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Correct.

The Apple USB-C Charge Cable is an excellent cable for charging things, being the only cable on the market to be both two metres long and support 100W of power. Most others are limited to 60W and are shorter.

But it only supports USB 2 data speeds, and is not Thunderbolt, so isn't a very good cable for data transfer.
Thanks for confirming that. :)
 
5k display: backlight bleeding is apparent on mine.
13" and 5k will result in some stutter on some animations. Scrolling is smooth.
I can play 4k video just fine.

I'm actually thinking that the monitor may be overkill. Having 3200x1800 resolution (scaled) is not small at all and I've never had that many pixels before.

If the backlight bleeding wasn't apparent I might be super happy.

I have older laptops that do 4k but not 5k. I need to see how the thunderbolt 3 to 2 adapter for $29 performs. Is the 4k text still retina? If so, the monitor is a keeper. I personally think that there's going to be some backlight bleeding on every single monitor so I'd need to exchange 10 times. I'm not sure about it because it's a lot to pay for a monitor. I'd like to see if the 5k iMacs have backlight bleeding. My MacBook 2016 absolutely has no backlight bleeding. All laptops from apple in the last 3 years have been fine
 
Still no news regarding the availability of the 5K display in Switzerland.

Apple has no clue (I called several times, there's nothing they can do and they have no internal contact to ask or to push), and LG says I need to ask Apple, they're not allowed to sell directly.

I'm pondering whether I should get it abroad (in Germany for example), but import taxes and warranty issues might be a small nightmare.

Other options I have are to wait (maybe they will release it at some point here?), or get something else (for example an LG 27UD88-W - after all, I need a good 27" screen, but it doesn't necessarily need to be 5K).

Any opinions?
 
Still no news regarding the availability of the 5K display in Switzerland.

Apple has no clue (I called several times, there's nothing they can do and they have no internal contact to ask or to push), and LG says I need to ask Apple, they're not allowed to sell directly.

I'm pondering whether I should get it abroad (in Germany for example), but import taxes and warranty issues might be a small nightmare.

Other options I have are to wait (maybe they will release it at some point here?), or get something else (for example an LG 27UD88-W - after all, I need a good 27" screen, but it doesn't necessarily need to be 5K).

Any opinions?

How annoying for you. I've got the UD88-W (as I was impatient when I got my MBP and knew I'd want a second screen too) and my 5K Ultrafine turned up yesterday. There's no doubt the Ultrafine is amazing and the bevel isn't an issue. But I was surprised that there wasn't more of a difference between the two. I found I was running my UD88 in scaled mode to get more screen real estate and I found myself doing the same with the 5K and that stops it being retina.

Sounds to me like you would always wonder and have regret about not getting the 5K. You could get the UD88 now and you will have no issues with it and I'm sure you will love it. And if you have the money/desk space get the 5K later, before the end of March obv. Or just treat yourself with the money you've saved and you'll no longer be stressing about this! The colour and resolution of the UD88 are both great and you will have no regrets - it also charges the MBP 15 no problem.

I'm off on a job today where I would normally just take my MBP but because the UD88 is so light, I'm just going to pop that in the car as well. It really is a good quality monitor and I'm sure the PC-using office I'm going to will be more than a bit jealous! Good luck in what you decide, you can't go wrong either way really.
 
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How annoying for you. I've got the UD88-W (as I was impatient when I got my MBP and knew I'd want a second screen too) and my 5K Ultrafine turned up yesterday. There's no doubt the Ultrafine is amazing and the bevel isn't an issue. But I was surprised that there wasn't more of a difference between the two. I found I was running my UD88 in scaled mode to get more screen real estate and I found myself doing the same with the 5K and that stops it being retina.

Sounds to me like you would always wonder and have regret about not getting the 5K. You could get the UD88 now and you will have no issues with it and I'm sure you will love it. And if you have the money/desk space get the 5K later, before the end of March obv. Or just treat yourself with the money you've saved and you'll no longer be stressing about this! The colour and resolution of the UD88 are both great and you will have no regrets - it also charges the MBP 15 no problem.

I'm off on a job today where I would normally just take my MBP but because the UD88 is so light, I'm just going to pop that in the car as well. It really is a good quality monitor and I'm sure the PC-using office I'm going to will be more than a bit jealous! Good luck in what you decide, you can't go wrong either way really.

Thank you for your comment, that actually helps quite a bit.

I will do some more pondering and decide what to do during the next few days.
 
[..] The colour and resolution of the UD88 are both great and you will have no regrets - it also charges the MBP 15 no problem.
[..]
Could you confirm if it chargers the MBP at full power? (@85W)
Does one cable setup transmit data properly to the hub as well?

Thanks
 
Could you confirm if it chargers the MBP at full power? (@85W)
Does one cable setup transmit data properly to the hub as well?

Thanks
No but it does charge, just a bit slower. I believe the USB ports drop to USB 2 speeds if using USB-C to connect to MBP. Fine for keyboards etc. Used it fine with my audio interface.
 
Is anyone seeing their LG completely dimmed when connecting to their MacBook? Each time I connect it I have to jack up the brightness. Not sure if it has anything to do with Sierra betas or not.
 
This is wrong on multiple levels.

First USB-C is a physical connection specification. USB 2.0, USB 3.0, USB 3.1 Gen 1, and USB 3.1 Gen 2 are logical transmission specifications. Thunderbolt 3 is a specification that combines logical transfer specifications with a logical connection specification.

USB 2.0 is 35 MB/s. USB 3.0 and USB 3.1 Gen 1 are 5 Gbit/s. USB 3.1 Gen 2 is 10 Gbit/s. Thunderbolt 3 is 40 Gbit/s.

USB 3.1 Gen 2 uses USB-C. No matter what cable you use the maximum speed is 10 Gbit/s.

Thunderbolt 3 uses USB-C "Thunderbolt Alternate Mode" in its implementation and has nothing to do USB 3.1. This "Thunderbolt Alternate Mode" also supports "DisplayPort 1.2 Alternate Mode" which is a 20 Gbit/s implementation.

Note: The Apple Power Cable that comes with the Late 2016 MacBook Pro 15" is a USB-C cable that only supports USB 2.0 transfer speeds. It's best used as a power cable but can be used with USB-C USB 3.1 data devices if no other option exists.

The LG 5K UltraFine Display USB-C cable is a USB-C cable that only supports USB 2.0 transfer speeds. It's best used as a display cable but can be used with USB-C USB 3.1 data devices if no other option exists.

So the LG 5k cable is still confusing me. I have read extensively about USB-C on WikiPedia, USB.org, etc. and most of it is pretty clear. I have an EE background so I'm a glutton for this kind of geek reading.

The LG supplied black USB-C cable has the lightning logo on it, so one would assume that its Thunderbolt3 alternate mode for connecting my MBP TB3 to the display LG 5K; which works fine. For fun I used that same cable and connected it to my Samsung T3 SSD and ran BlackMagic speed test. It did not perform well at all, 35MB/S write and 40MB/s read. I assumed (wrongly) that if it worked for 40MB/s TB3 it would surely work on the SSD.

Now I also purchased the USB-C to USB-C (USB-3.1 Gen 2) Belkin cable from Apple. Apple speicifys the cable as USB 3.1, but neglects to add the Gen.2 nomenclature creating more confusion for the casual buyer. Anyhow BlacMagic gives it 380MB/s write and 425MB/s read, which is pretty good. I doubt we'll ever see the 10GB/s let alone 5GB/s as the SSD limits that bandwidth, but still pretty impressive for external storage.

Lastly using the USB-C non-TB3 ports on the back of the LG 5k with the Belkin USB 3.1 Gen2 cable, I get 260MB/s write and 350MB/s reads. Not bad, but where did the 100MB/s go. With 24 conductors, multiple high speed data pipes, I would again have expected to see the same performance as connecting straight to the MBP USB-C port.

Maybe someone can shed some light here, I thought I had it all figured out, but I'm still missing something here.
 
@edenorchestra: here's some answers for you!

The LG supplied black USB-C cable has the lightning logo on it, so one would assume that its Thunderbolt3 alternate mode for connecting my MBP TB3 to the display LG 5K; which works fine. For fun I used that same cable and connected it to my Samsung T3 SSD and ran BlackMagic speed test. It did not perform well at all, 35MB/S write and 40MB/s read. I assumed (wrongly) that if it worked for 40MB/s TB3 it would surely work on the SSD.
The cable that ships with the LG UltraFine 5K is an active Thunderbolt 3 cable. This means that, in order to achieve lengths longer than 0.5 metres while still maintaining the full 40 Gbps, complex chips are added at each end of the cable. This is why the long Thunderbolt 3 cables are so expensive. Shorter ones - 0.5 metres and less - are passive and so are pretty much straightforward pin-to-pin connections.

Why does this matter? Well, active cables lose their backwards compatibility with USB 3.1. This explains the slow speeds you were seeing.

Now I also purchased the USB-C to USB-C (USB-3.1 Gen 2) Belkin cable from Apple. Apple speicifys the cable as USB 3.1, but neglects to add the Gen.2 nomenclature creating more confusion for the casual buyer. Anyhow BlacMagic gives it 380MB/s write and 425MB/s read, which is pretty good. I doubt we'll ever see the 10GB/s let alone 5GB/s as the SSD limits that bandwidth, but still pretty impressive for external storage.
Very good speeds! The SanDisk Extreme 900 is an example of an external drive that will take advantage of 3.1 Gen 2, supporting up to 850 MBps read and write. Also, Apple seems (rightly or wrongly) to use USB 3 to refer to 5 Gbps and USB 3.1 to refer to 10 Gbps.

Lastly using the USB-C non-TB3 ports on the back of the LG 5k with the Belkin USB 3.1 Gen2 cable, I get 260MB/s write and 350MB/s reads. Not bad, but where did the 100MB/s go. With 24 conductors, multiple high speed data pipes, I would again have expected to see the same performance as connecting straight to the MBP USB-C port.
This has been reported above. In the case of slow speeds on USB-C ethernet adapters, someone reported their speeds were improved using different drivers. However, for straight USB-C devices, we'll just have to wait for LG or Apple to hopefully fix this with software.
 
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Lastly using the USB-C non-TB3 ports on the back of the LG 5k with the Belkin USB 3.1 Gen2 cable, I get 260MB/s write and 350MB/s reads. Not bad, but where did the 100MB/s go. With 24 conductors, multiple high speed data pipes, I would again have expected to see the same performance as connecting straight to the MBP USB-C port.

The USB-C ports on the back of the LG 5K display are USB 3.1 Gen 1 ports while the USB-C ports on the MacBook Pro are USB 3.1 Gen 2 ports. So, if the device and cable supports USB 3.1 Gen 2, it will be faster plugged into the MacBook Pro than it would being plugged into the LG 5K display. Also, even if the device is USB 3.1 Gen 1, the LG 5K display USB 3.1 Gen 1 implementation is slower than the MacBook Pro.
 
The USB-C ports on the back of the LG 5K display are USB 3.1 Gen 1 ports while the USB-C ports on the MacBook Pro are USB 3.1 Gen 2 ports. So, if the device and cable supports USB 3.1 Gen 2, it will be faster plugged into the MacBook Pro than it would being plugged into the LG 5K display. Also, even if the device is USB 3.1 Gen 1, the LG 5K display USB 3.1 Gen 1 implementation is slower than the MacBook Pro.
Yea that makes sense, thanks.
 
Is anyone seeing their LG completely dimmed when connecting to their MacBook? Each time I connect it I have to jack up the brightness. Not sure if it has anything to do with Sierra betas or not.
I got mine today and noticed the same thing on 10.12.4 Beta (16E154a)
 
Can this monitor display 8K across?


That is an 8K video! or 4320p - the 5K is more than that across right...
Assuming I am not wrong about this I am struggling to see a difference between 4k and 8k...

And if I am wrong and we can't get any 8K in any direction why does YouTube show it as an option!?
 
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