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Will Apple release a Retina display
- Thread starter thevault
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There's zero point. The market is flooded with decent retina-class displays that are much cheaper and just as good as anything Apple would put out at 1.5-2x the price.
There are only a few manufacturers of LCD/oLED panels, and Apple offer very little additional value in that space, in 2020.
There are only a few manufacturers of LCD/oLED panels, and Apple offer very little additional value in that space, in 2020.
I think Apple has made it pretty clear their ”collaboration“ with lg on the UltraFine monitors is their answer.
Umm what? I think there are 4 retina monitors still shipping. Most of them suck.
Heh, some people always pull out the "there is no point, the market is saturated" argument when it comes to this discussion.
Yes, the market is filled with 4K monitors, but 4K monitors are NOT retina unless you go down to 24 inch size. I am aware of exactly one 4K monitor that can be considered retina, which is the Dell 2415Q. Even then, at 4K, your effective workspace is 1080p, which will be a significant downgrade if you're coming from 1440p (like everyone who previously used an Apple Thunderbolt display).
So, assuming you want a workspace of at least 1440p, you are looking at a resolution of 5K or higher. So you start asking yourself:
- How many 5120x2880 resolution monitors are on the market?
- How many of them are reasonably priced, say in the $2000 range?
- How many of them work via Thunderbolt and integrate well with recent Macbooks? The least you can expect is feature parity with your decade old Thunderbolt display, right?
After the first criteria, you have your options narrowed down to a handful of different models.
The Dell 8K is really targeted for enthusiasts, which makes the price too steep at $4000. Same goes for the Pro Display XDR. The Iiyama and Planar ones are decent, but they come from little known manufacturers and are not widely available.
So you end up with just one option, the LG Ultrafine 5K, before even getting to the third criteria.
And we haven't even gotten to the design aspect of things. Many people think the LG is ugly, but that is subjective. The fact is that the LG is made of lesser quality materials, and is quite wobbly as seen in many Youtube videos.
In reality, there is only one monitor that can replace the Thunderbolt display, but you must be willing to accept a few compromises. If you are unwilling to compromise, tough luck, better hope your Thunderbolt display doesn't die before something good comes up.
People loved the Thunderbolt display, I see tons of offices still using them.
I don't think it's due to lack of demand that Apple has not made a standalone 5K display. I think the reasons are technical. Remember Apple had to kind of "overclock" the signal timings just to get 5K signal to the iMac screen? That probably made a standalone 5K monitor completely unviable for Macbooks from previous years.
Now that Apple is back in the display business, I think the time is gripe for a new standalone non-HDR display. That said, I think 6K makes more sense than 5K, because iMacs have had 5K since 2014, and the Ultrafine 5K has been on the market now for.. 3 years? A standalone 5K display would seem a little outdated now, at least what comes to specs.
Yes, the market is filled with 4K monitors, but 4K monitors are NOT retina unless you go down to 24 inch size. I am aware of exactly one 4K monitor that can be considered retina, which is the Dell 2415Q. Even then, at 4K, your effective workspace is 1080p, which will be a significant downgrade if you're coming from 1440p (like everyone who previously used an Apple Thunderbolt display).
So, assuming you want a workspace of at least 1440p, you are looking at a resolution of 5K or higher. So you start asking yourself:
- How many 5120x2880 resolution monitors are on the market?
- How many of them are reasonably priced, say in the $2000 range?
- How many of them work via Thunderbolt and integrate well with recent Macbooks? The least you can expect is feature parity with your decade old Thunderbolt display, right?
After the first criteria, you have your options narrowed down to a handful of different models.
The Dell 8K is really targeted for enthusiasts, which makes the price too steep at $4000. Same goes for the Pro Display XDR. The Iiyama and Planar ones are decent, but they come from little known manufacturers and are not widely available.
So you end up with just one option, the LG Ultrafine 5K, before even getting to the third criteria.
And we haven't even gotten to the design aspect of things. Many people think the LG is ugly, but that is subjective. The fact is that the LG is made of lesser quality materials, and is quite wobbly as seen in many Youtube videos.
In reality, there is only one monitor that can replace the Thunderbolt display, but you must be willing to accept a few compromises. If you are unwilling to compromise, tough luck, better hope your Thunderbolt display doesn't die before something good comes up.
People loved the Thunderbolt display, I see tons of offices still using them.
I don't think it's due to lack of demand that Apple has not made a standalone 5K display. I think the reasons are technical. Remember Apple had to kind of "overclock" the signal timings just to get 5K signal to the iMac screen? That probably made a standalone 5K monitor completely unviable for Macbooks from previous years.
Now that Apple is back in the display business, I think the time is gripe for a new standalone non-HDR display. That said, I think 6K makes more sense than 5K, because iMacs have had 5K since 2014, and the Ultrafine 5K has been on the market now for.. 3 years? A standalone 5K display would seem a little outdated now, at least what comes to specs.
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As I understand it, the timing controller on the 5K iMac is what killed Target Display Mode, but as LG has the Ultrafine display, there is (now) no technical reason preventing Apple from releasing a Thunderbolt 5K Display.
I would honestly prefer Apple releases a 27" 5K Thunderbolt Display and keep the iMac at 5K and 27 inches.
I do not want to see them go with a 6K display because the Retina resolution does not match any other non-Retina native display resolution on the market so if you run more than one monitor, your windows are going to resize as you move them off and onto the 6K display. I went through that when I had a 27" 1080p display connected to my iMac 5K and it drove me batty enough I swapped it with a 2560x1440 display within weeks.
If Apple must go 32", then they really need to do so at 8K so that you can use a 4K display as a secondary display and both monitors maintain the same (effective) resolution so that windows do not resize.
Pick any quality 4k HDR monitor on the market. It will be cheaper than what Apple would ask for any equivalent. Apple realised they aren't going to make money by offering anything of value that could compete in that market, and exited it.
And before you say "but the PRO XDR DISPLAY IS CHEAPER THAN OTHER HIGH END MONITORS" - go and actually see some independent testing of the new Pro display vs. the displays apple were claiming it was competing with.
It's nowhere near them in quality, in particular backlight bleed. Sure, it's cheaper. But there's a reason for that, and it isn't magic apple dust.
I guess the "retina class" is what I'm curious about. Sure, there are many 4k displays but 4k doesn't automatically qualify as "retina class".
From what I can see theres:
- LG 24" and LG 27" Ultrafine
- Dell P2415Q (5 year old monitor)
- Planar 27" (generic B-stock of the LG 27" panels?)
Even the LG UltraFine 24" and Dell 24" are not really Retina. Retina in the Mac world is ~220 PPI, and those are 186 PPI.
LG used to sell the UltraFine 22" which sported a 4096x2304 panel and is legit Retina (same numbers as the small iMac... are we getting the hint about the parts supply chain?)
LG used to sell the UltraFine 22" which sported a 4096x2304 panel and is legit Retina (same numbers as the small iMac... are we getting the hint about the parts supply chain?)
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It will happen eventually. Apple is pushing into new markets to maximize revenue and a cheaper, but still Apple-taxed retina display wouldn't cannibalize many XDR units in comparison to how they could sell to MacBook owners. I guarantee you they have zero interest in whether or not LG has a successful display lineup or not. I'm sure the gap in their lineup is due in part to the situation with Jony Ive and how distracted they seemed while they were building the new campus. It always sounded to me like engineering had a product ready to go and something went wrong on the design side.