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Compressing into darker areas is only half the equation for great HDR. You also need as much brightness and contrast as possible, and Studio Display XDR delivers at an unprecedented level.
Apple says this can reach 2,000 nits of peak brightness, and when I measured it myself with my colorimeter, it maxed out at 1,905 nits in the 25 percent window. This is really impressive. Meanwhile, it can reach 1,701 nits at 49 percent and 948 nits in full screen mode. This is the brightest computer monitor I’ve ever tested. Although contrast and color performance can’t quite compare to OLED displays, HDR content creators will get a lot out of the Studio Display XDR. For example, I tested Dell 32 Plus QD-OLEDwhich can do HDR well, but maxes out at only 946 nits. And this is only in the 1 percent window.
Most of your use of Studio Display XDR will be in SDR, not HDR. Here, there are a few trade-offs. First, I measured maximum brightness at 463 nits, although the screen can reach 1,000 nits in bright rooms using the ambient light sensor. You can’t just force it to 1000 nits. According to my SpyderPro colorimeter, I measured an average Delta-E color error of 0.76, which is quite accurate. I will say that performance in the AdobeRGB color space only came out at 88 percent, which is lower than what you get in OLED displays.
Some warnings
There are some limitations to compatibility with Studio Display XDR. Intel Macs aren’t supported at all, which shouldn’t be a problem for most people, as long as you haven’t recently purchased a Mac Pro. The desktop was the last Intel-powered Mac in the lineup and was only discontinued in 2023. Furthermore, there are some Macs that cannot support 120 Hz refresh rate. For example, the M1 Pro, Max, and Ultra chipsets only support 60Hz on Studio Display XDR. This means even if you buy M1 Ultra Mac Studioyou are locked at 60 Hz. This is the problem.
This is a smaller thing, but one of the USB-C ports on the back is dedicated to delivering power to charge your laptop via a single cable. This is common these days in monitors, but the built-in monitor can only deliver 96 watts of power. the MacBook Pro 16 inch It comes with a 140W power supply. If you’re doing intense tasks on something like the M5 Max, you need all that power, but that means slower charging. there There were some reports That on my 14-inch MacBook Pro with M5 Max, it couldn’t handle charging using its 96W power supply during heavy loads like gaming.
Then there is the price. As with the Vision Pro, Apple feels confident charging big for a screen for this niche use case. However, displays with true HDR aren’t quite as new as they were in 2019. At the time, a lot of displays marketed HDR without the proper backlighting to support it. But a lot has changed in seven years, and the market is now full of affordable OLED and Mini-LED displays that can actually deliver HDR, thanks in large part to OLED’s popularity in PC gaming.
The unique thing about Studio Display XDR is how powerful the HDR effect is. Don’t get me wrong: the whole package is very powerful and the HDR performance is truly top-notch for those who want it. But like Vision Pro, It will not be a disruptive force It claims to be, and most of us will go back to wishing Apple would make a 32-inch monitor, or perhaps something less expensive To pair with a Mac mini Or MacBook Air. As of now, neither the Studio Display nor the Studio Display XDR fit the bill.