Apple Studio Display 2: Here's What the Latest Rumors Say

[patent10021]

With AR/VR/MR and the democratization of display tech, Apple has to bring an update in 2025. No way around it for Apple. BenQ, Asus and no-name Chinese brands have 5K options in 2025 that are on par with ASD at half the price. From 2026 there will literally be no reason to choose an ASD over other reputable brands unless it has compelling upgrades/pricing.

This BenQ is due Q1.

PD2730S｜27" 5K Thunderbolt 4 Monitor, 98% P3 & Retina-like 218 PPI for Designers

Experience pixel-level precision with the BenQ PD2730S 27" 5K monitor. With Retina-like 218 PPI, 98% P3, 2000:1 contrast, and accurate dark tones, it’s Mac-compatible with Thunderbolt 4—perfect for 3D artists, VFX animators, and game designers.

www.benq.com

 

[nathansz]

In Surround Sound.

How else can you hear which direction a vlookup is coming from‽‽‽

 

[nathansz]

With AR/VR/MR and the democratization of display tech, Apple has to bring an update in 2025. No way around it for Apple. BenQ, Asus and no-name Chinese brands have 5K options in 2025 that are on par with ASD at half the price. From 2026 there will literally be no reason to choose an ASD over other reputable brands unless it has compelling upgrades/pricing.

This BenQ is due Q1.

PD2730S｜27" 5K Thunderbolt 4 Monitor, 98% P3 & Retina-like 218 PPI for Designers

Experience pixel-level precision with the BenQ PD2730S 27" 5K monitor. With Retina-like 218 PPI, 98% P3, 2000:1 contrast, and accurate dark tones, it’s Mac-compatible with Thunderbolt 4—perfect for 3D artists, VFX animators, and game designers.

www.benq.com

There is almost never a reason to choose an Apple monitor

They use panels made by manufacturers that sell their own monitors with the same panels

 

[mdatwood]

Does having dual screen with different size, 4K vs 5k and different refresh rate cause any issues for work on Mac OS? Ie moving excels or browsers from one screen to the other etc..

I have an ASD and an LG 4K and haven't had any issues moving windows between them. I also use my MBP screen as a 3rd screen and it also works fine in the mix (and sometimes even add my iPad Pro). MacOS does a good job remembering window positions probably b/c the monitors are all different. The Display management screen lets you position the displays so they are arranged how they sit at your desk.

 

[mdatwood]

No way around it for Apple. BenQ, Asus and no-name Chinese brands have 5K options in 2025 that are on par with ASD at half the price.

Finally! It took them long enough.

There is almost never a reason to choose an Apple monitor

When the ASD came out, the only other 5k monitor was the LG. The LG was slightly cheaper but was known to have various issues, so it made sense to pay a little extra and just get the ASD.

In some ways, the differing opinions on the ASD are proxies for Apples lack of taking gaming seriously. I rarely game on the computer (sometimes Factorio will suck me in), and spend all day reading text and editing photos. The 5K ASD is noticeably better than the 4K LG have sitting next to it for my use case. Would higher refresh be nice? Sure. But for me, 5K is hard requirement.

Finally, to the people complaining that the ASD (and XDR for that matter) are still the same price after all these years, well welcome to Apple lol. This is how's it's been for the last 20 years and probably longer. You should always buy Apple products right when they are released because they don't drop prices over time. That's why the buying guide suggests not buying, etc...

 

[svish]

Not sure whether a new one will be released this year. If a new one is launched this year, it will most likely be at WWDC. Higher refresh rate will be good. It should have the same price as the current model.

 

[nathansz]

The LG was slightly cheaper but was known to have various issues

Such as?

 

[mdatwood]

Such as?

You can do your own Googling, but the stand was terrible, it had compatibility issues, build issues, poor EM shielding causing issues with other devices like speakers and devices like wifi routers causing issues with the monitor, etc... which would have been ok if the price was 1/2 what it was. I believe some of the problems have been addressed in later revisions, but at the price level just get the ASD.

 

[sflagel]

It seems that I am the only one that thought, looking at the displays at an Apple Store, that text on the Pro Display looked more blurry that on the Studio display?

 

[EugW]

It seems that I am the only one that thought, looking at the displays at an Apple Store, that text on the Pro Display looked more blurry that on the Studio display?

That would probably be from the nano texture version.

 

[philosopherdog]

I would love a 32 inch. I would buy any new studio display. It’s a scaling issue. The SD has been a game changer

 

[philosopherdog]

It seems that I am the only one that thought, looking at the displays at an Apple Store, that text on the Pro Display looked more blurry that on the Studio display?

If it’s nano texture it would be less crisp.

 

[xraydoc]

Would be hilarious if they went edge-to-edge for the new display, like the new LG 6K monitor, but had to have a notch for a camera.

Don’t give them any ideas!

 

[1037]

With a new Mac Studio due out they better update the monitor.
Give the Pro model a tweak, slash the price and call it the Studio.

 

[Daul]

Give me an Apple display for under 400 that would be appropriate to pair with an MBA or Mini and it would be a day 1 purchase.

 

[nathansz]

Give me an Apple display for under 400 that would be appropriate to pair with an MBA or Mini and it would be a day 1 purchase.

You mean under 4000 right!?!?

I doubt anybody makes a decent display for under 400

Edit: I was wrong

I have one of these and it’s great for the price point and super cheap now

It’s only 4k/60hz but under $400 you can’t ask for much more and is perfect for a mini or mba. I use it as main display for m4 MacBook Pro

I’m looking to go oled now, but that’s going to be a lot more than $400

https://www.amazon.com/LG-32UN550-W-FreeSync-Adjustable-Diagonal/dp/B08MV7B7WF

 

[novagamer]

You can do your own Googling, but the stand was terrible, it had compatibility issues, build issues, poor EM shielding causing issues with other devices like speakers and devices like wifi routers causing issues with the monitor, etc... which would have been ok if the price was 1/2 what it was. I believe some of the problems have been addressed in later revisions, but at the price level just get the ASD.

I have a revision version and it still went to ****. My webcam died, the stand is so poor the display shakes like it is scared of me, and it has the all-to-common pink hue that started at the bottom of the display and is now around all the edges and LG won’t fix even if you pay them, unless you get lucky with a support rep.

The speakers also suck, even for voice calls. Like, dell laptop bad. I will say the microphone was surprisingly good.

 

[riverscott58]

Give me a 32" at $1,999 (stand included) please

Edit: I'll even take a 32" 4K at $999 (stand included)

Even Dell's (not the cheapest by a long shot) 4K 32" monitor can be bought for ~$600. For $999 it should at least have nano texture option. Maybe it could also have super brightness, like the new m4 MacBook pros.

 

[ppenn]

I'm still confused by people wanting brighter displays. Even when coloring I've never had a display above 50% if that

 

[EugW]

Samsung Display (which makes display panels, but not actual monitors) showed off a 27" 5K OLED 220 ppi display.

I'm still confused by people wanting brighter displays. Even when coloring I've never had a display above 50% if that

For HDR for example. It bears repeating yet again, even if the average screen brightness is set at say 150 nits in a light controlled room, you still may want to have highlights at 700 nits for some content, but that 700 nits stuff may only occupy 2% of the screen. Movies are mastered to 1000 to 4000 nits, so if your max brightness is 400 nits, then everything from 400-4000 nits is completely lost in a sea of white, unless you compress the brightness levels (tone mapping) to match the display. Meanwhile, some video games are mastered to 10000 nits.



Or you may work in a very bright environment. A setting of even 250 nits for overall brightness may be inadequate.

I'm curious. What are you colouring?

 

[bilbo--baggins]

3 years old for an Apple display is relatively new. Can’t see them updating it this soon. More like after 10 years. 5 years minimum.

The problem is that the studio display was based on 10 year old technology when it launched.

 

[CarAnalogy]

What’s the best like for like display from a third-party? I.e. 27 inch, 5K, 60 Hz; is there one??

Right now there doesn't seem to be a perfect candidate if you also want high refresh rate. It's either Retina DPI, or high refresh rate, not both.

Lots of good looking monitors were just announced at CES. I think we'll finally start to see some really good monitors trickle down to affordable prices this year or next.

It's really just up to you and what you can afford and what your eyes want.

Like some others have said, once you're used to 5K it may be hard to go back.

Personally I prefer higher DPI and refresh over raw size. Apple's monitors seem to focus solely on high DPI but the refresh rate of 60Hz is just too low for me after being used to higher refresh rate displays.

 

[thefredelement]

No.

The display is always 5k.

It's the MacOS user interface which is addressable at 2560x1440.

The "looks like" settings in MacOS are zoom settings for the UI.

Yes, that's what I meant, the monitor is doing 60Hz at 5k and MacOS is rendering the UI at a usable 2560x1440 - which IMO it does great as you can get full 4k real estate in Final Cut / Adobe but have reasonable text in Xcode, etc.

Does having dual screen with different size, 4K vs 5k and different refresh rate cause any issues for work on Mac OS? Ie moving excels or browsers from one screen to the other etc..

I am thinking doing something similar once m4 Mac Studio comes out, originally was just going to get 2x studio display and call it a day but I want to connect a gaming pc to one of the monitor to play games so having a higher refresh monitor would be better as studio display 60hz sucks for game and it’s native 5k resolution is too much for most games even on an rtx4080

To me the most noticeable difference is the colors, the blacks on the OLED give the Samsung a greater contrast and the refresh rate makes interactions on it feel smoother. I have an old (~10yrs) Spyder calibrate device lying around but haven't been motivated enough to use it, not even sure if it supports this newer stuff (4k/5k, HDR).

They feel different but my usage pattern changed when I got the Samsung and use it for my 'primary' screen while the studio display typically has comm apps for work/family and occasionally I'll move a work window to it (Xcode, GitHub.com, etc).

I do love being able to have both the Mac & PC up at the same time, I have a dedicated keyboard for each and a USB KVM for mouse/speakers (but my Mac also has an always connected trackpad).

This whole thing for me came about because I wanted to be able to take game breaks during the day, on earlier Macs this was 10x easier. I'd play some whatever game on Intel Mac (like Diablo 3) and then get back to work. I ended up getting a gaming laptop that I'd hookup to my studio display and it sucked (5k, 60Hz) but rocked on my Sony 4k 120Hz OLED TV, so then I got the monitor on sale, and a week later picked up an HP Omen I'm going to use as a base of a custom build after Nvidia 50 series / AMD Ryzen 9 9000 X3D series propagate more and make the 7800/4090 more affordable (its funny how I spend so much more on Mac but am willing to wait for the PC stuff, probably b/c I mostly just game on it, but its a fun hobby for me too).

 

[benwiggy]

I'm still confused by people wanting brighter displays. Even when coloring I've never had a display above 50% if that

Yes. My ASD is currently on 5/16ths Brightness. Anything over 75% is blinding for prolonged use.

 

[Realityck]

120hz is a must.

You might find this interesting, back in 2021 Samsung was pitching 90hz OLED panels as comparable to 120hz traditional IPS displays.

Samsung’s new 90Hz OLED displays could be a huge upgrade for gaming laptops

Samsung Display's 90Hz OLED displays could be the gaming laptop upgrade we're looking for

www.tomsguide.com

As it stands, high-refresh-rate OLED displays are only found in TVs or a few very expensive gaming monitors; there's no laptop, gaming or otherwise, with a high-refresh-rate OLED display. That's why Samsung Display's 90Hz OLED laptop panels are noteworthy.

But that could change, as Samsung Display has started mass production of its new 90Hz OLED laptop panels. And that could pave the way for gaming laptops with superior screens when it comes to colors and contrast, yet still have a refresh rate that makes for smooth gaming.

It's also worth remembering that to really take advantage of a high refresh rate display, you need a machine with the graphics grunt to hit high frame rates at native resolutions of 1080p, 1440p, or in some cases 4K. Hitting 90 frames per second to max out a 90Hz display in Cyberpunk 2077 for example, is a lot easier than hitting the 120 fps needed to get the best out of a 120Hz panel.

Mind you if they make the just an updated IPS panel with TB5, that won’t be what most are after even if it’s 120hz. This tidbit from 2021 shows another way Apple might approach it’s replacement of 3 year old Studio Display.