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Comment by Cu3PO42 | Hacker News Reader

I really like the design, including the colors. I realize it's just a standard "slab of glass and metal" design -- and in the mobile space competitors have caught up -- but I've never seen a monitor that sleek, except maybe the Pro Display XDR.

Edit: In fact, give me just the display in a 27" form factor and put all the display connections in a "connect box" like they did for Ethernet and I'd even be willing to pay an Apple tax for such a product. Oh, and give it a way to mount it on an arm rather than use a stand.

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It supports VESA: https://www.apple.com/shop/buy-mac/imac-vesa

So it does. That's great!

Agreed. My ultimate dream - that will never happen - is that Apple would release a version of this which is actually designed to be a dock for the MBP, and priced somewhere between $500-900.

I think the reason they won't do it is that the "computer" is actually a minority of the cost here compared to all the other componentry. So they probably can't make their margins on such a device if they price it below ~$900 or so, and at that point paying $200 less for just a screen makes the screen seem expensive and the computer cheap at the same time, which is not what Apple wants.

Honestly, I dig the styling enough that I'd buy it as a monitor if it supported Target Display still. I really do lament the loss of TDM, it was the perfect solution to the "disposable desktop" problem. Their excuse when they introduced the 5k is that the transports weren't capable. Now their entry-level machines can drive a 6k monitor, the excuse seems lacking.

Yeah, I don't think they will ever make a dock nor an external monitor.

I have resigned to just settling for good enough displays like the Dell U2720Q which does feature a 90W USB-C connection that charges my laptop.

The "connect box" could just be a computer itself, like the Mac mini, that you connect to the display via Thunderbolt

It could be, but that's something I want to provide myself. I need the ability to hook up arbitrary laptops, PCs, ... and I would just like to run less cables to my display. Having one cable for everything would be much more aesthetically pleasing than running power and two or three display connections separately.

Apple should bring back the duo dock!

Me too!! I would buy at 1k-1.5k if it was at least 27, but 30" would be better for video. Vesa is nice for anyone who likes a 2nd vertical code monitor.

Maybe someone can figure out a way to offload Chrome into the M1 and allow on bother screens. though a big benefit of that is battery life which doesn't matter at a desk.

Like they did for ethernet?

So welcome to Dongle Hell Part II: Desktop Boogaloo?

You could make an argument that such a box constitutes a dongle, but I don't think it's in the same spirit. In case you didn't catch it: the ethernet port is placed on the power brick rather than directly on the device. I am pretty sure this is purely because they couldn't fit the port in the device itself, but I like the idea.

A desktop monitor will always need a power cord, and all my monitors also have external power bricks already. In this hypothetical scenario I would just want them to take the ports that are normally on the monitor and move them to the other end of the power cord.

Some high-end TVs also have this feature so you don't need to run as many wires to your potentially wall-mounted TV.

> I am pretty sure this is purely because they couldn't fit the port in the device itself, but I like the idea.

There is a design consideration of not having yet another cable going up to the desk.

Sure, and that's exactly why I want this. But with the same argument they could have put USB-C or even USB-A ports on the brick for permanently connected peripherals, but they didn't. I understand it would be almost impossible for Thunderbolt due to concerns with signal integrity, but normal USB should work fine.

I think the idea is that Ethernet is rarely touched while the USB ports would be quite a bit more. You don’t ever need to access the Ethernet cable except in very few circumstances.

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