176: Apple Has Been Quiet About Displays and That Might Be Ending

Welcome back to The MacRumors Show. We’ve got one more episode before a short holiday break, then we’ll be back right after CES, and to kick this week off I’m asking: do you use a Studio Display or a Pro Display XDR?

I’m on a Studio Display and have been for about a year and a half, after an LG UltraFine before that, which along with Apple’s panels has been the default choice for a lot of us.

The Studio Display is the obvious pick, even if the price stings and the specs feel dated; my Pro Display XDR just turned six and I still use it, but laptop screens now beat it on paper, so are mini-LED and one hundred twenty hertz finally coming?

It seems likely. Studio Display is a sharp twenty-seven-inch LCD at sixty hertz with SDR, but mini-LED would bring deeper blacks and, with ProMotion, match the feel of a MacBook Pro, which you notice when your cursor jumps between them.

Same here: my MacBook looks smoother, yet Apple’s external panels still look better than most five or six K options I test, so this would be a big upgrade even if I’m not desperate for it.

It’s not a must-buy for me, and timing is odd. We expect a Studio Display update in the first half of 2026, while MacBook Pro is moving to OLED next year, so parity may be brief and an OLED Studio Display could be years out.

That’s the weird part—Apple could ship an OLED monitor now since burn-in mitigations have matured, but instead we’re going LCD to mini-LED and maybe OLED five years later.

I also hope Apple keeps a lower-cost LCD option because lots of Mac mini and education users don’t need mini-LED or ProMotion, and something around nine hundred dollars would fit well, though we’ve heard nothing concrete.

Agreed, and if the parts really land around three to five hundred per unit, Apple could price an entry model at eight ninety-nine or nine ninety-nine. A monitor that costs two to three times a Mac mini is hard to swallow, so will the new one hold the current price?

Holding price makes sense since you’re paying for more than the panel; the build is solid, slim, and good-looking, and the speakers can fill a room surprisingly well.

Those speakers mean I don’t keep desktop speakers at that setup, and I hope the Pro Display gains them; also, what’s the point of the SoC inside and would an A19 unlock anything new?

The chip handles spatial audio, Center Stage on the camera, and Hey Siri with the mics, and it could offload tasks and help drive mini-LED and higher refresh rates. The A13 is aging, Apple is standardizing on newer silicon, and Thunderbolt 5 will help with bandwidth.

So we’re expecting mini-LED, ProMotion, a faster chip, and Thunderbolt 5, and I’d love more than one Thunderbolt port plus proper daisy chaining.

Right now there’s only one and no daisy chain, so dual Studio Displays eat two Mac ports. Even the old UltraFine could chain with two ports.

That port story is classic Apple inconsistency, and I’d happily pay a bit to make them all Thunderbolt 5; on the Pro Display XDR side, will it get the same panel upgrades, and can we please see a thirty-two-inch Studio Display option?

The Pro should gain mini-LED, ProMotion, an A19, and built-in camera, mics, and speakers. To justify the price and that lattice back, it may need something extra like OLED or even quantum dot.

I doubt OLED this round—I expect a better six K spec bump to match Studio Display—and I don’t see the point of two hundred forty hertz because this thing was pitched as a reference-class monitor, not a gaming panel.

Agreed, the pro path is higher contrast, color accuracy, and sensible refresh while the Studio finally gets HDR. Mark Gurman has said the new Pro isn’t a top priority, and despite model numbers and quantum dot chatter it feels on the back burner.

I still love my Pro Display and plan to keep it, but I want speakers, a mic, and a webcam built in, and I’d like Apple to stop the stand upcharge and make height and tilt standard—I skipped it and regret it.

Same here, and that’s a good place to pause the display chat.

Nothing else nails true Retina the way Apple does—the UltraFine came closest despite issues—and I’ll try LG’s new thirty-two-inch six K with a Mac mode at around two thousand dollars, but I still bet Studio Display wins; would you buy another?

When my current Studio Display ages out, I’d order another immediately.

My Pro Display still feels timeless six years in, and I could see it running another six; if you own a Pro Display XDR and you’re not a YouTuber or in Hollywood, tell us what you use it for and if you’re happy, and we’ll see you next week for the last episode of the year.