Deals: Apple Studio Display Drops to Record-Low $1,299.99 at Amazon ($299 Off)

[burgman]

you mean the competitors? we won't know til reviews on them are done, however one thing is for certain and that is the price gap difference. 1300 is alienware oled territory.

Curved gaming monitor no thank you

 

[TallManNY]

MacBook Pro M1 can easily drive high refresh displays. I just googled and found tons of people driving even 4K at 144hz via the Thunderbolt ports. You can get TB to displayport cables which work fine.

4K at 144hz is 39.16Gbit/s which a TB4 (displayport 1.4 alt mode) can support. (Max bandwidth is 40Gbit/s on that connection)

5K though … requires 57.08 Gbits/s at 120hz. 85hz would be 39.75 Gbits/s.

Either apple would need to use compression or two cables for it to work at 5K at more than 85hz.

And that’s the problem for 5K

For what it is worth, I'm using an Apple Studio display connected to a 2018 Mac mini. No issues. Though that is only a 60hz refresh rate.

 

[trip1ex]

Exactly - I asked that in context of comment about it not being "future-proof": "hard to spend the dough when it doesn’t seem “future proof” out of the gate."

You answered with things that you currently want to do which it doesn't support; something completely different from what you orignally wrote. I acknowledged and then provided my thoughts on the current-needs matter.

Sorry that you have trouble clearly articulating your thoughts, but you can't expect people to read your mind. Write what you actually mean to say.

I'm sure you'll feel some need to have the last word of course, so feel free. I've written all I need to on the matter.

lol nonsense. But ok let's play a round of the stupid semantics game. Do I want to currently plug in a Switch to a monitor. Something that I listed after you replied to me. No I don't. But it would be nice to have. There you go. I win round 1 even under your clown semantics game.

Obviously you just wanted to clown around. Congrats you're doing a good job of it.

 

[trip1ex]

Costco is also listing them for the same price ($1299).

Strengthens the case for a new model on the horizon.

 

[trigf]

I paid $1099 for my 48" LG OLED. IMHO It doesn't get much better.

OLED's are super nice, love my LG C1 OLED TV. But 48 inches can be too large for some workflows. I have a 4K 40 inch Vizio TV on the wall above my iMac and I hardly ever turn it on.

 

[trip1ex]

Buy for your needs today, not whether it will be relevant at some random point in the future. It's a nice monitor and no matter what technology comes next I'm sure you'll be able to find a use for it for many, many years to come. I'm still using a ACD 27" from 2005 or whenever as my 2nd monitor. Obviously it's not used for any critical work but it's fine to for a email or web window, to put pallets on, or to use as a holding area for things I need quick access to.

And as far as needs go, well do I need a $1300 monitor? No.

 

[JippaLippa]

Interesting, because I have a MacBook Pro with the same mini-LED backlighting and it has no such problem. Calibration issue? Or does the Pro Display XDR have different-sized zones?

Having seen what the mini-LED backlighting can do on the MacBook Pro display, it would be hard to buy another monitor without similar HDR performance (and peak brightness). I just wish the Pro Display XDR wasn't $5,200 (with the minimum mounting option)...

The XDR has half the dimming zone on a surface that's 4 larger than a 16", therefore the local dimming capabilities are quite worse on the 32".
At this very moment the best apple display for content consumption is the one found in the iPad Pro 12.9" M1/M2.
More than 1000 zones in a 12.9" display

 

[colorspace]

Why on god's earth is it $300 less on Apple's Amazon store that on Apple's own store?!?

 

[DotCom2]

Why on god's earth is it $300 less on Apple's Amazon store that on Apple's own store?!?

I don’t know but I’m not upset.

 

[iBug2]

I agree.

Slightly off topic - with respect to the possible 120Hz monitor, how will that monitor work with M1P and M1M machines that have no ports that are rated above 60Hz? Or for that matter w/ the latest M2 MPB and Mini that only have HDMI ports that are rated above 60Hz (so no TB support). Trying to figure this one out as it would see odd for Apple to release a monitor that isn't compatible with even the most recent higher end devices.

Yes TB4 does not support 8K@60Hz or 5K@120Hz, only HDMI. Apple would not release such a monitor unless you can connect it to a Mac with a single cable. I don't remember Apple ever offering a dual cable solution.

 

[lewchenko]

Yes TB4 does not support 8K@60Hz or 5K@120Hz, only HDMI. Apple would not release such a monitor unless you can connect it to a Mac with a single cable. I don't remember Apple ever offering a dual cable solution.

Apple kind of dug themselves into a hole on this one though by opting for the scaling profile on macs that they do. 5K & 6K looks amazing (but only available at 60hz) but the PC world seems to have standardised on 4K at high refresh rates a long time ago.
Whilst Macs can do 4K @ 144hz etc over TB or HDMI now on the latest macs , it’s a non integer scaling so the GPU has to do a little more work.

It’s good to have options though.

A new 5K screen that does 120hz … with just a one cable solution it would mean hardly any macs out there could connect to it ! (Would that be TB 5 since a single TB4 couldn’t do it ?).
Maybe that’s why they haven’t bothered. Unless they have invented some better form of compression maybe.

 

[ggx12]

Why on god's earth is it $300 less on Apple's Amazon store that on Apple's own store?!?

because apple doesn't do discounts (brand-related). They use retailers to do so (I am assuming it's a win-win). I think if you go to a physical apple store, you can sometimes get a price match up to 10%.

 

[iMinnesotan]

I just canceled my Amazon order and placed one from Costco. Last night the Best Buy sales rep tried to price match for me but the computer would not allow it. Glad I don’t have to wait as long as mid March for it to arrive.

 

[DotCom2]

I just canceled my Amazon order and placed one from Costco. Last night the Best Buy sales rep tried to price match for me but the computer would not allow it. Glad I don’t have to wait as long as mid March for it to arrive.

Plus don't forget with Costco you get a 90 day return window.

 

[Blackstick]

Thanks Blackstick. With TVs being larger (eg smallest C2 is 42") it will mean that, at least for how I intend to use the monitor at close viewing position, the pixel density is not as good. But agree the C2 is a very nice TV!

This is true, I wouldn't sit closer than ~30 inches.

 

[i486dx2-66]

Strengthens the case for a new model on the horizon.

It does, but Costco runs sales on Apple products quite frequently.
Maybe this being a "deep" discount is an indicator?

 

[i486dx2-66]

Update for a monitor which is less than a year old?

The Studio Display is essentially a repackaging of the 5K iMac display, which was introduced in 2014 and updated in 2015. Other than a slight brightness boost, the specs are basically unchanged. So it's valid to say that the Apple Studio Display, while recent in release, is effectively the tail-end of eight-year-old technology. Other displays from other vendors have moved beyond it, and the gap will only widen.

There was also much speculation that the ASD was intended to be the 27" Apple Silicon iMac. It is after all a full computer in there. Apple may have used the ASD as a research project - or perhaps changed course late in production - not really intending it to be the end-all for their display lineup. If the ASD was supposed to be an iMac, it would make sense that they could have also had a different display (dedicated display) in development at the same time.

 

[Jankie]

The Studio Display is essentially a repackaging of the 5K iMac display, which was introduced in 2014 and updated in 2015. Other than a slight brightness boost, the specs are basically unchanged. So it's valid to say that the Apple Studio Display, while recent in release, is effectively the tail-end of eight-year-old technology. Other displays from other vendors have moved beyond it, and the gap will only widen.

There was also much speculation that the ASD was intended to be the 27" Apple Silicon iMac. It is after all a full computer in there. Apple may have used the ASD as a research project - or perhaps changed course late in production - not really intending it to be the end-all for their display lineup. If the ASD was supposed to be an iMac, it would make sense that they could have also had a different display (dedicated display) in development at the same time.

I think you have something there. As with any company, it may have just come down to profit and they decided later it was best not to offer the iMac 27 inch.

 

[umbilical]

I would pay that with no regrets if had the same screen as the MacbookPro M1/M2. So I'll wait for the next version expecting a similar screen.

 

[i486dx2-66]

Yeah, it makes a lot of sense when you take a step back!

The 2020 Apple Silicon Developer Transition Kit (the first Mac Mini housing with Apple Silicon guts shipped to devs) had an A12Z processor, and was said to have good performance. The Apple Studio Display has a newer A13 processor, which was a big step up in performance (+20% CPU, +20% GPU, -30 to -40% power consumption). Everything fits that the 27" iMac could have been the *first* device to get the Apple Silicon update, not the last (if ever).

 

[tstafford]

I would pay that with no regrets if had the same screen as the MacbookPro M1/M2. So I'll wait for the next version expecting a similar screen.

Agreed. And get ready to pay close to $3K of that. And I too am a buyer. the MBP screen is quite a bit better than the ASD.

 

[umbilical]

Height adjustable stand is mandatory, sadly no deals on that.

 

[Jankie]

Height adjustable stand is mandatory, sadly no deals on that.

Or VESA.

 

[umbilical]

Agreed. And get ready to pay close to $3K of that. And I too am a buyer. the MBP screen is quite a bit better than the ASD.

for around $3K, I expect the new 32 XDR, maybe I'm dreaming but I keep the faith.

 

[tstafford]

for around $3K, I expect the new 32 XDR, maybe I'm dreaming but I keep the faith.

Well the current XDR is twice that with the stand so . . .