This limitations are BAD design. The fact there’re 2 proprietary stands speaks for itself. Just pathetic greed. Innovation would be making it similar to iPad magnetic attachment. They can but they won’t.
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PSA: Studio Display Stands Are Not Interchangeable
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Which of course is fine as long as you envisage that your requirements will never change during the time you own the monitor. I can't be that certain, so I would buy the VESA version and a stand, were I in the market for a new monitor. Technically i'm not in the market for a new monitor, but just you watch, my nearly new 28" Samsung U28R550UQR won't be compatible with the Studio Max I've got on order....
I already did - my 1st display I ever owned is a venerable 24 Apple Cinema Display bought in Dec’06 (works fine, 2 dead pixels but no yellow tint), 2nd display is NEC EA244, 3r is EIZO CS2740. NEC and EIZO are both 4K and while I’m very happy with screen quality the stand build is not great. I bought them in recent 4y just because there was no separate Apple 4K screen.
But after such a long absence from this segment the stand situation is a joke, they could have done more. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t have a problem with refresh rate or included camera, just wish the stand would be the “old Apple f*** you, this is how it’s done” to other manufacturers.
It’s very simple to turn my old Cinema to VESA monitor or keep using it with rock solid stand. Why the woke kids at Apple can’t be awake to the reality and push the design usability is what bothers me.
True enough but this doesn’t really feel like the same thing to me. iMac is an all-in-one computer that I don’t necessarily expect to be versatile outside of its intended use case. The Studio monitor is a different kettle of fish entirely. In my opinion anyway.
Point being did they design and manufacture three different iMacs just to facilitate three different stands? My main issue really with this is that it’s just bad, inefficient engineering. No excuses in the world can get around that one objective fact.
Exactly. This is annoying even on the iMac, but inexcusable on a display that people may use in different ways over time. I wish they had priced it at, say, $1799 with the height-adjustable stand standard, but with an easy way to remove it and access VESA holes.
I have an old monitor with a fixed stand and no vesa mount. So I took it apart, removed the stand, drilled four holes in the back casing, and bolted a vesa mount to it.
Not a perfect solution, because the back is plastic and attached to the metal frame only with a couple screws, but it didn't fall in three years...
Not a perfect solution, because the back is plastic and attached to the metal frame only with a couple screws, but it didn't fall in three years...
Every iMac going back a decade or two has had this exact system: your choice of VESA or built-in stand option. How is everyone remotely surprised (let alone outraged) that this monitor continues the same design?
Sure, in a perfect world Apple would adhere to the design standards Dell and HP and everyone else does, but this is Apple, and you all should already know the deal with how Apple designs hardware. (Hell, I'd like the "option" to add more RAM to my iMac down the road should my needs change, but I'm not surprised I can't.)
You want a separate stand made by Apple? Trust me, you don't. It would be $399, minimum. It would be beautifully designed out of aluminum, and everyone here would be bleeding out of their fingers from typing out anguished comments about how it should cost about $150 at most.
I suspect a huge percentage of users will have absolutely no desire ever to mount their Apple display on some kind of VESA mount ever. If you think you want to put your Apple display on a monitor arm or whatever, you probably already know that, so maybe just have a little foresight the same way you do when spec'ing your RAM and processor options.
It's so insane
I'm trying to wrap my head around how this is a money saving move for Apple.
Making multiple SKUs when you could simply make one monitor and have 3 different stand options that all work with it.
Just nuts.
Consumer unfriendly for sure.
You're supposed to praise Apple for not making it battery powered and adding a lightning port on the base of the stand.
Why not simply manufacture the display with a standard four-hole VESA interface, or the mount adapter included, and offer a sexy stand with an adjustable-height arm and a four-hole VESA interface? You know, like normal people would? [Keep in mind that American law considers corporations to be people because racism (it's true!).] My guess is that, as suggested above, Apple doesn't want the riffraff to mount filthy displays upon their gorgeous, nay, exquisite stands. Maybe some industrious 3rd party like Kensington or Brydge will make an adjustable-height stand with a VESA interface that looks like the integrated ones, and you can choose the VESA mount adapter option without regret.
"You want that sexy stand? Great. Comes with. You want a separate stand? Too bad. Sell you an interchangeable rear panel with the integrated mount option you prefer?
No. Because that is a choice that I have made."
?
Note: as long as the adjustable arm is an option, the stands have to have the different shapes; you can't just add the adjustable height arm to the tilt-only stand because too low, too top heavy. And you can't just make the one perpendicular stand because without that adjustable-height arm, you might as well be screwing it directly into a wall.
The original Studio Displays had a proprietary mount interface for the stands that came with. A little hinky to attach, but the displays could tilt and they were great. You could buy a VESA Mount Adapter, but it was expensive — not as offensive as this mishigas with these 2022 stands, but annoying and familiar. If we'd had the adjustable height option, I'd probably have bought it, grumbling about the markup.
But the iMac G4, AKA the iLamp, had an adjustable-height arm built into the attached monitor, and it was absolutely beautiful. Get me a hanky. An updated version would be awesome.
[Just me pretending to be Apple, the person, again, but I'd kinda have a point or three] "And you know what? Don't kvetch about the price. You're either a design professional or professional video editor, no other reason you should be buying this. Not even because it's aesthetically superior to, let's face it, any other brand's displays. Which, actually, is reason enough to buy it even if you aren't a professional. It's got an amazing camera, speakers and microphones built in — you're saving scrilla right off the bat! Sure it would be nice if it had ProMotion, but really, you want a 144Hz refresh rate? Go get a gaming monitor, ya knob! Mini-LED? Christ, why not Micro-LED or OLED while you're asking!? Mini-LED or OLED would drive the price WAY up. Micro-LED... I mean how much longer do you want to wait for this thing, much less pay for it? HDR? That's a function of the... Sigh. Look, just go get yourself the Pro Display XDR. Take out a ******* loan. Or get a whole giant TV for what you want! You... wait, you WHAT? You want it to work with Windows natively?? Read the room!! Oh hey. Hey now. I'm sorry. Come back. Wipe away those tears. Come. Come into the garden. It's beautiful here. Everything works with everything else here. Mostly. Most of the time. Is it perfect? No. But is it better here than out there, beyond the wall? Oh my, yes. You're adorable. Let me see your wallet."
It still seems pretty hard to find external monitors with well integrated webcams and speakers though, no?
And Apple could have gladly charged us an extra to get the VESA mount or an other stand after the purchase. It’s not a win for them either
too bad aapl didnt offer a built in stand that does it all - adjustable height, tilt, swivel and rotate -- i guess you can go vesa version and get a fancy mech arm - but the price for the display should include a fancy mech arm or stand
Now that Apple’s back in the monitor business, can I put in my request that they get back in the router business?
Thanks.
Thanks.
The VESA mount looks ugly compared to the integrated stand. That's why Apple does it.
Has there ever been an Apple monitor or iMac with default VESA?
Has any Apple monitor ever come with VESA as the standard?
To me Apple monitors and iMacs comes with Apple's stand which is very inflexible. I don't understand why anyone would expect differently.
I concur with the stand non-removable con of the Studio Display. I never said I didn't. That's in fact my biggest gripe about this monitor besides it not being HDR1000 at minimum.
My pushback is shipping a stand. IMO, there should be an option with all modern monitors to not include a stand with purchase. I can see resale being the reason to buy a monitor with a stand.
That and not using the same stand as the XDR with at worst a cheaper alternative rather than this additional $400 stand option from them particular to the Studio Display.
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HDR600 is the minimum to meet a particular HDR quality. Many monitors aren't quality HDR monitors. HDR1000 minimum is expected for LCD monitors regardless of segment.
Sort of the like the recent HDMI 2.1 and USB standards, a lot of unconsumer-friendly grace has been allowed in the VESA HDR standards for merchandising reasons towards not disrupt too much low-end/legacy-or-imperfect-but-still-salvagable-to-sell-to-average-people hardware manufacturered from not being bought.
Yeah, the lowest Vesa standard is actually HDR-400 which is satisfied with 400 nits peak brightness and no local dimming. IMHO that should be not enough to qualify as "HDR", but it exists and likely the reason some "budget" monitor can be still advertised as "HDR".
Needs change. I've switched between arm and stand a few times. It just depends on the desk I'm using.
And somehow books are more stylish?
