$1900 Studio Display Review — But Why?!

Apple’s just launched a new $1600 Studio Display that’s pretty much exactly what a very specific, very fussy segment of the Mac market has been asking for… going on 6 years now: A Cinema Display. A Thunderbolt Display. Whatever you want to call it… Just take the 27-inch 5K iMac and… delete the Mac part, or the LG 5K UltraFine and delete the LG part… slap it in an Apple enclosure. Seriously. Anything… anything that isn’t 6K for 6K!

And Apple’s gone and done it. Finally. But at the same time, somehow upset a very loud, very vocal handful of tech-heads who not only never wanted it, but don’t understand why the people who do want it… do want it. So let me explain. No no, there is too much. Let me sum up.

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[JonatanCastro-secondary]

"it's natively 2x resolution" FINALLY a reviewer that understand our struggle, thanks Rene!

[super_hero]

Actually the 27 iMac came with mouse and keyboard, if you factor those in, the Studio Display is more expensive than the iMacs.

[phbrinsden]

I remember gasping when I purchased the cinema screen 11 years ago but it has been perfect for all that time and powers my MBA. It was $1000 back then and the new Studio is no more expensive in constant value dollars. With my major refresh I am sticking with Apple Studio. It has no compromises with everything built in, 5k for Mac OS and beautiful engineering. It will be great for the next 10 years.

[donalone]

Why other manufactures can't do design as simple as this? Because no other monitor makers will be crazy enough to CNC the whole display housing out of a big chunk of aluminium, that's what only Apple can do. As simple as that.

[bugged]

Not just mac nerd, I am a developer/designer and I want the designs to be pixel perfect and color perfect. At $2100 here in India, that's a steal for me. There's no alternatives.

[strmchild]

I'm one of those people who was begging Apple for years to just take the iMac 5K panel and make a standalone display. Exactly what I wanted. I'll be buying one soon.

[epcalderhead]

Went to the Apple Store today and looked an this monitor hooked up to a Mac Mini. I thought this display with a Mac Mini or a Mac Studio Max was a potential upgrade to my iMac Retina 5K, 27-inch, Late 2015. Now I'm not too keen to jump and will probably keep using the iMac for a while longer. I'm not seeing enough gains to justify the expense for what I do. That shocked me for a 7-year-old computer.

[pandaghostofficial]

And yet we live in a world where at least 80% of people still uses 1080p monitors

[valzartsetc]

There is a big issue with the display that reviews have not yet addressed. No its not the unacceptably horrendous webcam. The issue is that the monitor runs its own operating system (IOS) to manage the camera, microphone and speakers. Like any device running a consumer based operating system, it can't be run indefinitely without restarting it or you run into issues. If you don't restart your iPad or iPhone for weeks or months you will eventually experience all kind of issues. I got my studio display on March 18. yesterday my camera started acting up, then the microphone and speakers would stop working sporadically. After hours with Apple support it was determined the monitor needs to restart. BUT there is no way to do it, it has no power button and no way to actuality shut it down or reboot/restart properly. So the only way to do restart the display is to unplug it from the power source for a minute and plug it back in. We did so and its working fine again. However, doing it that way means you are crashing the build-in OS rather than properly restarting it. That of course can potentially damage the display just like crashing your computer every time you want to restart it.

[RyanHicks]

I am super on the fence on this. I did order the Studio Display two weeks ago and it is supposed to ship soon. While I have been waiting, I have been checking out reviews and alternatives. On specs, there seems like there are so many "good enough" options (LG, Dell, etc). I did go out and have a look at those and in-person with my own eyes it is clear that there is a huge difference in monitors. Not that the alternatives are bad, but they are not that good. Plastic bodies and displays that are "okay". While cheaper, a close to $1000 display with not great graphics is disappointing. The Studio Display costs more, but it is a far superior product. I have and love the display on the new MacBook Pro (it is stunning!) so my eyes are used to really good displays. Hypothetically, if Apple did release an LED, blah, blah, blah (closer to the MacBook Pro display, but in 27 or 32 inches) I don't think I could justify the price. While there is a lot to knock, I think this display is going to be a perfect compliment to my workflow for music, photography and video production.

[dannywinget]

Man I am disappointed that two studio displays don’t play audio together. I might cancel my orders 🥲

[winky]

The truth that is not being said here is that consumers asked for that half a decade ago… the monitor improvements to the 5K mac are the lowest bar Apple has probably ever strived to reach. No one is asking for older technology, I promise.

The justification that Apple nerds will buy this because they don’t want to own outside of Apple is also a lazy excuse, I’m sure Apple is expecting this monitor to sell to mainstream, treat it as such compared to the rest of the competition.

Some new (not new monitor related) features were added… that’s fine. One is a hit (speakers), one is a miss (webcam) and one is cool to have but also why, in the grand scheme? (A13 processor).

$1, 599… an insane price for a bare minimum monitor revisit, with a few sprinkles of side tech.

It’s sad to even anticipate the mini LEDs market price if this is Apple’s low tier monitor.

A side note:

Trying to make consumers happy about their purchase, rather than lean into a product’s shortcomings at Apple’s price points, doesn’t really help technology get pushed forward.

Also, trying to convey that no matter the tech inside, you’re always going to want something better anyway, is another quick dismissal at an otherwise opportune moment to judge a product off it’s real value compared to what’s being advertised and sold to hard earning consumers.

🤷🏻‍♂️

[RabianskiT]

The fact that this display has a BUILT-IN power chord really REALLY GETS ON MY NERVES.

[petereriksson]

Wanted 120hz… especially at this price… might still get one. Really annoyed with the stupid power cable. There is NO reason to not use a standard removable plug. Sure, a MagSafe cable would have been cool but not strictly needed. D!€k move by Apple…

[davidashley]

I think there’s more people out there that would’ve paid 2k + for an all in one 27 inch m1 iMac. I’m one of them, I’ll pass for now.

[zachw]

I’m disappointed you did not mention Apple’s absolutely baffling choice to hardwire (except not really?) the power cable

[sarge-otuc]

Price is unjustified. The centerstge is pointless for a display that is going to sit static on a desk. Not sure what the point of having a A13 Bionic inside is (probably defective chips re being used here). Also, these studio displays cannot be daisy chained. You have to connect each individual display to each individual port on the Mac/MacBook. At this price, there are much much much better displays on the market. Extra 400 just for a stand to be able to tilt?? Unless someone is a die hard fan that only fancies Apple products, not sure how someone can justify buying this.

[harryseaward]

Excellent review. I think you hit it on the head that Apple is prioritizing the Centerstage functionality over a sharper - but static - webcam. I’m not sure that was the best play on a non-portable device, tho. I love Centerstage on my iPad Pro because I can set it anywhere and the camera just centers on me. But a big 27" display? It is just always going to be planted directly in front of my chair. Who is using a Studio Display while cooking dinner or working in the garage?

[nathanmielke]

$1600 for a monitor is just stupid. The market for one of these displays are high level professionals and people with more money than brains. I am so pissed that Apple axed the 27" iMac too... We're going to be in for a long winter until Apple fixes itself. This is serious Apple Tax. This monitor should be $1000. ... I just can't even...

[michaelbabiuk]

On Friday, I visited my local Apple Store and had "eyes on" time with the Studio Display. Because they were out of stock, I could not take one home with me at that time. But when I returned home, I did go online and placed an order for the $1600 model. It should arrive around April 11th.

Would I have enjoyed Pro Motion capability? Absolutely. (Personally, I value Pro Motion capability above HDR capability on the desirability scale - especially on a display with a sustained 600 nit brightness level rating.) Still, I mainly deal in photography and image editing and processing so 60 Hz is perfectly acceptable to me in a display. What I do insist on is clarity, sharpness and color accuracy characteristics in a display and the Studio Display has those qualities in "spades".