Apple Pro Display XDR

Zinn

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FWIW I do a lot of vector graphic design and typography so I appreciate the high density over refresh. Apple’s monitor seems very close to my ideal monitor.

- 32” of working space
- “retina” pixel density
- professional color coverage

If you look on Newegg for a PC monitor, you can find various monitors with 2 but not 3 of the attributes above.

Price aside, if someone figures how to get this running in Linux, I’d be very tempted. I’m honestly tempted to drop retard money on a Mac Pro and take it up the butt just so I could get a $5k monitor for my design work.
 
It's a 6K display with ridiculous color calibration and HDR. It's quite nice.

There are a lot of monitors with all 3 of those aspects, so I'm not sure what you mean. Here's one for example: https://www.newegg.com/p/N82E16824260551?Description=8k monitor&cm_re=8k_monitor-_-24-260-551-_-Product
You’re right, there is the Dell UP3218K, but I’ve heard that has quality issues. It gets super hot and really seems like it needs active cooling.

Are there other 8K monitors available?
 
I'm skeptical of the value of such high pixel densities on 32" displays. The minimum viewing distance for such a display should be around 24". This display is "retina"(lol) to use Apple's own definition at 16" or further, whereas a typical 4K 32" display is so at 25 inches. Also, it means you cannot use the display for 1:1 pixel 4K video in full screen, which is unfortunate. But hey, if it's important to you it's important.

That said, there are only 576 zones, and the display most likely has the haloing you would expect from that number of zones, no "magic" here. I'm sure it's very accurate, but basically all professional displays at this price point are. Hell, at this point, even consumer displays have all the accuracy you need. What they don't have is uniformity, and yet the Apple XDR display doesn't have uniformity compensation even at $6000... nor does it have a hardware LUT afaik. The latter may not matter if you're using the display solely with Apple software, but it probably does matter if you want to use it with anything else.

Personally I would consider taking a PA32UCX over the Apple display, especially at $2000 cheaper. It even has uniformity compensation. However, if extreme pixel density is important to you, I am pretty sure there is nothing competitive with the Apple XDR in the market. The Dell 8K monitor is overpriced given that it lacks any sort of specialized HDR backlight, uniformity compensation, or hardware LUT. It's really just an overpriced, high pixel density consumer display, not a pro one.

If your primary need is pixel density and color coverage, and you're not concerned with black levels, HDR, etc, I'm not sure why you wouldn't go with the 27" 5K Ultrafine display. In either case, you're going to need to be 16" from the display, so you might as well use a 27" instead of a 32" and have less head turning to do. I use my 27" monitor at home from 18"-24" and frankly I struggle to imagine how anyone could use a bigger display even closer than that.
 
I'm skeptical of the value of such high pixel densities on 32" displays. The minimum viewing distance for such a display should be around 24". This display is "retina"(lol) to use Apple's own definition at 16" or further, whereas a typical 4K 32" display is so at 25 inches. Also, it means you cannot use the display for 1:1 pixel 4K video in full screen, which is unfortunate. But hey, if it's important to you it's important.

That said, there are only 576 zones, and the display most likely has the haloing you would expect from that number of zones, no "magic" here. I'm sure it's very accurate, but basically all professional displays at this price point are. Hell, at this point, even consumer displays have all the accuracy you need. What they don't have is uniformity, and yet the Apple XDR display doesn't have uniformity compensation even at $6000... nor does it have a hardware LUT afaik. The latter may not matter if you're using the display solely with Apple software, but it probably does matter if you want to use it with anything else.

Personally I would consider taking a PA32UCX over the Apple display, especially at $2000 cheaper. It even has uniformity compensation. However, if extreme pixel density is important to you, I am pretty sure there is nothing competitive with the Apple XDR in the market. The Dell 8K monitor is overpriced given that it lacks any sort of specialized HDR backlight, uniformity compensation, or hardware LUT. It's really just an overpriced, high pixel density consumer display, not a pro one.

If your primary need is pixel density and color coverage, and you're not concerned with black levels, HDR, etc, I'm not sure why you wouldn't go with the 27" 5K Ultrafine display. In either case, you're going to need to be 16" from the display, so you might as well use a 27" instead of a 32" and have less head turning to do. I use my 27" monitor at home from 18"-24" and frankly I struggle to imagine how anyone could use a bigger display even closer than that.

The Apple XDR is the type of overkill device that is truly needed by a very specific niche of people. I think the high resolution is absolutely useful and should give you maybe a bit better fidelity than 4K if working with say 8K content though I don't know if 4K doubled to 8K would give better results anyway. Also print content can be very high res in best cases so that might be another area where that pixel density is useful.

Personally I am so done with 27" displays. They are fine for 1440p but 4K is a bit of a waste on those and I want 4K applied to 32+ inch sizes but instead of making those manufacturers just keep pushing out more 27" models.
 
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Apple usually foots the cost of a great new panel. Eventually in a few years others will get access to it
 
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Has anyone compared this monitor to oled and crt displays? I guess the main selling point is the ridiculous resolution/size more so than color. Still interested if anybody has.
 
The dual layer thing does some stuff that makes it a heck of a leap. Plus having all the refresh rates is nice.

CRT’s have largely been left behind, sure there were advantages but short of the tiny reference trinitrons in a video production context, meh.

OLED is ‘better’, subjectively, and only as a consumer (unless talking the 40k reference screens) but holy shitballs the xdr is bright. In a professional context it’s amazing. Wish I could afford them, or even the pro art rip off.

Whatever someone thinks of Apple,theyre amazing screens. It’ll be great when similar tech is more in reach.
 
It's still only a 60 Hz display if that matters. I feel 120+ Hz is far more pleasant and responsive even on the desktop so even for professional use I would prefer that.

It's not really a display made for the average user but those who need both the res and the better color/brightness handling over typical LCDs. For HDR a consumer OLED TV will do better most likely.

I do want to see more 6-8K displays on the market though.
 
Depsite the "lower resolution" - I would take this monitor for design work - https://www.eizo.com/products/coloredge/cg3146/ (or the CG319X) At true 4K at that size, pixels are already dense enough for a retina definition.
It has dual LCD panels in series for a true 1,000,000 : 1 contrast and HDR without burn in. Color calibration etc. is perfect too and has fully addressable LUT. You will be fighting with that Apple display especially outside MacOS. I don't think they have full in-OS calibration yet even on MacOS. I'm pretty sure that Eizo uses the Panasonic panels so there may be other makers too for a similar monitor but Eizo caters to design and production work professionals.
 
Depsite the "lower resolution" - I would take this monitor for design work - https://www.eizo.com/products/coloredge/cg3146/ (or the CG319X) At true 4K at that size, pixels are already dense enough for a retina definition.
It has dual LCD panels in series for a true 1,000,000 : 1 contrast and HDR without burn in. Color calibration etc. is perfect too and has fully addressable LUT. You will be fighting with that Apple display especially outside MacOS. I don't think they have full in-OS calibration yet even on MacOS. I'm pretty sure that Eizo uses the Panasonic panels so there may be other makers too for a similar monitor but Eizo caters to design and production work professionals.

Sure I'll take an Eizo CG3146 if one was given to me! But for that price, I would rather take a well spec'd Mac Pro + 3x Apple Pro Display XDRs ;)
 
Yup you are correct - looks like the 3146 is not yet available (?) and the older 3145 was very expensive.
 
Looks like Dell threw the UP3221Q into the mix -- which is nice if you're a PC user. 32" 4K with 2000 mini-LED zones. However, the Pro Display XDR seems like a better monitor (resolution, probably build quality) for the same price (not counting the stand). Still waiting for a good 8K monitor (bigger than 32" and with DSC support so one doesn't need 2 cables) though :D
 
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