Apple Studio Display — I’m loving it!

I hit my 60th birthday earlier this year, and after over 45 years of staring at screens both at work and ‘play’, my already dodgy eyesight is not getting any better. When I returned to Prague in 2019, I bought a cheap Dell 24” monitor to sit alongside my work and personal laptops and used a hardware switch to flip between them. Back in the UK, I have been using a Dell P2719H 27” monitor which is a bit easier on my eyes, but still not ideal.

New Studio Display in my UK office set-up (photo from author)

                   

So, I’ve been looking at buying a new monitor for a while, and it has proved to be a really difficult decision. My needs appeared to be fairly simple, or so I thought:

• It needed to work in an exclusively Apple environment (no more Windows for me now I’ve retired!) with M1 Silicon
• I wanted a minimum of a 27” display with 4K resolution
• From a design perspective, it needed to look the part
• A few additional ports would be useful
• Good all-round display quality for photo-editing, writing and website design
• It needed to be delivered on my next trip to the UK — between June 26th and July 13th
• 
  

There were a few unknowns — did I like the idea of a curved monitor? Was a 34” screen overkill (and would it even fit on my desk?)? Would I keep the existing 27” Dell (which does have a portrait mode which I like for documents)?

I had a short list with 27–34” monitors from the usual suspects — Dell, Ben-Q, Samsung, LG and even Huawei. And the Studio Display from Apple. I watched dozens of YouTube videos and eventually ruled out the Huawei because even though I loved the design, I’d prefer to err on the safe side of data privacy. I also liked the Samsung M8 but decided I wanted a monitor, not an all singing, all dancing video box. My desk is quite constrained regarding worktop space, so I stopped looking beyond 27” and curved monitors. After watching more videos about the scaling issues with 4K and Apple, I was becoming more inclined to stay in the Dell stable and choose a U2719D UltraSharp 27 with 2560 x 1440 resolution. But there was a nagging doubt in my mind about whether I would regret not going for the outrageously expensive Studio Display and end up buying one in a year anyhow…

My trip to the UK was only going to last three weeks. Our local Apple store is in Leicester, and it looked like they had some base Studio Displays available for in-store collection, but by the time I got back to the UK, the cupboard was bare and would stay that way until August/September. A quick search indicated AO.com had the base model in stock for next-day delivery, so I bit the bullet and placed an order. AO.com came to my rescue when I wanted the 13” M1 MBP in a hurry last time I was. I knew they’d come up with the goods in the UK, and it was no more expensive than buying from Apple.

I was confident that the base model would be right for my needs. I use a Twelve South Curve Riser on my desk, so I figured I wouldn’t need the height adjustable stand; I’ve always been comfortable with the glossy screens on iMacs I’ve owned in the past, and I don’t have a monitor arm (or enough space on my current desk).

Despite watching various unboxing videos for the Studio Display, when it turned up on the doorstep the next day, I was taken aback at how big, and heavy the box was and was grateful I hadn’t decided to try and bring one home on the bus from Leicester! If you’ve watched any of the unboxing videos, you’ll know that this is an experience in its own right. A few minutes later, the display was on the stand and plugged directly into the 13” M1 MPB via the Thunderbolt port. I plugged my 2 SanDisk Extremes into the USB ports and my Quntis light bar into the third slot. Finally, I sorted out the power cable, booted up the laptop, and installed the Studio Display software update.

Quite simply, this is the best display I have ever used by a long way. Text is crystal clear even for my dodgy eyes. The speakers are so good that I’ve unplugged my old faithful Harmon Kardon Soundsticks II and now use the Studio Display speakers in conjunction with an original HomePod sat on the bookshelf behind me.

I’m not going to get involved in the discussion about the webcam. I like that there is one built in; quite frankly, it’s plenty good enough for my purposes. The first time I used it in anger was during a call with my financial advisor, where both myself and my fiancée could fit in the viewfinder without having to be sat on top of each other. Quite frankly, in these days of WFH, where many of my former colleagues had such poor internet connections that they turned their cameras off and often asked other participants to do the same thing, webcam quality is the least of my problems! It works, and it’s good enough.

I’ve been using a Twelve South Curve Riser as a monitor stand. It also serves to hide the Thunderbolt Hub and keep it cool. This proved a little too uncomfortable with the combined height of the Studio Display and the riser, but setting the monitor on the middle shelf fixed this problem perfectly. The hub now sits atop the monitor's base in the shelf space.

My big challenge is to figure out how to set up a dual display with the M1 13” MBP using both the Studio Display and the 27” Dell. I purchased the Hyper Dual 4K HDMI 10-in-1 USB-C Hub, but it arrived after I returned to Prague, so haven’t had a chance to set it up yet. The workaround has been to use the 27” Dell monitor on the M1 MacMini, and use universal control to make it look seamless, which works about 90% of the time, but needs a nudge from time to time. I suspect that the sleep settings were perhaps out of sync.

I also really, really need a bigger desk…and another Studio Display in my Prague office...