Apple Studio Display - Things I wish I knew BEFORE buying

The Apple Studio Display monitor is incredible, but is it worth the price? We'll discuss some of the things you should know about the new Mac Studio Display prior to purchasing. Is it worth the price vs the LG 5k Ultrafine? Watch to find out.

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[RachelPenningtonHull]

How to turn off the monitor: Go to Preferences, to the Keyboard, and create a keyboard shortcut to turn off the monitor. Mine is actually set if I swipe the mouse pointer all the way to a certain corner the monitor turns off.

[dennismunsie]

I just upgraded from a Thunderbolt Display to the Studio Display and it's pretty much exactly what I thought it would be. The TB display also had a lot of the same features you mentioned (lack of power button, limited to one input), so these didn't really catch me off guard. The way i've handled this for years is that when I want to leave my Mac on but away with the screen off, I just turn on the screen saver by putting my mouse pointer in the bottom left corner of the display. After a minute or two (depending on what I have the settings on), the display will turn off automatically while the Mac keeps running.

I 100% agree about the stand. The TB display had a tilt only stand, but it also sits a little higher (19.35" vs 18.8"). Since I already knew that my TB display was at times a little low, I opted for the tilt and height adjustable stand instead. While it's definitely not cheap, I do think that it was the right call for a display that I'll probably be using 5-10 years or more from now.

My only other nitpick about this display is that it only has the three downstream USB-C ports in it. The TB display had 1-gig ethernet, a FireWire 800 port and a downstream TB2 port that you could daisy chain another TB display to if you had a Mac that could support it. Since I use my display as a docking station for my personal and work MacBook Pros, I like to have my keyboard, mouse and network all wired to the display at all times. I ended up having to buy a small Anker USB-C hub with built in Ethernet so that I could maintain the single connection to the computer.

[stevenaziz]

Quick tip on the power button, you can go to system preferences on your Mac and go to Desktop and Screensaver, then navigate to the screen saver tab, then hit “hot corners” at the bottom and create a shortcut to turn the display off by dragging your cursor to a corner on the screen. You can also hit a control key (like option, command, etc.) while setting the shortcut so that your display doesn’t turn off every time you find your cursor in that corner, but only when your cursor is in that corner and the set control key is held down. Let me know if this helps.

Edit: about the audio playback destination, you can set up aggregate audio devices using the built-in MDI audio app in MacOS, which allows you to combine multiple audio outputs into one.

[grahambailey]

I looked at several options and decided for the
BenQ PD3220U. Admittedly It may not be a one to one match but it ticks all my boxes with an impressive thunderbolt (usb c ) hub that allows me to connect more than one Mac at a time (Mac mini through display port), powers my mac book pro max through one supplied thunderbolt cable for somewhere around $600 less that the apple studio. Btw will raise and tilt on the provided stand and can even go portrait. Perfect for me.

Thanks for your very honest review 😎

[Leemoncillo]

For the stand, I would opt to buy the VESA, and add an arm that allows not only adjusts the tilt and height, but also the angle. That way you can access the back without worrying about it falling off. Maybe we have to wait, surely a stand made for the VESA will come out soon from a 3rd party vendor.

[FOBob-srfd]

I love mine and the software update made the webcam much better.

[danieljimenez]

I have the Nano texture Display and for me it's amazing, I've heard a lot of people say that it's not worth it, but for me it is, so I think it depends on what you like and what you want,

[themainman]

I would be getting the display with the vesa mount. It’s cheaper to get the arm and a longer thunderbolt cable than to get the height adjustable stand.

[mazzdacon]

I am looking to replace 2 x 27 iMacs and this doesn't look like good value.

[dazzer]

My 5k iMac and 4K monitor are side by side. Worlds apart in terms of image quality. 5k has no issues at all, where I get blurred areas on the 4K, and the scaling isn’t great either.

[MockManor]

I still don’t understand how this display is overpriced. Is it expensive? Yes. But can someone tell me another alternative to a 5K, color calibrated P3, at 600 nits or higher, that has spatial audio sound system and literally a CPU controller, that’s cheaper? I don’t want to hear about 4K display. Once you see 5K, you can’t go back to 4K. Also, I keep hearing people expected mini led tech or local dimming tech in this display. They wanted the tech that’s in the MacBook pro’s at 27”. Apple would have to charge $3, 000 for those features. There’s no way to charge $1, 600 for that level of tech, of which I only see Apple doing (if there’s another company doing it for cheaper, then I stand corrected).

[ashwinmysore]

Hi. On a deal, I’m getting a nano textured Apple Studio Display for $300 less than the one with standard glass.

I don’t have any light in front of the monitor, so reflections aren’t a concern .

I don’t mind paying the extra for the standard glass, if that’s the better option. What would you recommend?

[NZGilead]

I am glad I watched you video. I learnt that I will encounter a problem. Indeed I have decided to replace my iMac 27 " (personal computer) and my dell 34" monitors (for my professional computer) by a Mac Studio (that I received last week) with a set of 2 Studio Display that would be connected on my Mac Studio and on my Professional computer. Now I understand it can only be one computer connected at a time... not ideal.

[Plymouthmusicschool]

This was not an impulse buy for me, saved up for a year and picked it up apple refurbished for 1, 300. My only complaint is how to store the massive box it came in

[vicwiseman]

LOL, I just picked one up. You don’t need the riser mount! Use a couple off books or get a shelf for $50! It will save desk space and cost 1/8 of the price.

[andresbarrios]

What keyboard are you using on this video ? Thanks in advance

[JustChillingDom]

regarding audio coming from 2 displays, is it not an option if you set up an aggregate or multi output device on Audio Midi?

[stephantheis]

My biggest disappointment was that there is no daisy chaining. I am using two dispays so I have to connect via two tb cables.

[ettcha]

Thats an interesting thought about the sound. Being able to assign audio channels to each monitor would have been great. Imagine getting stereo plus centre channel in a dual monitor setup!

[gianlucagianferrari]

thank you! which LG monitor did you have? problems in hardware calibration?