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Much better for what?

For most computer users a single larger display is better from a productivity perspective. For some well-defined tasks, such as video editing, app/web development or presenting in a conference call a second is beneficial.

For some extremely information-dense tasks perhaps a third could be useful, daytrading maybe? I just don’t see what most people would use a third for.

I have two, but keep the second one unplugged most of the time.
I think us older generations just like screen real estate and the ability to have a lot of windows open at the same time. That’s why I can’t stand using my mbp.
 
Only catch other for the M1 MBAir when closed with an external monitor is that the "touchID" is now inaccessible.
I run my 14" MBP in clamshell with the ASD and just bought the Apple KB with TouchID for that very reason. Makes it fast and easy to approve passwords on web sites.
 
Only catch other for the M1 MBAir when closed with an external monitor is that the "touchID" is now inaccessible.
I'm writing this on a TouchID-equipped external keyboard connected to my Mac Studio. As far as I'm aware when you're using the same with a MacBook, TouchID just keeps on working without even needing a re-training (touch recognition goes through the same Secure Enclave anyway).
 
As far as I'm aware when you're using the same with a MacBook, TouchID just keeps on working without even needing a re-training (touch recognition goes through the same Secure Enclave anyway).
Yep... when I attached my new KB with TouchID it worked right away without having to enter a fingerprint. It recognized the one already there from the MBP KB.
 
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Much better for what?

For most computer users a single larger display is better from a productivity perspective. For some well-defined tasks, such as video editing, app/web development or presenting in a conference call a second is beneficial.

For some extremely information-dense tasks perhaps a third could be useful, daytrading maybe? I just don’t see what most people would use a third for.

I have two, but keep the second one unplugged most of the time.
 
So in pre M1 and Touch ID days, one could plug any Apple keyboard into any one of the laptop or desktop USB-A ports and continue, no hiccups. So instead of being able to reuse my perfectly operational "mature" Apple keyboards on the new MacBook USB-C only laptops, I now get to pay Apple $199 plus tax for a Touch ID keyboard (less my 10% military discount). As far as I know, that is the only game in town with Touch ID. Fortunately, the Mac M1 Studio (both models) have two USB-A ports, one for my legacy Apple keyboard and one for my legacy Apple CD/DVD player. (yes I still have my music sources on CDs)

The only other option that comes to mind, I have yet to find a Thunderbolt 4 hub that supports dual 5K (for Apple Studio Displays) or 6K for other brand monitors. I only see the current Hub equipment handling multiple 4K or single up to 8K displays.

The 2021 MBPros have three Thunderbolt ports. I will have to use two for the Studio displays and the last one goes to a hub for the rest of the stuff. Thankfully, the power has it's own dedicated plug.
 
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The only other option that comes to mind, I have yet to find a Thunderbolt 4 hub that supports dual 5K (for Apple Studio Displays) or 6K for other brand monitors.
Since the Apple Studio Display can do 5K60 via HBR2+DSC, two of them can be run off any Thunderbolt 4 hub.
 
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So in pre M1 and Touch ID days, one could plug any Apple keyboard into any one of the laptop or desktop USB-A ports and continue, no hiccups. So instead of being able to reuse my perfectly operational "mature" Apple keyboards on the new MacBook USB-C only laptops, I now get to pay Apple $199 plus tax for a Touch ID keyboard (less my 10% military discount). As far as I know, that is the only game in town with Touch ID. Fortunately, the Mac M1 Studio (both models) have two USB-A ports, one for my legacy Apple keyboard and one for my legacy Apple CD/DVD player. (yes I still have my music sources on CDs)

The only other option that comes to mind, I have yet to find a Thunderbolt 4 hub that supports dual 5K (for Apple Studio Displays) or 6K for other brand monitors. I only see the current Hub equipment handling multiple 4K or single up to 8K displays.

The 2021 MBPros have three Thunderbolt ports. I will have to use two for the Studio displays and the last one goes to a hub for the rest of the stop. Thankfully, the power has it's own plug.

USBA to USBC adapters are inexpensive and work well, so there's no reason you cannot continue to use your wired keyboard with a current Apple laptop. If you use that keyboard and the macbook is closed, you'll need to enter your password for stuff just like you did before TouchID, and some stuff lets you authenticate using your Apple watch. You can also leave the macbook open and reach over to it for TouchID (what I presently do)

Yes, if you want to upgrade to TouchID being on the keyboard you'd need to buy a new keyboard.

But that's not related to the USBA / USBC plugs or existing keyboard functionality.
 
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That’s a pretty specific set of requirements.

I think us older generations just like screen real estate and the ability to have a lot of windows open at the same time.

I just counted, I currently have 27 windows open. I typically don’t need to see more than two or three at the same time, though.

Of course I’m not arguing you shouldn’t if you feel that’s what works best for you, I’m just arguing that for most people the cost isn’t worth it, and even that for many it wouldn’t be useful even if there was no cost, and that’s why you don’t encounter more. (As I said, I have two, but only use one most of the time.)
 
Early on in this thread, it was pointed out that the Studio Displays are not able to daisy chain from one port.

My two Studio Displays should arrive in mid-August and I will test the Daisy chain issue from a singe Thunderbolt 4 on my 14" M1 Max 64GB/4TB and my one of the two ports on my 2021 M1 MBAir 16GB/2TB
 
Early on in this thread, it was pointed out that the Studio Displays are not able to daisy chain from one port.

My two Studio Displays should arrive in mid-August and I will test the Daisy chain issue from a singe Thunderbolt 4 on my 14" M1 Max 64GB/4TB and my one of the two ports on my 2021 M1 MBAir 16GB/2TB
You can't daisy chain Studio Displays, but connecting two Studio Displays to a Thunderbolt 4 hub and the single cable from the hub to the MacBook Pro will work (I use a Caldigit Thunderbolt 4 Element for this, but there are cheaper ones from Anker and OWC as well)
 
Is there any way to use the camera in the full wide angle mode? My understanding is the standard FOV has significant distortion correction and adjustment done to it to give you a normal perspective, but like the iPads with center stage, are really wide lenses, bordering fisheye level which is why there's so much distortion.

However, in an iPad you can press the resize button in the camera and actually see the full wide angle view of the center stage camera. I have not found a way to do that on the Studio Display.
 
You can't daisy chain Studio Displays, but connecting two Studio Displays to a Thunderbolt 4 hub and the single cable from the hub to the MacBook Pro will work (I use a Caldigit Thunderbolt 4 Element for this, but there are cheaper ones from Anker and OWC as well)
I wouldn't do that, though, if it compromises the display quality, unless having only one single cable to a MacBook is really an absolutely overriding concern.

Having the displays working without any motion artefacts is really nice, but it's interesting that they can share the bandwidth in a pinch.

Any other peripherals plugged into on the same Thunderbolt dock (Ethernet, SSDs...) will also need to share in the bandwidth, so it may get a bit slow there when a single port is overburdened by the needs of so many bandwidth-hungry devices. 😉
 
Hyperdrive just today started a funding project for a four port Thunderbolt 4 hub that will support two 6K displays which then includes two Studio Displays. There is no external power brick. And it can provide 96 watts upstream like for my 14” MBPro Max. The three other ports can each supply 15 watts of power.

During the funding process, one can get in for much less than the proposed $299 retail price
 
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Hyperdrive just today started a funding project for a four port Thunderbolt 4 hub that will support two 6K displays which then includes two Studio Displays. There is no external power brick. And it can provide 96 watts upstream like for my 14” MBPro Max. The three other ports can each supply 15 watts of power.

During the funding process, one can get in for much less than the proposed $299 retail price
Running two 6k displays plus other peripherals through the same single Thunderbolt port would be a tight squeeze – you'd get noticeable compression artefacts on those monitors if that even still worked at all.

Normally one 6k XDR alone already saturates one Thunderbolt port almost completely: That is exactly why the XDR has that 6k resolution, because it's the maximum possible at 60Hz and 10bit through a single Thunderbolt port!

Only a few slow USB2 ports can be squeezed into the tiny remaining rest — USB3 already wouldn't fit any more (the Studio Display has three USB 3 ports because the 5k resolution leaves enough bandwidth for them).

So running two of those 6k displays through the same single port would run each of them at only half the bandwidth they actually need – that's just asking for problems! (Meaning noticeable motion artefacts and degradation of bit depth, if not worse, such as running each of them only at 30Hz which would be a real bummer!)
 
Normally one 6k XDR alone already saturates one Thunderbolt port almost completely: That is exactly why the XDR has that 6k resolution, because it's the maximum possible at 60Hz and 10bit through a single Thunderbolt port!
Two cases are to be considered when the XDR is hooked up via Thunderbolt:

1. The XDR can do 6K60 via a HBR2+DSC connection if the system it's connected to supports DSC. Two HBR2 connections are possible via a single Thunderbolt 3/4 port, so two XDRs can be run from a single Thunderbolt port in this case.

2. If the system it's connected to doesn't support DSC however, the XDR needs two HBR3 connections for a dual-tile 6K60 mode. In this case, one only XDR can be run from a single Thunderbolt 3/4 port.
 
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Two cases are to be considered when the XDR is hooked up via Thunderbolt:

1. The XDR can do 6K60 via a HBR2+DSC connection if the system it's connected to supports DSC. Two HBR2 connections are possible via a single Thunderbolt 3/4 port, so two XDRs can be run from a single Thunderbolt port in this case.

2. If the system it's connected to doesn't support DSC however, the XDR needs two HBR3 connections for a dual-tile 6K60 mode. In this case, one only XDR can be run from a single Thunderbolt 3/4 port.
The issue is not the number of connections (two 4k displays can run through one TB connection uncompressed!), but the sheer bandwidth which is not remotely enough for two XDRs without severe effects on image quality, and then it is quite pointless to spend so much money on two high-grade monitors and then starve them for bandwidth instead of just plugging each of them into their own Thunderbolt port where no such problems arise.

If an XDR has the full TB bandwidth available the bandwidth should just be enough to run it at 60Hz and 10bit completely uncompressed, so with no transmission artefacts at all.

If it is possible at all to squeeze two XDRs into just one TB connection that's an interesting side aspect but nothing that could be recommended to anyone for regular use.
 
Display Stream Compression (DSC) is visually lossless.
There is no free lunch in data transmission – lossless compression can never be guaranteed in real time for all content and when such losses happen you get artefacts, especially when you halve the available bandwidth outright.

You'd get either image quality (pixelation / colour banding) or frame rate degradation (stuttering), or both.

It's a low-grade stopgap at best (assuming it works at all to this extent) which is absurd given the expense of two XDRs and all that only to avoid plugging the second one into its own separate port where it needs no compression at all.

This would be a bad idea even with two 5k ASDs.
 
I love my studio display and it works great with my macbook pro, but I have a Dell Latitude 5521 for work that it does not play nice with. When I plug the dell into the display, it usually works for a few minutes and then the display screen goes black. Has anyone had any similar issues with a windows or dell laptop that they've been able to resolve? It has a USB4.0 Type-C port with DisplayPort 2.0 port/Power Delivery/Thunderbolt, so I believe it should work. (and yes, I know the correct answer is to only use a mac 😜)
 
Just got my ASD. Overall I really like it. But the webcam is definitely subpar. I have two issues:
  1. My ASD is mounted to a VESA desk arm. The camera is about 1" above my line of sight/eye level when I'm seated at my desk. But in Zoom and other videoconference applications, I appear very low in the frame—as if the monitor is way above my head.
  2. The tone is WAY too warm. My skin tone looks orange like I've spent the last two weeks in a tanning bed.
I have Center Stage and Portrait Mode turned off.

Anyone else experiencing this?
 
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Just got my ASD. Overall I really like it. But the webcam is definitely subpar. I have two issues:
  1. My ASD is mounted to a VESA desk arm. The camera is about 1" above my line of sight/eye level when I'm seated at my desk. But in Zoom and other videoconference applications, I appear very low in the frame—as if the monitor is way above my head.
  2. The tone is WAY too warm. My skin tone looks orange like I've spent the last two weeks in a tanning bed.
I have Center Stage and Portrait Mode turned off.

Anyone else experiencing this?
You need to turn on Center Stage in order to be centered, otherwise you will be too low on the picture.
I'm not sure about the color, I think it looks pretty decent via the ASD camera. Have you updated yours to 15.5? They addressed the camera quality in that update.
 
Has anyone noticed issues with True Tone on the Studio Display, especially when plugged into a Macbook (2021 14") in clamshell mode?

When I get home from work and plug my Macbook in, the screen has a bit of a greenish tint. I don't get this when using the laptop normally in the same light, nor on my iPhone which also has True Tone.

I had to disable True Tone and use Night shift to banish the blue instead to avoid the green tint.

There's nothing green about the lighting in the room, and the problem goes away if I switch to a Reference Mode and back in the display settings, so am thinking there has to be a bug somewhere.
 
You need to turn on Center Stage in order to be centered, otherwise you will be too low on the picture.
I'm not sure about the color, I think it looks pretty decent via the ASD camera. Have you updated yours to 15.5? They addressed the camera quality in that update.
Ok, I didn't understand that about Center Stage. When I had it on, I had a different issue. I was almost filling the frame—people said it looked like I was sitting a few inches from the camera or something.

I didn't do anything to update the ASD camera to 15.5 manually—I assumed that would happen automatically. I'll check now. Thanks.
 
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