Apple’s Studio Display Hides Some Dirty Secrets

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cted more of Apple. LE: this is now a non-issue, as I have been reminded the <a href="https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/ip_21_818">EU energy rating has been reset in 2021</a>.</li><li>The Thunderbolt USB-C cable only 1 m long which perhaps connected to a MacBook, is just fine, but for a Mac Studio, or even an upcoming Mac Pro, that’s unlikely to be long enough. The expectation that the monitor is close to the machine, especially in a professional or studio environment, is very surprising. Even in a home office setup, if I would place the Mac on the floor, I’d immediately need more than 1 m of cable. Sure, Apple is planning to add a 3 m option, but for the love of everything that’s holy, at a 1799 euro price-point can’t just apple ship a 2 m cable by default?!?</li><li>No support for iPad Mini 6 or 4th generation iPad Air, which while I admit is probably not a very common use-case, is still somewhat of a pity, and I am sure the limitation is purely software-based. After all, it’s a bloody screen, not a Space-X rocket on its way to Mars!</li><li>Only 600 nits of brightness! This caught me off-guard and makes this screen a perplexing product. It’s targeting pros, yet the brightness is less than 50% of the M1 Pro machines. It’s a full 1000 nits less than Apple’s own XDR Display and their 2021 laptops! I am not sure how much it matters to most folks, but the math simply doesn’t add up. 600 nits of brightness, while not bad, it’s also nothing to write home about in 2022.</li><li>Height-adjustability only adds barely 10 cm extra wiggle-room. And when you factor in that it actually means 5 cm downwards and 5 upwards, that makes it a 460 bucks worth of nothing! Entirely unimpressive. Back to stacking books under the stand, it is.</li><li>No polishing cloth, but then again, who the heck cares…?</li></ol>Am I still tempted to get it? A part of me feels like it would still be a great screen to look at, but I also have to admit to myself, looking hard at the details, it’s a lot less impressive than I initially thought.<div id="8657" class="link-block"> <a href="https://readmedium.com/apple-the-meh-the-outrageous-and-the-exciting-d82bd9d7d16a"> <div> <div>

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   <h2>Apple Did It Again! The Meh, The Outrageous And The Exciting</h2>
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    </div><p id="30af">At this stage, the biggest remaining selling-points are it being a decent screen, having native support in macOS, True Tone technology, the speakers, webcam and microphones, most of which the latest models of the MacBooks all offer already.</p><p id="8159"><b>Yeah, kind of a bummer… What do you think?</b></p><div id="4f3b" class="link-block">
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            <h2>Forget The Critics, The Apple Studio Display Is Mind-blowing</h2>
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    </div><p id="cb06"><b>Attila Vago</b> — <i>Software Engineer improving the world one line of code at a time. Cool nerd since forever, writer of codes and blogs. Web accessibility advocate, Lego fan, vinyl record collector. Loves craft beer!</i></p></article></body>

And it could very well become a deal-breaker…

In true Apple fashion, there simply cannot be a new product launch without conveniently forgotten details. The marketing is exemplary. The presentations flawless, and the new devices generally compelling. All this was true when it came to the new Studio Display as well. It genuinely got me excited. I’ve been a huge fan of the Thunderbolt monitor for years. This looked like a very much needed next version of that.

In some ways it is, but in some others it isn’t, and I can’t really say either of those scenarios are as good as one would hope. This of course only became apparent as the new devices started popping up on the Apple websites across the world. Here’s what Apple didn’t advertise, and for good reasons.

Stands are built in, and are not interchangeable. This makes the mounting of the three stand types: vesa, tilt and heigh-adjustable essentially unique, non-standard, and in every single way the anti-pattern you’d expect from a “studio” monitor. Forget the aspect of poor repairability that will draw out the pitchfork-bearing right to repair activists. This goes very much against what most actual studios will want — flexibility. One could argue that the old Thunderbolt screens didn’t even have the three options at purchase, but it’s now 2022, and an interchangeable setup is more than expected. Want a height-adjustable monitor two years down the line? Oh well, sell the existing one, and buy a new one. Well done, Tim, this is a worse design decision than the charging port in the bum of the Magic Mouse. Gotta say, since Jony Ive left, Apple has made some very questionable design choices.

EU Energy rating is of grade E. In layman terms it means bad. It’s as bad as my old fridge, and that thing was two decades old when I replaced it two weeks ago. If you’re in any way energy-conscious, this alone could put you off entirely. Having said that, the competition isn’t great either, often going as low as a G rating. Regardless, I expected more of Apple. LE: this is now a non-issue, as I have been reminded the EU energy rating has been reset in 2021.

The Thunderbolt USB-C cable only 1 m long which perhaps connected to a MacBook, is just fine, but for a Mac Studio, or even an upcoming Mac Pro, that’s unlikely to be long enough. The expectation that the monitor is close to the machine, especially in a professional or studio environment, is very surprising. Even in a home office setup, if I would place the Mac on the floor, I’d immediately need more than 1 m of cable. Sure, Apple is planning to add a 3 m option, but for the love of everything that’s holy, at a 1799 euro price-point can’t just apple ship a 2 m cable by default?!?

No support for iPad Mini 6 or 4th generation iPad Air, which while I admit is probably not a very common use-case, is still somewhat of a pity, and I am sure the limitation is purely software-based. After all, it’s a bloody screen, not a Space-X rocket on its way to Mars!

Only 600 nits of brightness! This caught me off-guard and makes this screen a perplexing product. It’s targeting pros, yet the brightness is less than 50% of the M1 Pro machines. It’s a full 1000 nits less than Apple’s own XDR Display and their 2021 laptops! I am not sure how much it matters to most folks, but the math simply doesn’t add up. 600 nits of brightness, while not bad, it’s also nothing to write home about in 2022.

Height-adjustability only adds barely 10 cm extra wiggle-room. And when you factor in that it actually means 5 cm downwards and 5 upwards, that makes it a 460 bucks worth of nothing! Entirely unimpressive. Back to stacking books under the stand, it is.

No polishing cloth, but then again, who the heck cares…?

Am I still tempted to get it? A part of me feels like it would still be a great screen to look at, but I also have to admit to myself, looking hard at the details, it’s a lot less impressive than I initially thought.

At this stage, the biggest remaining selling-points are it being a decent screen, having native support in macOS, True Tone technology, the speakers, webcam and microphones, most of which the latest models of the MacBooks all offer already.

Yeah, kind of a bummer… What do you think?

Attila Vago — Software Engineer improving the world one line of code at a time. Cool nerd since forever, writer of codes and blogs. Web accessibility advocate, Lego fan, vinyl record collector. Loves craft beer!