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Apple Display For The Rest Of Us?

SomeMacGuy

SomeMacGuy

macrumors member
Original poster
Oct 27, 2007
84
97
Nova Scotia
The consensus seems to be that the new Mac Pro and Pro Display XDR are fairly priced for what they have to offer and I do not disagree with this at all. I'm not in their target demographic, but thrilled that they are supporting the pro market again and there's no point to have yet another thread complaining about the price points of the new Pro hardware.

However... As a long-time user of a MBP / Cinema Display setup I'm kind of disappointed that there is no OEM option for an external display for their notebooks. I'm hopeful that by calling it the Pro Display XDR, they have left the door open for a simpler, more affordable Pro Display.

The base 27" iMac is $1799, and considering the price of the Pro Display XDR, $1999 wouldn't be terrible for a similarly designed display with a 5k panel and features on par with the old Thunderbolt display. I know it's not just me that can't live with a cheap plastic display from a 3rd party. How hard can it be to make a "dumb" iMac? Anybody sharing my frustration here? Anybody else still hopeful for a more basic Pro Display?
 
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I’m right there with you. My household uses a late 2012 27 imac that is getting ready to be replaced. I was hoping to use my MacBook Pro with a new (same size) 5k or bigger display that supports thunderbolt 3 Face ID or camera and hub. Something I can come home and hook up outside of the office. We’d have one other laptop and an iPad Pro that could use it as well. Im still hopefully we could see something like this around $2000 ... at least allow thunderbolt 3 the ability to drive a 5k iMac screen.
 
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Yep I'm right with you. Looking to replace my Thunderbolt Display with a Retina monitor but the Pro XDR is completely overkill and way out of my price range. Great for that market, but it is a small market. The way they tried to say it was good for developers too because it could rotate is laughable, no developer needs the equivalent of a reference monitor for Xcode.

The next-best alternative still seems to be the LG Ultrafine 5K, which leaves a lot to be desired in terms of design and build quality. All I want is for them to rip the internals out of a 27" iMac and sell that as a standalone display - surely $1000-1500 isn't an unrealistic price point for that?

I don't think it's going to happen though. I'll keep the TBD for a few more years and reassess the offerings then. Maybe it will come when they redesign the iMac.
 
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Man, Apple not offering a stand alone 5K display is mind blogging. Make one with a stand/nano for $2.5k and people will buy it. The XDR is incredible but pay $7k with stand/Nano is very tough.
 
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If Apple is re-entering the display business, an Apple-branded consumer-oriented 4K and 5K display definitely needs to happen. What Apple just introduced is akin to the 30" Cinema Display, but nothing comparable to the 20" and 23" displays that were also introduced at the same time. Consumers with a Mac mini were expected to go for the smaller / lower-cost 20" version if they wanted an Apple display, but today there is no option to reasonably expect someone to pair with a mini.

A $999 21.5" 4096x2304 and $1,499 27" 5120x2880 with the equivalent iMac panels (and stand included) would satisfy most of us.
 
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redheeler said:
A $999 21.5" 4096x2304 and $1,499 27" 5120x2880 with the equivalent iMac panels (and stand included) would satisfy most of us.
Click to expand...

It seems like the new LG 23.7-in monitor being sold in Apple stores is Apple's answer for a "reasonably" priced monitor. The main downside to that one is the aspect ratio doesn't match what Apple has typically used in recent years, nor does it seem to have good support for older Macs. Plus no webcam. So it's not perfect, but seems to be what they have landed on for whatever reason.

What's missing from the lineup is a 27-in monitor especially now that LG has end of sale'd their 27-in Thunderbolt 3 monitor. I want to buy a monitor but I'm a bit on the fence about doing so now. It would be just my luck for Apple to announce a 27-in monitor that ticks all my feature requests at an October event when the introduce the new 16-in MacBook pro. :/
 
A dumb question: If you're wiling to pay $1500/2000 for an Apple-branded display, why just not get the iMac for $2000? Surely it cannot be slower than the MacBook Pro. You can sync almost everything nowadays with iCloud.
I think if they just rip the internals off the iMac and sell it as an external display for above $1500, there might be more people complaining about their pricing strategy, because iMac is priced starting at just $1799.

I think they should simply allow target mode for the 5K iMac so we can use it as a dumb display.
Target mode was possible until 2014 when they released the first 5K iMac. Back then their argument was that no MacBooks at the same could drive a 5K display. But things have changed, almost all MacBook Pros can drive a 5K display with ease now. And iMac does have Thunderbolt 3 port for establishing the link. This could be a win-win for both Apple and people looking for a 5K display.
 
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cczhu said:
...
Target mode was possible until 2014 when they released the first 5K iMac. Back then their argument was that no MacBooks at the same could drive a 5K display. But things have changed, almost all MacBook Pros can drive a 5K display with ease now. And iMac does have Thunderbolt 3 port for establishing the link. This could be a win-win for both Apple and people looking for a 5K display.
Click to expand...

Yes - I’d be happy to go this route. My only issue is that I don’t really need another computer in the house and I’d probably find a way to talk myself into making that $1,700 entry level iMac, an iMac Pro.
 
Ener Ji said:
It seems like the new LG 23.7-in monitor being sold in Apple stores is Apple's answer for a "reasonably" priced monitor. The main downside to that one is the aspect ratio doesn't match what Apple has typically used in recent years, nor does it seem to have good support for older Macs. Plus no webcam. So it's not perfect, but seems to be what they have landed on for whatever reason.

What's missing from the lineup is a 27-in monitor especially now that LG has end of sale'd their 27-in Thunderbolt 3 monitor. I want to buy a monitor but I'm a bit on the fence about doing so now. It would be just my luck for Apple to announce a 27-in monitor that ticks all my feature requests at an October event when the introduce the new 16-in MacBook pro. :/
Click to expand...
The LG 5k hasn’t been discontinued. It’s available in stores, just not online.
 
There isn't "an Apple display for the rest of us".

There are PLENTY of non-Apple displays for the rest of us that will work fine.

That's about the reality of it...
 
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cczhu said:
A dumb question: If you're wiling to pay $1500/2000 for an Apple-branded display, why just not get the iMac for $2000? Surely it cannot be slower than the MacBook Pro. You can sync almost everything nowadays with iCloud.
I think if they just rip the internals off the iMac and sell it as an external display for above $1500, there might be more people complaining about their pricing strategy, because iMac is priced starting at just $1799.
Click to expand...

While 27" 5K iMac starts at $1799, that particular configuration isn't comparable to what many MacBook Pro users would get. $2399 entry level 15" MBP has 16GB RAM, 6-core 9th gen i7 CPU, and 256GB SSD. $1799 iMac has 8GB RAM, 6-core 8th gen i5 CPU, and 1TB spinning HDD. While the CPU and GPU are probably sufficiently fast, once you add more RAM and SDD, the price quickly rises to $2000 or so (and iMac's SSD is slower than MacBook Pro because they don't have T2 for striping).

And even if you are willing to spend more for comparable iMac, there's the issue of syncing. There are ways to sync, but sync is not always full proof and not always fast enough.

And elephant in the room is whether I want iMac or not. Although I recognize iMac as a fantastic value for what you get (even keyboard and mouse are not that cheap), I much prefer to spend more and get Mac mini with Apple designed 5K display. The display tends to be more reliable and I don't like the idea of having to replace both the computer and display if the computer component fails.
 
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"So what's your point? You just stated the obvious."

If it was as "obvious" to you as it is to me... then what was the point of this thread in the first place?
 
Black Tiger said:
The LG 5k hasn’t been discontinued. It’s available in stores, just not online.
Click to expand...

Really? Why would they stop selling it online but keep selling it in stores? I was under the impression that the stores are selling through existing stock that is unlikely to be replenished, but if you have evidence to the contrary that would be intriguing.
 
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I presume the new LG 5K is the death knell for this theory, unless there’s a total surprise in store at the end of the year. Wondering whether to just go for this new one, it has everything I’m looking for bar a nice design.
 
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Fishrrman said:
There isn't "an Apple display for the rest of us".

There are PLENTY of non-Apple displays for the rest of us that will work fine.

That's about the reality of it...
Click to expand...

Junk non-retina displays that will work "fine"... yes there are a lot, and they work...fine.

Actually good retina-ish displays? There is barely anything. 4k 27" is the windows standard it seems and it is pretty much unusable on MacOS.

27" 5k (or 21" 4k) displays that look right with MacOS UI... what are we at now, 1, 2? And they are thunderbolt, so using them with say, a Mac Mini and eGPU isn't possible, unless you specifically buy a black magic thunderbolt GPU.
 
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