Studio Display

| | PRICE From £1,499 / $1,599 COMPANY Apple WEBSITE apple.com

Apple’s Studio Display was launched alongside the new Mac Studio, with both products aimed at creative professionals. While the Mac Studio handles the computing side of things, the Studio Display, as the name suggests, is the screen.

A good monitor is an essential tool for creative professionals, especially those working in visual mediums, and there’s some stiff competition out there. So is the Studio Display worth it?

FEATURES

As the price hints at, this isn’t your standard monitor, as Apple has packed it with some interesting features. Unusually

for a monitor, the Studio Display comes with a built-in webcam and studio-quality mic array. These days we’re increasingly relying on video calls, so having a high-quality webcam and microphone is extremely important, especially for people who are working remotely.

The webcam is boosted by the inclusion of the A13 Bionic chip, offering a feature known as ‘Center Stage’, which uses artificial intelligence to keep you centred when using the webcam – even if you move around. The A13 Bionic also works with the built-in speakers of the Mac Studio to offer special audio via Dolby Atmos. While this doesn’t compete with a physical Dolby Atmos surround sound setup, it offers an impressive level of sound that you wouldn’t expect from built-in monitor speakers.

PERFORMANCE

The Studio Display offers a decent level of performance with bright and vivid image quality, and viewing angles were particularly good. If you want a monitor to show off your work to lots of people at once, this is useful, though the glossy finish of the screen meant that distracting reflections were an issue.

But the performance of the Studio Display didn’t wow us, which is a shame considering the steep asking price. The lack of HDR support is baffling, to be honest, with cheaper

APPLE STUDIO DISPLAY

The Studio Display is an interesting screen for creatives, and its image quality is decent, but it doesn’t live up to its potential. Lack of HDR, limited ports and an underwhelming webcam means the asking price will be too high for many.