Apple Studio Display and Studio Display XDR • Hacker News Board

Re: Apple Studio Display and Studio Display XDR

#271

Post by hollerith » Wed, Mar 04, 2026, 3:54 AM UTC

PaulDavisThe1st wrote: post #247

hollerith wrote: post #241

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wayland supports it (and Chrome supports it very well) but GTK does not. I run my UI at 200% scaling because graphical Emacs uses GTK to draw text, and that text would be blurry if I ran at my preferred scaling factor of 150% or 175%.

GTK uses Pango/Harfbuzz and some other components to draw text, all of which are widely used in other Linux GUI stacks. GTK/GDK do not draw text themselves, so your complaints are not with them directly.

I'm not asseting that text is being rendered incorrectly. I'm asserting that after rendering, the text is being downsampled.

Re: Apple Studio Display and Studio Display XDR

#272

Post by bsimpson » Wed, Mar 04, 2026, 3:55 AM UTC

jibbers wrote: post #212

bsimpson wrote: post #145

As long as we're here: What are people's current favorites for a 5K 27" screen that doesn't cost as much as a whole damned computer?

Get a broken 27" iMac, rip out the guts, and slap in a converter board that adds a bunch of inputs. It's not nearly as difficult to build as most of the blogs make it out to be.

Mine's not even broken, but it is corp, so sticking an Aliexpress board in there is ill-advised. Hence, in the market for a 5k when I've had a perfectly good one on my desk since 2017.

Re: Apple Studio Display and Studio Display XDR

#273

Post by nebula8804 » Wed, Mar 04, 2026, 4:00 AM UTC

bombcar wrote: post #246

kbolino wrote: post #237

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The Apple monitor will likely have better speakers, and I'm not even sure the others will have microphones at all. Apple also does a better job with color accuracy/consistency, at least historically. There's still a sizeable markup, but it's not entirely for nothing. Back in the day (~15 years ago), when 4K monitors were unheard of and even Apple's high-end displays were still 1440p, you could get a bottom-dollar mon…

Apple monitors are one of those things that are absolutely worth buying on release, but every month after that they get a worse and worse value. After a few years, the "cheap ones" have usually caught up, if you're willing to do the research.

I disagree, the software and excellent integration in the ecosystem has always differentiated Apple and even years later models from ASUS are still headaches when it comes to everything outside the panel. Its like when gamers used to compare Apple spec by spec (ie. CPU, RAM, Disk) and valued all the software they provide at $0.

These days they still value software at $0 but the specs have become quite competitive and many times exceed what the rest of the market offers.

Re: Apple Studio Display and Studio Display XDR

#274

Post by raydev » Wed, Mar 04, 2026, 4:27 AM UTC

kllrnohj wrote: post #121

desideratum wrote: post #25

It's mind-boggling that Apple is considering the base 27 inch Studio Display with the same 4 year old panel, but with some new accessories slapped on an "upgrade".

The base 27" wasn't even a new display 4 years ago, it's the same thing they were shipping in iMacs before that. It dates back to like 2017?

The 5k iMac was introduced in 2014. There was one change in 2015 that added P3 color gamut, so it appears to have been the exact same LG-manufactured panel for at least 11 years.

Re: Apple Studio Display and Studio Display XDR

#275

Post by raydev » Wed, Mar 04, 2026, 4:37 AM UTC

ErneX wrote: post #16

I was hoping for a 6k 32inch model. But even so, these 2 new monitors still don’t support multiple inputs.

Current hardware and standards have them backed into a corner.

No Mac today supports 6k 10-bit @ 120Hz because the DisplayPort 2.1 standard can't handle it uncompressed and that's the best Macs offer. HDMI 2.2 just came out last year and would likely be able to handle it over a TB5 cable, but again, no hardware support.

So say that Apple did update the Pro Display XDR, what would it have exactly? More dimming zones for sure, the new Studio XDR has 4x the dimming zones. But they are clearly not confident in OLED tech for standalone monitors yet, so no OLED.

Anyway, their updated XDR would be shipping with the same ol' 60Hz. Reviewers and social media and tech nerds would rip them to shreds, it'd be a PR clownshow. I can already see the "Apple really expects us to pay $7k for a 60Hz monitor in 2026" viral posts.

And Apple being Apple would never explain why a monitor is lacking a feature like 120Hz, because it would mean acknowledging people had higher expectations. So we get an expensive 5k 120Hz monitor instead.

Re: Apple Studio Display and Studio Display XDR

#276

Post by raydev » Wed, Mar 04, 2026, 4:40 AM UTC

WilcoKruijer wrote: post #32

> Studio Display XDR replaces Pro Display XDR How does a 5k display replace a 6k display? Are they giving up on 6k? Disappointing.

It's impossible for them to support a 10-bit 6k@120Hz monitor with current hardware and keeping the old one around would be embarrassing. The Pro 5k will probably sell better/be more profitable anyway.

Re: Apple Studio Display and Studio Display XDR

#277

Post by badc0ffee » Wed, Mar 04, 2026, 4:48 AM UTC

brailsafe wrote: post #264

badc0ffee wrote: post #202

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would love to see examples of this. I have a MBP and a 24" 4K Dell monitor connected via HDMI. I use all kinds of scaled resolutions and I've never noticed anything being jagged or blurry. Meanwhile in Linux the scaling is generally good, but occasionally I'll run into some UI element that doesn't scale properly, or some application that has a tiny mouse cursor. And then Windows has serious problems with old apps -…

I'm more surprised that you're using a 24" display at any resolution. Of course, everyone has different preferences, but that just seems ridiculously small considering how available larger displays are for the same ppi and refresh rate probably. I'm personally on the old 30" 16:10 2560x1600 form factor, and it's wildly better visually than the 27" 1440p screen by the same brand (all of them Dell) I use at the office.

I took one of my dual 24" office monitors during Covid WFH and ended up keeping it when I quit that job. I use it as a second display alongside the MacBook which is on a stand.

I think the largest I would want at my current desk is 27". 30 is way too big for me. But more importantly I want something that matches the crispness of the MBP display, and 1440p and 1600p are too low res.

Re: Apple Studio Display and Studio Display XDR

#278

Post by raydev » Wed, Mar 04, 2026, 4:49 AM UTC

laksmanv wrote: post #108

Is buying a used 32" XDR worth it if we want a 32" apple display? or is the tech not as good now?

- at worst you're getting a 7 year old monitor

- the new 5k XDR has 4x as many dimming zones so it would objectively look better than the old XDR

- not sure what the market for used 6k XDRs is like, but there's a good chance you'd be paying new 5k XDR monitor price for an old 6k XDR used monitor

Re: Apple Studio Display and Studio Display XDR

#279

Post by JoshTriplett » Wed, Mar 04, 2026, 5:00 AM UTC

PaulDavisThe1st wrote: post #250

JoshTriplett wrote: post #147

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Text sucks in oled displays. Not anymore, as long as you make sure that any RGB antialiasing is turned off . Linux defaluts to disabling this and doing only grayscale antialiasing, so it looks great on an OLED out of the box. Windows can be configured to do this.

I have no idea what you mean by "Linux defaults to" ... what possible Linux-wide global could there be for antialiasing? Apps are free to turn on different kinds of antialiasing for text rendering all by themselves.

Default configurations in font rendering on typical distributions.

Re: Apple Studio Display and Studio Display XDR

#280

Post by RulerOf » Wed, Mar 04, 2026, 5:03 AM UTC

brailsafe wrote: post #264

badc0ffee wrote: post #202

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would love to see examples of this. I have a MBP and a 24" 4K Dell monitor connected via HDMI. I use all kinds of scaled resolutions and I've never noticed anything being jagged or blurry. Meanwhile in Linux the scaling is generally good, but occasionally I'll run into some UI element that doesn't scale properly, or some application that has a tiny mouse cursor. And then Windows has serious problems with old apps -…

I'm more surprised that you're using a 24" display at any resolution. Of course, everyone has different preferences, but that just seems ridiculously small considering how available larger displays are for the same ppi and refresh rate probably. I'm personally on the old 30" 16:10 2560x1600 form factor, and it's wildly better visually than the 27" 1440p screen by the same brand (all of them Dell) I use at the office.

> I'm personally on the old 30" 16:10 2560x1600 form factor

I sorta wish that form factor had taken off instead of 27" 1440p. The extra vertical space is really nice, and that seems to be the ideal PPI for 100% scaling IMHO.

I keep telling myself I'd like to get a 4K OLED display at the same PPI, but 40" seems to be conspicuously missing in every monitor lineup... at least at a price that will convince me to buy three of them, anyway.