Apple unveils the Pro Display XDR, a display unlike anything else on the market

[Karlston]

Apple unveils the Pro Display XDR, a display unlike anything else on the market

Geared towards pro users, it sports impressive specs and a steep price tag—$4,999.

Enlarge / Hellllooooo, Pro Display XDR.

Apple

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SAN JOSE, Calif.—Apple used its WWDC keynote presentation to announce its first new computer display product since the Apple Thunderbolt Display (which was introduced in 2011). It's called the Pro Display XDR, and it looks to be a display unlike anything else on the market.

 

For the past several years, Apple has sold specialized displays from LG through its store to users who want a display that will play nice with Macs. But a few weeks ago, supply of some of those LG displays began to dry up (though one additional LG display did appear on the store recently), suggesting something new was coming.

 

"There's no single display that gives our pro customers everything they ask for," said Apple's Colleen Novielli as she began introducing the Pro Display XDR during today's keynote. "And HDR is frequently requested, but yet to be delivered with pro-level precision. Our goal was to make a display that expertly delivers every feature pros have asked for."

 

 

Apple's new display is a 32-inch LCD, 6016 x 3384, 6K retina display. For comparison and reference, that's more than 40% larger than the iMac 5K display. And with the extra real-estate and modern tech, Apple strongly emphasized a stronger picture than ever before: the Pro Display XDR supports P3 and true 10-bit colour (with reference modes built in) calibrated at the factory, has a super wide viewing angle, and offers 25 times better contrast than an LCD display according to the company. Users—most likely pros instead of normal consumers given the specs and price—can also add on Apple's anti-reflexive coating; a matte option will be available otherwise.

 

Novielli specifically called out HDR requests when introducing the Pro Display XDR, so she went into a little detail about how Apple went about delivering this. Novielli started by explaining that HDR requires extremes, the need for extreme brightness right next to extreme blacks. For the XDR, a large array of blue LEDs generate extreme brightness, and Apple uses custom lenses and reflectors to precisely control the light. "We designed the rear pattern on the display to act as a heat sink to make this possible, extracting heat from each LED," she revealed. "This is not high dynamic range, this is extreme dynamic range, or XDR."

 

Ultimately, Apple claims the Pro Display XDR can maintain 1000 nits of fullscreen brightness indefinitely—a seemingly unheard of feat in all but hyper-specialized pro displays.

Enlarge / A visualization of how Apple is achieving HDR quality with the Pro Display XDR

Apple

Novielli had a few more display tidbits for the WWDC crowd, too. The displays will use Thunderbolt 3 for one-cable connectivity, and Apple claims the new Mac Pro can drive six of these displays at 6K resolution (achieving 120 million pixels). And the new Pro Display XDRs will arrive alongside of a new stand option called the Pro Stand. This has a counterbalancing arm for easy height adjustment, and it offers creators the option to easily rotate things into portrait mode for viewing.

 

 

All of these eye-brow raising announcements came with an underlying question: OK, this seems great, but how much? Apple touted the fact that the Pro Display XDR is competing with reference monitors that normally cost $43,000 dollars. The company's new display will start at $4,999, with a nano-texture version available for $5,999. The Pro Stand will cost $999, and the VESA mount is another $199 (so a display with anti-reflective coating along with a mount and the new stand is roughly ~$7,200). All of Apple's new display products will become available in the fall.

 

Source: Apple unveils the Pro Display XDR, a display unlike anything else on the market (Ars Technica)

 

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