Apple's new 27-inch Studio Display arrives with 5K resolution, hi-fi audio
Apple"s unveiling of the Mac Studio had a monitor twist to it, in the form of the brand new Studio Display. This is a 27" 5K panel with a front-facing camera, hi-fi audio and, of course, a steep price. Let"s dive in.
The Studio Display comes with a built-in stand which lets you tilt it up to 30 degrees. Optionally, you can get a tilt and height adjustable stand with a counterbalancing arm, and a VESA mount adapter which supports both landscape and portrait orientation.
The screen itself is a 27" 5K panel with 14.7 million pixels, 600 nits of brightness, Display P3 wide color gamut, and support for over a billion colors. True Tone tech is incorporated as well, automatically adjusting the color temperature as the environment around changes. The Studio Display has "an industry-leading anti-reflective coating" for "incredibly low reflectivity" for better comfort and readability.
For workspaces with bright light sources there"s a nano-texture glass option. This glass, first introduced on the Apple Pro Display XDR, scatters light to further minimize glare while still delivering great image quality.
The Studio Display has the A13 Bionic SoC built into it to enable some "amazing experiences with its highly advanced camera and audio system". There"s a 12MP ultrawide camera with Center Stage, the feature that automatically keeps you centered in the frame as you move around.
There"s also a "studio-quality" three microphone array with a low noise floor "for crystal-clear calls and voice recordings". But wait, there"s more! A high-fidelity six-speaker sound system built right in, which Apple calls "the best ever created for Mac". Of those six speakers, four are force-cancelling woofers, which minimize distortion to produce "bold, articulate bass", while the two tweeters "create accurate mids and crisp highs".
The speakers support spatial audio for music and video with Dolby Atmos, for a "truly cinematic viewing experience". Apple proudly boasts that the Studio Display has the best combination of camera and audio ever put in a desktop monitor.
It has three 10GBps USB-C ports. A Thunderbolt port lets you connect the Studio Display and any peripherals to your Mac with a single cable, and the same cable can also deliver 96W of power to a Mac laptop. In fact, the Studio Display will even fast-charge your 14" MacBook Pro. And you can connect up to three Studio Displays to one MacBook Pro, if money is no object whatsoever.
Speaking of money, the Studio Display is priced at $1,599 for its base configuration. The nano-texture glass adds $300 on top, while the more advanced stand pushes the total to $2,299. In Europe that translates to a starting price of €1,749 and a top model version costing €2,459.
That"s a lot, but hey - did you know that it uses 100% rare earth elements in all magnets and recycled tin in the solder of its main logic board and recycled aluminum and plastic in various other components? The Studio Display is available to order today, and will make its debut in stores on March 18.
