Studio Display XDR Impressions

[phoenixbt]

Just updated both of my Studio Display XDR's with the firmware update (and latest OS update) and unfortunately it's still not working with with both displays connected to my M4 MBA. Even setting both displays to 60Hz and plugging in two separate TB 5 cables, it will only ever display on one display.

I was hopeful the update might fix it...

 

[btrach144]

As other’s have said: firmware update for 2026 monitors was released: https://www.macrumors.com/2026/03/24/studio-display-firmware-update-26-4/

It’s version 26.4 build 23E246 on my Studio XDR. File size was 2.19GB. After rebooting, the update took just over 4 minutes to install.

It only showed up for me after updating my machine to macOS 26.4.

I just installed it so I have not had time to see if the only bug I encountered on 26.3 firmware was fixed (black screen when switching presets).

Edit: My initial testing shows that preset switching is wicked fast now. You might even dare say… snappier!

I feel like the preset bug wasn’t always an issue though so will continue to use it for the next day or two and see what happens.

 

[tothemoonsands]

Switching presets while Adaptive refresh is on is no longer broken - works instantly.
Music sounds fuller in my opinion, but that is far from quantified by anything other than my own ear.
M4 Pro is indeed just driving one display at 120hz and the other at up to 60hz.
Waking up from sleep appears to be noticeably faster now.

Edit:
Early impression is automatic brightness is fixed too, smoother and not noticeable flickering. Still need to test this more to confirm.

 

[phoenixbt]

Someone sanity check me here - I just got off the phone with apple support and they told me the M4 air won't support 2 Studio Display XDR's at the same time, but any of the older M3 or M1 chips would. The person also stated that no chips M4 or newer (even pro or max) in a laptop would support the two displays.

I find that extremely hard to believe and contradictory to what all of the docs say. Is anyone here running a MBP with an M4 or M5 pro/max chip and can confirm if this works? I get it if my M4 air won't do it, but there's no way a brand new M5 max MBP shouldn't be able to drive 2 of these

 

[AnInanimateCarbonRod]

I haven't noticed much different with the update yet, although I found it interesting that on the first boot after installation I received the "would you like to allow the Studio Display XDR to connect to your Mac" prompt again, as if it was an entirely different unit.

Someone sanity check me here - I just got off the phone with apple support and they told me the M4 air won't support 2 Studio Display XDR's at the same time, but any of the older M3 or M1 chips would. The person also stated that no chips M4 or newer (even pro or max) in a laptop would support the two displays.

I find that extremely hard to believe and contradictory to what all of the docs say. Is anyone here running a MBP with an M4 or M5 pro/max chip and can confirm if this works? I get it if my M4 air won't do it, but there's no way a brand new M5 max MBP shouldn't be able to drive 2 of these

Support definitely made a mess of that one. Your M4 Air will be able to drive two Studio Display XDRs but only at 60Hz as per this support document:

Two external displays​

Supports two external displays in the following configuration:

• Two displays up to a native resolution of 6K (6144 x 3456) at 60Hz or 4K (3840 x 2160) at 144Hz

I don't know why they would have told you that older chips are more capable. You need M3 Pro or better to run the Studio Display XDR at its full 5K 120Hz capability.

 

[phoenixbt]

I haven't noticed much different with the update yet, although I found it interesting that on the first boot after installation I received the "would you like to allow the Studio Display XDR to connect to your Mac" prompt again, as if it was an entirely different unit.



Support definitely made a mess of that one. Your M4 Air will be able to drive two Studio Display XDRs but only at 60Hz as per this support document:

I don't know why they would have told you that older chips are more capable. You need M3 Pro or better to run the Studio Display XDR at its full 5K 120Hz capability.

Thanks! Yeah I think they were confused and don’t understand the spec. I asked the person if I bought a brand new m5 max MacBook
Pro with the top spec, would it support two of them. She said no, only an m3 ultra or earlier would…made no sense to me

 

[figbash]

@figbash Do you like to code with a pure black background? Once you get above like 5% grey a regular ASD probably looks identical to the XDR, many dark themes would look the same. I doubt you're coding in HDR 🙂

I see the logic of what you’re saying, but that’s not true at all in my experience… I went from a fairly expensive backlit IPS that was very similar to the ASD to an OLED monitor specifically because of black levels for mostly coding, and then to the XDR due to eye strain I get from the current OLED panels. The backlit IPS had what I now consider poor contrast and you can very easily see that same poor contrast on the ASD next to the XDRs at the Apple Store. I could immediately tell which monitors were the XDRs right when I walked in before using them. The ASD just looks washed out and unpleasant to me.

IPS glow and backlight bleed issues are also fixed (at least close enough for me) by going to mini LED, and those are both immensely annoying to me in dark themes.

To be fair, I work in a dark office which probably makes all these issues more obvious.

I realize most people don’t care though and that’s probably the smarter way to go lol, it’s certainly cheaper! I’m very happy that Apple has made the perfect monitor for me though, I just wish it was half the price 🙂

 

[tothemoonsands]

I just wish it was half the price 🙂

It IS half the price (of the Pro Display XDR) 😉

 

[AnInanimateCarbonRod]

I haven't noticed much different with the update yet, although I found it interesting that on the first boot after installation I received the "would you like to allow the Studio Display XDR to connect to your Mac" prompt again, as if it was an entirely different unit.

I stand corrected from earlier - wake from sleep is indeed much faster from before.

 

[jabbr]

@figbash right on, no doubt it's a much better experience. How are you getting on with the response times coming from your OLED? So far I've read mixed opinion on this.

I don't think I'm very sensitive to slower screens. While I appreciate the motion on OLED (responsive scrolling, gaming), I never find using the ASD / MBP to be a jarring downgrade in that respect. Yeah they are noticeably worse than my TV, phone, or iPad, but it doesn't get in the way of how I use a computer.

 

[kepler20b]

I can confirm the new firmware update (26.4) fixes the preset switch crashing on my xdr.

previously I had to stay on 60hz to switch to some profiles. some crash, some didn't


now I can switch to all of them at any refresh.

 

[Pezimak]

Can anyone plug their Windows computer directly in using a thunderbolt cable and see if it works with the new firmware?

 

[aMunster]

Can anyone plug their Windows computer directly in using a thunderbolt cable and see if it works with the new firmware?

1. Old gaming PC w/ 3090 and DisplayPort 2.1 to USB-C cable = Yes. It works at 5k 60hz. No webcam / speakers / mic, of course.
2. Surface Laptop 6 = only runs at 1080p. (The webcam / speakers / mic work fine.) No improvement using display firmware 26.4. There are a couple threads on Reddit about this. HP, Lenovo and Dell laptops are impacted as well. The common denominator is Intel graphics. The Surface Laptop 6 ran the Studio Display non-XDR at 5k 60hz just fine.
3. Also, the screen crashed for the first time after I installed 26.4 on my Macbook Pro M4 Pro and Studio Display XDR. I think it was WindowServer. The failure seemed similar to the half-screen kernel panics that others have reported.

 

[figbash]

It IS half the price (of the Pro Display XDR) 😉

True, it’s quite the bargain!

@figbash right on, no doubt it's a much better experience. How are you getting on with the response times coming from your OLED? So far I've read mixed opinion on this.

I don't think I'm very sensitive to slower screens. While I appreciate the motion on OLED (responsive scrolling, gaming), I never find using the ASD / MBP to be a jarring downgrade in that respect. Yeah they are noticeably worse than my TV, phone, or iPad, but it doesn't get in the way of how I use a computer.

I’m not very sensitive to motion blur either I suppose, I notice it but it’s not a big deal for me versus other people. It definitely doesn’t bug me as much as 60FPS or IPS glow do. I would of course love if the XDR had better motion but it’s really the only game in town for me at this point, so I’m living with it.

I don’t have any issues gaming on it, the input latency feels fine it’s just kind of blurry motion. I don’t play competitive games though, I don’t think a competitive player would be happy with it at all.

I feel like movies look better in motion than my MBP but I might be imagining things as the photos I took earlier show very similar blur.

I actually don’t prefer OLED motion as it’s very hard to get used to, it always feels like a really fast slideshow rather than movement to me, unless using BFI which brings its own issues. I miss CRTs and plasma ha.

 

[Pezimak]

1. Old gaming PC w/ 3090 and DisplayPort 2.1 to USB-C cable = Yes. It works at 5k 60hz. No webcam / speakers / mic, of course.
2. Surface Laptop 6 = only runs at 1080p. (The webcam / speakers / mic work fine.) No improvement using display firmware 26.4. There are a couple threads on Reddit about this. HP, Lenovo and Dell laptops are impacted as well. The common denominator is Intel graphics. The Surface Laptop 6 ran the Studio Display non-XDR at 5k 60hz just fine.
3. Also, the screen crashed for the first time after I installed 26.4 on my Macbook Pro M4 Pro and Studio Display XDR. I think it was WindowServer. The failure seemed similar to the half-screen kernel panics that others have reported.

Thanks much appreciated, oh well hopefully one day soon the Intel graphics will work.

 

[ascender]

Someone sanity check me here - I just got off the phone with apple support and they told me the M4 air won't support 2 Studio Display XDR's at the same time, but any of the older M3 or M1 chips would. The person also stated that no chips M4 or newer (even pro or max) in a laptop would support the two displays.

I find that extremely hard to believe and contradictory to what all of the docs say. Is anyone here running a MBP with an M4 or M5 pro/max chip and can confirm if this works? I get it if my M4 air won't do it, but there's no way a brand new M5 max MBP shouldn't be able to drive 2 of these

I’ve got an open support ticket with Apple Engineering as my M5 MacBook Pro won’t run two XDRs at any refresh rate. But the specs say it should be capable of it.

M4 Air page says:

• Up to two external displays with up to 6K resolution at 60Hz

Presumably that’s in clamshell mode?

 

[phoenixbt]

I’ve got an open support ticket with Apple Engineering as my M5 MacBook Pro won’t run two XDRs at any refresh rate. But the specs say it should be capable of it.

M4 Air page says:

• Up to two external displays with up to 6K resolution at 60Hz

Presumably that’s in clamshell mode?

Interesting. So they’ve at least acknowledged yours should do it?

Yeah mine I’ve tried clamshell or open and it’ll only ever display on one monitor. Even if I try to manually set both to 60Hz. They closed my ticket and said it just wasn’t supported 🙁

 

[RatedRSuperstar]

I’ve read a number of threads on this and the answers are pretty mixed.

I’m using a MacBook Pro with the M1 Pro chip, can it run two Studio Display XDRs simultaneously? I understand daisy-chaining isn’t supported, but will it work if I connect each display directly to my Thunderbolt ports?

Thanks!

 

[AnInanimateCarbonRod]

I’ve read a number of threads on this and the answers are pretty mixed.

I’m using a MacBook Pro with the M1 Pro chip, can it run two Studio Display XDRs simultaneously? I understand daisy-chaining isn’t supported, but will it work if I connect each display directly to my Thunderbolt ports?

Thanks!

Yes, but only at 60Hz, not the full 120Hz refresh rate.

 

[goneil45]

1. Old gaming PC w/ 3090 and DisplayPort 2.1 to USB-C cable = Yes. It works at 5k 60hz. No webcam / speakers / mic, of course.
2. Surface Laptop 6 = only runs at 1080p. (The webcam / speakers / mic work fine.) No improvement using display firmware 26.4. There are a couple threads on Reddit about this. HP, Lenovo and Dell laptops are impacted as well. The common denominator is Intel graphics. The Surface Laptop 6 ran the Studio Display non-XDR at 5k 60hz just fine.
3. Also, the screen crashed for the first time after I installed 26.4 on my Macbook Pro M4 Pro and Studio Display XDR. I think it was WindowServer. The failure seemed similar to the half-screen kernel panics that others have reported.

This seems to confirm my suspicion that for whatever reason, the XDR is handling onboard graphics different than even the refreshed Studio Display (2026) and that it has nothing to do with what cable you use at all. My Dell Latitude 3520 with Intel Iris Pro graphics ran at 5K 60hz using the Thunderbolt 5 cable that comes with the display on the demo unit at the Apple Store last week. And that's just from a DisplayPort 1.4 spec on a Windows machine. But on the Studio Display XDR it could not go above 1080p 60 oz. It is deeply frustrating to me that a display that costs twice as much has far more limiting output capabilities as it stands right now. I'm really hoping this can be addressed with future firmware. I wonder how frequently the demo units in store get these firmware updates. I'm thinking of going back in with my Dell work laptop and my M1 Pro MacBook and playing around some more.

The standstill I'm at here is the regular Studio Display somehow feels even more outdated at it's price point now (unless you care about a new webcam, which isn't a reason to upgrade by itself) when you consider what you can get instead with LG or Asus with those LCD panel specs, especially if you want that tilt and raise stand. It's a monitor that just sits at an extremely weird place in the segment now that Apple offers two versions. All in for the regular SD, you're paying $2,000 for visuals you've largely been able to get for half that price for quite a while now. It was a question of that glossy panel and aesthetics. Whereas the XDR comes with that premium stand already (we'll call it $2900 for the display by itself) and you're future proofing yourself a lot more with mini-LED, Thunderbolt 5 and 120 hz. The idea of having a 27-inch version of my MacBook Pro display is very tempting, because it's stunning. Part of me thinks that if you are already prepared to pay $2,000, that extra $1,000 buys a lot more peace of mind five years from now. And I think Apple is counting on the enthusiasts to do these mental gymnastics so they end up going with the Studio Display XDR.

 

[kepler20b]

This seems to confirm my suspicion that for whatever reason, the XDR is handling onboard graphics different than even the refreshed Studio Display (2026) and that it has nothing to do with what cable you use at all. My Dell Latitude 3520 with Intel Iris Pro graphics ran at 5K 60hz using the Thunderbolt 5 cable that comes with the display on the demo unit at the Apple Store last week. And that's just from a DisplayPort 1.4 spec on a Windows machine. But on the Studio Display XDR it could not go above 1080p 60 oz. It is deeply frustrating to me that a display that costs twice as much has far more limiting output capabilities as it stands right now. I'm really hoping this can be addressed with future firmware. I wonder how frequently the demo units in store get these firmware updates. I'm thinking of going back in with my Dell work laptop and my M1 Pro MacBook and playing around some more.

The standstill I'm at here is the regular Studio Display somehow feels even more outdated at it's price point now (unless you care about a new webcam, which isn't a reason to upgrade by itself) when you consider what you can get instead with LG or Asus with those LCD panel specs, especially if you want that tilt and raise stand. It's a monitor that just sits at an extremely weird place in the segment now that Apple offers two versions. All in for the regular SD, you're paying $2,000 for visuals you've largely been able to get for half that price for quite a while now. It was a question of that glossy panel and aesthetics. Whereas the XDR comes with that premium stand already (we'll call it $2900 for the display by itself) and you're future proofing yourself a lot more with mini-LED, Thunderbolt 5 and 120 hz. The idea of having a 27-inch version of my MacBook Pro display is very tempting, because it's stunning. Part of me thinks that if you are already prepared to pay $2,000, that extra $1,000 buys a lot more peace of mind five years from now. And I think Apple is counting on the enthusiasts to do these mental gymnastics so they end up going with the Studio Display XDR.

If anything apple is more likely to purposely brick out your desired setup than they are to update the firmware to support it

 

[Autismus]

I know it's said that it can't run 120hz on non apple chips. But why is that so? What if you have the most powerful Intel chip on a Linux PC?

 

[ascender]

Interesting. So they’ve at least acknowledged yours should do it?

Yeah mine I’ve tried clamshell or open and it’ll only ever display on one monitor. Even if I try to manually set both to 60Hz. They closed my ticket and said it just wasn’t supported 🙁

Yes. Looks like a few other users on Reddit have also logged cases with Apple and its with their engineering team.

Just be insistent/clear with 1st line support who you first chat with - the person I spoke to didn't understand the exact setup I had and how it did/didn't meet the Tech Specs on their website.

 

[Starwolf01]

This seems to confirm my suspicion that for whatever reason, the XDR is handling onboard graphics different than even the refreshed Studio Display (2026) and that it has nothing to do with what cable you use at all. My Dell Latitude 3520 with Intel Iris Pro graphics ran at 5K 60hz using the Thunderbolt 5 cable that comes with the display on the demo unit at the Apple Store last week. And that's just from a DisplayPort 1.4 spec on a Windows machine. But on the Studio Display XDR it could not go above 1080p 60 oz. It is deeply frustrating to me that a display that costs twice as much has far more limiting output capabilities as it stands right now. I'm really hoping this can be addressed with future firmware. I wonder how frequently the demo units in store get these firmware updates. I'm thinking of going back in with my Dell work laptop and my M1 Pro MacBook and playing around some more.

The standstill I'm at here is the regular Studio Display somehow feels even more outdated at it's price point now (unless you care about a new webcam, which isn't a reason to upgrade by itself) when you consider what you can get instead with LG or Asus with those LCD panel specs, especially if you want that tilt and raise stand. It's a monitor that just sits at an extremely weird place in the segment now that Apple offers two versions. All in for the regular SD, you're paying $2,000 for visuals you've largely been able to get for half that price for quite a while now. It was a question of that glossy panel and aesthetics. Whereas the XDR comes with that premium stand already (we'll call it $2900 for the display by itself) and you're future proofing yourself a lot more with mini-LED, Thunderbolt 5 and 120 hz. The idea of having a 27-inch version of my MacBook Pro display is very tempting, because it's stunning. Part of me thinks that if you are already prepared to pay $2,000, that extra $1,000 buys a lot more peace of mind five years from now. And I think Apple is counting on the enthusiasts to do these mental gymnastics so they end up going with the Studio Display XDR.

I also suffer from the same issues with integrated graphics, but using an adapter cable plugged in the HDMI port rather than the Thunderbolt ports, I'm able to get 4k60, which is better than nothing.

 

[Pezimak]

I also suffer from the same issues with integrated graphics, but using an adapter cable plugged in the HDMI port rather than the Thunderbolt ports, I'm able to get 4k60, which is better than nothing.

I assume the monitor won’t charge your laptop using this method, even if you use a USB A to C adapter with that cable?