Studio Display smell

[andreas_g]

Dear MacRumors community,

I recently purchased a new Studio Display and Mac mini to replace my old iMac. For space reasons the devices are located in my sleeping room. After placing the display on my desk I noticed a quite strong smell which is a bit difficult to describe. I would call it slightly sweet and quite „chemical“.

I first thought this was some residual solvent from a cleaning agent or glue which would evaporate quickly. Unfortunately the smell persists and only weakened by a small amount. The smell comes from inside the device.

I contacted the Apple support to ask if this was normal and what causes the smell. They told me that some smell was normal but could not tell me what chemical causes it. They refused to forward my question to a technical expert.

Now I see two problems:
On the one hand the smell itself is quite disturbing, especially if the device is placed in the sleeping room, and on the other hand the substances causing the smell might be toxic.

I know Apple has banned some toxic chemicals from their products but there are many potentially toxic chemicals left. Because the smell derives from inside the device I think that it evaporates from electronic components or the circuit board. I suspect these components might emit flame retardants, maybe organophosphorus chemicals.

I strongly advise against using the display in a place other than a well-ventilated workplace.

If anyone has informations on what substances are emitted please share your knowledge.

By the way I posted the same text to the Apple discussions. It was deleted after a few minutes!

 

[andreas_g]

Here a screenshot and a (dead) link to my post on the Apple discussions:

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/254108464

 

[astrorider]

I strongly advise against using the display in a place other than a well-ventilated workplace.

If anyone has informations on what substances are emitted please share your knowledge.

By the way I posted the same text to the Apple discussions. It was deleted after a few minutes!

I'm guessing that advising people not to buy the display is why your post was removed. It sounds like Apple told you the product is safe even if it has a smell upon first use. They provide a forum to ask questions and share information about their products, but using it to advise others not to buy their products probably isn't allowed. If you think the smell is unsafe or beyond what's normal for the product, maybe try contacting AppleCare again and see if they'd be willing to exchange if for another so you can try again (I've read they may be able to expedite an exchange so you don't have to wait again). Otherwise, if you're not happy you should return it before your return window expires.

 

[PeterKG]

It’s the new Mac smell that is evident on almost every MacBook Pro I’ve ever bought and will dissipate within a short time. I quite like the smell.

 

[xraydoc]

I have two of them together in the same room and I've not noticed a smell at all.
My 14" MacBook Pro did have that pleasant, faint new-Mac smell, however.
🤷‍♂️

 

[Adamj53]

It’s the new Mac smell that is evident on almost every MacBook Pro I’ve ever bought and will dissipate within a short time. I quite like the smell.

I love that new Mac smell.

 

[novagamer]

Posting for anyone sensitive to VOCs – this is still an issue with newly manufactured units, I have one made in October 2024 and I put it on Max brigthness with a White screen in a spare room to offgas. I it doesn’t I”m going to return it, it’s absolutely horrible.

It is not the “new Mac smell” typical of Apple products, this is definitely caustic – I got a sore throat and lost the falsetto range of my voice being in the room with it for a day or two before I realized why, I thought I was sick at first.

The only other Apple product I’ve had that had a bad chemical odor was a pair of black airpods max but black dye is known to do that, I put them in a screened porch for a week and it went away – can’t do that with this monitor though.

Otherwise I quite like it, the nano texture looks great and the speakers are quite good.

 

[novagamer]

Posting for anyone sensitive to VOCs – this is still an issue with newly manufactured units, I have one made in October 2024 and I put it on Max brigthness with a White screen in a spare room to offgas. I it doesn’t I”m going to return it, it’s absolutely horrible.

It is not the “new Mac smell” typical of Apple products, this is definitely caustic – I got a sore throat and lost the falsetto range of my voice being in the room with it for a day or two before I realized why, I thought I was sick at first.

The only other Apple product I’ve had that had a bad chemical odor was a pair of black airpods max but black dye is known to do that, I put them in a screened porch for a week and it went away – can’t do that with this monitor though.

Otherwise I quite like it, the nano texture looks great and the speakers are quite good.

Update: running it at max brightness 24/7 in a warm spare room for about a week burned off most of whatever this was. Annoying, but very glad it’s gone as I do greatly enjoy the display. Using my old LG Ultrafine for that week drove home how much better Apple’s display is.

 

[Royksöpp]

It's that yummy delicious new Mac smell. There is nothing quite like it. It's like a new car smell.

 

[Ronzo99]

I just purchased a Studio Display and the smell is horrible. It smells like an overheated capacitor, a smell frequently emitted by overheated electronic devices. This unit is going back to Apple!

This is NOT that “new Apple” smell! Maybe yours smells fine, but this does not, so please stop saying it does — it is awful!

 

[xraydoc]

I just purchased a Studio Display and the smell is horrible. It smells like an overheated capacitor, a smell frequently emitted by overheated electronic devices. This unit is going back to Apple!

This is NOT that “new Apple” smell! Maybe yours smells fine, but this does not, so please stop saying it does — it is awful!

I've heard reports of this, but I gotta say, I have three and none had any kind of odor or out-gassing. And I have a very sensitive sense of smell (horrible hearing and aging eyesight, but bloodhound-level sense of smell). Definitely seems to be an unusual situation. I hope you get a good replacement.

 

[novagamer]

I just purchased a Studio Display and the smell is horrible. It smells like an overheated capacitor, a smell frequently emitted by overheated electronic devices. This unit is going back to Apple!

This is NOT that “new Apple” smell! Maybe yours smells fine, but this does not, so please stop saying it does — it is awful!

It will go away (see my previous post) but if you’re that sensitive to it I suggest doing exactly what I did if you have the ability and spare space. It took a full week 24/7 to abate for me and there’s no way I could’ve been in the room using it during that time.

I ran a white screen zoomed in so I wouldn’t create any image retention issues. The display does need to be hot to get rid of it so if you only have one Mac it’s going to be a pain in the ass to sort out, thankfully I had an older machine I could set up.

It’s very stupid that it’s a problem at all and hopefully Apple doesn’t repeat whatever manufacturing issue is going on that causes it.

 

[M4th]

Mine has been fine since started using around ten days ago, so add me to the no smell list. Very surprised that this is even a thing, but glad it will eventually go away for those with that issue.

 

[Reservoir_Dog]

I just purchased a Studio Display and the smell is horrible. It smells like an overheated capacitor, a smell frequently emitted by overheated electronic devices. This unit is going back to Apple!

This is NOT that “new Apple” smell! Maybe yours smells fine, but this does not, so please stop saying it does — it is awful!

So what did you do with it? I have the same problem, it comes from the top right ventilation holes... I hate the smell, cannot be healthy
Is apple using some cheap chemical stuff????

 

[Reservoir_Dog]

It will go away (see my previous post) but if you’re that sensitive to it I suggest doing exactly what I did if you have the ability and spare space. It took a full week 24/7 to abate for me and there’s no way I could’ve been in the room using it during that time.

I ran a white screen zoomed in so I wouldn’t create any image retention issues. The display does need to be hot to get rid of it so if you only have one Mac it’s going to be a pain in the ass to sort out, thankfully I had an older machine I could set up.

It’s very stupid that it’s a problem at all and hopefully Apple doesn’t repeat whatever manufacturing issue is going on that causes it.

Is a white YouTube background movie also helping? Someone posted a video with only pure white during hours....

Thanks

 

[novagamer]

Is a white YouTube background movie also helping? Someone posted a video with only pure white during hours....

Thanks

My logic was that 1. it wouldn't burn anything in by having other objects on screen, and 2. white at full brightness would likely heat things up the most internally.

In accessibility options in macOS, you can turn on zoom (use scroll gesture with modifier key to zoom), just open a textedit document or a blank webpage and zoom in and it'll take up all the screen space from edge to edge which is what you want, you'll zoom on the pointer but if you hit the arrow keys up or down the pointer will disappear and leave you with a pure white screen.

After the week or so I did this the problem really did go away completely, I have no issues and am still very happy with the display despite having to put it through this ridiculous procedure.

It might even be dye used on internal cabling, who knows, but it is very strong. My black AirPods Max also had to be aired out in a separate room for a few days before I was able to use them but no other Apple product has ever given me this type of trouble, and I've had a lot of them.