
Apple built a niche product ... like iMacPro.
Going from iMacPro display to 4k display is a STEP DOWN.
@@RunForPeace-hk1cu the Studio Display does not support Adobe RGB, nor is it's color gamut greater than P3. If you're a photographer or creatively work producing print work, this would be a priority over 5K. The studio Display does not support hardware calibration (or vaguely even allows precise software based calibration, the reference modes are nice, but not the same). If you're doing professional work, calibrating to a specific profile and luminance is a priority over 5K. Panel uniformity across different reference modes is also a priority over 5K.
At 27" the difference between 5k and 4k won't be noticeable for most at regular viewing distances.
The Studio Display is a great niche product, however it's an over priced one for what it offers, and lack many of the features creative professionals would seek over 5K or being 600 nits of brightness.
@@HaroldsMind 5k is a weird resolution Apple adopted - its almost nonexistent in the professional field.
@@jani0077 I agree. I think it's mostly due to how MacOS scales up the entire OS, as opposed to how Windows scales the interface instead.
Finally!! Someone acknowledges that professionals don’t (or should not) care about high peak brightness for SDR video/ photo editing!!!
I most certainly prefer no local dimming on a professional work monitor than having the issues that comes with local dimming.
I don't mind having no "pure" black, because that doesn't exist anyway in the end result of what I'm working with. The perceived black is more than well enough and it's really, really annoying to have some zones lighting up instead of having the complete display having a conform black level.
An oled on the other hand. Now that's something I'd certainly like to see. But that would be three or four times the price I guess. And then maybe we would also be having a display with less pixel density-which I do not want. I'm a very big fan of Apple's 218 dpi pixel density compared to about 140 or so on other displays.
The web uses sRGB, not P3 (CSS3 spec). That's why the color looks off there. The CSS4 spec introduces a way to specify the color space, but is still not implemented by most browsers, except for Safari.
I love how Quinn just doesn't waste any time with nonsense, and just gets to the point, while making the video fun to watch. Well done ;)
The Iiyama runs at 6bit on macOS only. On Windows with 2 DisplayPort cables it does run at proper 8bit.
The panel is the identical LG 5K panel (from the 2015 5K Imac)
Finally!! Worth the wait as always!!
Hey Quinn - is that thing on the display a color calibrator? If so where can I buy one of those to calibrate my displays?
I enjoyed this review a lot, great work! For me, and I guess many others, I have a laptop that I mostly want to dock with a display, ideally via one cable. In spite of its weirdness, is this the best thing I can buy for under $6k? What should I buy instead? A 4K? I hope this doesn’t sound sarcastic, it’s an honest question. (I should say I am not doing any video or photo work, and I don’t want to get two displays)
OK, but what to buy instead of Studio Display?
Awesome review! If I may humbly suggest, please make a series of into to intermediate audiophile videos. I want that Snazzy Labs combo of common sense, technical depth, and pithy style to shine a light on this dark and perilous landscape.
Why your videos are so perfect? Man! Loved the flavors of this one
Such a good review, best I’ve seen for this display. Wish I would have seen it first to save my time, but I’m glad you did the work and put in the effort. Excited to see the iMac Pro with this design, it makes so much sense. Great review. Thank you.
I wish UA-cam could properly handle the gradient lighting you guys did for the video. Would look 1000x better. Great vid though. :]
Thanks! Also, yeah. Stupid compression!! Gonna have to keep shooting with light backgrounds.
I really love my studio display but I have a feeling that 4K 120HZ would be better for most users who are interested in a high end display for their mac. That makes it all the more annoying that macs DON'T. HAVE. HDMI. 2.1!!!!! Having ranted about that, the display is for people like me who want an iMac panel to pair with my 14" MacBook pro for general computing tasks that has build quality on par with the laptop. Is it a good value? No. But if you want a first party display to use with your mac that costs less than the pro display XDR, the studio display is your only option.
They won't be able to give up 5k resolution The problem is that there is no way to transmit 5k 120Hz with current technology even Thunderbolt 4
Yup, Apple is good at locking their user into their garden. When you are in, you can't escape but to spend more for their products.
@@Haru08816 Why not allow both then? Run at 4K 120hz or 5k 60HZ. They already have dynamic refresh rate frameworks built into iOS. Even if it took a minute to switch between modes it would still be nice to have
@@Haru08816 DisplayPort 2.0 is capable of doing that but there is no way apple is putting DisplayPort on their monitors despite its widespread use in just about every modern monitor
@@KHudso You cant just display a 4k image on a 5k monitor, the scaling would destroy the image quality and text would be a blurry mess unfortunately. However display port 2.0 is around the corner and it has the capability to do 5k 120
The color grading in this video made me think it's HDR but it's not lol (I switched on HDR and it didn't change, as in what usually happens with HDR content. Usually have it off because my PC lags sometimes with it on.)
Quinn - *the studio display was supposed to have touchscreen capabilities*
All great points BUT it’s still one of the best options for me. Probably the best. That Dell would be another one: it’s contrast ratio is 1300 to 1, vs the Studio Display’s unlisted 1200 to 1, and it looks decent, but really, it’s the color coverage of the Adobe RGB gamut that is really the only thing it has over the Studio Display at the same (discounted) price point.
However, I don’t do photo work. P3 and SRGB are perfect for me for digital and video work (the Dell is the same coverage with those, not better)
So now with the Dell I’m left with a monitor that doesn’t look as nice, is less OS compatible/wakes slowly, doesn’t offer an opportunity for less desk clutter (speakers and camera), is almost half the resolution (this is big), doesn’t offer an improved HDR-ish experience (see Max Tech’s test of the Studio Display), and provides less charge to my macbook (though it’s close at 90W).
The first four points really push me toward the Studio Display as the more rational and enjoyable decision for a day-day monitor for my professional needs.
If they’d released a $2500 monitor with promotion and mini-led, I may have been interested but $1600 (maybe $2k) is probably at the top end of my range. This thing really does hit the sweet spot for me.
Good video, addressing many interesting, underdiscussed points. You entirely missed the #1 problem that occurred for me, though: The display is only 60hz. It's jarring to use this alongside a ProMotion MacBook Pro display and feels laggy and outdated in comparison.
Honestly, of all the problems this monitor has in any kind of studio situation, that is most likely the least important one.
@@noenken Well, I have a studio, ordered the monitor on launch day, used it for 2 weeks and just sent it back for that exact reason, so I beg to differ. It was very important to me.
@@a097f7g I wasn't trying to downplay your personal reasoning for the decision, that would be silly. Sorry if it came across that way. I just think that the other obvious reasons like the lack of self calibration, HDR support, touch/pen input as well as the size and the price you have to pay for all those built-in things you might not need are way bigger issues for most studios. Personally I'm editing photos on two 32" 4k LG IPS panels and I don't think the 5k resolution would help me as much as the size of my screens does now. I also would not want to pay twice the money per screen for webcams and speakers I would never use.
Trying to find out if, when the computer is turned off, the display ports are live for say mouse, keyboard charging??
Would love to see a what is the best 4K display for Mac today…
I have a MateView Display 28 inch 4k+ with current promotion £399. Can't see anything out there to match it for value and performance.
great video - I am still floored by how poor the webcam is on the 27" Apple Studio Display.
I appreciate your insight and thanks for not being another channel parrot’ing the same information. btw, the 64Gigs of storage could be for apps. Maybe there will be a new category of iOS apps that run on the display unit only. Maybe the display will function as a home automation hub?
Love that you mentioned “Art is Right” love his channel too! :D
I always thought Apple originally intended for this to be the new iMac Pro, but then bailed on that idea due to thinness and abandoned the all in one design.
One theory i did come across was that this was originally intended to be a 27 inch iMac of some sort (Possibly an iMac Pro), but due to thermal issues, they ended up canning it, and instead releasing the Mac Studio and Studio Display
Love the beard dawg. Keep pushing to that snazzy final form.
This is (subjectively 😉) the BEST video I have seen from you yet. Splendid job, so unbiased I just loved this approach and taking it apart and the video footage just such high production value. Great work
Thanks!!
@@snazzy No, thank you
I agree. I would guess parts shortages caused them to change some aspects. This might be the 27” iMac but they could not get the cpu parts, so are calling it a monitor.
I think there's simple answers to everything you wondered about. Despite the "studio" name, this is largely for the very vocal contingent that have been begging for an Apple-made display that's just an iMac without the computer. They are mostly programmers, and there are not many of them, but they are also a core market for Apple. But Apple hates the idea of doing anything like a PC manufacturer. They started work on what became the 2019 Mac Pro in 2017, and they could have simply thrown components in a cheese grater and had it out by 2018 or even late 2017. But they did it their way, and we have what we have. Maybe you're right that they wanted it to be mini LED, but even if it weren't it still tracks with how they roll. So you have a product that probably is a bit overengineered but still makes a hefty profit on every unit sold because it's priced accordingly for how many units they likely envision selling.
I completely agree with this. The 5k panel that is laminated to the glass is much nicer to look at for programming all day. And it’s easier to use a laptop + monitor than mess with having two computers when the laptop is plenty of horsepower for my local work. Too bad it turned out so expensive, but it is nice to never deal with scaling issues and and get the sharpest text available with better quality over the Lg.
Just got one of these today, the USB-C speed via the monitor is slow for at least the Apple USB-C to 1G ethernet adapter (~740Mbps vs 940Mbps).
Excellent video Quinn! You did a great job covering the highs and lows of a ‘weird’ product.
This display would have made a lot more sense three (or more) years ago.
I was expecting a NEW apple display in 2022 to fall somewhere between the iMac 27” and the Pro Display XDR. So this does feel weird.
What does a thin monitor gets you ?
Could have been twice as thick and be just as usable.
Laid.
I (and I would imagine many others) would have thrown them my money had Apple just matched the Studio display’s spec with the 16” M1 (Pro/Max) MBP screen. They sorely missed the mark on this one.
How much do you think it would cost to scale that 16” screen to 27”? That monitor would replace the $5,000 Pro Display XDR; this monitor is for an entirely different market
@@bahlalthewatcher4790 well said.
you kind of touched on this point, but it's also probably worth noting that if you're looking to get an LG ultrafine 5k and if you find yourself on ebay, you could be spending... ~$750 to $1000? which really, really makes the marginal improvements of the LCD panel extremely frustrating. when it gets down to that, nothing about better USB I/O or nicer speakers makes up for the disappointment of this still being an 8-bit LCD panel with no local dimming, no HDR, etc...
refreshing to see an apple reviewer to actually critique it instead of saying "its the only 5k display that's not ugly so its good"
Almost everyone has criticized the monitor, maybe you live under the rock. At this moment an original thinker (even if wrong ) will say that the monitor is good. In fact the original part was when he measure the deltas, I was not expecting them to be so good enough exactly because everyone is telling that the monitor is crappy. I am not buying it because, from the reviews I get is not worthy, but almost none of the main channels is saying is good.
@@jaimeduncan6167 who hurt you?
I disagree, I find LCD monitors with few dimming zones more annoying than edge-lit monitors with more or even the same number of LEDs, as long as there isn't any backlight uniformity issues. My favorite screen tech list would be 1. OLED 2. miniLED 3. edge-lit LCD 4. LCDs with stupidly few local dimming zones. With miniLEDs despite Apple's extremely dense miniLED backlight Apple still can't prevent blooming when, say, you're reading white text on a dark background. With low density local dimming it gets disgusting. So I don't get the criticism that the Studio Display doesn't "even" have a few dimming zones, it shouldn't, it should either be miniLED or normal LCD.
My theory is they started designing an iMac and ran out of time so just said… screw it let’s just make a monitor
You should check out the LG c2 42inch or 48inch for computer use, they are essentially the same price but oled 4k 120hz 10bit and have great hdr, only real problem would be burn in but even my old LG cx seems to be fine after years of pc use
does it have Apple logo?
4K is ridiculously low res for 42”. It’d be equivalent to like 1440p at 27”. Apple would only release a 4K screen at 24” or below, and even that would fall short of their target PPI.
What I’m learning from these comments is that (a) Quinn has a lot of PC user viewers and (b) a lot of people are coping with some bad monitor resolutions in 2022
Damm UA-cam compression really did this video bad.
Viewing this on a OLED screen still can see a lot of compression artifacts.
Yeah UA-cam sucks. We’ll be shooting with lighter backgrounds from now on. Sorry!
Damn good review… again! You’re getting good at this!
I learnt a new word today. I also learnt an overpriced display I bought has 64GB on unusable storage.
It’s annoying for me too. 64GB of unusable memory. But if I upgrade my Mac from 8 to 64 it costs hundreds of dollars. Urghh
@@GerardHammond storage, not memory. Not even apple is stingy enough to sell a Mac with only 64GB of storage.
@@bahlalthewatcher4790 oh yes. thank goodness. 25 years of buying Macs and this threw me :-). glad i'm mistaken.
When calibrating the lg Ultrafine, what LED type are you supposed to select with the xrite? I’ve never been able to figure that out. Thanks
I made it into this video. What a snazzy day.
Oh hello Greg! Welcome to channel with objective reviews.
Would it be possible to connect a second display through the USB-C hub in the back?
Quinn could put up a video a year after a product releases and I would still watch it the second it comes out.
I bought one recently and it’s perfect, even for the price. All the Apple integration stuff (scaling) and the screen is very nice. But for me it’s the pure joy of having a beautiful thing like this on my desk. I have a 18th century Oxford style desk made from massive wood with leather accents. Putting a cheap looking plastic monitor on it just didn’t feel right. And the build in speakers are also good enough adding to a less clustered workspace.
I imagine the timeline of this product goes something like:
2017: "Time to design a new 27' iMac to release sometime in 2019"
2018: "Man, we can not get an Intel chip to thermally play nice in this design... get the Apple silicon team"
2020: "Next year, we're putting the biggest baddest M1 processor we can fit in here.. oh wait...Covid supply disruptions...."
2021: "Screw it. Just put an A13 in it and ship this as a monitor"
2022: "Why do people hate us?"
So picking a less expensive 4k display should be a better deal, but there’s one thing hardly mentioned anywhere: mac os scaling. From what I’ve heard, mac os can’t really render sharp text on 4k display. As I programmer this is a big deal for me. From what I have, I can confirm this is true for 1080 and 1440p displays. I’ve used 5k iMac before and the text sharpness is just outstanding. Also, probably not a problem with the monitors themselves, I’m getting minor blinking or turning off for few seconds issues on my Dell displays. Using Apple own hardware should save you from these annoying issues. What do you think?
There is something deeply weird going on with this Studio pair or products. For the last 2 years Apple have been crowing about the energy-efficiency of the M1, with some products needing absolutely no active cooling (fan), and some that need only minimal active cooling (fan). Now there’s 2 variants of the Mac Studio, both of which have ENORMOUS cooling solutions, one of which is the identical M2 Max as in the Macbook Pros with their minimal active cooling solution, and yielding near-identical performance/benchmarks. Huh? This makes no sense at all. Is all that cooling really needed for the Mac Studio’s PSU??? As an EE, I don’t think so. And at stage left, we have this Studio Display with built-in PSU where they’ve gone to extraordinary lengths to cram in that 120V/220V mains PSU without the centre bulge of the now-former iMac, and which is an entirely different form-factor to the new 24” iMac with an external PSU. The space taken up by the A13 CPU board is enough for a full-blown M1-Pro, maybe even a M1-Max, given all that cooling capacity on the Studio display, but instead they’ve used that cooling capacity for an insane internal PSU. So yeah, is this the form-factor of a future iMac Pro? Regarding the 64GB Flash on the A13 CPU board, DO NOT underestimate ‘chipageddon’, and that maybe it was the ‘best’ option for this product, insofar as its something they had a lot of stock of, and lets face it, they’re not going to sell many of these Studio Displays, compared to the iPhones/iPads for which they are/were intended. This Studio pair makes no sense at all, insofar as the inconsistency of design language and the bizarre cooling capacity and the choices they’ve made on what to cool with that cooling capacity - a Mac Studio that ostensible doesn’t need al that cooling, and a Studio Display with internal PSU that flies in the face of the M1 iMac with its external PSU / Ethernet brick. No sense at all!
I would not go off of Netflix's guidelines. There is not a single black pixel in any video they have ever produced. Every dark scene is a washed out gray mess.
Great video. Would’ve loved an exploration of any other displays that are actually pixel-dense. AFAIK, there are no other displays other this and the LG that even have a PPI over 200. Even at 4k, it’s impossible to get something smaller that 27”
That’s just not true. There’s the LG 24UD58-B.
@@timtjtim While that fits the bill of UHD below 27in making you technically correct, it doesn't hit any of the other "more important things" (@12:05) from either Quinn or Naman Goel. The PPI is still below 200, it still only has a 60Hz refresh rate, it only goes up to 250 nits, it doesn't have lighting zones, it doesn't have any better color accuracy, etc.
@@cushmanproductions 250 nits doesn’t really matter for professionals
Just get onenetbook mix 4
@@suntzu1409 what does this have to do with that
I can watch a dozen reviews on this display, but I want to hear your take on it. That’s why I want to see your review
OK; Sure. Luminance isn't necessarily a boon in professional grading. But the built in profiles for colour work do also limit luminance to the correct values, and it is nice for day-to-day use. Plus, while it may not be HDR per-se, it does work with Apple's EDR system so you can kinda use it for HDR-600
Just ordered the VESA version 😅 I just want 5k resolution to code with pristine quality text. I use glasses and 4k is good but I can see the ghosty pixels around text. Also Studio Display just works, plug and play no scaling no hassles and screen turns on instantly, other monitors are a pain on every wakeup.
I'll give it a like and I agree with you. It's a confusing product. I personally like my Lenovo and Dell displays. They work fine and don't have all this fancy fandango stuff.
You can sort of see why it is so expensive, but it is mostly fluff that you don't really need. At the end of the day it is just an old 5K panel much the same as we have had in the iMac for many years. I would rather save a lot of money and get a larger 32" 4K monitor. I doubt I would really notice the difference between 4K and 5K unless they are side by side.
I was actually hoping for a 24” display like this to go next to the iMac. I would pay $1,400 for that if it was otherwise the same. I have old man eyes at this point and the 4.5k display on the iMac looks beautiful to me. So in my opinion, this 27” display is not a pro display, it’s an enthusiast display for those that like nice stuff. If you think the price is too high, there are plenty of Samsung or LG displays in 27” available for you. But there isn’t any reason to get upset over it. Apple offer this, and that’s what they’re offering.
Fantastic analysis of the HDR vs SDR difference and the brightness associated with them.
I’m sure these will lose their value pretty quickly so I’m exciting to buy it for around 1000
yeah.. not.. look at the Cinema Display thunderbolt...
Nope. Remember when people thought the same about the HomePod? Sold mine for like a 5% loss after TWO YEARS of use!
@@samarianosans What do you mean? Future proof wise or
@@TolarRay what I think Is that like the Thunderbolt Display or the Cinema Display this one is a monitor that would hold its value for at least 5-6 years, is the monitor that all apple users wanted since the Thunderbolt Display was discontinued and the transition to usbC began
What I find funny, is how many people say they would never pay that price but apple seems to have no issues at all selling them. I went to order mine and they are currently out of stock and it’s a 6 week wait. Plus, a sub $1000 price is not realistic for the quality and contruction of this monitor.
Great review! Really appreciate your perspective on how weird this product is.
Great video Quinn, It's a good panel but $1600 and $400 to get height adjustment common!
It wouldn’t shock me if the A13 chip was used in the future for a Sidecar-esq wireless display functionality, eliminating the need for a display cable.
If it has some sort of wifi and bluetooth connection.
@@huyanh995 that should be part of the chipset, not something added later like 4g/5g modem
@@bradhaines3142 It doesn't have antenna :)
@@huyanh995 i bet some software could fix that
@@bradhaines3142 How the heck a software can install some missed hardwares?
Is it possible to get the link to where I can pick up that Normal hat?
Sadly, all the UA-cam reviews of this monitor are by people with UA-camr brain; they can’t understand how there is a market for a premium monitor that isn’t specifically tailored to videography. If you’re a pro videographer or photographer, your monitor is professional kit, and you should probably be buying something like an XDR. A monitor that’s less than $2,000 should be irrelevant to you.
Half of the comments on UA-cam videos also seem to be from gamers who wouldn’t accept less than 120Hz. This monitor is not for gamers either. It’s for Mac users and grown-ups. Why gamers even follow apple news baffles me.
This monitor is for people who don’t work with video for their income, but want a really nice looking monitor that displays text perfectly in macOS. This would fit perfectly in a publishing house or a lawyer’s office. Even leaving aside 5K, it’s pretty much the only display out there that isn’t encased in cheap looking plastic. The new Samsung M8s look nice (it’s extraordinary how closely they nailed the look of the apple studio display) and so does that Huawei one, with the unusual aspect ratio. But then you’re back to 4K with the benefit of Samsung bloatware and alleged Huawei spyware.
I’m working with a fairly nice looking HP 4K monitor, with a solid aluminium stand. But the monitor itself is cased in space-grey, ‘aluminium look’ plastic. Which I’m not thrilled with.
*Like most non-UA-camrs in the world*, I don’t work with video. I spend all day reading and typing text on a screen, so any degree of text blurriness gives me eye fatigue, and I don’t want my work space to look like a gamer den. It feels like this monitor is designed specifically for me, and it doesn’t matter that there are far cheaper monitors that have similar specs, or specs that are superior in ways that don’t matter to me at all.
That’s why Quinn’s comment about proofing Alex mini if footage is so odd to me. If you’re proofing footage from a professional grade camera, why would you be doing it on a consumer-grade and consumer-priced monitor? This monitor isn’t that customer’s ‘only option’. Arguably it isn’t even *an* option for them. The XDR is apparently designed for that kind of work, and is supposedly fantastic value for it. This monitor has very different specs and a very different value proposition. It’s for Mac users who want an iMac-like display with high build quality but don’t care about refresh rates and HDR, because those features are not relevant to what they use their Macs for.
tldr: UA-camrs as a class are almost uniquely unqualified to review this monitor. If you’re thought is ‘this should have these additional features and cost almost twice as much’, you’ve misidentified the people who actually want this monitor and what they are willing to pay for.
I went to Apple store to se it , the web especially looked to have a lot of wasted space. As an enthusiast photographer & wanted 27 “ iMacs there’s no getting around it very nice design & build but very expensive & there’s the feeling without the computer bit it should have been a good bit less. Although it maybe old tech it wasn’t a bad screen. Apple is normally very good at marketing, perceived widely to be of poor value. It’s a hard call to buy this or go with something else far cheaper, which may need some speakers & studio pulls some perceived value back
The use of the word pro is very much abused on YT & the web , pro may use comparable screen to this or more expensive again or monitor for less than half what Apple are asking. A pro is simply paid to do the work & they too will have a varying budget range. A few maybe an iPad will do?
It is deservingly a very controversial, splitting product
If they can make it 500$ I'll buy it, but until that happens I'll stick with my AOC display.
>AOC display
cringe
Or if they had unlocked the full capability of the a13 and just flat out made it an Apple TV...
Thats what I said, make it like a smart monitor.
theres no reason they cant
There’s not a huge market for a 27” smart TV, and there’s no market for a 5K TV afaik (who is selling 5K content?)
@@bahlalthewatcher4790 it would be a nice bonus for the monitor to have that functionality
Y'all I'm not saying it would make sense I'm just saying it would help justify the cost a little more and there's already absurd amount of processing power in this monitor going to waste
thanks...more the reason to return and wait for a better monitor
One UA-camr showed people the guts of the Apple Studio Display and the guts of an iMac and asked which was the computer. About half picked the Apple Studio Display.
The issue with the Ultrafine monitors is they develop panel problems. I've had 3 of these and they've all ended up with severe image retention and the pink tint around the edges gets worse over time. Happens with the 4K version also. So they're dead to me. The only other option is the Samsung Viewfinity which is inferior in quality in all aspects, has a matte coating and has to be controlled using a stupid little remote (and has no hardware DDC support to get around this). So that leaves nothing but the studio display....
It all makes sense when you imagine this exact design housing a screen with either mini LED local dimming or a modern OLED panel either from Samsung or JOLED. Apple dropped the low-end of their display lineup first, likely because the high end panels they want to include aren’t ready yet at scale.
Lol, I read the pinned comment right after posting this.
One more thing is I wouldn’t worry too much about the panel’s use of 8-bit FRC to generate its color gamut. This is a mature technology and is really, really hard to detect unless you’re using this for the most demanding color-accurate applications. Although for a $1600 base price, yeah true 10-bit would have been nice.
Do you mean QDOLED? I have never heard of JOLED
@@Ender275 JOLED is a manufacturer of RGB OLED panels at sizes suitable for computer monitors. They make the panel in the new LG Oled Ultrafine Pro.
I do hope that Apple will bring a 27" iMac replacement for the common user, not only the pro. I use them since they entered the market and do not want a smaller screen or less resolution.
A device in the same price range as the old Intel 27" - the only other thing I would really like it to have is a input to use it as screen for other devices.
It is a shame that there are lots of old Intel 27" iMacs with good (working) 5K Displays that cannot be used with a new M1 computer and are discontinued since OS 12.
You went in to say this was overpriced and showed a 1600 4K display to compare it to...
I m a software engineer. I don’t need the best display panel. I want a traditional ratio 27” 5k monitor and NO ONE ELSE offers that. I need the resolution to fit as much CODE as possible on a screen. So I NEED THE RESOLUTION aka not a 4K monitor.
If you are a photographer or do gaming or other things that require better quality display...pay up. 5k and not the resolution $5,000 dollars for the XDR lol
I currently own the 5k Ultrafine and the amount of times the Bluetooth disconnects and disrupts my work flow alone is worth an additional 300 bucks. If I m going to complain about something being overpriced, it’s the Ultrafine display
When the “competition” is selling a slightly better display by “picture” standards with a crappy plastic finish that doesn’t look as crisp on a Mac...that’s a NO
Too much is being made of this panel and when the LED version comes out to replace the XDR panel ya will probably complain at the price of that too even though I don’t think there is a 6k mini led monitor on the market...
For Apple users, this is your only option. If you don’t need a 5k monitor then there are a million 4K options that do not work as well as this does anyhow
Be happy apple is giving mini led in iPad and MacBooks and stop expecting a mini led monitor on such a large screen for 1600. If they made it LED it would have been 3500 lol
It’s still overpriced. The lack of competition in the space is exactly why it’s so expensive because apple knows they can sell it there. If other manufacturers started to make 5k displays apple would really look stupid because of their pricing. Having a few backlit zones would not make the monitor super expensive and would keep it below 1500. Apple is doing this because they are the only ones selling a 5k monitor
@@crestofhonor2349
And rolls Royce charges you what a house cost because they are the only ones who can do it and make money
“If every manufacture started making rolls Royces”
It don’t work that way. Apple actually has huge control over their parts and engineering and manufacturing. Other manufactures WOULD NOT be able to give you this SAME monitor for LESS
They could in a cheap plastic casing maybe with crappy speakers etc
It isn’t overpriced until there is a solution that makes it overpriced and the only other panel like this cost 1300 and is a 6 year old model w plastics and crappy speakers and camera
I do think it’s too high but overpriced...that can’t really be proven for the display and build quality. There is NOTHING TO COMPARE IT TO
Every 5k monitor in the market whether wide screen or this same ratio is in this price range or higher. Dude showed a 16-1700 4K monitor in this same video lol
@@UrbanBDKNY Except Rolls Royce isn't the only one making luxury cars and SUVs in the market. Yes what they offer is very expensive but they have other competitors who make very similar cars that appeal to the same market. Apple does not have this and they are the ONLY ones offering the 5K monitors on the market. Yes they are very much overpriced and sell it there because no one else makes 5K markets. Rolls Royce was a bad comparison considering all the other brands competing in the same market. Yes Apple does have a unique offering and sync between their hardware and software but it still doesn't justify this behavior they have of putting a stupid high price tag on it. They charge $400 for a height adjustable stand, how is that justified?
@@crestofhonor2349
This is a good conversation. So let's keep it going as long as it's not offensive
1) Rolls is a good example because when compared to a full loaded S-Class for example, it still cost more than double. Is it twice as good? or is it just twice as expensive? a Rolls is damn near twice as expensive as a Bentley which is ultra luxury already it self. It is not twice as good...
2) That stand is straight aluminum and likely machined out of ONE PIECE of aluminum. My question to you is, how much would this cost you for any other usage? I agree that apple products are EXPENSIVE but overpriced is TRICKY again because NO ONE else makes a stand out of a solid piece of Aluminum like this. Apple is charging a lot of money for things no one else provides
The housing market right now is on FIRE because of demand and supply. A shortage in housing has ballooned the cost of housing. Apple does charge more because they don't have anyone competing with them but that leads back to my original point that to make it overpriced there has to be someone offering something similar for less.
@@UrbanBDKNY As it is yes aluminum builds are quite expensive to do with computing hardware. However Apple has one major advantage in this market compared to other companies, an aluminum market economy of scale. It's probably much cheaper for apple to do CNC aluminum casing for their products than most other companies because they already have the necessary facilities set up to produce such products. Other companies it would be far harder and more expensive because they'd have to commission other companies to do the CNC themselves or build their own production factory. That would cost quite a lot more money for them to produce since they would need to spend their own money for someone else to produce it for them. Apple, since they've been doing this for over a decade, has already had the places setup for in house production making the process far less expensive overall to produce.
And yes the point about Rolls, they have had a long history of selling to the most rich of clients. Of the various reviews I've seen of these cars Bently just doesn't compare to the feel of a Rolls. I've heard that Rolls drive like no other car out there and its so smooth that they can't even compare to other companies. Tons of other factors involved the average user just won't see unless you have the ability to take one apart and just see what they do. Rolls also produces much of the parts inside their cars which is possibly the reason they ae more expensive. I believe they make their own custom engines and many other parts unlike Bently who might purchase their stuff from other manufacturers
This is the best video about the Studio Display I know of. Thanks guys! 💜
I wonder: will this display become obsolete shortly after the software updates for the A13 based system stop?
As an Apple shareholder, these are the kind of products that we love. Apple knows their main audience will buy anything with an Apple logo on it and will line up to buy these regardless of the price.
So what is the best option at a great price
It's an interior design object that no one else offers: that's how you get your price tag.
11:03 what's that rocket looking thing on the right?
Fact: Snazzy Labs will aggrandize any perceived microscopic negative as complete failure of an apple product. No product is absolutely perfect, but the Snazzy's way of thinking is, if a product is less than absolutely perfect the item should be criticized into oblivion.
If that’s your takeaway from the video, you severely lack the ability to listen and comprehend.
Very much enjoyed your comments. Both informative and entertaining. Thank You! 🙏