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Studio Display XDR Impressions

I also got my Apple Studio Display XDR on Wednesday and it is mind blowing to say at least. All this bashing about the price and size. But once you see the display lighten up, it's absolutely stunning.

HDR videos got me speechless. This is the best image quality I ever saw.

Running on MBP M1 Max. No 120 Hz, but that was known and is no problem for me. Would be Safari scrolling only for me anyway. Will work with the next MBP.
 
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basehead617 said:
As an audio guy, this is my main concern about getting one. I have a Mac Pro 7,1 which is basically silent, and a fanless control surface and a dead silent audio interface. Any noise at all would be noticeable so i was hoping to not be able to hear it at all..

Was hoping to hear from people in the thread that are as obsessed with noise as I am.
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I didn't realize the XDR is running a fan until someone wrote it here. It runs for 2 days now totally silent on max brightness. I didn't run It in HDR mode for a long time, though. This maybe will cause the fans to turn on.
 
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Levithescienceguy said:
Questions I have about my XDR:

1. What is the easiest way to power it on and off? Do I literally have to unplug it from my computer each time?
2. What is the easiest way to raise or lower the brightness? The keyboard button on my MacBook only alters the brightness on the MacBook, not the external display.
3. Is there a way to lower the bass on the speakers? When listening to Youtube videos, it makes voices sound much boom-ier than they should be, especially compared to my 16" MacBook Pro, which has the perfect balance of low, mid, and highs in my opinion.
Click to expand...
If I saw it right none answered this yet.

1. do nothing - the XDR turns on and off with your Mac automatically
2. Use Control - F1/F2 to adjust the XDR and just F1/F2 to adjust the MacBook
3. Use the tone settings of your Mac to adjust the XDR speakers

enjoy your XDR
 
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vivid.gear71 said:
Can anyone confirm if we can get full 4 HDR stops in Lightroom classic with half display brightness. With my m1max I get 3.5 stops.

Also curious if color on XDR monitor looks better than on MacBook Pro with HDR and SDR photo
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I'm also mostly interested in this monitor because of Lightroom HDR photo edit.
There is new HDR photo display profile, with SDR white at 203 nits.
I guess this way it gets 3 stops? 🤔
(203x2, 406x2 812x2).
But if it is possible to make custom preset with lower SDR brightness I guess it can easy get 4 stops.
 

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@Delarock and @jelu77 I explained the issue here. There is typically a difference in support for external displays with the same CPU in a MacBook vs. Mini because the latter doesn’t have to dedicate any resources to an internal display (which happens even when the lid is closed). I also provided links to detailed specs on what will work properly for each model in that post.
 
LoopsOfFury said:
@Delarock and @jelu77 I explained the issue here. There is typically a difference in support for external displays with the same CPU in a MacBook vs. Mini because the latter doesn’t have to dedicate any resources to an internal display (which happens even when the lid is closed). I also provided links to detailed specs on what will work properly for each model in that post.
Click to expand...
Thank you, yes, I did read your post, but the question is rather why, when I am connected to the XDR display with the built-in display closed, the connected Studio Display (non-XDR) does not turn on. I have to disconnect the XDR, connect the older display first, and then reconnect the XDR. To me, that looks like a clear bug.
And the non-functioning daisy chaining as well. I dont see any reason with thunderbolt 5 ports 5k 120hz + 5 60hz not to work. 2 displays.
 
Has anyone gotten a definitive response from apple on the dual Studio Display XDR issues they're having with M4/M5 macbooks? I'm running 1 Studio Display XDR on an M5 MBA right now and wanted to know if it can drive a second XDR, with both running at 120hz.
 
Apple's MBA M5 tech spec page says it can't, 1 XDR at 120Hz only, otherwise sounds like 2 XDR at 60Hz only:
  • Supports up to two external displays:
  • Two displays up to a native resolution of 6K at 60Hz or 4K at 144Hz
  • One display up to a native resolution of 8K at 60Hz or 5K at 120Hz or 4K at 240Hz
 
Delarock said:
Thank you, yes, I did read your post, but the question is rather why, when I am connected to the XDR display with the built-in display closed, the connected Studio Display (non-XDR) does not turn on. I have to disconnect the XDR, connect the older display first, and then reconnect the XDR. To me, that looks like a clear bug.
And the non-functioning daisy chaining as well. I dont see any reason with thunderbolt 5 ports 5k 120hz + 5 60hz not to work. 2 displays.
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The MBP M4 Pro does not support two 5K external displays unless they’re both at 60Hz (as per Apple’s specifications). It doesn’t matter if the lid is closed, you’re using a TB5 port, daisy-chaining them, or anything else. It also doesn’t automatically downgrade your existing 120Hz 5K display to 60Hz (or 4K, or something else) when you plug in a second 5K display at 60Hz, which results in an unsupported configuration and the latter display not working. You can call that a bug, but I’m not sure it is. By contrast, if you plug in your 120Hz 5K display after a 60Hz 5K display, it defaults to 60Hz from the start (which is a supported configuration) because it doesn’t have to change the settings on a display that is already in use to do so.
 
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It must be a handshake problem on the m4's....I tried manually setting both Studio Display XDR's to 60Hz individually, but as soon as both are plugged in it will only display on one.

It seems like it should be able to detect this and automatically set both to 60Hz and display it if the spec says it can support it. Hoping for a software fix here....
 
So in case anyone is interested, I use the Lunar app to control all brightness at the same time.

Also if you have multiple Studio Displays then I use loopback (rogue amoeba) to connect the channels up across the monitor. I have 3 so split the channels to center/left and right for each display. And some crossfade to the middle channels.
 
taphil said:
Apple's MBA M5 tech spec page says it can't, 1 XDR at 120Hz only, otherwise sounds like 2 XDR at 60Hz only:
  • Supports up to two external displays:
  • Two displays up to a native resolution of 6K at 60Hz or 4K at 144Hz
  • One display up to a native resolution of 8K at 60Hz or 5K at 120Hz or 4K at 240Hz
Click to expand...
yah bummer, gonna have to pick up a max m5/6 if/when they make their way into a mac mini or studio.
 
ophh1 said:
I would bet 99.9% on 8 bit + FRC
If it’s a true 10-bit panel like Pro Display XDR, Apple would explicitly state the display is 10-bit depth.
Click to expand...

Apple can be 'sloppy' when it comes to tech specs. It seems to be text written by 'marketing' rather than techical support most of the time.

The XDR ( mini-LED and 120Hz) displays in the Macbook Pro 14"/16" are reportedly 10-bit displays. And yet Apple doesn't say anything about '10-bit' in their description.

" ...
Color

  • 1 billion colors
  • Wide color (P3)
  • True Tone technology
..."
www.apple.com

MacBook Pro - Tech Specs

See all the technical specifications for the 14- and 16-inch MacBook Pro with the M5, M5 Pro, and M5 Max chips.
www.apple.com

Exact same thing on the iPad Pro XDR .... reportedly 10-bits and no bragging about it in the marketing material.

[ edit From the application perspective it is 10-bit . But BetterDisplay reports a connection base of 8-bit

https://www.reddit.com/r/mac/comments/1jh1i1p/mbp_internal_display_8bit_or_10bit

]
[
There is a change that Apple is implicitly using XDR == '10-bits' here. That the presence of 'XDR' label is suppose to imply 10-bit color. Pro Display XDR was the first 'XDR' screen , so they merely just had to apply a 'baseline' for what the term meant in those docs. The 'X' in XDR is suppose to be in part 'Extreme" color. 'Extreme' while doing flicker-blend of colors is not quite a match.

Also decent chance Apple is leaning more heavily on DisplayPort DSC to cut down on the bulk of transporting 10-bit color than they were in 2019.

ophh1 said:
Otherwise, it would state “support for 1 billion colours”, which means 8 bit+FRC.
Click to expand...

If Apple is being consistent with then MBP write ups it doesn't either. At this point they used two approaches so "90%" accuracy on the guess is a stretch.

Unfortunately, the white paper glosses over this. There is frame rate control mentioned there but that is synchronizing with the backlight ( not flicker-blending colors. )


[ edit: Apple whitepaper mentions
" Color matching functions are mathematical representations of the sensitivity of the human eye to visible light, characterizing how humans perceive color. Apple has developed Apple CMF 2026 to address the limitations of the CIE 1931 CMF,and Studio Display XDR is the first Apple display to support ..."

At 48Hz dithering may have slightly different perceptual limits than at 120Hz. Slower refresh the slower the blending of the two different colors to simulate the one cannot directly represent.
]
 
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I'm having trouble enabling HDR, the option doesn't even pop up when I use the included USB C cable to my Mac mini M4.

Edit: it seems that option only pops up with third party monitors.

Anyway, does anyone else show a pink tint near the bottom of the screen?
 
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jabbr said:
@deconstruct60 no worries, I guess 8-bit+FRC is supposedly imperceptible from 10-bit
Click to expand...

I added another edit to original post. Apple is creating a new color calibration standard that is suppose to more closely match human perception. Side-efffect might be that 8-bit+FRC is more officially acceptable. ;-) At a slow enough refresh rate on the screen, I suspect there starts to be a perceptible gap. ( the largest interest in these days though is going faster , so that helps. 🙂 simulating 24 Hhz with 48 (2x) or 94 (4x) can weave the dithering into the oversampling. )
 
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