Apple Failed With The New Studio Display

As always, Apple gave us an astonishing event showcasing its newly released products. We’ve seen the iPad Air 5, the aesthetic-looking green iPhone & iPhone Pro, the Mac Studio, and of course, its accompanying display — the Studio Display.

At first glance, this display looked great. It has similarities with the Pro XDR Display, but with a front camera as a bonus. Furthermore, it has built-in speakers, its chassis is made out of metal, and overall, it seemed very premium.

So why are you complaining in the title, I hear you asking.

Well, let’s put things in perspective.

As you may know, back in the day, Apple stopped making external displays for a while. But after some complaints and the need to buy an external display from third parties, Apple decided to release the Pro Display XDR.

Great(!), was the response of many people.

Until they saw the price.

The Pro Display XDR starts at $4999, and at this point, it’s basically useless.

Useless, because if you don’t spend another $999 for its stand, then you would not be able to use the monitor (I mean yeah, you could just lean it against the wall or something, but that’s aesthetically not quite pleasing. Especially if you’ve just dropped $4999 on a display).

So you go ahead and drop another thousand bucks on a stand. Your chart is now displaying an amount of $5,998.00 and a blue button that states “Check Out”.

Just a side note, can you even imagine buying a display for $4999 and not even getting a stand?

Anyway, let’s look further at this astronomic price tag.

Because the price of the XDR Pro Display doesn’t stop at $5,998. For another thousand bucks, you could go really fancy and get yourself one with Nano-texture glass. How cool is that!

Either way, at the end of the day you’ll be spending a whopping $6998.00 for a half desktop.

By now, you might be thinking, okay, I’m done with reading online for the day. Well, before you go, let me tell you that, despite this gigantic number, these PRO XDR Displays went over the counter like hotcakes.

The PRO XDR Display went over the counter like hotcakes.

Having said all this, you now understand that most of us mortals wanted something budget friendlier.

So Apple went ahead and created just that.

At least, that’s what the world thought before they released the display’s price and its specs.

At first glance, the specs of the Studio Display look okay. The Studio Display is listed as:

• A 5K 27-inch display that supports 1 billion colors.
• It has True Tone Technology.
• It has a 600 Nits Brightness.
• Wide Color P3.
• An A-13 Bionic chip (yep, the same one that comes in the iPhone 11 (Pro) and iPhone SE 2nd gen).
• And you can add Nano-texture Glass to reduce reflectivity in, let’s say, a bright room (This does come with a price tag, though. But on that later on).

Enough with the bullet points, let’s talk about the chassis of this display in a separate paragraph. Because… well, it deserves a separate paragraph.

Let’s be honest, when it comes to the build quality of almost any Apple device, they just nail it time and time again. And this time it’s no different. The Studio display is made out of metal, and it’s the most sturdy display you can buy at the moment. This alone could persuade me to just drop that 2300 bucks on it.

But looking at the whole picture, I might decide to keep that amount just in my pocket.

And that picture doesn’t look that great.

Now, let’s look at the less good part

At first, I wanted to call this section “the bad part”, but after reconsidering it, I decided to not be that hardcore and make it sound more friendly.

The Webcam

Let’s start with the webcam. Yes, the Studio Display comes with one (thank God), but its quality is just below average. I know, I know, the Pro Display XDR doesn’t even have one, so why even complain. Well, because getting one with this bad quality is even worse than not getting one at all.

Yeah, Center Stage is integrated into this webcam, whoop-de-doo (it took me 10 min to find the right spelling for this word)

But do we really need this feature in a machine that’s standing on a desk all day long? The iPad on the other hand moves with you, so Center Stage here is kind of well-thought-out. But not on a 27-inch desktop.

The Display

The display is 27-inch wide, and it contains 600 nits and P3 color. Have I already said that?

Well, either way, what bugs me, though, is that these display specs are almost exactly like those of a 5-year-old LG display! (resource: MKBHD Video)

The display specs are almost exactly like those of a 5-year-old LG display

Also, it doesn’t contain something like a mini-LED display. Something that we do get in the latest iPad Pro.

A stand but with a catch

This time the Studio Display does come with a stand, can you believe that!

But there is a twist.

If you want to tilt and adjust the height of the display, then it will cost you an additional 400 bucks.

Furthermore, for about 300 bucks, you can upgrade this display to get Nano-texture.

Do you need the Nano-texture glass?

Yes you do, unless you’re working in a cave with no daylight whatsoever.

The downside of having Nano-texture, though, is that you will lose some brightness, and it’s kind of hard to clean. Other than that, it’s a cool extra feature.

Apple Could Give Us Something Better

Having said all this, I came to the conclusion that Apple could give us something better. I mean, yeah, I’m willing to drop $2300 on a premium display, but the display has to be just that, premium.

The built quality is top of the line. I’m not complaining about that. My complaints go more to what’s inside the display and the features that come along with it.