Apple Studio Display impressions

Roller

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Finally just got this puppy set up with my Mac Studio Ultra. My impressions so far:
  • Display: Sharp and bright, just like the iMac it replaced. I've been using a 4K HP while I was waiting for the ASD, and the improvement was immediately noticeable. I often manually zoom in when reading or interacting with small UI elements, and sharpness is maintained much better than on the HP.
  • Height adjustment: It's engineered elegantly, but I think I could have done without it, especially given the price.
  • Webcam: More than adequate for Zoom and other virtual meetings. Center Stage is a bit creepy — not much change if I move around within the frame until I'm close to the edge, where it tries to keep me in view. I think I'll leave it off.
  • Sound: I've become accustomed to using my AirPods Pro listening to music or watching a show, but I'm going to use the ASD's built in speakers whenever I can. They're that good. Of course, they can't compare to a good preamp, amp, and speakers (I was an audiophile in an earlier life), but definitely the best I've heard from a monitor.
Was this a lot of money to spend? Absolutely, but I don't have any regrets.
 

Runs For Fun

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I would agree with all of that. I didn't get the height adjustable stand and it's perfectly fine for me without it. I was a a little worried I might have needed it as I've heard tall people tend to need a higher screen but it's just right with the standard stand. The price is a bit steep but I have no regrets getting it. There's really no competition in 5K displays. The image quality and color accuracy is amazing.
 

MEJHarrison

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My shipping date is getting closer., But so far, they've not even charged me.

It will be nice to have 1 computer again. Since my other monitor doesn't have speakers, I've got the iMac next to the Studio just so I can do calls on it.
 

Apple fanboy

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Finally just got this puppy set up with my Mac Studio Ultra. My impressions so far:
  • Display: Sharp and bright, just like the iMac it replaced. I've been using a 4K HP while I was waiting for the ASD, and the improvement was immediately noticeable. I often manually zoom in when reading or interacting with small UI elements, and sharpness is maintained much better than on the HP.
  • Height adjustment: It's engineered elegantly, but I think I could have done without it, especially given the price.
  • Webcam: More than adequate for Zoom and other virtual meetings. Center Stage is a bit creepy — not much change if I move around within the frame until I'm close to the edge, where it tries to keep me in view. I think I'll leave it off.
  • Sound: I've become accustomed to using my AirPods Pro listening to music or watching a show, but I'm going to use the ASD's built in speakers whenever I can. They're that good. Of course, they can't compare to a good preamp, amp, and speakers (I was an audiophile in an earlier life), but definitely the best I've heard from a monitor.
Was this a lot of money to spend? Absolutely, but I don't have any regrets.
We installed one at a customer’s last week. The engineer wasn’t very impressed to be honest. Colour accuracy and uniformity were not up to other much cheaper option.
 

Roller

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We installed one at a customer’s last week. The engineer wasn’t very impressed to be honest. Colour accuracy and uniformity were not up to other much cheaper option.
The reviews I've read that mention objective measurement of color accuracy rate it as quite good, though I don't doubt equal or better performance can be had for less. The ASD is certainly more than adequate for me in this regard, though.

I'll readily admit that the ASD's sound quality isn't relevant to its functionality as a monitor. However, I often listen to music doing workday interludes and at other times, and the reproduction is excellent, without having to use my earbuds or over-ear headphones. Yes, I could have achieved this with separate speakers at lower cost, but my desk is already cluttered, and I appreciate the convenience. The same is true for the ASD's built-in webcam. Another minor convenience is the ability to adjust the monitor's brightness from my keyboard, which is faster than fiddling with separate controls.

But my main reason for purchasing the ASD was its 5K resolution, which makes a huge difference to me in daily use. After connecting the ASD, I did a side-by-side comparison with the HP for about 10 minutes, and the difference wasn't subtle. I considered LG's 5K monitor, but it wasn't much less expensive.

If you or your engineer are aware of a monitor that offers everything the ASD does, particularly sharpness, at a much lower price point, please share it — my ASD is still within the 14 day return period, and I'm sure I could sell it quickly for close to what I paid for it.
 

Citysnaps

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But my main reason for purchasing the ASD was its 5K resolution, which makes a huge difference to me in daily use. After connecting the ASD, I did a side-by-side comparison with the HP for about 10 minutes, and the difference wasn't subtle. I considered LG's 5K monitor, but it wasn't much less expensive.

And that was my reason for purchasing my 2016 5K iMac, even though at the time I had a perfectly good (at the time) 2010 non-5K 27" iMac.

Looking at both side by side there was an astonishing improvement in readability immediately noticeable at first glance.

I'm now kicking around a Studio Ultra and an ASD for my main computer, using my 5K iMac in the garage/shop, and donating my old 2010 iMac after wiping it.

Just want to wait until WWDC to make sure there isn't an upcoming (affordable) 6K Display surprise. Doubtful, but...
 

MEJHarrison

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If all goes as expected, by this time tomorrow I'll still be without my Studio Display. But it IS supposed to be here tomorrow afternoon. Ought to make for a fun Friday afternoon. And even though I'll technically be working at that time, tomorrow afternoon is our "research time", so I'll probably be researching setting that up. Prior to its arrival, I'll probably be researching the hell out of the UPS app. :ROFLMAO:
 

Citysnaps

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If all goes as expected, by this time tomorrow I'll still be without my Studio Display. But it IS supposed to be here tomorrow afternoon. Ought to make for a fun Friday afternoon. And even though I'll technically be working at that time, tomorrow afternoon is our "research time", so I'll probably be researching setting that up. Prior to its arrival, I'll probably be researching the hell out of the UPS app. :ROFLMAO:
Looking forward to your review!
 

theorist9

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We installed one at a customer’s last week. The engineer wasn’t very impressed to be honest. Colour accuracy and uniformity were not up to other much cheaper option.
For the color accuracy, was this before or after calibration? Since I calibrate all my displays with an i1 Display Pro, I'm less concerned about out-of-the-box accuracy than what can be achieved after calibration.
Here are the ΔE's ArtisRight got when doing an i1 calibration on that display ():

1654210054869.png
 

theorist9

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I wonder why they made the ASD's bezels so thick. They're about twice as wide as those on the XDR. Since the XDR was released 2.5 years ago, one might think that that, by now, they could equal its bezel width on a lower-priced product. The ASD doesn't look bad, but when viewed side-by-side with the XDR, the latter looks decidedly more sleek and modern. And Apple does care about appearance—it's a big part of its brand. Looks aside, bezel width matters if you are running multiple monitors and want to minimize the black space between them.
 

Apple fanboy

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I wonder why they made the ASD's bezels so thick. They're about twice as wide as those on the XDR. Since the XDR was released 2.5 years ago, one might think that that, by now, they could equal its bezel width on a lower-priced product. The ASD doesn't look bad, but when viewed side-by-side with the XDR, the latter looks decidedly more sleek and modern. And Apple does care about appearance—it's a big part of its brand. Looks aside, bezel width matters if you are running multiple monitors and want to minimize the black space between them.
Smaller bezels increases the chance of backlight bleed. So if you make them smaller you have to use a better quality panel you need to use as well as making them fit together better.
 

MEJHarrison

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I wonder why they made the ASD's bezels so thick. They're about twice as wide as those on the XDR. Since the XDR was released 2.5 years ago, one might think that that, by now, they could equal its bezel width on a lower-priced product. The ASD doesn't look bad, but when viewed side-by-side with the XDR, the latter looks decidedly more sleek and modern. And Apple does care about appearance—it's a big part of its brand. Looks aside, bezel width matters if you are running multiple monitors and want to minimize the black space between them.

Bezels bug me in something small like a phone. The smaller the better. In a big monitor, I don't care nearly as much. If I've only got 1 monitor turned on, they don't bother me at all. With both monitors on, I rarely notice.

As for the black space in-between, that would bother me more if I had a single ultra-wide desktop shown across 2 monitors. Then I'd want them as close as possible. But that's not the situation. Each monitor has its own separate desktop. Since there's a logical break between the two, the physical break is a non-issue for me. Right now I have a browser on the main monitor and Photos up on the other one. After I post this it will probably be Hulu on one screen and Xcode on the other. I don't see why any of those things need to meet in the middle and touch each other. 🤷‍♂️ I'm not dismissing those who do want to eliminate that void. I'm just glad it doesn't seem to bother me at all.

Other than that, my new Display arrived about an hour late yesterday. Setup was a breeze, it looks great and... it's a monitor. There's not a lot to say about it. It looks like the old one did more or less. It sounds like the old one did more or less. I'm happy with it. I do love how quick the system comes to life. But the one time I tried to show that off last night, it took about 20 seconds to wake up for some unknown reason. Only time it's done that. :ROFLMAO: It's nice having the iMac off the desk. It's much quieter in here without those fans kicking on. And I'm thrilled to only have 1 keyboard and 1 trackpad sitting on my desk. Having two of everything the past few weeks was a bit much.
 

theorist9

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Bezels bug me in something small like a phone. The smaller the better. In a big monitor, I don't care nearly as much. If I've only got 1 monitor turned on, they don't bother me at all. With both monitors on, I rarely notice.
I agree bezel size is most important in hand-held devices. And secondarily in anything that's portable (e.g.,a laptop)...for the obvious reason that a bigger bezel means a bigger device.

As for the black space in-between, that would bother me more if I had a single ultra-wide desktop shown across 2 monitors. Then I'd want them as close as possible. But that's not the situation. Each monitor has its own separate desktop. Since there's a logical break between the two, the physical break is a non-issue for me. Right now I have a browser on the main monitor and Photos up on the other one. After I post this it will probably be Hulu on one screen and Xcode on the other. I don't see why any of those things need to meet in the middle and touch each other. 🤷‍♂️ I'm not dismissing those who do want to eliminate that void. I'm just glad it doesn't seem to bother me at all.
I'm not familiar with the "separate desktop" configuration you're describing. The only ones I know of are to have the secondary monitors mirror the primary (which is clearly not what you're referring to, since you've got different apps on different screens), or to configure them as a single super-wide, which is what I'm doing (see screenshot). You can tell from the screenshot that the three monitors together display only one desktop, because there's only one dock (which is on the primary monitor, a 5k iMac).

Granted, I don't generally display windows across multiple monitors, except when I have a spreadsheet that requires two monitors to view. So they are logically broken in that sense. Yet I would still find it a nicety to have less black area dividing them.


1654365546795.png
 
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theorist9

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Here's a thorough review of the display portion of this monitor by DL Cade at dppreview.com. Some of the interesting points:

"The panel at the heart of this display is, spec wise, identical to the panels used in the 5K iMac and the 5K LG UltraFine display that Apple has been selling for several years, but it is not the same panel. Apple confirmed to me that this is a new panel specially designed for this new thin-bezel monitor.

Apple also confirmed this is not a true 10-bit panel. There were several mentions of "over 1 billion colors" during the presentation, but it's an 8-bit panel with temporal dithering (AKA Frame Rate Control) just like the LCD panels in the 14- and 16-inch MacBook Pros. The only true 10-bit panel is Apple's lineup is still the Pro Display XDR, and it's safe to assume that it will stay that way.

All of that being said, the Studio Display performed admirably in our testing, delivering excellent color accuracy and uniformity....From a performance perspective, this is an excellent panel. My only complaint is the color gamut, which could definitely be wider given the $1,600 price tag. But 99% coverage of DCI-P3 is already great, and when you combine that with the color accuracy and uniformity results above, you've got a display that can and should be used for color-critical work.
....

[But] I'd much rather Apple had budgeted the $1,600 differently by swapping the webcam, speakers, and microphones for a miniLED backlight and a true 10-bit panel that covers 98%+ of both DCI-P3 and AdobeRGB. That's what I consider a 'Studio' quality display...It seems like their goal was to replace the 27-inch iMac with the Mac Studio paired with a Studio Display, and to that end, a great camera, great speakers, and great microphones were a must. I just don't really care about any of that, and I don't think most 'studio' professionals do either." [He didn't evaluate the webcam in his review.]

He also mentions you can't do a hardware calibration if you're using a PC (probably because of the NVIDIA GPU's).

 
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MEJHarrison

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I'm not familiar with the "separate desktop" configuration you're describing. The only ones I know of are to have the secondary monitors mirror the primary (which is clearly not what you're referring to, since you've got different apps on different screens), or to configure them as a single super-wide, which is what I'm doing (see screenshot). You can tell from the screenshot that the three monitors together display only one desktop, because there's only one dock (which is on the primary monitor, a 5k iMac).

Granted, I don't generally display windows across multiple monitors, except when I have a spreadsheet that requires two monitors to view. So they are logically broken in that sense. Yet I would still find it a nicety to have less black area dividing them.

I've got mine setup the same way. I just mean, I can't have one window sitting on that middle part and showing half on one monitor and half on the other. Maybe that's an option I missed, but I wouldn't want it anyway, because then that black space in-between monitors would drive me nuts. I can smoothly move my mouse across both monitors, but things are displayed on one or the other, not both.
 
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