Apple Studio Display Successor Now Expected Early Next Year

[mac.ross]

Kinda crazy that more people aren't excited about this.

The MiniLED displays on the MacBook Pros are AMAZING.

Extremely good contrast, not OLED, but 25,000:1 is still an incredible experience for watching movies in a dark room.

This will no doubt be 5K120HZ, so it will have ProMotion and it will have Retina PPI for productivity.

It will also be much brighter than the Studio Display, which is already quite bright.

The only thing they need to fix besides this is the terrible webcam quality, and ideally upgrade the speakers further (Studio Display was good, but not as good as HomePods).

Also, this monitor almost certainly will offer 5K120HZ over ThunderBolt 4, so I wouldn't worry about needing ThunderBolt 5 to get the full functionality.

You can do 5K120HZ over TB4 with DSC, which Apple already utilizes in the Studio Display and Pro Display XDR.

I just struggle to get confident with their Mac accessories nowadays, you're far more confident than I am.

I'm anticipating a refresh with mini-LED, still with standard 60FPS and probably newer Thunderbolt ports and that's basically it, Apple have honestly been a bit disappointing with their display offerings and I can't see them going all in and adding everything that would make it a great display considering the Studio Display was a weak option when they started offering that.

The Pro Display XDR was fine when it was the only one in its niche but now competitors are offering relatively similar displays with generally just worst with overall peak HDR brightness for a fraction of the price.

I am looking at setting up a dedicated graphics workstation in my home office and I can't even consider the Apple displays in good conscience when the new LG 6K 32U990A is on the horizon and has pretty much just cloned Apple's design language, if it has a glossy option and half the price of the Pro Display XDR as is expected then it will be a must-buy monitor in the Apple world.

 

[svish]

Think Apple will maintain the same price or even go higher. It might launch in June at WWDC. Would love to see a larger iMac too.

 

[tenthousandthings]

Are you using your Studio Display outdoors? 😀

I can barely set mine to more than 50% Brightness without smelling the charred flesh of my cornea. I can't imagine what staring at 1600 nits would be like.

You are right, but high nits is not about that, it’s about better HDR performance ("peak luminance"), not full-screen SDR. 400 nits is the bare minimum for HDR — when the VESA “DisplayHDR 400” certification is touted as a selling point, it just means the display is capable of HDR itself.

DisplayHDR 500 is a meaningful step up, and DisplayHDR 600 is better, obviously. Apple would be happy with that in a Studio Display update, I think. I don’t see them going for DisplayHDR 1000 or 1400 certification — that’s Pro Display XDR territory.

VESA has recently added "DisplayHDR True Black 400/500/600/1000" for OLED displays -- I haven't read up on that, but here's a screen shot of the basics. Note the extreme "maximum black level luminance" levels that emissive OLED panels can achieve, in comparison to backlit IPS panels:

 

[tenthousandthings]

How hard is it to update a monitor every year or two? Why can Dell or Samsung do it so frequently but Apple can’t?

Dell hasn’t sold a Retina 5K display since 2016 (when they discontinued the 2014 UltraSharp U2715K). By contrast, Apple (working with LG Display) continuously refreshed the panel in the Retina 5K iMac and iMac Pro editions from 2014 to 2020.

The only entry in the early Retina 5K competition to both survive and get a refresh is the 2016 LG UltraFine 5K, which was updated in 2019. It’s still being sold today.

Samsung didn’t produce a Retina 5K display until 2023, a year after the Apple Studio Display. They haven’t said what panel they are using, and I’m not aware of a teardown. If they are using an LG Display panel, then it could be due for an update, like the Studio Display. We’ll see.

Dell also re-entered the competition in 2023 with the 31.5" 223ppi UltraSharp 6K. It uses an LG Display IPS Black panel. Will they refresh it now that next-generation Nano IPS Black is here? Maybe? Or will LG drive them out like they did in 2016?

 

[tenthousandthings]

I'd like to see 5K ASD with at least 120Hz. Right now we can only choose either pixel density OR refresh rate.

I hear you. As you probably know, it’s an industry-wide equation, not just Apple. I think it’s about bandwidth. DSC only goes so far, especially in a production workflow.

A few of the 5K displays launched this year are claiming 70-75Hz.

The only 5K 120Hz panel to appear so far is an OLED prototype from Samsung.

That said, BOE is onboard — they’ve announced an 8K 120Hz (with dual-mode 4K 240Hz) IPS panel! Most likely it makes sense now because HDMI 2.2 (96 Gbps, “Ultra96” cable) has arrived, also Thunderbolt 5 (80 Gbps).

 

[CWallace]

Samsung didn’t produce a Retina 5K display until 2023, a year after the Apple Studio Display. They haven’t said what panel they are using, and I’m not aware of a teardown. If they are using an LG Display panel, then it could be due for an update, like the Studio Display. We’ll see.

I have read it uses a BOE panel, as do most of the rash of Chinese models that have hit the market over the past 12 months.

 

[Wolfpup]

Kinda crazy that more people aren't excited about this.

The MiniLED displays on the MacBook Pros are AMAZING.

Extremely good contrast, not OLED, but 25,000:1 is still an incredible experience for watching movies in a dark room.

This will no doubt be 5K120HZ, so it will have ProMotion and it will have Retina PPI for productivity.

It will also be much brighter than the Studio Display, which is already quite bright.

The only thing they need to fix besides this is the terrible webcam quality, and ideally upgrade the speakers further (Studio Display was good, but not as good as HomePods).

Also, this monitor almost certainly will offer 5K120HZ over ThunderBolt 4, so I wouldn't worry about needing ThunderBolt 5 to get the full functionality.

You can do 5K120HZ over TB4 with DSC, which Apple already utilizes in the Studio Display and Pro Display XDR.

If those have 25,000:1 that's FANTASTIC.

My TV is a 2016 Samsung VA with over 7000:1 native contrast, and it looks gorgeous to this day. REALLY appreciated it the other day when watching a movie with a super dark scene on water with bright highlights and gorgeous reflections and color, and it's like oh, right, this thing is AMAZING when I'm actually watching something with solid bitrate + HDR

 

[scross28]

Would like a simple display. No camera, no speakers, no USB, just two Thunderbolt 5 ports with built in vesa mounting. If you want to get super elegant, put a magsafe charger on the back for mounting iPhone as webcam. While we're at that, enable TouchID/FaceID on macOS through iPhone. The actual display tech doesn't change at the same speed as cameras, sound, networking and USB so why are we locking them all together?

 

[ThomasJL]

Please, Apple, no rounded corners on the display, no speakers, no webcam, and no notch.

Getting rid of the speakers and webcam could lower the price, and customers could use that savings in price to buy external speakers and an external webcam.

Professionals on a budget, as well as many customers who prefer prosumer-level products, prefer buying their own external speakers and external webcam, both of which are higher-quality than the built-in ones in Apple’s Studio Display.

 

[Ifti]

Happy with my current M4 Max Mac Studio and Studio Display setup and can't see me changing for next few years at least......

 

[tenthousandthings]

Would like a simple display. No camera, no speakers, no USB, just two Thunderbolt 5 ports with built in vesa mounting.

Please, Apple, no rounded corners on the display, no speakers, no webcam, and no notch.

Not to mention people buying two of them, or buying one to put next to an iMac. Surely Apple's clever designers could design it in a way that would allow it to be sold in two versions, one with the iPad inside, the other without?!

 

[turbineseaplane]

Apple have eliminated me as a display customer, basically forever, if they don't add a 2nd input.

Displays are too expensive and important to be as inflexible as Apple makes them still.
(same with all the hacks and/or extra cost needed to simply VESA mount them)

At one time maybe it made sense, but it's a major drawback at this point in time.

 

[cforbesdesign]

I don't know what the rumored specs for this thing are since the story keeps changing but if Apple pulls off 5K 120Hz it would be kind of impressive

With Thunderbolt 5, the latest MBPs could easily support this. Let’s hope the new monitor will also support TB5

If Apple were to launch a 5K 120hz display do we think there is any chance a M2 machine would be compatible with it but just be limited to 5K 60hz?

 

[turbineseaplane]

If Apple were to launch a 5K 120hz display do we think there is any chance a M2 machine would be compatible with it but just be limited to 5K 60hz?

Capable of doing it, or compatible?

Two very different questions in Apple land.

 

[tenthousandthings]

If Apple were to launch a 5K 120hz display do we think there is any chance a M2 machine would be compatible with it but just be limited to 5K 60hz?

Such a display doesn't yet exist from any manufacturer, IPS or OLED, so it's hard to say, but M1/M2 Pro and above should easily do one 5K 120Hz. For the base M-series, 5K 120Hz might require M4?

For 5K 60Hz, M1 and above will be fine. ProMotion = VRR (variable refresh rate) -- it's completely absurd to imagine that Apple would build a Retina 5K 120Hz display without ProMotion. So any hypothetical Apple Studio Display with ProMotion would support 60Hz, without question.

 

[CWallace]

If Apple were to launch a 5K 120hz display do we think there is any chance a M2 machine would be compatible with it but just be limited to 5K 60hz?

Yes TB3 and HDMI 2.1 can handle 5K 60Hz without issue. HDMI 2.1 with Display Stream Compression should be able to handle 5K 120Hz.

 

[bernaferrar]

With MacBook Pros going OLED it seems weird that Apple would make a new display that's Mini LED. But a 27" OLED display would probably be megabucks so that's probably why.

Weird how since 2020 MacBook has 120hz and it still hasn't

 

[theorist9]

Meanwhile, the XDR is now 5.5 years old....

 

[Citizen45]

If Apple were to launch a 5K 120hz display do we think there is any chance a M2 machine would be compatible with it but just be limited to 5K 60hz?

I answered this above.

5K120HZ is supported by TB3/4 via DSC.

Apple already uses DSC for the Pro Display XDR (TB3 cannot run uncompressed 6K60HZ) and for the Studio Display.

Thus, they will make sure that all TB3/4 Macs can utilize the full 5K120HZ capabilities of this monitor.

If they limited the 120HZ to TB5 only, they wouldn’t sell more than a handful of this monitor.

 

[grammatica]

I just want OLED and Pro Motion.

 

[ghostrockk]

I answered this above.

5K120HZ is supported by TB3/4 via DSC.

Apple already uses DSC for the Pro Display XDR (TB3 cannot run uncompressed 6K60HZ) and for the Studio Display.

Thus, they will make sure that all TB3/4 Macs can utilize the full 5K120HZ capabilities of this monitor.

If they limited the 120HZ to TB5 only, they wouldn’t sell more than a handful of this monitor.

Ive been thinking about why would apple release a monitor 5k / 120hz when the majority of machines are still in TB4 and you answer this question.

 

[benwiggy]

Not to mention people buying two of them, or buying one to put next to an iMac.

You can create an Aggregate Audio device in Audio MIDI Setup.app that uses all the speakers and microphones you have, together! So you could have sound coming from both Displays at once!

 

[tenthousandthings]

I answered this above.

5K120HZ is supported by TB3/4 via DSC.

Apple already uses DSC for the Pro Display XDR (TB3 cannot run uncompressed 6K60HZ) and for the Studio Display.

Thus, they will make sure that all TB3/4 Macs can utilize the full 5K120HZ capabilities of this monitor.

If they limited the 120HZ to TB5 only, they wouldn’t sell more than a handful of this monitor.

The reason I answered the question the way I did (M1 Pro and above, base M4 and above) wasn’t due to Thunderbolt 3 not being able to handle it (with DSC) — it was because the M1 and M3 iMacs are limited to a single 6K 60Hz external. But I should have clarified — the M2 Mini would be fine, as it supports dual 5K 60Hz (which is where I draw the line), and even the M2 Air might be okay in clamshell mode. But I think all of the base M1s might not make the cut, along with the M3 iMac.

 

[tenthousandthings]

I just want OLED and Pro Motion.

To be clear, Retina 5K tandem OLED + ProMotion is very much a long shot for early 2026 — for a reality check, see TFT Central’s recent (July 9) video summary of the state of the OLED-monitor art:

Brighter OLED Monitors are Coming! - TFTCentral

Brighter OLED monitors! Exploring the improvements to SDR and HDR brightness, the technologies behind them, and all the monitors coming soon

tftcentral.co.uk

 

[ADrunkenMarcus]

Could the new display actually be a new 27” iMac? Just asking. 😇

If only.

I'm expecting to keep my intel 27" iMac (2019) going until next year. It is no longer going to receive the latest OS. I did look at the 24" iMac options but storage only goes up to 2 TB. I think memory topped out at 32 GB...my current machine has 64 GB although I'm sure the silicon will work wonders!