This.
There is no reason that for the price of this display that a VESA mount bracket isn't included in every box plus a stand. The mount costing in all likelihood under $5 to produce.
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PSA: Studio Display Stands Are Not Interchangeable
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There is no reason that for the price of this display that a VESA mount bracket isn't included in every box plus a stand. The mount costing in all likelihood under $5 to produce.
completely over engineered. big fail.
You can get a VESA stand for cheap.
You just described almost every Apple product and many many other consumer products that have non-changable features you have to consider at the time of purchase. The difference here is that there is an option available from Apple that lets you mount the display on any of the millions of display mounts out there that use the VESA standard.
This is an utter non-issue. The iMac has had a built-in stand (with a VESA option configurable at the time of purchase) for decades and you're all somehow surprised this Apple monitor follows the same logic? Amazing.
No it is just Apple. I ordered one of those 27“ LG/Apple Ultrafine things. Nice, display, brilliant colors - pricey. BUT - only thunderbolt connection, that maps two displayport channels. No Hdmi, No DP - just a thunderbolt connector. Unable to connect to any graphics card on the market.
Then I switched to a dual LG Ultrafine Ergo 31,5“ setup with IPS panels. Yes - only 4K and not 5K. $600 each, also brilliant display, superb colors, modern screen size. The desktop mounts are included and you don‘t have to buy em for an extra $400 bucks.
USB-C, Hdmi, Displayport, nice cable routing. USB-C delivers only 60W but this is ok for the superb price and quality.
Your missing the point...many people start with the stand, but may move to a need for VESA later. It happens quite often. The real question is, why didn't they make the two stands work with a VESA mount behind them so you could remove and ALWAYS have VESA as an option like nearly EVERY OTHER MONITOR OFFERS?? It's dumb...plain and simple.
And the answer is...for design-sake...on the back of a monitor...again...dumb. Form over function is never the right answer.
That's the greatest bummer in all of this. I was, admittedly, a bit shocked. There you have all this GPU horsepower, and the display cannot even display more than 60 frames. No Mini-LED I get. 60hz I do not. Guess pros don't need ProMotion that badly, eh. No seriously, Apple missed the beat with this one.
Well good for you if you're happy with this limitation, it doesn't take you much to be happy. We are not talking about soldered RAM or GPU, we're talking about drilling 4 holes and having a way to remove the included stand. Didn't knew it was too much of an ask, considering that literally every monitor works this way.
Indeed but that doesn't alter the fact that this is terrible design. Anyone with any sense would have designed a single body to which all stand/mount options attach through a unified coupling. Also the height adjustable stand should be standard fitment in my view but that's another subject. The only reason Apple has done this is because a) they can, and b) because the extra costs of designing, tooling, shipping, stocking three different bodies is passed onto all their customers unnecessarily.
Building in the mounting option is quite possibly the dumbest thing Apple has ever done.
All of this has been true of the 27inch iMac since it existed and nobody said much about it. Now suddenly it's a cash grab (it probably is, but it isn't new, and if, like most people, you never change the stand you probably won't ever notice).
There are so many questions I had for the Mac Studio Display and I've been with Apple Chat multiple times to get some answers. I will post them down below incase anyone is wondering:
Mac Studio Display 27"
Not capable of Daisy Chaining - There is only 1 Thunderbolt 3 port (Upstream) that can power your Mac, but depending on how many monitors you get (dual, or triple setup) it will take up ports on your computer/laptop.
Portrait Mode Auto-Recognition - The Vesa mount/stand version of the studio display is capable of automatically switching to vertical/portrait mode vs landscape. Only the Vesa mount/stand version can be rotated vertically.
MacBook Pro 16" - Capable of powering up to 4 Studio Displays, if using the HDMI port (3 USB-C, 1 HDMI).
Brightness/Dimming - Capable of brightness and dimming via keyboard controls through your Mac desktop/laptop. How it's done, I don't know? I've never had an Apple Display.
Mac Studio Display 27"
Not capable of Daisy Chaining - There is only 1 Thunderbolt 3 port (Upstream) that can power your Mac, but depending on how many monitors you get (dual, or triple setup) it will take up ports on your computer/laptop.
Portrait Mode Auto-Recognition - The Vesa mount/stand version of the studio display is capable of automatically switching to vertical/portrait mode vs landscape. Only the Vesa mount/stand version can be rotated vertically.
MacBook Pro 16" - Capable of powering up to 4 Studio Displays, if using the HDMI port (3 USB-C, 1 HDMI).
Brightness/Dimming - Capable of brightness and dimming via keyboard controls through your Mac desktop/laptop. How it's done, I don't know? I've never had an Apple Display.
Well not without a $130 cable unless you want the computer right under the display.
As adults sometimes we have to make difficult choices.
Regarding your previous comment below, if I was that outraged I wouldn't cave in, and instead adjust my display requirements:
"Steve must be furious watching thi from above… so much for the woke environmentalist at Apple obsessing with recycled materials that they can’t design interchangeable stand and pretend that it can only be done at the time of order. Is the Apple academy still a thing or is it just full steam ahead into green woketopia???"
It's somewhat expensive but you could run thretwoe displays off a single TB4 port using the CalDigit Element Thunderbolt 4 hub. Even still, would have been much better if the studio display had a TB4 or TB3 passthrough.
Yup, Especially pros in the audio world using specialized studio monitors, not a spacial audio thing built into a monitor. On that point, the new Studio Display is more of a high end consumer product, not a smaller, lower spec'd solution for pros not needing the XDR level of monitor, or its price tag.
I've never had a reason to rotate my display vertically but for those who do, not allowing this on the $300 height adjustable stand option (which looks like a little brother to the $1000 XDR stand) is a real head scratcher. I mean, you're talking $300 more dollars just be able to raise the display up/down 105 mm?
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Even worse, the VESA adapter is stationary, if you want to be able to rotate between landscape and portrait it has to be built into the third-party VESA arm you choose...
Apple really missed the mark here by not making an "affordable" Studio variant of the Pro Stand...
Maybe they will get it right with a three thousand dollar 32" 6K Studio Display...?!?
I imagine Apple thinks $300 extra for 105mm up/down capability is the affordable variant.
The VESA mount variant does; but only if you mount it that way or the VESA arm you are using has a rotating head...?
Not sure what you’ve been smoking. I’m not outraged and I didn’t write the italicized text.
Unbolt? Look at the LG solution. They have a kind of „click mechanism“ they use for their stands. Underneath you‘ll find the bolts for the VESA mount. The stands also route power and display cable, hidden inside. Function and design can go hand in hand - if you want to …
Not sure it’s quite the dumbest (CSAM spyware?), but it certainly makes the “Jump into a bath holding an electric fire” list.
Still, easy solution: wait until someone comes out with a fully adjustable stand with a VESA mount (in matching silver) and buy the monitor then.