Pro Display XDR Turns Four Years Old: When to Expect a New Model

[ThomasJL]

The price of the Pro Display XDR is pure Tim Cook corporate greed. Paying the highly overpriced $4,999 will get the customer a display which cannot even be used as is because it doesn't have a stand. So the customer has to pay another $999 for the stand.

Cook probably thinks he's being generous by including a wall plug in the box for no extra charge. He removed the wall plug from iPhone boxes. So customers can pay the highly overpriced $1,599 for the top-of-the-line maxed-out iPhone 15 Pro Max which cannot be used as is because it doesn't have a wall plug. So the customer has to pay extra for a wall plug.

And what might even be worse are the Apple fanboys on this forum who will defend Cook's blatant and shameless greed.

 

[picpicmac]

Stand-alone 24” display? Make a display from the current iMac screen

Thing is, the current iMac basically is a screen with a built in camera and speakers. The M3 package is barely a bump up (in functionality) over the older A-series in the ASD. The iMac is best thought of as a high quality 24" display that happens to be able to run MacOS.

Whatever display Apple intends after the current XDR, the role played by the current high-end Apple display will also to be a high end display. It will be costly and intended to have a home in production studios.

Affordable displays are in a bad way, I think, these days in no small part to "gaming". This would not have happened if desktop computers were still a growing segment, but alas, desktop computers are on the slow way to oblivion.

So the "gaming" market is where companies have decided to go in search of more sales, and thus the important thing is high refresh rate and widescreen. High resolution and out-of-the-box color fidelity are not so important. And that is bad for the Mac as MacOS is a visual-display oriented product wherein high resolution is what makes Apple products stand out from the mass of products one normally finds in your local office supply outlet.

 

[picpicmac]

And what might even be worse are the Apple fanboys on this forum who will defend Cook's blatant and shameless greed.

Maybe it's the people who are fixated on hating one person (Tim Cook) who are the problem.

 

[sevoneone]

The price of the Pro Display XDR is pure Tim Cook corporate greed. Paying the highly overpriced $4,999 will get the customer a display which cannot even be used as is because it doesn't have a stand. So the customer has to pay another $999 for the stand.

Cook probably thinks he's being generous by including a wall plug in the box for no extra charge. He removed the wall plug from iPhone boxes. So customers can pay the highly overpriced $1,599 for the top-of-the-line maxed-out iPhone 15 Pro Max which cannot be used as is because it doesn't have a wall plug. So the customer has to pay extra for a wall plug.

And what might even be worse are the Apple fanboys on this forum who will defend Cook's blatant and shameless greed.

Leaving the stand and iPhone charger bit out of it, the price is not greedy when you compare it to what it is being measured against and what it is intended to supplement:

Canon DP-V3120 31" 4K HDR Reference Monitor

Buy Canon DP-V3120 31" 4K HDR Reference Monitor featuring 2000 cd/m² Screen Brightness, 0.001 cd/m&sup2 Black Levels, 2,000,000:1 Contrast Ratio, 4 x 12G-SDI Inputs, 4 x 12G-SDI Outputs, Supports 4K and 8K Inputs, Dual and Quad View Options, Wide Viewing Angle, Anti-Glare Finish, ITU-R BT.2020...

www.bhphotovideo.com

https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1657412-REG

And those are only 4k 60Hz displays.

It’s not a consumer-level product. Prosumer with too much money at best.
It for Pros that want to edit without necessarily having to have a separate reference monitor. It’s not as good as a stand alone reference monitor, but it isn’t priced like one either.

Show us a consumer product that is close or surpasses? Dell’s got a 32” 6k display, also 60Hz, 450nit sdr 600nit hdr for $2,400. Looks like a really solid option for a consumer display.

 

[TheRoxyTheatre]

Where do I buy a 6K display with >60Hz refresh? How is the image and build quality?

8k 120hz tv panels already exist today. Shame the wealthiest company in the world can’t figure out how to make a 6k display with 120hz, but why should they when their consumer base has been conditioned to shell out a $1000 a stand, $5000 for a 4yr old 60hz display, and openly defend Apple’s message that 8gb is a “pro” device?

 

[BeatCrazy]

8k 120hz tv panels already exist today. Shame the wealthiest company in the world can’t figure out how to make a 6k display with 120hz

None of those take a 8K 120Hz source. If Apple released a 8K120 display but it could only accept 6K60, then you could rightly be frustrated.

 

[sunny5]

They better put more than 50k mini LED on XDR monitor.

 

[theorist9]

@TheRoxyTheatre , @UnbreakableAlex ,

The current XDR is already at the limit of what Thunderbolt ports can sustain. Doubling the refresh rate would have done nothing as there was no way to get the data in twice as fast.

ProMotion will have to wait until Thunderbolt 5 comes out, perhaps this fall. Even then, it is not clear if anyone is making a panel that large with that high a refresh rate with 6K resolution.

TB4 can support 6k@120 with DSC (Display Stream Compression).

DSC is what allows the CalDigit TS4 to drive two XDR's at 60 Hz (using an M# Pro or above), even though it's got only one TB cable running from the computer. And 2 x 6k@60 Hz has the same bandwidth requirements as 1 x 6k@120 Hz.

I'm not sure what the limit is with DSC, if you want to avoid chroma subsampling (I assume Apple would wish to to avoid this).

Thunderbolt 4 Dock | TS4 | CalDigit – CalDigit

www.caldigit.com

 

[citysnaps]

Present model is over designed and expensive. Next one should use passive cooling and be thinner. If it's literally larger and thicker than iMac then might as well put a computer into it!

And thus Apple was targeting professional commercial markets, and not consumers.

 

[citysnaps]

The price of the Pro Display XDR is pure Tim Cook corporate greed. Paying the highly overpriced $4,999 will get the customer a display which cannot even be used as is because it doesn't have a stand. So the customer has to pay another $999 for the stand.

Cook probably thinks he's being generous by including a wall plug in the box for no extra charge. He removed the wall plug from iPhone boxes. So customers can pay the highly overpriced $1,599 for the top-of-the-line maxed-out iPhone 15 Pro Max which cannot be used as is because it doesn't have a wall plug. So the customer has to pay extra for a wall plug.

And what might even be worse are the Apple fanboys on this forum who will defend Cook's blatant and shameless greed.

No. See my post above, #59. Apple was never targeting consumers with that display.

 

[Hildy]

Perhaps with ARVR goggles coming out Apple will be reticent to release other displays and potentially cannibalize the Vision market.

 

[rb2112]

I'm hoping for a quality display that has multiple inputs allowing me to use my work PC and personal Mac on the same display.

Been doing this happily on my BenQ PD3200 for almost 2 years. Although everyone has different "quality" requirements. Easy to switch between the 2.

 

[mrr]

$999 for the stand…

 

[ElectricPotato]

Remember when they introduced it and the live audience laughed when it came up that the stand cost extra?

I remember it being more of a horrified gasp with a few nervous chuckles. Or was that when they announced the wheels on the new mac pro?

 

[bbdani]

Long overdue. Looking forward to it. I'm not sure if they need a multiple display line-up. They should work on a decent Studio Display (sent mine back after realizing my 6 year old LG has better black level) and of course for the real "pros" a better XDR Display.

 

[Abazigal]

Remember when they introduced it and the live audience laughed when it came up that the stand cost extra?

Yeah, people are weird. They would rather have a display that cost $6000, rather than see a screen that cost $5000 that gave users the option of a discount if they didn't need the stand and elected for a VESA mount instead.

 

[-BigMac-]

If the resolution remains the same, it still won't require DisplayPort 2.1 since Pro Display XDR already uses DSC which compresses the 6K and 60Hz signal to "visually lossless".

That's literally what he said

 

[svish]

Not expecting to see a new display anytime soon. A new one may launch along with a new Mac Pro, which itself might not be happening soon.

 

[Tagbert]

8k 120hz tv panels already exist today. Shame the wealthiest company in the world can’t figure out how to make a 6k display with 120hz, but why should they when their consumer base has been conditioned to shell out a $1000 a stand, $5000 for a 4yr old 60hz display, and openly defend Apple’s message that 8gb is a “pro” device?

How suitable are those 8K 120Hz panels as computer displays? TV displays often make for really bad monitors.

What makes you think that regular consumers were the target of that display? Apple specifically talked about this special display they were making that targeted a very specialized market of video and colorist professionals. It’s competition were reference monitors that sell for $10K-$30K. That stand that shocks people with its price is a low volume, specialty stand with full articulation that lets the display swing from from landscape to portrait orientation without bumping the table. Those were not made in high volume production lines where the price could be spread among tens of thousands of units.

 

[alexandr]

I hope one is launched soon so that the used prices of the current XDR displays will drastically drop. I'd love to have a second one on my desk.

It's the best Apple product I've ever purchased and is a joy to use every day.

Exactly what I was thinking. I didn't originally purchase one, because the price tag seemed extremely unreasonable to me, of course after trying out a few displays that are on the market, including the Apple Studio, I realized that I was probably wrong — but at this price point I don't want to buy a 4 year old display, so it's a waiting game for me

 

[Boil]

Ultra Display XDR (42"/8K/144Hz) debuting alongside M4 Extreme (48P/16E/160G) Mac Pro Cube, WWDC 2025...! ;^p

 

[redheeler]

I hope one is launched soon so that the used prices of the current XDR displays will drastically drop. I'd love to have a second one on my desk.

It's the best Apple product I've ever purchased and is a joy to use every day.

What is your line of work?

 

[ThomasJL]

Present model is over designed and expensive. Next one should use passive cooling and be thinner. If it's literally larger and thicker than iMac then might as well put a computer into it!

I agree with the criticism that it's expensive, but there's no reason for it be thinner. It's a professional/prosumer product (it even says "Pro" in the name), and it's also not meant to be a portable device. Lighter/thinner should only be considerations for portable devices, not desktop devices. Make the form factor as heavy and thick as it needs to be for optimal functionality—that's the point of a desktop device.

 

[ds2000]

How is this 4 already? I can still hear the stand chuckle as though it was yesterday

 

[BigKahunaBurguer]

This is one thing I hate about the latests apple displays.
For example I have an apple TV (so in the end apple got my money), but couldn't attach it to my apple purchased display...
I know there's ther apple TV app, but this limits my choices.
Having USB-C only for displays is not a good choice...

Exactly, I don’t even ask for a DP, but please, add at least an HDMI port…