[fourfour3]

I've got one of the LG Ultrafine 5K monitors paired with a modern M1 Max macbook and it's a nice combination.

Expensive, but I adore the pixel density considering I spend all day staring at text :)

I'd be seriously tempted by an iMac if it had M4 Pro + a 27" 5K display. I just don't feel it's likely as they'll probably see it as cannibalising Mac Studio + Studio Display sales.

[bsimpson]

The Studio Display is priced as if it's an iMac.

It's insane that we've had retina displays for over a decade, and Apple still seems to be more-or-less the only game in town for a 5k 27" display.

[rsynnott]

At one point there were about six manufacturers (though I think it was all various grades of the same panel). They just didn’t sell.

[hocuspocus]

It's clearly a niche segment...

On one hand, companies willing to spend more than $250 on monitors will rather give you a 32" ultra-wide, because that's more useful to the typical office monkey worker.

On the other, the PC enthusiast customer base is almost synonymous to gamers, who'd rather want high refresh rates than a silly 5K resolution they cannot use.

[seec]

The thing is, only Apple computers really need it, because of their technical choice on resolution scaling, where only x2 do not give you a blurry mess on macOS. 5K is nice but not necessary for other platforms, you can get a 4K display scaled to 150% and it's still a good pixel density with same workspace size as a 2560x1440 display.

[andrewmcwatters]

I will never purchase the Studio Display on principle. It's an idiot product.

[thecopy]

For what its worth, I am extremely satisfied with my Studio Display. The 5K resolution makes 2x pixel perfect scaling look great, built in webcam which fantatic for meetings, good speakers, and charges the MacBook Pro with the same cable, and acts as an USB-C hub.

[jwells89]

I'm happy with mine too.

It has a few upsides that don't get written about often, compared to other monitors:

- Apple is extremely picky about panel QC, making things like dead pixels and patchy backlights much less common

- Its design practically eliminates the backlight bleed that's common with other monitors due to variances in bezel/panel fastener tightness

- No coil whine (surprisingly common even in other high end monitors)

- Some of the best glossy antiglare treatment I've seen, without the "gritty" coating that can cause a "sparkle" effect that's common on Dell monitors

- It wakes up and displays a picture almost instantly

It's not perfect and I'd prefer better specs for the money, but it's not a bad monitor. I've tested models that are more expensive than the Studio Display that fail to check some of these boxes.

[seec]

Everything you list is basically part of any display that is not bottom of the barrel. Yes, it's a very good monitor but it would be crazy otherwise considering the price. And it has one fatal flaw: you can only connect to it with USBC/Thunderbolt making it an almost Apple only monitor which is extremely annoying in the long run...

[randallsquared]

The biggest problem with it, frankly, is the occasional requirement for a full hard reboot, but no controls relating to that. When I was using a Studio Display, the UPS outlets were in a place that required as much as 45 seconds of effort to get to, and I while that was a real annoyance to me, it was only while typing this out that I realized that no one will see this as any kind of inconvenience. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[jwells89]

Thankfully, I’ve not run into that issue, at least not with any frequency. Might’ve happened once in a year and change, and I can’t remember clearly if even that actually happened.

[fourfour3]

It's a similar niche to the LG Ultrafine before it. That also had a webcam, tolerable speakers, 85W PD over the thunderbolt 3 port, and 4 USB-C ports.

If I didn't already have the LG Ultrafine, I would have bought one of the studio displays.

[msisk6]

I have both; I got the LG when they first came out and the Studio display last year during a good sale on Amazon.

The panels seem the same but everything on the Apple one is better, as you would expect.

But lately my LG is starting to have issues with ghosting and color shifts around the edges. It's still ok to use (I'm typing this on it) but I guess it's nearing the end of it's useful life.

[artimaeis]

What delineates it as an idiot product? There aren't exactly a ton of alternative 5k displays on the market. Dell and LG have some 5120x1440 options, but only Apple has a 5120x2880 option as far as I can find.

[rsynnott]

There’s a Samsung one, though it doesn’t seem to generally be much cheaper than the Apple one, and the LG Ultrafine 5K seems to be… maybe still available?

[tzs]

The Samsung is usually between $800-950 at Amazon, shooting up to $1600 about 10% of the time.

I've often it seen it in the $900 neighborhood at Best Buy and B & H. It's $1600 right now at both of them but I don't know if that is just one of those full price spikes like Amazon has or if they too are like Amazon.

[jwells89]

The Samsung model has a well-known issue with severe coil whine. Not a dealbreaker for everybody but worth taking into account.

[sethd]

If you wanted a similarly spec'd display for a Mac, what would you get instead? (what is the non-idiot alternative?)

[robotresearcher]

It’s really nice! Expensive, but it looks great and the 5K panel is beautiful. Speakers are good for a display, webcam is meh.

It’s much better looking than the LG ultrafine 5K, slightly more functional, and costs more.

What’s the idiot part? Price?

[s__s]

Personally I wish they sold a version without the camera and speakers. I already have those. A ultra wide would be nice too. I can’t imagine using two of them side by side, especially because it seems incredibly wasteful to have a duplicate speaker / camera set up.

[andrewmcwatters]

There's an entire computer in the monitor that you can't use.

[robotresearcher]

According to the article below, the A13 computer hosts at least the fancy webcam and audio features. That's how you use it.

https://www.theverge.com/2022/3/9/22968960/apple-studio-disp...

Similarly my car has a computer in it that I "can't use", except it does car stuff.

[andrewmcwatters]

That's a mobile processor with desktop-class performance. That you can't use. We're not talking about ESP32s here.