Apple 6K Pro Display XDR Review - The Perfect Compromise

it's been two weeks since I got apples Pro display XDR and it's time to get honest was it really worth $6,000 well for me yes but I will have to say it's definitely not worth it for everybody that can afford it some of you guys should spend way less while others should actually spend more and in this review I'll explain exactly why and pit this aluminium slate against alternatives ranging from $1,500 all the way up to $40,000 and tell you why $6,000 isn't really overpriced I'll talk about the strengths of the 6k and the one big issue that plagues it which is causing some people to return them and why Apple had to make this compromise that not everybody will like let's start off with the design and I have to say that it's amazing sure not everybody will like the look but the all aluminum build makes it very rigid while also acting as a heat sink and the lattice pattern cutouts allow for passive cooling even though it's not super thin it is much thinner than other high brightness displays and unlike many of those the xcr stays completely silent the infamous stand is the highest quality most stable stand that I have ever used and I love the quick magnetic attachment I've talked to many people that bought an X dr and every single one of them also ordered the stand and are very happy with it the only complaint some of them had myself including is the price the stand really should have been around $500 and the VESA adapter about $100 but that is Apple being Apple on the front the entire panel is glass with bezels that are really impressively thin especially for the size of the display now if you opt for the nano texture model reflections are all but gone without having that ugly matte coating which ruins contrasts and smears detail but I didn't offer that one overall the look and feel of the display is top-notch it really complements Apple's computers and gets their approval of all the people who pleaded for another Apple display for so many years and now many of them can finally ditch the LG if I can displays that they despised if they can spend this much money that is just like the LG 5k and the display has no power buttons menus or anything else it is controlled through the only available input which is Thunderbolt 3 this makes it super simple to use and you can adjust the settings and brightness with software through your Mac but that also limits the capabilities when you're in Windows unlike the LG the XDR uses newer DisplayPort technology which not only allows for 6 K and 10 bit HDR but it also makes a compatible with more computers which we showed off in our first test video definitely check that video out after this one but to give you a quick overview the XDR has great backwards compatibility and will even work with the 2013 mac pro or the older MacBook Airs using a Thunderbolt 3 to 2 adapter but keep in mind that the resolution will go down to either 5k like on the iMac pro or MacBook Air or even down to 4k like with the trashcan Mac Pro's that is because their graphics cards and sometimes our Thunderbolt ports can't handle this many pixels especially if you're trying to get 10-bit color on the plus-side many Windows PCs and laptops can actually power it some even at 6 K and on the Mac side even a MacBook Air with integrated graphics can now be used to view true 10 bit colors which is a huge feat and I will cover exactly what this means in just a bit it also has three USB type-c ports which can support USB 3.1 speeds but if I plug this $6000 display into my $15,000 Mac Pro these ports turn into USB 2 and instead of running my 800 megabyte per second SSD at just over 400 megabytes per second it will run at 40 megabytes per second yes that is right we are going back to the year 2000 at the same time if I connected to a base 16 inch MacBook Pro it will not only run at 6 K 10 bit HDR but it will also get a full USB 3.1 speeds that's because the current graphics cards in the Mac Pro are a generation older just like the IMAX and the older Mac Book pros which don't support display stream compression and a 6k 10 bit ACR signal needs a massive amount of bandwidth about 2.5 times that of a pro 4k display now Apple does have the W 50 700 X coming out soon and it will be cheaper and the this issue now before I get into the biggest complaint pro color graders have with this monitor I want to give a huge thanks to my Crescenta for making our pro xcr content possible micro Center has 25 stores nationwide with an impressive variety of electronics from gaming VR computer parts like processors graphics and everything else needed to build or upgrade a PC or Mac micro Center has been an Apple authorized dealer since 1980 they have a dedicated Apple department with highly trained Apple sales associates a site from the iPhone Micro Center carries the full lineup of Apple products and they have the largest selection of third-party accessories for Mac and iPad come into a local Micro Center today and talk to one of their Apple experts to order the specific Mac Pro configuration that best suits your needs or a pro display XDR check out the link in the video description to find a location near you or to browse all of micro centers Apple products now let's get into what makes this monitor stand out compared to the LG 5k and Apple's previous cinema and Thunderbolt displays first off the build quality is the best ever for an Apple display and of course it is larger and 6k compared to their last display which was the 27-inch 1440p thunderbolt display which does help out with real estate when working and looks dramatically more detailed which really helps for editing photos and high-res videos at first the 32 inch size seemed huge as I was used to the 5k 27-inch screens but after a day or two I got used to it and I love the extra space it offers especially when editing videos some asked why do you need a 6k display to edit for Kane well I can have a video preview that can display my 4k footage pixel for pixel at a hundred percent while having enough room for the UI which really helps to judge noise focus and more the other way it stands out compared to Apple's displays and their LG partnership is colors contrast and brightness it supports true 10 bit colors meaning you will see over 1 billion colors compared to 16 million on the Mac books the IMAX and their other displays which is great for professional color work what's even more noticeable is contrast Apple has always been praised for their displays and they are good but when you push them to the extreme they cannot compare to the XDR which in most conditions looks as good as OLED but gets brighter the last is the support for HDR and a sustained 1000 nits in a peak of 1600 this is what makes it really expensive and why Apple compared it to Sony's $40,000 reference monitor but it wasn't really a fair comparison and I'll explain why the LG 5k and most current Mac's can run at about 500 nits which is bright and the previous Apple displays could do about 350 which is what most monitors still do today this really helps in bright environments and I was really hoping that the XDR could be pushed up to say a thousand but unfortunately a normal use you're still limited to 500 that extra brightness is reserved for HDR that's what you're really paying for this monitor and not only HDR playback but good HDR grading capability so if you don't need that then that is at least $2,000 out of the 6,000 dollar price tag that is sitting there unused personally I really wish Apple made more than one display a new 27-inch 5k possibly an OLED without that's the same peak brightness buffer say $2,500 and then this Pro XDR for those that really actually need it since I think that most people buying the XC are are doing so just because they want a sharp color accurate display that matches their Mac's which I guess is just a win for Apple if they're willing to pay that extra price to get it now for that specific use case which is partially why I have it you can look at it as an amazing value if you buy apples comparison to the reference displays or as an incapable display if you're somebody that actually uses those types of screens I've spent days researching and getting feedback from a mix of professionals and the truth is somewhere in between there are people out there that are over praising this display because for their standards it is amazing and I'm partially in that camp as well and that's also those that are dissing it and possibly on purpose undermining it by posting exaggerated images like this one the truth is the XDR is the do-it-all display it's full of compromises and it's imperfect for many very specific tasks but considering the price point in everything it offers it is a fantastic compromise a jack of all trades but master of none if you consider the price point that's because Apple is not a display company and they don't want to offer dozens of monitors for different use cases like Asus does if you want ultra-high resolution for coding by an 8k or a 5k Dell display for way less if you want a thunderbolt display with good accuracy for photo editing by the LG 5k and if you want a budget display just for entry-level HDR grading by this Asus for $1,500 and the list just keeps going on if you want the best contrast with no blooming fine OLED but that won't work as well for grading since the peak of brightness is usually about 800 nits and it gets dramatically worse if you use the full screen which is why Apple didn't use OLED well Apple decided is to make a high-end screen that could do everything quite well one that looks fantastic matches the Mac Pros and of course costs a lot but is fairly reasonable and actually it's quite good for HDR editors compared to the competition for example Asus has a new 1200 netpeak rightness display that costs four thousand dollars and it even has more dimming zones but they don't quote the sustained brightness and the build quality is lower it is thicker the fans could be quite loud and has two and a half times less pixels so if you want to have a super sharp display then that won't work they also have a new model coming out soon with the same peak and the same brightness but there is no price listed it will be at least five thousand dollars possibly six thousand dollars or more so you can really start to see the value of the XDR when compared to other prosumer displays and even then the xcr is more than twice the amount of pixels way better materials design and more now Apple didn't compare it to those displays they went in for the reference displays and that's what really pissed off a lot of the pros the thing is these pros don't need a 6k display 4k is actually better for them and this is not going to be the only display that they set up so it doesn't need to look so nice and pretty they also grade in dimly lit rooms so that their eyes are influenced and they use dedicated hardware between their computers and their displays to get the absolute best color accuracy and often times the companies that they are grading for require approved place that cost 30 to $40,000 the xcr will not be an alternative to those displays but it will allow everybody in the pipeline to still view content way more accurately before handing it off to the main color grader a few of these people have already complained and posted images in super tough situations where the X CR has bloomin issues and yes this is true but these images were shot on cell phones which bring up the dark parts of the image and make it look much worse than in reality as you guys can see in this is a cell phone shot compared to my actually adjusted camera we did our own torture tests and accurately showed off this issue in our comparison but in these environments even the praised IMAX will look super great everywhere the X Y R and other hand will have this around small sharp super wide objects and this is with the brightness up at a max 500 nits here's what it looks like with the normal webpage when I record with the camera at 500 nits I did my very best to show you guys a real-world accurate recording of this blooming so I went back and forth between recording and viewing on my computer since camera displays are very inaccurate and here are the honest results if you are working in a very dark or pitch-black room and have a white sharp line at full brightness on a pure black background you will notice blooming like this if you cut it down to 50% brightness it dramatically gets reduced and when you turn it down to 30% brightness which is around what Apple actually locks you in if you're using the HDR grading mode it all but disappears not only that but if you don't just have a very thin bright line or text you say something like this paragraph the effect is cut down dramatically and a 50% brightness it is not noticeable and the same thing goes when playback actual HDR footage with lots of bright spots on a pure black background at 50% brightness it looks fantastic and of course when you're using it in a normally lit room like most of us will this is a complete non-issue even at full brightness it looks gorgeous especially if you're playing back 6 key or a cave footage pros are making us think about this but this also goes for the competing asus displays which do have more dimming zones but lack some of the other specs and even many Pro grading displays that have been you for years and are still being sold like the display on the left which has over two thousand zones and is now on sale for twenty two thousand dollars instead of thirty seven thousand since that has been replaced with the one on the right that has better technology and goes for thirty five thousand in one way I understand why it's getting some hate from the pros that are buying these displays but on the other hand if this display can perform closer to a now twenty two thousand dollar one and doesn't need dedicated hardware to be color accurate but has hardware profiles built in and programs like DaVinci Resolve for the first time ever are confident enough to allow it to be used without the external hardware then I think this is the perfect display for me Apple had a tough choice to make and they wanted an aesthetically pleasing Mac light display that was larger but maintain sharpness in provided accurate colors in high sustained brightness while being slim and silence compared to these huge reference boxes and a reasonable price point for that use case while being somewhat attainable by other pros that might be buying a Mac Pro and I think they made a very good compromise for the one single display that they are gonna sell if you are grading Hollywood movies with hundred million dollar budgets you shouldn't use this display but if you want something that is a great middle ground for a variety of professional work this thing is a treat thank you guys for watching click up there to subscribe to see more videos and check out our other display xtr videos right over there this Ben Max and I will see you in the next one [Music]

Channel: Max Tech

Views: 95,285

Keywords: apple, apple pro display xdr, pro display xdr, apple pro display, apple display, 6k pro display xdr, apple 6k pro display, apple 6k pro display xdr, 6k display xdr, 6k pro display xdr review, pro display xdr review, xdr display review, 5k lg ultrafine display, pro display xdr vs lg ultrafine, 6k pro display xdr vs 5k lg ultrafine, monitor comparison, apple monitor, XDR vs Flanders scientific, XDS VS Asus ProART Pro Art, PA32U

Id: m_6HaMRg91o

Length: 14min 54sec (894 seconds)

Published: Sat Jan 18 2020