The first impressions of the Apple Studio display have been shared by a few media outlets. Reviewers praised some aspects of the display, such as the built-in speaker and microphone setup, while others felt that the display was amiss.
Image via The VergeThe Studio Display is Apple's first new external display since the Pro Display XDR. A built-in A13 Bionic chip, a three-microphone array, and a 12-megapixel f/2.4 Ultra Wide camera are included in the package.
An angle-adjustable stand is included in the price of the display, but for an extra $400, there is a tilt and height-adjustable stand, and a VESA mount option that lets the display be used in portrait or landscape orientation. There is a $300 upgrade for glass that reduces glare in the workspace.
The slim, all-aluminum design of the Studio Display was liked by reviewers. Phillip Tracy of Gizmodo criticized the display's rubbber feet and highlighted the passive cooling design elements.
On the top are vent holes for passive cooling; the rear panel got warm during my testing but never reached concerning temps.
Like those on the Mac Studio, the Studio Display's rubber pads failed to keep the monitor planted to my wooden desk. It slid around as I inserted or disconnected cables from the rear I/O.
The display quality was adequate but not great.
The picture quality on the Studio Display is good, but it won't blow you away. I like that text is nice and sharp thanks to the extra pixels, so people who read on their computer for hours per day might want to consider it. And while it might seem expensive, it's a lot less than the Pro Display XDR Apple also sells, which costs $4,999 before you add in the $1,000 stand.
The studio display does not have ProMotion or high definition.
The real issue is that $1,599 is a lot of money, and here it's buying you panel tech that is woefully behind the curve. Compared to Apple's other displays across the Mac, iPhone, and iPad lineup, the Studio Display is actually most notable for the things it doesn't have.
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The Studio Display is also notable for being an SDR display, with no HDR modes to speak of. Apple's high-end iPhones, iPads, and Mac laptops all support HDR, but the Studio Display tops out at 600 nits, and Apple doesn’t offer a HDR mode in the software at all. Again, this comes back to the ancient backlight tech: true HDR requires local dimming, and the Studio Display doesn’t have it.
The Studio Display also only offers a 60Hz refresh rate, which is both bog-standard and also woefully behind Apple’s other top-tier products like the iPhone 13 Pro, iPad Pro, and MacBook Pro...
Tracy was also disappointed at the lack of true blacks.
Keep in mind that this is a standard IPS panel so you won't get the perfect black levels found on an OLED screen nor do you get HDR support for greater contrast. I placed the HP Spectre x360 16's OLED display side-by-side with the Studio Display and my eyes were drawn to the laptop. Blacks on the monitor looked dark gray in comparison, and the colors didn’t have the same wet paint-like saturation to them as those on the Spectre. I also wouldn't use the Studio Display as a gaming monitor considering the measly 60Hz refresh rate. That's standard for a screen of this resolution, but part of me was hoping Apple could find a way to add ProMotion.
The specifications of the display were flagged as disappointing by reviewers.
The studio display has a microphone and speaker setup.
Let's start with the good stuff: the mic and speakers sound great. Really, really great. You can adjust the three-mic array to do voice isolation or not in Control Center, and you'll sound as good or better on calls as any conference mics I've ever heard... The speakers are loud and deep, and while I am not entirely convinced that spatial audio in music is anything but a gimmick and even less convinced that anything like "spatial" audio can be produced by a stereo speaker system located in front of you, Apple is certainly processing its heart out here — if you play an Atmos clip you'll hear some dramatic swooshing about, which is always fun. These are the best built-in speakers I've ever heard.
The microphones were praised, but the support for Spatial Audio was less impressive.
The spatial audio support was less impressive. We tried a few tracks in Dolby Atmos and didn't really feel like the sound was coming from around us. Virtualized surround sound is always a challenge to get right, and can never compare to physical speaker setups, and that's true with the Studio Display, unfortunately.
Tracy said that the speaker setup was better than anything he had ever heard out of a monitor.
Reviewers were concerned about the built-in 12-megapixel camera. The headline webcam feature of the studio display works so badly that it is almost useless.
Apple has a long history of producing amazing images with 12-megapixel sensors and A-series chips, and for some reason this thing just looks awful.
Actually, it looks awful in good light, and downright miserable in low light... it produces a grainy, noisy image with virtually no detail. I tried it in FaceTime, in Zoom, in Photo Booth, in QuickTime – you name it, it's the same sad image quality. Turning off the Center Stage feature that follows you around the room doesn’t help. Turning portrait mode on and off doesn’t help.
Our rule has always been to review products based on what we have in front of us and never against the promise of a future software update, and based on what I have in front of me, I simply wouldn’t want to use this camera. The cameras on the new MacBook Pro and M1 iMac are far superior to what we're seeing here, and an iPhone front camera is even better still. I'm hopeful Apple will improve things via software in the future, but I would not spend $1,599 on this display until that actually happens.
Other reviewers agreed with the disappointing results from the built-in webcam.
...the image is a surprising step down from recent M1 Macs. The white balance is off and there's more image noise. My first instinct was to try to peel away a protective film I might have left on by accident, but to no avail. That's just how the image is now — a pretty huge disappointment for a monitor that starts at $1,599.
Tracy found the camera to be fine, but noisy, and Apple told The Verge and TechCrunch that improvements to the studio display's camera would be coming in a software update.
The Studio Display's stand options were criticized by Tracy, who noted that the $300 nanotexture option smudges easily and is hard to clean.
The Studio Display inexplicably lacks height adjustment. For that, you need to pay an extra $400 for a completely different stand. Perhaps Apple thinks some folks won't need it; whatever the case, a height-adjustable stand should be table stakes at the base price. To make matters worse, the stand options aren't interchangeable, meaning what you buy is what you get. What you can do with the standard stand is tilt the screen from -5 degrees to 25 degrees, which was more effective in providing an optimal viewing angle than I had anticipated. That said, if, like me, you need to stretch your legs and stand at various times throughout the workday, then prepare to spend extra or go with a VESA mount.
Hanson said that there are hidden costs that try a lot of people when it comes to Apple.
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