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00:00Far too close. Hey guys I'm Tom from TechChap and this is the new Apple
00:06Studio display. It costs 1500 quid, it is 27 inches, it is 5k and it is very nice.
00:12Now I was actually going to start this video by using the new camera. As you can
00:19see we have this 12 megapixel ultrawide camera at the top here which supports
00:23center stage so it actually keeps you in the frame. But I have to say even with
00:28this decent lighting it is actually quite noisy. So this is being recorded
00:32with the webcam up top. You can see it's a little bit noisy. I think the reason
00:37for that is it doesn't have the M1 chip like we see in the iMac and on the
00:40MacBooks and so we haven't got that AI noise reduction. Obviously we've got the
00:45A13 chip in here which we'll come to in a second but it's not the best webcam
00:49they've ever made and obviously with that center stage if you've got a group
00:53of people it'll sort of widen it to get everyone in or if it's just you,
00:57Billy no mates, it'll keep you central. Now with that Apple A13 chip which is
01:04the same one used in the iPhone 11 series I reckon this makes this the
01:08world's most powerful monitor. And that helps power all the extra features like
01:14the center stage we get with webcam as well as spatial audio and even allows us
01:18to get future updates that might add even more features. So the studio
01:24displays basically an iMac but without the Mac part. There is no computer here
01:29it is simply just the display. It's just one big glass panel with a slim
01:34symmetrical bezel underneath. So actually unlike most displays there's no ugly
01:38protruding plastic edge. On the back we have this single cable for the power
01:43which you can't actually remove alongside four USB C ports although only
01:48one of these is Thunderbolt 3. That's the one you'll want to use to connect to
01:52your Mac or your MacBook and it does also support 96 watt power delivery so
01:56you can charge your laptop whereas the other three USB C ports are a bit slower
02:00but really they're meant for connecting storage drives or charging peripherals.
02:04And that is it. There are no buttons, no joysticks or on-screen display options
02:09here. Everything is controlled by your Mac and as such there's also no
02:13physical way of disabling this webcam which I know some people do like to have.
02:17Now if I spin this towards the windows you'll see that while it does have an
02:21anti-reflective layer or coating it's not amazing. Although actually it's much
02:27better than some old Macs and iMacs. I'm not sort of staring at myself back all
02:31day as like a mirror but this also doesn't have the optional nano texture
02:36coating which I did have a play with on the more expensive Apple Pro Display XDR
02:40and it's basically tiny micro etchings into the glass which helps scatter the
02:45light and therefore reducing reflections giving it a more matte finish. If you are
02:50using this in a bright room or with windows directly behind it then yes I
02:54would definitely recommend paying the extra 250 to get that nano texture but
02:58for most people assuming you can control the lighting a little bit around you
03:01then it's probably not worth it. But what I do have here is the height adjustable
03:06stand which bizarrely costs 400 pounds more than just the standard tilt
03:12adjustable stand. It's kind of insane I mean I appreciate that unlike the
03:17flagship Pro Display XDR where you have to pay like a thousand pounds to get any
03:21kind of stand at all I do appreciate that we get at least a stand for no
03:25extra cost but simply adding this functionality is 400 pounds. That is
03:31ridiculous. And you can also visa mount it as well for free and Apple showed off
03:36some fancy two and even three monitor setups in videos from their recent Apple
03:40event which I'm definitely keen to try. But however you set this up bear in mind
03:45you do only get a one meter Thunderbolt cable with a studio display but if you
03:49want a 1.8 meter cable which I do and comes with the more expensive Pro Display
03:54XDR you'll have to pay an extra 125 pounds. Now right now I have this hooked
03:59up to the new Mac Studio via the Thunderbolt cable but it will play nice
04:03with any recent MacBook Air Pro or Mac Mini or anything like that. So this
04:09studio display is the smaller slightly cut down and significantly cheaper
04:14version of Apple's Pro Display XDR. So in some ways they are very similar the
04:19sharpness the refresh rates optional extras but there are a couple of big
04:23differences and the main one I think is the fact the new studio display uses a
04:27single zone backlight versus 576 full array local dimming zones on the Pro
04:33Display which gives us much higher contrast whereas the studios typical IPS
04:37contrast can look a bit washed out in dark scenes and also at night I noticed
04:42some IPS bleeding in the corners. But actually slightly more unforgivable the
04:49studio display doesn't support any kind of HDR which for a 1,500 pound monitor
04:54that's aimed at creators and semi pros is just baffling. The fancier XDR display
05:00gets Dolby Vision HDR 10 HLG the studio gets well nothing just 600 nits of SDR
05:07brightness. To his credit though I did measure closer to 700 nits around 686 so
05:12it is still impressively bright and actually brighter than the XDR for non
05:16HDR content. But the lack of any kind of dedicated HDR is disappointing. Most mid
05:22to high-end monitors offer this now and you can see on my LG here for example
05:26how Mac OS actually smartly dims the UI around the HDR video. However in its
05:32favor we do have those nice-to-haves like the great built-in camera mics and
05:37speakers plus it's a lot cheaper than the Pro. But here's a question what if
05:41you want to use this with a non Apple laptop? I have my Dell XPS 13 hooked up
05:46here via Thunderbolt 4 and it works but there are a couple of issues. So here's
05:51the setup and I've got the single cable which is very nice and it does support
05:55power delivery so it is charging my laptop but as you can see the
06:00brightnesses are a little bit different because while of course I can change the
06:03brightness with the keyboard here for the Dell's display I can't actually do
06:08anything to adjust the brightness on the studio display because there are no
06:11buttons there is no on-screen display or anything I can mess around with in
06:14typical Apple form of a function fashion and in the settings here I can only
06:20control the brightness of the laptop screen not the studio display. So that's
06:24one limitation you are limited basically to the maximum brightness. The
06:28good news though is that the webcam does work. As you can see if I move around it
06:33doesn't support center stage that is a Mac exclusive feature but we still are
06:38getting that high quality webcam up there including the microphones as well.
06:43We don't get spatial audio support for the speakers they sound great but not
06:46that Apple exclusive spatial audio but that's still a nice feature. So the
06:51studio monitor is fine as a second screen for a Windows laptop but it
06:55wouldn't be my first choice especially at this price really you do want to pair
06:59it with a Mac and also the fact that you won't have access to any firmware
07:02updates that may come through macOS when you're using a Windows device. Now if you
07:08are a regular on the channel you know that mainly I use this a 38 inch LG
07:13ultra-wide. I've had this for about a year and so far I've not really been
07:17tempted to switch except for a short period when I use a 48 inch OLED TV. I
07:23love this because well it's massive giving me plenty of room for two or
07:27three apps side-by-side. It's also 21 by 10 not 21 by 9 which gives me that
07:32little bit extra vertical height and more screen space. It's also color
07:36accurate with specific color profiles I can switch between and it's 144 Hertz
07:40and it supports G-Sync so it's great for gaming as well. It also has terrific
07:45Thunderbolt support and it costs about the same around 1500 quid. However in
07:51favor of the studio display it is a lot sharper 218 ppi versus just 108 on the
07:57ultra-wide even though it has a WQHD plus resolution and it's also a more
08:01manageable size for a home or office monitor. Plus the speakers are incredible
08:06the best on any display I've tested and we also have that camera which these
08:10days is actually pretty important. So yes they are very different but they
08:15cost about the same and actually I've been using them both at the same time
08:18via Thunderbolt connected to the Mac Studio and it's been working really well.
08:22So final thoughts should you actually buy this? Well honestly I think for most
08:27people no it's too expensive. It is a lot cheaper than the pro display which most
08:32people don't really need but that does also get you a significantly better
08:35display in terms of contrast and HDR. Honestly I just think it's worth looking
08:40outside of Apple's shiny ecosystem for this one and buying a regular 27 or 32
08:45inch 4k monitor plus a nice webcam as well and this will fully work with both
08:50Mac and Windows. But if you do want the nice built-in webcam, terrific speakers
08:55and a good 5k screen and money maybe is less of a problem then sure it is a
09:00lovely monitor just a lot of money.
09:11Also it's worth considering that we may see a Studio Display Pro or a updated
09:16Pro Display XDR in just a couple of months perhaps in June after WWDC where
09:21we may finally see that sort of high refresh ProMotion and a mini LED screen
09:26on a desktop display. No doubt that will be a lot more expensive but if you are
09:30thinking about dropping 1500 quid or more if you want nanotexture and a
09:34height adjustable stand then maybe it is worth waiting a little bit longer and
09:39also paying a bit more to get a super duper Pro Display XDR 2 in a couple of
09:44months. But what do you think? Are you tempted to buy this? Let me know what you
09:47make of the Studio Display in the comments below. So I hope that was
09:51helpful and if you did enjoy the video a little like and subscribe would be very
09:54much appreciated and I'll see you next time right here on the Tech Chat.