It has been over five years since Apple introduced its Pro Display XDR at WWDC 2019, which was designed to complement the Mac Pro’s drastic redesign after the controversial “trash can” design from 2013. The Pro Display XDR was remarkably cutting-edge with its 6K Retina display that featured mini-LED displays for exceptional color accuracy, brightness levels, and contrast ratios. However, with the introduction of the Studio Display in 2022, the Pro Display XDR started to fall behind in some aspects that the Studio Display offered. Those include:
- built-in 12MP Center Stage Camera
- integrated six-speaker system
- built-in Apple Silicon chip (A13 Bionic in the Studio Display) to power the display, camera, speakers, and Thunderbolt/USB connectivity
- three USB-C ports with USB 3 speeds (Pro Display XDR’s ports are still limited to USB 2)
But according to Ross Young, who has been spot on with several rumors about Apple’s upcoming displays such as the iPhone 16 Pro’s larger displays, he expects that the next-generation Pro Display XDR will follow suit of the recently updated MacBook Pros (which he also declared last week) by updating the more advanced quantum-dot technology that’s been commonly found in QLED TVs and monitors. This display technology will still allow for excellent color accuracy and response times (if not better). Many of Apple’s products still use KSF phosphor film, including:
- iPad Air
- MacBook Air
- previous-generation MacBook Pro
- 24-inch iMac
- Studio Display
This would be quite the right move for Apple as OLED displays at a larger scale are still expensive to produce. The M4 iPad Pro just adopted tandem OLED displays, but it may take a few more years for OLED displays to become standard across the iPad and MacBook lineups. So QLED on the Pro Display XDR is still ideal and it could be more than a stop-gap product as Apple may add even more features to the Pro Display XDR as previously mentioned. Maybe Apple will finally include the Pro Stand that has been sold separately for $999 (as the Pro Display XDR never comes with the stand at all), but hey, we all can dream right?
