Apple Studio Display vs. LG Ultrafine 5K vs. Others: The Best Computer Monitor? | WSJ

Apple’s new $1,599 monitor promises great screen quality, a sharp webcam and surround sound. But does it live up to its price tag?

WSJ’s Joanna Stern compared it to other displays from LG, Samsung and Dell in her own March Monitor Madness.

Photo illustration: Alex Kuzoian for The Wall Street Journal.

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Everything is now a tech thing. In creative and humorous videos, WSJ senior personal tech columnist Joanna Stern explains and reviews the products, services and trends that are changing our world.

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#AppleStudioDisplay #Monitors #JoannaStern

[viewer_]

"That's why I brought someone with better eyes than me".
Dude with specs walks in!

[User-cbjm]

Love Joanna’s takes on tech. I agree, for me a standard 4K USB-C monitor is more than enough for docking my MacBook Pro. It boggles me the Studio Display costs so much but still acts like a standard monitor and can’t do XDR like my miniLED laptop display neither does it have the adaptive 120hz refresh rate (ProMotion) I absolutely love, and now you’ve also proven the pretty good 1080p MacBook Pro webcam is still better than the 12MP one that should theoretically be able to do 4K.

[kartikeyaable]

Respect her for this hot take. Feel like these days most of the tech review guys would never objectively finish a sentence degrading apple.

[zecanard]

Apple goes and creates a premium product priced accordingly, yet somehow forgets what its primary purpose is. A monitor isn’t a webcam or a surround-sound system—it’s a display first and foremost. I would gladly ditch the A13, Center Stage, and 6 speakers for HDR and ProMotion. But a 60 Hz SDR display with the same display specs as the old 27” iMac, at that price, is hard to justify.

Looks like they didn’t learn from the commercial disaster that was the HomePod.

[billtang]

I just love Joanna’s reviews! She is able to do non biased reviews well

[philippeggmann]

Hey, the lg 5k and the studio use the excact same panel!

[adobegr]

You should have mentioned stuff like image scaling and clarity of text. I don’t use my computer to watch films.

[aliua]

I subscribe to WSJ for Joanna's content

[ten_tego_teges]

I thought everyone now uses separate headphones or dedicated speakers instead of monitor speakers.

The lack of adjustable height and rotation is pretty shocking on the other side.

[HuntsmanBG]

Joanna is simply the best on the business

[Mainyehc]

Not only does the heigh-adjustable stand cost an extra $400, unlike its more expensive Pro XDR counterpart it doesn’t allow for rotation. If you want that functionality you’ll have to get the VESA mount version and use your own monitor arm/stand.

[CNMTCFilms]

The problem is, there isn't really another 5k 27" on the market. The Ultrafine isn't available in most stores anymore. And there is nothing comparable with this build quality. But it's just very expensive

[jonorisin]

I really appreciate this comparison. So few people are comparing the existing (and cheaper) LG Ultrafine 5k to the newer -more expensive- Studio Display.

[Observationistic]

Hi. Reformed Apple fanboy here. Having used the LG monitor, I have to say that even though the quality of Apple’s monitors’ build is superior in every way, the quality of the displays and the software support are comparable, which really surprised me because I used to think that there’re no other companies that can do it as well as Apple.

[Ian-gfid]

Superb review - no punches pulled, and a touch of humour to stop it getting too dry. Integration with OS X controls (brightness; volume; etc) is nice to have, but the average specifications and performance (compared to competitors), plus very poor webcam performance and limited adjustability on the stand, really doesn't justify Apple's price tag.

[Squadwin]

Quite an excellent video. Would definitely like to see you compare the matter vs glossy vs semi/glossy filters.

[stevewright]

This is most likely the same, somewhat dated, panel that is in the LG. The webcam HAS to be improved by software. Some discussion of the speakers and sound quality along with Hey Siri functionality that is not found in the LG should have been mentioned. Hopefully Apple can revise this monitor in the future as the display needs improvement to match current standards.

[tedrodenborn]

Dude! Dan Silverman! I haven’t seen you since back in our days at Technicolor. That was like 15 years ago. Nice to see you man! Thanks for this review, very helpful.

[TheViettan]

Most people just need a $200 4k monitor.
Your $400 is kinda good already

[istudy]

What a pleasure to see her using same monitor I got. The LG monitor is totally worth bang for buck