Why I Reluctantly Ordered The Apple Studio Display
And many will feel the same way I do, for the same reasons…
My rollercoaster feelings around Apple’s Studio Display are no secret. During the March event I got incredibly excited, only to feel quite deflated just two days later as I saw the actual spec sheet and other important details surfaced around Apple’s new 1800 euro monitor. First, I was ready to hit the buy button then and there, two days later I had to sit down and do a more complicated cost-benefit analysis than any other I had to do in the last 5 years. While I wouldn’t call myself frugal by any means, I am also not careless with my hard-earned cash, so even if through writing I can eventually recoup my tech expenses and investments, I won’t just willy-nilly buy anything Apple throws at us. All these considered, I did make the reluctant decision of purchasing the Apple Studio Display, and here’s how I got to that conclusion.
Considerations
An extended monitor for me is quite vital. I am a software engineer, and I started working 99% remotely this year as a voluntary choice. Having an extra 27” of screen available to me on top of the existing 16” of the MacBook Pro is not something I can shrug off.
Having worked in the office for nearly five years on an Apple Thunderbolt monitor, I got used to that quality of screen, colours, reliability, and perfect integration into the Apple ecosystem.
If at all possible, I had to get it from anyone but Apple, as in a premium Apple partner, but not Apple directly. Why? Well, Apple’s warranty sucks. In Europe, it’s one year, and I think it’s a slap in customer’s face. The good news is there are retailers who give two and three-year extended warranty at no extra cost, and I just so happen to have one a 10 minutes’ walk away from me.
It had to be better than the LG UltraFine, which I always found to be an extremely underwhelming screen, and based on all the negatives reviews, I’m glad I never bought.
The pros
- Full native integration into the Apple ecosystem.
- Comes with impressive speakers, decent mics and a webcam (which needs a software update to work at its full potential)
- Has a solid build. The amount of flimsy 4K monitors out there is shocking!
- It is 5K, which is more than 4K, and the less I see pixels, the better for my eyes. I genuinely find that Apple’s retina screens tire my eyes a lot less than anything else out there.
- Has True Tone technology. I do actually find this useful, and on a large screen I presume, even more so.
- Goes brighter than most screens out there: 600 nits. I don’t often need a lot of brightness, but when I do, it really helps. Though compared to the PRO Display XDR and the MacBook Pro’s screen, it’s a 400-1000 nits less.
- As for energy-consumption, it’s slightly better than the competition out there (though an energy-rating of E is still miles away from where I would like to see it).
- It’s easy to tilt. Not a feature I see myself using frequently, but man, many of the existing displays out there are a pain to tilt.
The cons
- The power cable is not removable. Well, it is, but it’s not meant to be (Linus tested it) and the connection to the screen is entirely proprietary. No matter how an Apple fan I am, this is such an anti-customer decision, it’s worse than the Magic Mouse’s lightning port up its butt. I can’t wait to see Louis Rossman’s thoughts on the matter. Someone should really get fired over this at Apple. This is worse than trolling.
- The stand is non-removable, and I highlighted this before, but knowing myself, I don’t care too much about this aspect. I have a raiser already. It’s nice, it has two little shelves, and it’s made of wood.
- It’s not cheap. In fact, it’s expensive, but I also look at it as an investment. If the old Thunderbolt monitors are anything to go by, these should last 7–8 years easily too.
- Only one-year warranty, but I am able to circumvent that by simply buying from another reputable retailer that offers me three years instead.
- A relatively short USB-C Thunderbolt cable of just 1 metre. But being honest with myself, with my setup, I won’t need anything longer anytime soon, so the shorter the cable the less the clutter. I do think though that Apple should allow customers to choose whichever they want at the time of purchase at no extra cost.
Not an easy decision…
Nonetheless, eight pros against five cons does indicate that for my use-case, it’s a good investment. The truth of the matter is, as many reviewers out there have already concluded, the Studio Display doesn’t really have a viable competitor. While there are some decent screens out there, each of them falls short in one way or another or simply just doesn’t fit into the Apple ecosystem as smoothly as the Studio Display. Being the devil’s advocate, I could argue that’s entirely Apple’s fault. They created the ecosystem, they made all their (and only their!) devices work so well within that ecosystem and thus make me and many others out there care about said ecosystem. But it is a reality, nevertheless.
If LG’s UltraFine taught us anything is that third-party is just not Apple enough.
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!
