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00:00All right, so for the past three years, the cheapest and only display that Apple's made
00:09has been the $5,000 Pro Display XDR, which would cost an extra $1,000 on top just for
00:14the matte finish and another $1,000 just for the stand.
00:19So when this new studio display got announced, you know, it's a very Apple design.
00:23It's a 27 inch 5K screen surrounded by all these little Apple bells and whistles.
00:29And with the stand included for $1,600, a lot of Apple fans were understandably very
00:35happy.
00:36But then after the dust of the announcement settled, a lot of us found ourselves asking,
00:40wait a second, is this actually a good deal?
00:45So now I've been using this display for about two weeks now, and I have an answer for you,
00:48but I need you to understand how I'm getting there.
00:50So for most people who are not interested and we're never going to buy this screen anyway,
00:55the is it worth it conversation basically comes down to the spec sheet and just comparing
00:59it with other similar displays.
01:01It's like when you go to buy a house and the appraisal just goes and looks at square footage
01:05and the number of bedrooms and bathrooms and materials used and proximity that comes up
01:10with a price based on what other houses with the same sort of specs are going for.
01:14So this new studio display, it's 27 inches diagonally, 5K resolution, 600 nits brightness.
01:21It's a IPS LCD at 60 Hertz with P3 color.
01:26It's got a webcam up top.
01:28It's got some speakers at the bottom, some USB-C ports are on the back and it's $1,600.
01:35So if I was an appraiser looking for a comparable house, I would be looking at the LG ultra
01:40fine 5K that is also a 27 inch 5K IPS LCD.
01:47It's at 500 nits also at 60 Hertz with P3 color, a webcam, some speakers, and some USB-C
01:53ports on the back.
01:54That's $1,300, but it's also five years old.
01:58And while there are not that many other 5K displays out there, there are a ton of 4K
02:03screens.
02:04And one of those would be the Dell ultra sharp U2720Q.
02:08That is also a 27 inch IPS LCD panel with thinner bezels, also at 60 Hertz and also
02:15with P3 color and some ports around the back, super well-reviewed $589.
02:21So if you just go by the specs of the panel, it's actually pretty clear that this display
02:27and the tech you're getting for the price is a bad deal.
02:30But the second you're actually considering buying a display, you realize it's not just
02:35the display specs of the panel that make or break the experience.
02:39It's all the stuff that surrounds the screen for someone actually considering using it.
02:43And Apple products, they just have a habit of doing this thing where they don't have
02:47the best specs on paper, but they offer a unique combination of things that make it
02:53really hard to do any sort of one-to-one comparison because nobody else has that exact unique
02:59combination of things.
03:00Like, you know how they make up the most cherry-picked stats in NBA media, like, oh, this guy just
03:05became the third player ever to get a triple double before his 26th birthday, after eating
03:10Apple Jacks for breakfast that morning, or like, wow, there's only five players to play
03:15800 games and join the 13.5, 5.9, 1.4, 49, 30 club?
03:24Anyway, that's how it feels talking about this monitor.
03:28So first of all, it's 5K, not 4K.
03:30And like I said, there's tons of 4K monitors out there, but this one is 5K for a reason.
03:36It's basically the same panel from the 27-inch iMac, which many people, including myself,
03:41really liked, even though it's quite old.
03:43So it's sitting at a solid 218 pixels per inch, and it also benefits from being exactly
03:48twice the vertical and horizontal resolution of 2560 by 1440.
03:53So scaling is super clean and everything looks sharper as a result.
03:57And then as far as single backlight LCDs go, it's pretty solid.
04:01It's got bumped up to 600 nits, which is plenty fine indoors, as long as you're not near any
04:05windows.
04:06I have not had any issues worse than normal with ghosting or light bleed, as you see with
04:11some LCDs.
04:12But obviously it's nowhere near something like a mini LED display with separate backlight
04:17zones that can do really good HDR.
04:20And then this one I've been testing is the nanotexture version, which is a $300 upgrade.
04:26It's extremely good at killing reflections.
04:28And it's impressive that it's this good for 300 bucks when the same treatment on the pro
04:32display was a thousand bucks.
04:34But honestly, I still probably wouldn't recommend it unless you literally work with a window
04:38like right behind you or something, because the version without nanotexture is always
04:42going to be slightly sharper and punchier and much easier to clean.
04:45But speaking of upgrades, this monitor, which has the stand permanently attached, so you
04:50know, it's included, which is nice, but it has height adjustment, which is cool, right?
04:56It's nice.
04:57But the base version doesn't have that.
05:01And so this, just the ability to adjust height is a $400 upgrade to this stand.
05:09So the version without height adjustment is a little bit low, and I think a lot of
05:12people have started to notice that.
05:14And you know, the IMAX didn't have height adjustment, but just for a monitor this expensive
05:18to have to spend $400 extra to be able to do this seems kind of ridiculous, even though
05:24you can go to an Apple store if you do get Buyers Remorse and have them add it after
05:29the fact.
05:30But hey, if you do, it's a really solid stand, all metal, perfectly balanced and spring loaded
05:35to hold the panel firmly in place.
05:37It's actually more sturdy in my experience than the Pro Display XDRs, mostly because
05:41it doesn't have to rotate.
05:43And just the overall build quality of this monitor is top of the line.
05:47It is built so well.
05:49And of course, this will never show up on the spec sheet.
05:51And this isn't even something traditionally that matters all that much with a monitor,
05:55something you don't touch, you know, a phone you want to be built well, things you hold
05:59and carry, but this is just going to sit on your desk.
06:02But they went over the top with the build quality, the overall design aesthetic.
06:07So in a world of basically all plastic monitors, this one's full metal jacket, sharp corners,
06:13the precision drilled perforations at the top for ventilation.
06:16All of it kind of is in a class of its own.
06:19And I love it.
06:20They left enough room inside for a power supply to be built in.
06:22So there's no power brick or wall wart.
06:25This is probably the best looking and best built monitor out right now.
06:28Now, of course, yes, you'd have to really care about something like that to spend extra
06:31on it if it's just going to sit on your desk.
06:33But there also is a catch and it's a really weird, weird decision, but the power cable
06:39is not removable.
06:40I mean, when you look back here, it's a black plastic circle that looks like it should be
06:45removable and it turns out if you pull really hard, you can actually rip it out the back.
06:51But it's pretty clear it's not designed to be removed by the user.
06:55This is from the same company that designed a new MagSafe connector for the new iMac.
07:00This is a super baffling choice.
07:02Turns out there's a special tool required to remove the studio display properly.
07:06I don't count that as user removable.
07:08We've all seen what a normal removable monitor cable looks like.
07:12But now instead, it's kind of in this HomePod situation where like it's clearly not meant
07:15to be user removed.
07:17And so now if the cable does get damaged at all, if you run a wheel over it or pet shoes
07:22on it or something, you have to send the whole thing back to get repaired.
07:28Thumbs down.
07:29So this panel is a 12 megapixel ultra wide camera with center stage and triple microphones
07:34all powered by a literal A13 bionic chip.
07:38For those who remember correctly, that's the same chip that powered the entire iPhone 11.
07:42Now while this is basically the same webcam hardware as the new iPad Air, it looks substantially
07:49worse.
07:50Like it's just flat and grainy all the time in any lighting I throw at it.
07:54Maybe I just got my hopes up too high.
07:56I mean, I knew it would be softer because it's cropping into a 12 megapixel ultra wide
08:02frame.
08:03So there's less pixels.
08:04I knew it wouldn't have shallow depth of field or anything.
08:05It's not a big sensor.
08:07But I mean, the mics sound pretty good as you can hear, but there's just no shadows.
08:12It refuses to let anything dark actually look dark, which for me is not great.
08:19Apple is actually promising a software update that may help things.
08:22Imagine that a software update for a monitor.
08:25Apparently it has 64 gigs of onboard storage for some reason.
08:28But yeah, bottom line is it's convenient that there's a webcam built in, but there's definitely
08:33still a market for like an Opal C1 type webcam, the stuff that looks way better than this.
08:39But then there are the speakers.
08:40So they're all situated in the bottom of the monitor here.
08:43There are six total, four forced canceling woofers and two tweeters.
08:47They say it's the best computer speakers they've ever shipped in any of their systems.
08:52And it's true.
08:53It's 100% true.
08:54This thing, I've compared it to the 16-inch MacBook Pro.
08:57These are substantially louder.
08:59They fill a room if you want it to.
09:01They can create a somewhat convincing Dolby Atmos surround setup if you want.
09:06It's really good.
09:07So for built-ins, they are above and beyond the rest.
09:11They don't sound as good as dedicated speakers.
09:14But if you really want good built-in speakers, then yeah, if you're into that, these do it.
09:19By the way, Apple should just make speakers, right?
09:22I mean, the HomePod doesn't count.
09:23They should...
09:24Right?
09:25They should just make speakers.
09:26So anyway, if you want a monitor for the panel quality and the panel quality alone, then
09:33there are lots of others just like this for way less money.
09:36But if you're one of the surprisingly large group of people who are waiting for a monitor
09:40that would work really well in this Apple ecosystem world of products, then this is
09:46just what you've been waiting for.
09:47It's pretty much made to be used with the new Mac Studio, hence the name.
09:51I also plugged into the MacBook Pro, which charges the laptop at 96 watts.
09:56But hilariously, I really just didn't think it was that great of a pair.
09:59I mean, it looks great next to it.
10:01But the MacBook Pro has a much brighter, higher refresh rate mini LED display that just looks
10:08way better to me and was preferable for me to use.
10:11So I just ended up wanting to use the ProMotion of the laptop screen all the time.
10:16But then, just for fun, you can plug it into an iPad and it works perfectly normally, mirrors
10:20and charges the iPad.
10:22And we also plugged into a PC and it worked like a normal monitor at full 5K resolution.
10:28And it does actually use the speakers and the webcam, but without any of the processing
10:32or center stage that comes from lighting up that A13.
10:36What an odd combination of parts, for real.
10:39Honestly, for nearly $2,000, if you just close your eyes and say, OK, it's 2022 and Apple
10:45is going to make a studio display, you'd expect mini LED maybe, or maybe ProMotion,
10:54or maybe it might have Face ID, or a good webcam, or just any combination of those things.
10:59Instead, it has none, and a non-removable power cable, and a non-user upgradable stand.
11:07It's odd.
11:08That is a rare swing and a miss for me, someone who works in a studio.
11:13But the real question, the real question is, is the studio display a good deal or not?
11:21Well, is the Rolls-Royce Ghost a good deal?
11:25Because it's the only four-door sedan with suicide doors and a 6.7 liter V12 for under
11:33$400,000.
11:34Does that make it a good deal?
11:36Or how about, are the Nike HyperAdapts a good deal?
11:41Because they are the cheapest, best self-lacing shoes you can get right now for $350.
11:46Does that make them a good deal?
11:48I guess what I'm trying to say is, maybe it doesn't really matter if it's a good deal
11:53or not, if it's exactly what you want.
11:57Like if there are other cheaper options, it doesn't really matter, because there's only
12:00one that does the exact thing that you want it to.
12:04And so that's what this is for some people.
12:07You're probably just going to want to get this one.
12:10But yeah, no, it's not a good deal.