To help offset that downside and take advantage of Retina screens' additional density, Apple also added 'scaled' display modes to Retina Macs. The first Retina Mac, the 2012 Retina MacBook Pro, used a 2880×1800 display that exactly quadrupled the previous generation's 1440×900 screen, and when it finally released in 2014, the 5K iMac quadrupled the pixels of the original 27-inch iMac's 2560×1440 screen. So the iPhone 3GS's 480×320 screen became 960×640 in the iPhone 4, and the iPad 2's 1024×768 screen was upgraded to 2048×1536 for the first Retina iPad.

Testing with other Thunderbolt and USB-C cablesīefore we talk about the monitor itself, it's worth briefly reiterating how high-density (aka 'Retina') displays are handled in macOS and why the 5K-vs-4K discussion in the context of the Mac isn't just about visual detail.Īpple had a consistent formula when transitioning to Retina displays: every new screen would have exactly four times as many pixels as the non-Retina screen it replaced.But as its enthusiastic reception from several Ars staffers suggests, it will find an audience by virtue of being a 5K Apple-branded monitor, and its design and features are a solid step up from the 5K LG UltraFine display that Apple has sold for the last few years. It’s certainly not for everyone, and at $1,599, it’s not the first external display I’d recommend for all Mac owners (especially people who tend toward the cheaper Mac mini and MacBook Air end of the spectrum). With a design that strongly recalls 2011’s Thunderbolt Display and a name that harks back to its late-'90s namesake, the display is tailor-made for anyone who wanted the 5K screen from the dearly departed 27-inch iMac without the computer that was attached to it. But it wasn’t exactly an appealing value proposition.Įnter the new Studio Display. You could connect the Pro Display XDR to a MacBook Air that costs one-fifth its price, and Apple always went out of its way to mention that M1 MacBooks were technically capable of driving its 6K display resolution. Ever since Apple released the $5,000-and-up Pro Display XDR in 2019, rumors have persisted that the company was also planning a more affordable screen to fill the same niche as its Thunderbolt Display.

Monitors for apple laptops