Apple Pro XDR Display Review: A Category of its Own

Since 2016’s Thunderbolt Display, Apple never made a head start on conquering the display-segment for its end-users. While they did try to push its consumers towards an LG 5K monitor, it was quote-unquote “buggy and difficult.” After the stunt that went belly-up Apple promised to reboot the Mac Pro in 2017. And in 2020, it is finally here: The Pro Display XDR, which was a part of Apple’s aggressive marketing strategy in bringing back the heavily used Mac Pro and the 16-inch MacBook Pro.

Coming to the latest display, it supports a 32-inch 6K LCD that can hit 1,600 nits at peak brightness. In retrospect, normal displays put up a fight ranging at 500 nits. The display packs this amazing nit support by sporting a 1,000 nits of sustained brightness and 576 nits of specially created blue LEDs that sports as its backlight. The display supports 10-bit true color and the full DCI-P3 color gamut with Apple even claiming that it can achieve a million-to-one contrast ratio using a handful of industry-standard-tests.

The Pro-Display XDR will go for $4,999, with a $999 optional stand, putting the total to around $6,000.

There are four USB-C connections on the back, but they can be quite confusing at times. One of the USB-C connectors is marked by lighting both icons, which is a Thunderbolt 3 port, where the Mac will be plugged in. The other three connectors operate at different speeds: Most Mac’s however support USB 2 speeds at moment with only the 16-inch MacBook Pro supporting USB-C speeds. However, the Mac Pro does not offer any video cards that can support DSC, just in case.

The display also supports two sensors, one in the front and one in the back, that measure ambient light entering the case which further works in ambiance with  Apple’s True Tone technology. In terms of looks, the display will do you good if you like normal-looking monitors who sport the web-like design, which does resemble a giant cheese grater.

While $6,000 might be a huge amount to spend on a monitor, Apple sure did point out the insanely expensive Sony’s X300 OLED panel which starts at $43,000. Well, Sony and Apple do not compare at this point, it is a modest attempt from Apple to give their users an aggressively expensive experience in a case that is rather not-so-expensive.