[1] https://www.macrumors.com/2026/01/15/new-studio-display-or-p...
[1] https://www.macrumors.com/2026/01/15/new-studio-display-or-p...
Also as an owner of 2 27" 4K HDR 144Hz monitors that Apple rendered pointless to make the XDR work in the first place ("Wow, Apple's done some magic to make the display bandwidth work!" = "Apple fucked DP 1.4 users post-Catalina and will not admit it". Myself and countless other users saw our Macs that could drive those setups with Catalina be limited to 60Hz HDR, 95Hz SDR with Big Sur on. Hell, we got better performance if we told our displays to downgrade to DP 1.2).
And let's do the math:
- 6016 x 3384
- at 120Hz
- in 10 bit HDR
- 4:4:4 Chroma
works out to be just shy of 80Gbit/s.
Oh... plus if it's like the XDR with three additional ports that we'd assume should be at least 10Gbit/s each, and we're at 120Gbit/s.
Not that the XDR supports HDMI but you'd need at least HDMI 2.2, which isn't on any Mac right now.
And you'd need a full speed TB5 setup, so M4 Pro or Max (which I'll grant if you're laying out $6-7,000 for your display should be the least of your concern).
But saying that the XDR and this are comparable offerings is strange. "Hmm, why would I buy this $2,000 display now, when at some point in the near future Apple might have a better one for only triple the price!"
They've been in the display game a long time. For people that need the product capabilities for their specific job, like color grading, they seem to price them quite well, given everywhere I used to see $30,000-$50,000 reference monitors, I see Studio Displays now.
Here's the third party version of the upcoming 5K studio display refresh - 271KRAW16, 5K 27" 165hz glossy with mini led backlight https://www.tweaktown.com/news/109565/msi-unveils-worlds-fir...
But of course, you read that. So, I’ll take a hack at guessing what’s on your mind past that.
I bet it won’t be much more expensive than the LG list price, $2000. LG seems hellbent on making margins on this panel in their 1st party monitor. Ex. You can get the same panel but better quality in Asus Proart for $1300.
The key thing to watch here is, is Apple’s also 6K? If so, are they getting better panels than LG gives itself or Asus? (likely)
Regardless, it’s a shitshow with this panel, I’d rather get a used UltraFine 5K than get one of LGs. I’d try Asus if it was easy for me to return. Only new option that’s better than a 10 year old UltraFine 5K with my fellow HiDPI nerds is…the $6K XDR display :/
(n.b. I’m not being precious either, this an extremely painful conclusion I have every incentive to avoid, tl;dr I abandoned an UltraFine 5K to the trash heap because I didn’t have time to figure out how to move it 3,000 miles and assumed _surely_ there was a good option between 24-32” in hidpi…)