The Apple Studio Display is a frustrating Apple product. The version I got cost $2,000,
for a monitor, which to most people is insane, because it is. It's the classic Apple product
for people to gripe about. Apple made this great piece of technology that costs too much and has
one or two odd quirks. But after six months of using it, do I think the studio display
is actually worth the price and has there been anything surprising while I've used it?
Let's dive in. The first feature that really stood out to me while using this display for
the past 6 months is picture quality, it’s very good. The 5k resolution makes everything on the
display look crisp, and MacOS scales up to the this resolution very nicely. Which is
why Apple has used a very similar display panel in their 27” iMacs for the past several years.
However, the Studio Display has two improvements to its panel versus
the one found in the 27 inch iMac from 2019 that I previously owned:
They increased the brightness by 100 nits and added true tone,
which automatically adjusts the display’s color temperature based on your ambient lighting.
Now, if you're already coming from an iMac and you get the studio display,
you're going to get this display and just be like, oh, it's just another Apple display, but if you've
never had a 5K Apple Display before, you're gonna get this thing and you're gonna be very impressed.
You're gonna be like, wow, this thing looks amazing. I don't have to mess with the color
tint, or white balance or anything with this display. It just looks great out of the box.
The only downside I’d say with this display is if you’re planning to watch a lot of content on it,
it’s still an LCD display, so you’re not going to get the deep blacks you’d get
from Apple’s more expensive display that has local dimming or something like a small OLED
screen. I watched a lot of TV and movies on this screen when I was sick with COVID and overall,
I thought it was great and the viewing angles on it are actually quite impressive as well.
The next thing that really stands out with the Studio Display is its design. It’s got
this elegant, industrial look to it and there’s nothing comparable to it out on the market. Most
monitors one, don't have a 5K display and two, are not machined out of al-u-min-ium
or the more boring pronunciation...aluminum. t definitely has a very Apple aesthetic and pairs
nicely with a Mac Studio.Besides aesthetics, Apple’s design is just solid in terms of
build quality. It doesn't really wobble all that much. It wobbles basically as much as
my standing desk. And a lot of monitors that I put on here wobble more than the standing desk,
which is really annoying when you're trying to type while standing up. Speaking of which,
if you’re interested in learning more about my UPLIFT standing desk,
I’ll link our 6 Months Later Review of it here in this video and in the description below.
Now the version of the Studio Display I got is the height and tilt adjustable
version and the mechanism Apple designed for those adjustments is solid. Unlike a
lot of other monitors, I've used over the years when you try to adjust their height
and it feels like you're about to break them off their stand.
One curious design decision by Apple was to not put a power button on this Display,
there are actually no buttons at all, which certainly has its downsides we’ll get into
in a minute, But after six months of using this display, having a turn on and off just works,
I've never had an issue with the display turning on for either my Mac,
iPad, or Windows machine. It just instantly wakes and does its job.
And this is where a lot of other cheaper monitors can have some issues. from auto waking the display
correctly to auto switching to the correct input. Another thing I appreciate with the Studio Display
after having other monitors at my desk like the Samsung M8 monitor is that there’s no
power brick with the Studio Display. Apple built the power components into the display itself.
Those bricks can be quite heavy and just one more thing I got a cable manage for
my standing desk. The last two standout features of the Studio display are it's
speakers and mics. The speakers are excellent. So much so that I think,
if you get a studio display, you don't need to go out and buy dedicated computer speakers.
The mic quality of the Studio Display has also really impressed me, they sound much better than
bluetooth headphones and earbuds I typically use for video and audio calls, so much so,
that even when I'm wearing headphones, like my AirPods Max, which are great,
we've done a review of those, and I'll link that in the description below and here in this video,
ven when using those, I’ll now switch the mic for video calls to the the Studio Display’s mics.
So this is the Studios Display’s camera with center stage on and right now,
I am using the microphones for the AirPods Max. So this is how their mics sound while
using the studio display’s camera. Alright, so I've now switched over the microphones to the
Studio Display’s mics from the AirPods Max. This is typically what I do in audio calls,
just because I think the Studio Display’s mics sound quite a bit better. Let me know what
you think, though, down in the comments below. So that's everything I've liked
about the Studio Display, next let's talk, downsides. And the first one is the camera.
When Apple first shipped this display, the camera quality was very rough. And after 6 months,
while they did improve it somewhat, I’d still consider it a disappointment. Color-wise,
the image looks fine, but it lacks detail thanks to the ultra-wide sensor Apple decided
to use.They went with the ultrawide sensor so they could include the center-stage feature,
which crops in and moves the camera around with you.
I guess it really depends on where you put your Studio Display,
whether or not this feature is going to be important to you. But for me,
I would have rather had a better higher quality image sensor for the webcam in the Studio Display
that didn't come with center stage, if it got me better image quality for video calls.
Now the only thing that might make the conversation around the Studio
Display’s camera quality a little more mute is continuity camera.
Later this year with the new MacOS release, Apple will ship Continuity Camera,
which allows you to use your iPhone’s rear camera system as your webcam.
I haven't tested this feature yet personally, but from what I've seen online, using the
iPhone's rear camera system as a webcam should significantly improve image quality for the
studio display and for any Mac, and that's because the cameras Apple is able to put into the rear of
the iPhone for that camera system, the image sensors are just so much larger and overall,
better, than what Apple can typically fit into a display, like the Studio Display or any Mac
for that matter. Now, if you're interested in learning more about continuity camera,
we're actually going to do a long-term review of that feature, so make sure you hit that
subscribe button and subscribe to the channel if you're interested in seeing that video.
The next downside I’ve encountered with the Studio Display is specifically for users that have both a
Mac and Windows PC. Unless your PC has Thunderbolt built in, which is very unlikely for a gaming PC
like mine, there's no way by default to adjust the brightness of the Studio display through Windows.
Just finding a cord that I could plug into my graphics card’s DisplayPort as an output was
challenging enough, I made an entire video on how I got my Studio Display to work with my PC,
which I’ll like here in this video and in the description below if you
want to learn more about what a journey that was.
The only way to adjust the brightness of the Studio Display for a Windows machine without
Thunderbolt by default is to plug the Studio Display into a Mac, adjust it’s brightness,
then plug back in your Windows PC and the brightness will have been adjusted.
It's kind of a pain in the *** and Apple certainly could have done something to
make this experience easier for users that wanted to use their Studio Display
with both their Mac and Windows PC. You can go the route of trying to get bootcamp onto
your Windows PC which will then recognize the Studio Display over a DisplayPort connection,
I'll put more info on how to do that in the description. And if you'd like to see us do
a video on that specific topic, leave a comment below and let us know. Another thing that annoyed
me originally with this display was that there was only one Display input and the
other 3 USB-C ports on the back were just for charging and connecting accessories.
But after I've used this display for six months and considering my previous experience
with monitors and displays and trying to get auto-switching to work correctly,
I don't actually think just having one display input is necessarily a bad thing for this display.
So those are the main downsides I found with using the Studio Display after six months.
Now, let's talk recommendations. Is the Studio Display worth the cost?
I think this display is worth it for a few use cases. One,
if having a 5K display that's color accurate right out of the box and works well with
Mac OS. If all of those different factors are important to you, you should get this display.
It has much better build quality than the cheaper LG 5K display, and other than that one, I couldn't
find any other competing displays that are 5k at this size. The second scenario where I think
the Studio Display is worth it is if you want the look and build quality the Studio Display offers,
very monitors will look close to as good as this one, expect Apple’s Pro Display XDR.
Now if you just want a larger display to connect to your MacBook Pro Mac Mini or iPad,
but you don't necessarily care about it being a 5K display or super color accurate right out
of the box, $1,600 US dollars, that's a lot of money. I think you can easily save $1000,
get something like Dell’s 27” 4k ultrasharp display and be perfectly happy.
A good quality 4K display at this size will still be so much better than many cheap crappy monitors
that you can find on the market today. So those are my recommendations, now, if you
do decide to go for the Studio Display, there are a few things you'll want to keep in mind.
One, I’d either get the version with a VESA mount adapter and go out and
buy whatever VESA stand or monitor arm you want, or, spend $400 dollars more,
and get the Studio Display that has the height adjustable stand.
When I first got a Studio Display, I made the mistake of ordering the one that was
just tilt adjustable and I didn’t realize the Studio Displays screen was just slightly
shorter than my 27” iMac. It just felt slightly off and given that I just spent
$1,600 dollars on this thing. I decided to swap it for the height adjustable version
and the reason I did that was I couldn’t really find any 3rd party stands or mounts
for the VESA studio display that I liked better than the stand Apple made for it,
especially since I wanted whatever I got to match the Mac Studio sitting next to it.
So I just sucked it up and plunked down $400 more for the height adjustable version of the
Studio Display which is expensive. And given the normal Studio Display is already so expensive,
it would have been nice if Apple just to make the height adjustable version that can also tilt,
just make that one the default Studio Display at $1,600 dollars. So those are all of my thoughts
on the Apple Studio display. If you have any further questions on the Studio Display,
or want to share your thoughts on it, leave a comment below. And if you want to purchase a
Studio Display or other external monitor, like that Dell monitor that we mentioned,
I've left purchase links here in this video that you can click on, and in the description below to
go ahead and purchase those products. Hit that thumbs up button. If you like this video and
found it helpful and subscribe to the channel to see more long-term reviews of Apple products
like this one. And check out some of our other reviews of Apple products on things like, iPads,
iPhones, HomePod Minis, and the AirPods Max. You can see all of our Apple reviews by clicking
on the playlist to the right. For 6 Months Later, I'm Josh Teder, thanks for watching.