Summary
- The Apple Studio Display boasts a stunning premium design, high pixel density that’s perfect for macOS, 5K resolution, color accuracy, a webcam, and great speakers.
- Unfortunately, it’s also expensive, suited pretty much only to macOS (and Windows at a push), with no HDMI inputs, a slow 60Hz refresh rate, and sub-par ergonomics.
- Alternatives now exist to the Studio Display, and there are some compelling reasons to wait before buying if you can afford to.
My MacBook Pro rarely leaves the house, which means I’ve put some serious thought into building a desktop setup around it. The most obvious choice for someone in my position is the Apple Studio Display.
I spent months mulling over a purchase, trying to decide if the benefits outweigh the cost, whether I should pick up an alternative, or if I should just soldier on with my 16-inch Retina display instead. It’s safe to say I have some opinions at this stage.
What an Apple Monitor Should Look Like
It’s easy to fall in love with the Apple Studio Display, even when the monitor is turned off. If you’re already a fan of Apple’s sleek and minimalist aesthetic, the Studio Display’s all-metal design is hard to resist. The monitor has relatively thin bezels, comes with a choice of two stands or a VESA mount, and will look great alongside any MacBook or Mac mini.
This 27-inch display outputs a 5K resolution at a respectable 600 nits of maximum brightness. Like all of Apple’s displays, it’s highly color accurate which makes it great for creative work like photo editing and design work or simply consuming media. There’s even an included 12MP webcam with Center Stage and native “Hey Siri” support.
The Studio Display doesn’t look like any other monitor. It’s not the same dull plastic black box you’d see in the average office building. Fortunately, this is reflected in the build quality too. Alongside the exorbitant price tag comes exceptional build quality and a premium feel. The lightest configuration, which is the Studio Display and a VESA mount, weighs a whopping 12.1-pounds (5.5 kg).
The only other monitor on the market that rivals the Studio Display for its industrial design is Apple’s obscenely expensive Pro Display XDR. While there are other options from the likes of Samsung, ASUS, and Dell, none of them quite live up to the wow factor that the Studio Display exudes.
Apple Studio Display
$1499 $1599 Save
$100
Apple’s Studio Display is a beautiful and well-rounded 5K monitor for your Mac. It offers superb color accuracy and has excellent brightness uniformity.
The Perfect Mac Monitor?
Modern macOS has been designed with “Retina” displays in mind, which means that the operating system demands a pixel density of 218 pixels per inch (PPI) or greater. It’s not that macOS won’t work with anything less, but rather the way that Apple scales the interface results in shimmering, moiré, and color fringing (as described in this Bjango blog post) at lower densities.
The Studio Display hits the 218PPI brief perfectly, which makes it the perfect monitor for use with macOS. If you’re used to staring at a beautiful Retina MacBook Pro display, switching to a Studio Display is the best way to maintain the same Apple experience. The same cannot be said if you switch to a display with a lower pixel density.
It’s worth noting that not everyone will be bothered by the scaling inconsistencies at lower pixel densities. The issue is arguably more of a sticking point for designers who work primarily in the Apple ecosystem.
In addition to offering pixel-perfect scaling, Apple includes nine reference modes for design work including DCI-P3 for filmmakers, sRGB for web design work, and region-specific modes for NTSC and PAL/SECAM video.
Apple also saw fit to equip the Studio Display with a set of six speakers. If you’re impressed with the sound quality of the average MacBook, the Studio Display will not disappoint. It’s compatible with Spatial Audio (Dolby Atmos) for listening to music and watching movies, plus there are three onboard microphones for conferencing.
Connection to a Mac can be made via a Thunderbolt 3 connection, with the monitor also doubling as a USB-C hub which makes it perfect for desktop users with peripherals that stay at home (like RAID storage or capture devices) since these can be mounted and disconnected via a single cable. The Thunderbolt 3 connection offers 96W of power, enough for most MacBook models.
Since high-end MacBook Pro models use 140W of power (like the M1 Max and similar), the Studio Display won’t provide enough juice to cover peak power consumption if you own one of these.
But Not a Perfect Monitor
Though the price tag and Apple’s marketing might make the Studio Display look like a perfect monitor, there are some good reasons to pause. Perhaps most importantly, the Studio Display doesn’t make a lot of sense for PC users (or Mac users who might want to plug something else in).
There’s no HDMI or DisplayPort input, instead you’ll need to use Thunderbolt or DisplayPort over USB-C instead. This may require the use of an adapter, and it’s not always guaranteed to work. On top of this, adapting an HDMI source could mean losing features like audio, camera and microphone, and the USB-C hub.
No HDMI input (and the 5K native panel resolution) also means that you can’t connect consoles or other entertainment devices. Monitors are a perfectly valid choice for console gamers, whether it’s a PS5 or a Switch, but the Studio Display isn’t going to pull double duty if you want to play games that don’t exist on your Mac.
There’s also the small matter of refresh rate. Even if you are a Mac user, you might find yourself disappointed with the measly 60Hz that the Studio Display offers. All modern 14- and 16-inch MacBook Pro models since 2021 have used a 120Hz panel, which results in visibly smoother on-screen motion. For a monitor at this price point, 120Hz feels like a bare minimum that’s sadly absent.
The display also foregoes any support for HDR, which is something else that works flawlessly on 14 and 16-inch MacBook Pro models. The Studio Display hits only half of what these models are capable of, and it lacks the local dimming seen on the mini-LED displays that Apple now uses in its flagship laptops. Dolby Atmos support is all well and good, but Dolby Vision would be better.
This means that if you’re hoping to switch from a pricey MacBook Pro to a Studio Display, you’re going to be giving up half the refresh rate and peak brightness. It’s not that the market is swimming with 120Hz 5K HDR 27-inch displays, but it’s fair to say that the PC market has moved well beyond 60Hz SDR panels.
Expensive and Overdue for a Refresh
And so we come to the elephant in the room: the price. The Apple Studio Display costs $1,599 in its most basic configuration with a stand that only tilts forward or backward. You can have the VESA mount version for the same price, which means you’ll need to supply your own monitor arm. For $1,999, you can have a height-adjustable stand that doesn’t offer any form of swivel.
It’s an understatement to say that the Studio Display is expensive for what Apple is offering. It’s a 60Hz display with a sub-par stand that only really works with one ecosystem of devices. This makes it a very deliberate purchase: you have to love the design, see the value in features like Center Stage and reference modes, and not worry about the display being useful outside of your existing setup.
You also have to overlook the refresh rate, lack of HDR, and live with the sub-par power delivery if your MacBook Pro demands it. For Mac Mini owners, the display quite literally costs more than twice the price of Apple’s smallest desktop (at $599). This makes it a tough sell, even for Apple die-hards.
It’s clear that the monitor (initially released in 2022) is long overdue for a refresh. As luck has it, the rumor mill says that Apple is working on a follow-up mini-LED Studio Display that could arrive as soon as late 2025 (though other reports have suggested that 2026 is more likely).
Whatever happens, it’s worth holding off on a Studio Display for a year or two if you can resist.
What Should You Buy Instead?
The Studio Display is something of a unicorn in that only a handful of monitors provide this perfect package of pixel density and features.
If you need a monitor to use right now with your Mac, and you want to hit the “golden” pixel density of 218PPI, consider the 27-inch 5K ASUS ProArt Display for $799 above all else. It’s literally half the price, comes pre-calibrated, has largely the same specifications as the Studio Display, and even includes HDMI and DisplayPort connectivity.
The cheaper Samsung ViewFinity S9 uses a similar 27-inch 5K panel, but some users have reported inconsistencies with the panel quality. It’s also selling for around $1,100 right now, though you can catch it for around $800 if you’re lucky.
Samsung ViewFinity S9 5K
$1100 $1600 Save
$500
Samsung’s ViewFinity S9 is a premium computer monitor unlike any other. With a stunning 5K anti-glare display, 99% DCI-P3, a slew of ports, Smart TV apps, and it even comes with a remote control. Elevate your home office today.
The build quality of these monitors is not going to rival the Studio Display. They are plastic, feature larger “chins” at the bottom of the monitor, have sub-par audio, and won’t look anywhere near as luxe as a Studio Display in your home office. But they are utilitarian workhorses that will allow you to get real work done without massively sacrificing the macOS experience. You can literally buy two ProArt monitors for the price of a Studio Display.
If you can find one, the old LG UltraGear 27-inch 5K monitor hits the same hallowed pixel density but has since been discontinued. You can sometimes find these at bargain prices on the used market, but keep in mind that they have much larger bezels and can’t get quite as bright.
The used market is another option if you really want a Studio Display, though they don’t come up as often as we’d like, and being an Apple product they tend to hold value. A quick glance at eBay’s completed auctions shows that you can grab a used model for around $1,000 if you’re lucky (it would also be worth checking Facebook Marketplace for local bargains).
The Studio Display is beautiful, and if you’d bought one when they released in 2022 (for the same price they’re selling at now), you’d have likely had three glorious years of use out of it and only lost around $400 or $500 in value.
But in 2025, there’s a smattering of competition that offers the same features in an admittedly flimsier package at a considerable discount. Even if price isn’t your primary concern, waiting 12 months to see how the refresh pans out is clearly the better choice at this stage.
