Dear Tim Cook,
I hate your stinking guts.
You make me vomit.
You are the scum between my toes.
Love, Jonathan.
Nah, but for real,
we desperately now, more than ever,
need a more affordable display option from Apple.
So welcome to episode one
of Dear Tim Cook, Please Fix This.
Like, please.
Today's video is sponsored by Visible.
Yo, Jonathon here, got a new setup.
If you missed that video,
I'll drop a link somewhere up here and down below.
But today we're talking about the state of displays
from Apple or rather lack thereof
because there's really only one option.
There's a lot of stuff that Apple
could absolutely be doing better, (cough) on its Mac's case,
but as far as display quality in the panels
they include with their machine,
they're kind of at the top of the game.
Before anyone freaks out and screams,
"How on earth is that possible?"
I encourage you.
I implore you.
I beg you watch the video through and let's talk about it.
So once Apple dropped those M1 machines,
the MacBook Air, the MacBook Pro, the Mac Mini,
and because they perform so well for the money,
the conversation and the want for a display
that didn't cost 8 trillion doge coins
became more relevant than ever.
Here's a Reddit post that,
mind you, is now a couple of years old,
that's titled, "You don't realize how good an iMac's display
is until you start looking for a second display."
So like that post, this isn't new,
or something that Apple intro'd just last year,
or even two or three years ago.
The 27 inch, 5K iMac has been a thing for quite some time.
Even looking at last year's cheapest, 27 inch iMac,
it's 5K, 500 nits, P3,
like try and find a monitor with those specs.
The unfortunate part is most consumer displays and monitors
in let's say that 400-1000 dollar price point
can be a little misleading.
There's HDR this, HDR 10 that, and the reality is
most of those max out at, one, 4K resolution,
and usually for the most part,
350 nits brightness, maybe at the most 400.
Then that M1 iMac bust through the wall,
Kool-Aid man style, chin and all,
with a 4.5K panel, P3, with a brightness of 500 nits.
You literally cannot price or piece together
an equal or greater monitor with, say an M1 Mac Mini,
for less than what the iMac sells for,
and I challenge you.
There's a comment that I'm seeing a lot lately where it's,
"Oh, well that's only 60 Hertz.
It must be trash,"
all while completely ignoring panel quality,
brightness and color accuracy.
And ultimately it comes down to use-case.
Like if you need a 644 Hertz monitor,
you're probably going to be gaming on that
and pairing it with a PC,
and the reality is most people
who want to pair a monitor with their Mac,
aren't doing that.
So in this case,
the color accuracy, the panel, and the brightness
is more important.
The only things even remotely close
in the market right now
are probably LG's UltraFine displays.
There's a 4K, 24 inch option
that floats anywhere from six to 700 bucks.
You do get Thunderbolt ports, which is nice.
And then they have a bigger brother, a 5K, 27 inch display,
which sits currently about 1300 bucks.
They're both P3, 500 nits brightness,
and while aesthetically,
they don't look the nicest in the world,
and there have definitely been some quality control issues,
when you get a great one,
they are really excellent displays.
I will say the included Thunderbolt integration
and the hub functionality
is also really nice with these LG displays,
but that's about it.
If you want an iMac caliber display to pair with your Mac,
that is of course unless you want to jump up to the
$6,000 Pro Display XDR.
Now coming from someone who's used one,
I will definitely admit Apple
maybe came a little too strong out of the gate
with their marketing and presentation with this display,
but again, also similar to the iMac,
in terms of what you're getting for the price,
the panel, the resolution, the brightness
there's nothing else that you can find
for equal or less with those specs.
And again, I challenge you.
With that said, though,
unless you're working in HDR video,
the price for the display,
I don't think is truly justified
because the reality is $6,000 is just way too much money
for people to be spending on a display
to pair with their M1 MacBook Air,
MacBook Pro, or Mac Mini.
For real, with $6000,
that'll grab you like 20 years of phone service
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You can do that up to 12 times, which is kind of bananas.
And if you've got friends
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you can call them too.
And links to all of that, again, is down below.
Now looking back at older Apple displays
because they've definitely had a handful,
I would say the best, like, complete package
was the Thunderbolt display,
and I would love to see a modern iteration on that.
It was a great size, great panel,
it still looks great to this day.
Like it has aged beautifully, but what made it special
is how it integrated with Mac
in particular, a MacBook or Mac Mini.
This thing, I kid you not, had a MagSafe charger
built directly into the display,
so you could charge your MacBook,
but then also a parallel Thunderbolt cable,
which gave you access to multiple USB ports,
Ethernet and at the time FireWire, rest in peace.
The beautiful part here is, let's say,
you weren't using a Bluetooth keyboard and mouse,
and you had a USB receiver or USB hard drive
or a FireWire drive,
you had your Ethernet hardwired,
you could leave that all plugged into the display,
unplug your MacBook, and then take that on the go.
So I have a wireless Logitech keyboard,
wireless mouse that's going to one USB receiver
on the back of the Thunderbolt display,
not the MacBook Air.
Then I have a G drive, external FireWire 800 drive,
which I don't even have any 800 ports on my MacBook Air,
so that's going into the Thunderbolt display
and I can actually see it as you guys can see
right here off the MacBook Air, so I can transfer a copy.
I can just use it like it's plugged into my MacBook Air.
This is all going through the Thunderbolt display.
Just for an example, as a setup,
I have my iPhone hooked up to another USB,
there's also a USB thumb drive,
and on top of that,
there's an extra Thunderbolt cable
as well as an ethernet port.
So for example, maybe you have a home setup,
and you don't want a wireless connection, you prefer wired.
You can have everything set up here,
including your hard drive,
your mouse your keyboard, your phone,
you unplug the Thunderbolt cable, the power source,
so it's charging it the whole time.
Take it, go off on your day, do your thing.
Come back, plug in two cables,
and all this is as you left it, so that is awesome.
Even looking at the Pro Display XDR today,
yes, there are additional USB ports on the back,
but the catch is if you're using the display
at full 6K resolution,
those USB ports effectively become USB 2.0,
and nah, I'm good.
Jumping back to those LG UltraFine displays,
I would say the 24 inch model is probably the best value,
the best bang for your buck,
because, yes, 27 inch is bigger,
you get one extra K of resolution
but with a 24 inch model, you have two Thunderbolt ports.
So what's nice with that,
especially with these M1 MacBook Air's and MacBook Pro's,
which only have two ports right now,
that gives you not only something
to connect your laptop to the display
and use those USB ports in the back,
you now have an extra Thunderbolt port back
which is so useful.
Looks aside,
I have truly loved and enjoyed both those displays.
There's been a period where I use the 24 inch one
for six months.
There's been a period where the 27 inch, 5K UltraFine
was my main monitor.
But I think at this point with the release of M1,
with Apple dropping all these new things,
we need a new display more than ever.
My dream situation would be
for Apple to mirror the iMac displays.
I don't need 1600 nits for most of the stuff I do.
I don't even need 6K,
but what I would love to see is a 24 inch option,
if that was sub $1,000, P3, 4.5K, 500 nits,
and if we do get that bigger rumored iMac at 31 inches,
if we could match that 6K, 500 nits, that would be amazing.
Honestly, if they could deliver that, I swear to John Mayer,
I don't even care if there's a chin,
if they could somehow include some of the iMac tech,
like that ethernet running through the power cable or brick,
that would be nice.
Throw in a Thunderbolt port or two,
give me some USB three ports,
I'll be dreaming and wishing for an SD card slot,
but at the end of it,
just bring back some of that
Thunderbolt display hub functionality,
and we will all be happy.
That aside, those new M1 iMac's with that beautiful 24 inch,
4.5K, P3, 500 nit display
are dropping next week,
so definitely feel free to subscribe,
so you don't miss that and see all that
in its beautiful glory.
And if you want a new display from Apple as much as I do,
make sure you guys go buff Tim Cook on that like button.
Again, big thanks to Visible for sponsoring today's video.
And Dear Tim cook, please fix this.