Until everyone dumps the studio display for not being up to modern day spec with 120hz and Mini LED when the new one comes out
Yes, but if you have a Mac Studio system then at least you
can upgrade the display without buying a whole new computer.
if they cared about the environment they’d let us use old 5k iMacs as monitors for new macs.
Absolutely agree - I don't think it was feasible with the original 5k iMacs because DP1.2 and Thunderbolt 1/2 couldn't do 5k, but it ought to have been possible with the newer Thunderbolt 3 iMacs. Still, having a second (Intel) Mac running as well as the display is a waste of energy.
Case in point, though - that shows why 'separates' systems are just better, especially when CPU tech and display tech are on separate cycles: if you weren't stuck with an old iMac you'd have been able to keep your old display and use it with a new Studio while you waited for large-screen miniLED displays (if that's what floats your boat) to appear.
Personally, I've shunned the Studio Display and gone with a matching pair of 3:2 4k+ displays which might not match the SD on picture quality, but blow it out of the water in terms of meeting
my needs (and
together cost less than a
single studio display). I can see a niche for the 24" iMac as a general purpose desktop machine, but many higher-end users will want a wider choice of displays.
To those still holding out for a 27" iMac, as I was for all of last year, I am over the moon about my M2 MacBook Air and Studio display.
...and that's the other thing about the "Studio Display" - it doubles as a MacBook Air/Pro docking station so
potentially (...I have my own beefs about the price & design of the thing) it can sell to a much wider market than just the niche who still want a desktop machine, which is good for Apple.
The (probable) reason for the demise of the "higher end" iMac is that - thanks to Apple Silicon - the iMac has now lost one of its major selling points:
The Intel iMac offered significantly more bangs-per-buck than the MacBook Pro - whereas, now, Apple Silicon desktops are packing exactly the same silicon as the laptop models, and only offer
maybe a marginal performance boost over a MacBook Pro (yes, there's the Mx Ultra which delivers more bangs - but for twice as many bucks - and who's to say that a 3nm, more power-efficient Mx Ultra won't show up in a future Macbook Pro).
Laptops were steadily eating the market for desktops
anyway and now - in the Mac world at least - they're offering the same specs and performance. I've gone for a desktop because I really don't need portability at the moment, but if I still needed a laptop
no way would I have bought a desktop as well when I could get so much power out of a MBP.
The Studio and M2 Pro Mini were probably easier & cheaper to design and build than an iMac-style machine, and the Studio Display can be sold to virtually
any Mac (or even iPad) user...
Also note that Apple are now offering a choice of two external displays - and not everybody is going to want to pay the likely price of a 32" XDR iMac - so what are they going to do, make
two new models of iMac (for a shrinking niche market)? Offering mix-and-match computers and displays is a much more economical option.
