After years of leaving Mac Users in the dark without a first party display Apple finally
released the brand new Studio Display with a modern design and features we expect as
Mac users. For the last few months I have been using the Eve Spectrum 4k display which
has a lot of great qualities and even features that Apple’s own display does not. So today
we are going to compare the new Apple first party display to the display I previously
called the best I had used with a Mac….
Hey, Im jerry and lets get right to the comparison starting with the design and to keep things
simple we are comparing the Eve Spectrum 4k and stand with the Studio DIsplay with the
height and tilt adjustable stand. . The design of these 2 displays is very different. The
eve comes in an all black and plastic package with a 2-piece metal stand and very thin and
modern bezels around the 27” display. The case is very minimal and unassuming which
will fit well with most desk setups.
The studio display comes with a fully silver aluminum body with thicker black bezels. The
stand is made of solid aluminum before you get to the adjustment mechanism. This case
really stands out from the crowd with super clean lines following apple’s modern design
language and perforations on the top and bottom.
Both of these 27” displays are fairly thin but the Studio display comes in at about ¾
of an inch without the stand where as the Spectrum comes in at about ⅞ of an inch.
The spectrum also has another ¾ of an inch bulge where the stand connects to the display
and ports connect.
The foot print of the studio display is just over 8” and the Spectrum is just under 9”
but the studio display is over half an inch wider.
Both of these displays can be adjusted up and down with both getting uncomfortably low
for my work and both getting more than high enough for my needs. They can both tilt forward
and backward and the eve can also rotate 90º.
The movement of the studio display stand is much more fluid and is just easier to get
the perfect setting.
Both displays have a good amount of stability with front to back motion so typing and normal
desk bumps will not cause the displays to move a lot. On the other hand the eve can
sway left and right quite a bit if pushing the desk left or right but the studio display
is very stable in both directions.
Both of these displays are relatively minimal and look good but there is also a difference
with the power supplies. The studio display has a built-in power supply with no external
power brick but does have a so called non-removable power cable. This shouldn't be an issue unless
a pet chews on it or something and if they do you may need to take to apple to get replaced
but more on support later.
The Eve Spectrum has an external power brick that is quite hefty and because the cord from
the brick to the display is relatively short you may have to mount it under the desk or
use another cable management solution. I use a standing desk and the power cable has come
out of the back of the eve many a time.
When it comes to the display Specs and features The Eve Spectrum is a 4k display at 163 pixels
per inch, has a 144hz max refresh rate, 450 nit brightness, P3 Color and up to 750 nits
of brightness with HDR.
The studio display features a 5k display at 218 pixels per inch, a 60hz refresh rate,
600 nits of brightness, p3 color and truetone for automatically adjusting the white balance.
As you can see these panels themselves are very different, like with the exterior design.
If we compare the resolution of 4k and 5k you can see that the 5k panel is just sharper
compared to the 4k with both scaled to 2560x1440 . More pixels equals more sharpness. You can
get a slightly sharper image with the 4k display if you scale it to 2x and make the resolution
1920x1080. This gets a little sharper and closer to the 5k but everything on the display
is then much larger, leaving less screen real estate .
Eyes of course vary and you personally may not be able to tell much of a difference in
the sharpness between these 2 displays. But for people who can, it can be very noticeable.
And that goes for the refresh rate as well.
The Studio Display’s 60hz refresh matches most external displays on the market which
provides a standard for motion smoothness on the display. High refresh displays are
becoming more common on phones like the iPhone 13 pro, high end tablets, and even gaming
monitors where you want to have a very high refresh rate so you can make split second
decisions with less blur.
Now, I am not here to advocate that you should use a Mac to play high intensity games, because
Macos just still is not built for that, but a high refresh rate display just makes most
interactions feel smoother.
Like with the iPhone 13 Pro and iPad Pro, you can feel the difference when scrolling
up and down. Text stays smoother when in motion instead of becoming a blurred mess. And that
is the same thing on a desktop display. Scrolling up and down on a webpage looks better in motion
on a high refresh display compared to one that is not. Even just moving the mouse around,
clicking on menus and dragging windows and just has a good feel to it.
This is something I instantly feel when I use the Eve display and it feels good. Its
hard to explain but there is just something about it that is different. The Studio display
is not bad, by any means, and 60hz really is the standard that most displays use so
it won't feel any different if coming from an iMac or any non pro-motion display.
When viewing standard dynamic range video, the 600 nits on the Studio Display looks better
compared to the 450 nits on the Spectrum. The colors are brighter, the contrast or dynamic
range looks better, and the motion actually looks smoother, somehow, even though it is
60hz content.
When you enable HDR on the eve you lose the ability to control any picture settings on
the display but you can clearly see a brighter fire in this sony HDR sample video. There
is separation between the hotter yellow areas and the rest, but on the Studio display it
all just looks orange.
The Eve can get blacker than the studio display but its limited because it has 16 dimming
zones so If there is anything lit up in the zone the dimming zone will light up limiting
any benefit over the Studio. When both displays blacklights are on I find the Studio to actually
be a bit blacker.
In this video I shot with on my iPhone 13 pro with HDR the video actually looks blow
out on the eve compared to the studio display. The stone around the pool and the decking
has lost a lot of its character and features.
The shadows are darker under the chairs on the Eve, slightly but the white pillows are
completely blown out, leaving no character. Even the white spots on this soccer ball in
the shadow look blown out, actually stripping the detail instead of enhancing it.
Unsurprisingly, viewing the same content on the MacBook Pro liquid retina xdr display
yields much better results.
Moving on from the display panel themselves, we can look at some of the other features
that these offer like ports!
On the back of the studio display you have a single thunderbolt port for connecting to
your computer and 3 10gbps usb-c ports for dongles and accessories.
The Eve spectrum has a USB-C connection for display input along with a displayport 1.4
input, 2 HDMI 2.1 inputs, a 10gb connection usb-C port, 2 10gbps usb-A ports, a 10gbps
usb-b port, and a 3.5mm headphone jack.
Honestly, for something Apple calls the mac studio and studio display I am surprised there
is not an EASILY accessible headphone jack on these devices.
It’s clear that there are a lot more display connection options on the eve spectrum which
is great if you are connecting multiple computers or a computer and a game system, or whatever.
The Studio display will only connect to a single device at a time.
Both displays will power a connected laptop or tablet through the USB-C or thunderbolt
connection, with the eve offering up to 100 watts and the studio offering up to 96watts.
Now, there are a few things the studio display has that the eve does not like built-in speakers,
camera, and microphones. The short story is the speakers are really good, the camera has
some issues and the mics are acceptable. But together they offer an all in one like solution
for a more minimal desk setup. The studio also has better integration with
MacOS like controlling brightness and volume from the keyboard, and actually being able
to watch streaming content that is HDCP protected through the single connection. The wake time
on the studio display is also way faster than on the eve spectrum but I talk more about
that in a previous video.
The spectrum has a faster response time for gaming and is g-sync and freesync compatible.
Maybe the biggest difference between these displays, and arguably the most important
for many people is the price. The eve display with the 4k 144hz panel is $800 plus $100
for the stand. The studio display with the like minded height and tilt adjustable stand
is $2000. I understand that that is a tough $1100 pill to swallow and I am not here to
specifically argue which one is better or worth it, but that is a rather large number.
You can get the eve without a stand and connect to any visa mount saving $100 off the price,
or you can also get the studio display with a tilt only stand or vesa mount for $400 less
than the $2000 model I have.
The eve comes standard with a matte coating but you can upgrade to a glossy version for
$100 and the studio is the opposite starting with a glossy display you can upgrade to a
nano texture glass for $400.
Inside the box of the Eve you get just a power brick, nothing else. Inside the box of the
studio display you get the non-removable power cord and the braided thunderbolt 3 cable which
Apple sells by itself for $130.
Now here is something that I think needs to be considered….Support and availability.
Yes, ordering a new studio display may take you months to get because they are back ordered
but I can pretty much guarantee that you will get one if you order it. Eve has a long history
of failure to fulfill orders and I talk about that in my Eve video from a couple months
ago so I wont go into it here except to say that its very possible you may order and have
zero idea how long it will take or if you will get one at all.
I was finally able to snag one on ebay and have mostly enjoyed it so you can find a link
to that in the description. However, getting support is another issue. I mentioned that
if the cable on the mac studio gets damaged you may have to take the display to an apple
store or worst case send to apple for repair. That would stink but there is a gigantic support
apparatus built up to help you when you have an issue.
Eve, not so much. The button on the back of my eve came apart into 2 pieces a few weeks
ago. I reached out to eve via there support email and it took a few days to get a response.
They asked for photos which I sent and I am still waiting for them to tell me if they
can send me a new button. I have since super glued it back together and hopefully that
will last a while but if you have any support issues that are worse, I have no idea what
kind of support you will get.
Ok, I think that covers most of the differences between the Studio Display and the Eve Spectrum.
If you are someone who cares a lot about the design of the thing on your desk, wants a
display that matches other apple displays in quality and color, and has built-in features
to simplify your setup, I recommend the studio display.
If you are more price conscious, want or need high refresh rate, or want to connect multiple
devices to a single display, I recommend the Eve.
Both of these are great monitors that each offer benefits over the other, and beyond
what I have mentioned here on this video I cant say one way or the other which one you
should get. But what do you think? Does the mac studio have enough to justify the price
over the eve? Let me know below. If you want to see more on my experience with the eve
display check out this video right over here. Hit the thumbs up button if this helped, hit
subscribe if you want and Ill see you next time.