(upbeat music)
- [Joanna] Five monitors to test,
including the new Apple Studio Display,
all concealed so we don't know which is which.
Two sets of eyes.
One pair belonging to a professional colorist.
- So this one is a thumbs up.
Here come the horses.
Good temporal motion.
- Honestly, I feel like I'm at an eye doctor.
I have zero idea what this test does.
One, okay, maybe two winning monitors.
Welcome to Monitor Madness,
AKA the only way to determine
if Apple's new Studio Display is worth your hard-earned.
- [Man] 1,599.
- Ah yes, $1,600.
Sorry, I mean.
- [Man] 1,599.
- For a monitor.
Two years ago, I bought this LG monitor for $450
and I thought that was a lot of money for a monitor.
But the Apple Studio monitor
isn't just a boring old computer monitor.
It's a smart monitor.
Inside, it's got an A13 bionic chip,
the same one that's in the iPhone 11.
For real.
That processor unlocks better video calling
and speaker performance
or at least, that's what Apple says.
But just how good is it
and what makes one monitor more expensive
than another monitor?
To find out, I put the 27-inch Studio Display
up against four other monitors.
A 5K LG display,
which has basically the same specs as the Studio
and costs $300 less.
My own 4K LG monitor.
And to round out the comparison,
a $370 4K Samsung smart monitor,
and a professional 4K Dell
that costs nearly $4,000.
If you want the names the confusing monitor numbers,
take a screenshot of this.
I'm not saying them out loud.
Here we go.
Monitor testing.
We're actually not going anywhere.
We're staying in the studio
'cause Mac Studio Display and studio.
Number one, display quality.
Here's the thing about testing this.
To my eye, displays have gotten so good
that it's actually hard to tell the difference.
The best way you can tell the crispness
of this is in Ed Harris' wrinkles.
That's why I brought in someone with better eyes than me.
Daniel Silverman is a professional colorist.
He spends his days color correcting
movies and advertisements.
So he has a great eye for this stuff.
My producer Kenny hid the five different displays
and hooked them up to the new Mac Studio desktop,
which had test files,
including 4K videos.
Yes, the "Top Gun" trailer.
And some professional color test tools.
The Studio Display, by the way,
works with any newer Mac, not just this new desktop.
- Yeah, the whites look pretty good.
Grays look pretty good.
- [Joanna] Dan and I both evaluated them on our own
so not to influence each other.
Out of them all, Dan liked both the LG displays the best,
specifically the more expensive one.
- All of the first three so far.
This one seems pretty good.
There's good detail.
There's no clipping, there's no crushing.
- I liked the Apple Studio and the 5K LG the best
and really struggled to tell the difference between them.
I mean, honestly, if you told me
that this display and the last one were the same,
I kind of would believe you.
Maybe the like coloring here
is a little bit yellower.
I need to look at these side by side.
We both noticed a yellowish tint on the Apple Display
but when we turned off True Tone,
Apple's automatic adjustment feature,
any noticeable color irregularity was gone.
- Oh, that's it, it's much less yellow.
It still looks different
but I think the LG is almost like a touch cooler.
And honestly, like between these two,
they're pretty excellent looking monitors.
- So yeah, tie on display quality.
Number two, webcam quality.
Sitting at the top of Apple's display
is a 12-megapixel camera.
But how is the image quality?
Not good.
Actually, bad.
Let's take a look.
Here's the Apple Studio Display
in my well-lit home office.
Grainy.
Now look at it compared to the front-facing camera
on the iPhone 11 Pro,
which has the same A13 processor and camera.
Even the 14-inch MacBook Pro
and the 5K LG monitor's webcam looked better.
Same situation in the studio.
Oof.
It just consistently produced grainy
and washed-out images, even in good lighting.
An Apple spokeswoman told me,
"We discovered an issue where the system
is not behaving as expected.
We'll be making improvements in a future software update."
But here's the coolest feature.
It's called Center Stage
and as I move around, the webcam moves around.
And it pans to wherever I go.
This is very fun.
Go, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Oh, you get me down here.
Number three, speaker quality.
There are six speakers in the Display
and boy are they good.
Now for the spatial audio test
where I play music that we don't have the rights to
so you won't be bale to listen to it.
(playful music)
Yes, the A13 chip also enables spatial audio,
a virtual surround sound experience.
Either way, these speakers crushed
every other monitor's built-in speakers
in my side-by-side tests.
Number four, other things.
Finally, a monitor isn't just a monitor anymore
if you have a laptop.
It's a docking station.
The Studio has this one Thunderbolt port,
capable of fast charging a laptop,
and then three other USB-C ports
that can be used as a hub for your other gear
so you don't always have to plug them into your laptop.
The 5K LG has a similar selection of ports.
My own 4K LG has a selection of older ports.
But you know what both of those LGs have?
Adjustable stands.
The Studio Display requires you pay an extra $400
for a height adjustment stand
or you know, you could just pull this pro move.
(books stacking)
So what do you do?
Well, if you don't care about speaker quality
or an attractive aluminum design,
save the $300 and get the 5K LG.
But here's some bad news.
The LG is sold out now at various retailers
but an LG spokesman told me
that it's still an active product.
He expects it to be back in stock in early April.
But honestly, I wasn't blown away enough
to buy either of these 5K monitors.
Maybe that will change with this webcam software update
but right now, Apple's perks aren't good enough
to make me give up my trusty $450 LG 4K display,
which let me remind you does this.
Better luck next time in Monitor Madness, Apple.