27 inch imac retina display lcd panel manufacturer

Accessibility features help people with disabilities get the most out of their new iMac. With built-in support for vision, hearing, mobility, and learning, you can create and do amazing things.

I"ve had problems with image retention on my late-2012 27" iMac for a few months now and Apple"s "avoiding image retention" support page is useless for me.

On MacBooks, one can use this Terminal one-liner to check one"s display manufacturer. Is there a similar command for iMacs? I realize that I"ll have to return my iMac sooner or later because this is unacceptable, but I"d still like to know what panel I have before I do it.

While most reports are pointing to the 2022 27-inch iMac using the same mini-LED backlighting system as the latest MacBook Pro models, a fresh supply chain report today disagrees.

All current Macs use LCD screens, with LEDs used behind the display to provide backlighting. However, the 2021 14- and 16-inch MacBook Pro models adopted mini-LED backlighting.

Display analyst Ross Young said in October that a new 27-inch iMac would debut next year with a mini-LED screen with the same 120Hz ProMotion capabilities as the latest MacBook Pro models. We noted then Young’s credentials.

Young has a very reliable track record when it comes to predicting Apple’s supply chain commitments for display components. In fact, he was essentially the only person suggesting that the new MacBook Pros would feature 120Hz high refresh rate ahead of the Unleashed event, and he of course turned out to be correct.

Suppliers have kicked off their shipments in small volume for 27-inch iMac series that will come with a mini LED display, according to industry sources.

Suppliers have kicked off their shipments in small volume for the new 27-inch iMac set for launch in 2022, but the device will not come with a miniLED display as previously speculated, according to industry sources.

The sources pointed out that speculation about the next-generation 27-inch iMac coming with a miniLED display has been circulating in the market ever since the 24-inch iMac received a major upgrade in the CPU platform earlier this year, but the shipments of the 27-inch device in December showed that it is still equipped with a traditional LCD display.

If true, this would be more backlighting LEDs than existing iMac displays, but not as many as in the latest MacBook Pro models – which would seem odd.

iMac 27″ Retina 5K(Resolution: 5120×2880) LCD Screen Display Panel + Glass for iMac A1419 (Late 2014 – Mid 2017) & A2115 (Mid 2019), LM270QQ1 SDC1 LM270QQ1 SDB1, For Apple iMac A1419 27″ 2014 2015 LM270QQ1 SDB1 5K IPS LED LCD Screen Panel Display USA Grade EMC:2834

*iMac Screen Order Procedure(National wide):In the fact of multi-functionalities or versatilities or sensitiveness , Laptop/Macbook/iMac display is very complicated process to assemble or match or select with the existing one meanwhile, we request to you that when you find out your desired items in our website and eager to purchase those goods, primarily, you should bring or send the iMac to our service center at Dhanmondi, Dhaka for compatibility test and diagnosis by free of cost before ordering or purchasing.Read more*

Please read the above information carefully and checkout the image at every corners and be sure about your iMac year and part number to avoid wrong order placed or wrong item you bought.

Please be extremely cautious during the process of removing the iMac display, as the iMac display is very fragile and tends to crack easily. Hence, it is highly recommended to get the expert to remove the iMac display. However, for buyers who are interested, please feel free to contact us as we do provide the iMac display removal service.

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If you cut around the display well and take your time to roll back and forth (using the iFixit roller opener tool), especially around the corners, you don"t actually need to use any cards (Steps 9 - 17) to get the screen to come free of the body. On the top edge left and right, take each end of the screen gently and pry free with your fingers - GENTLY - and you will hear the remaining tape separating along the sides. Take care NOT to flex the screen as you do so.

If you are removing a cracked screen (as I was), be super careful to pry and swing the display EVENLY up from the body - this is an item of utmost importance, whether you use cards or not to get the last of the adhesive to release.

Look, people have wanted Apple to sell the 5K display from the now-discontinued 27-inch iMac as a standalone product for years now. When that first 27-inch 5K iMac came out in 2014, the display was so far ahead of the competition that buying one for the screen alone represented a bargain — that there was an entire computer attached to it was almost a bonus.

So now Apple’s gone and discontinued the 27-inch iMac and essentially replaced it with the new Mac Studio and the new 27-inch Studio Display. If the Mac Studio represents the fulfillment of a 20-year-old Mac power user’s dream, the Studio Display should be the fulfillment of a similar dream that’s been around since 2014: just give us the iMac’s 27-inch 5K display.

Unfortunately, a lot of things have happened since 2014. And so far, the Studio Display’s headline webcam feature works so badly that it’s virtually unusable. This dream is a bit of a nightmare.

(Editor’s note: Apple has released abeta software update for the Studio Display’s camera. You cansee our first impressions hereand when the final software is released we will update this review.)

The Studio Display marks Apple’s first entry in the mainstream display market in a long time — the company released the Pro Display XDR in 2020, but its $4,999 price tag meant it was decidedly for professionals. The Studio Display is more accessibly priced at $1,599, which is still expensive, but at least defensible when you consider that the only other 5K display available is the old and finicky LG Ultrafine 5K, which lists for $1,299.

Apple also made some grand promises about the Studio Display’s audio and video capabilities: it has six speakers, three microphones, and a 12-megapixel camera that are all run by an A13 chip — the same sort of front camera and chip you might find in an iPad.

The pitch, at least on paper, is that you get a 5K display that can display macOS at pixel-perfect resolution with no scaling issues, combined with webcam quality that matches Apple’s world-beating iOS devices. Considering the very recent history of miserable Mac webcams that has only just started improving, this is quite a pitch.

We have two Studio Display review units: the standard $1,599 model and the $1,899 model with Apple’s nanotexture matte glass. Both have the stock stand; adding a stand with height adjustment costs another $400 for some reason. You can opt for a VESA mount instead of the stock stand at no extra charge and pair it with whatever stand you want. But you can’t change from the stand to a VESA mount after the fact — you have to decide how you want this display mounted before you click the buy button. It has been a long time since Apple made displays; the company’s approach to display stands and stand pricing reflects that absence from the market, in the sense that it is from a different planet entirely.

Apple is generally terrific when it comes to displays across its devices, and the Studio Display is great at the basics: it’s clear, it’s sharp, it’s bright. If you have ever looked at a 27-inch 5K iMac display, you know exactly what this thing looks like. The Studio display is the same 27-inch size, the same 5120x2880 resolution, the same 218 pixels per inch, the same 60Hz refresh rate, and has the same single-zone LED backlight. The only real spec difference is that Apple says the Studio Display now has a “typical brightness” of 600 nits vs. 500 on the iMac, but in my actual typical use next to a 2015-vintage 27-inch iMac, that’s pretty hard to see.

The real issue is that $1,599 is a lot of money, and here, it’s buying you panel tech that is woefully behind the curve. Compared to Apple’s other displays across the Mac, iPhone, and iPad lineup, the Studio Display is actually most notable for the things it doesn’t have.

Let’s start with the backlight. In general, the best modern displays create true blacks by cutting all the light coming from the black parts of the screen. There are several ways to do this, and Apple itself uses different tech across its high-end products to produce true blacks in various ways: OLED screens on the iPhones, advanced local dimming on the Pro Display XDR, and Mini LED display backlights on the MacBook Pro and iPad Pro.

The Studio Display has… well, it has none of that. It’s a regular old LED backlight that lights the entire screen all the time, and the darkest black it can produce is basically gray. In normal use in a well-lit room, it looks fine enough — LCD displays have looked like this for a long time now — but if you’re watching a movie in a dark room, the letterboxing will look light gray. There are $379 TVs with more advanced local-dimming backlights than this.

The Studio Display is also notable for being an SDR display, with no HDR modes to speak of. Apple’s high-end iPhones, iPads, and Mac laptops all support HDR, but the Studio Display tops out at 600 nits, and Apple doesn’t offer an HDR mode in the software at all. Again, this comes back to the ancient backlight tech: true HDR requires local dimming, and the Studio Display doesn’t have it.

The Studio Display also only offers a 60Hz refresh rate, which is both bog-standard and also woefully behind Apple’s other top-tier products like the iPhone 13 Pro, iPad Pro, and MacBook Pro, all of which offer the ProMotion variable refresh rate system that can run as high as 120Hz for smooth scrolling and gaming and as low as 24Hz for movies. (The iPhone 13 Pro can even drop to as low as 10Hz to save battery life.) 60Hz is totally fine for most displays, but this thing costs $1,599. There are a lot of less expensive displays with variable refresh rate and HDR tech out there, and they’re supported by macOS out of the box.

Really the only reason to chase after this display for the screen itself is if you desperately care about having a 5K display that can display MacOS at pixel-perfect resolution with no scaling. I don’t want to discount this: a lot of people care about that a lot, and for those folks, $1,599 sounds totally reasonable considering that the only other 5K option on the market is that buggy LG UltraFine.

For those of you that don’t care about pixel-perfect macOS with no scaling, $1,599 will sound frankly ridiculous, and there are lots of other fascinating displays to think about, including a number of OLEDs, some neat ultrawides, and plenty of displays that support higher refresh rates.

The other reasons you might be thinking about spending $1,599 on the Studio Display are the webcam, mic, and speakers, of which Apple is very proud. There’s an entire A13 Bionic chip powering the audio and camera system here, same as the iPhone 11, and the camera itself is a 12-megapixel sensor with an f/2.4 lens that’s theoretically comparable to the front camera on an iPhone or iPad. There are three mics and six speakers: four woofers and two tweeters, which Apple says can support spatial audio.

I have sent Apple countless screenshots in various lighting conditions and a full sysdiagnose of our Mac Studio and Studio Display review units, and at publish time, all Apple spokesperson Jennie Orphanopoulos could tell me was that Apple’s team had “looked into the images you shared, and discovered an issue where the system is not behaving as expected. We’ll be making improvements in a software update.”

Our rule has always been to review products based on what we have in front of us and never against the promise of a future software update, and based on what I have in front of me, I simply wouldn’t want to use this camera. The cameras on the new MacBook Pro and M1 iMac are far superior to what we’re seeing here, and an iPhone front camera is even better still. I’m hopeful Apple will improve things via software in the future, but I would not spend $1,599 on this display until that actually happens.

The Studio Display comes with a nice braided Thunderbolt 4 cable in the box; that same cable can deliver 96W of power to a laptop, enough to charge my 16-inch MacBook Pro. That cable connects to the Thunderbolt 4 port on the rear of the display; there are three USB-C ports next to it for peripherals. Ports! People like ‘em.

It’s rare that an Apple product is such a miss, but the Studio Display in its current state is a confounding miss. If the webcam actually delivered on the promise of iPhone- or iPad-quality video, it would at least prompt a reasonable debate about whether having local dimming or HDR or variable refresh rate was worth it, but as it stands, you’re getting a less-than-state-of-the-art display and a bad webcam. If you are adamant about having a 5K display connected to your Mac, it might still be the best option. If not, I think you are much better off looking elsewhere.

Retina Display is a brand name used by Apple for its series of IPS LCD and OLED displays that have a higher pixel density than traditional Apple displays.trademark with regard to computers and mobile devices with the United States Patent and Trademark Office and Canadian Intellectual Property Office.

The Retina display debuted in 2010 with the iPhone 4 and the iPod Touch (4th Generation), and later the iPad (3rd generation) where each screen pixel of the iPhone 3GS, iPod touch (3rd generation), iPad 2 was replaced by four smaller pixels, and the user interface scaled up to fill in the extra pixels. Apple calls this mode HiDPI mode. In simpler words, it is one logical pixel = four physical pixels. The scale factor is tripled for devices with even higher pixel densities, such as the iPhone 6 Plus and iPhone X.

The Retina display has since expanded to most Apple product lines, such as Apple Watch, iPhone, iPod Touch, iPad, iPad Mini, iPad Air, iPad Pro, MacBook, MacBook Air, MacBook Pro, iMac, and Pro Display XDR, some of which have never had a comparable non-Retina display.marketing terms to differentiate between its LCD and OLED displays having various resolutions, contrast levels, color reproduction, or refresh rates. It is known as Liquid Retina display for the iPhone XR, iPad Air 4th Generation, iPad Mini 6th Generation, iPad Pro 3rd Generation and later versions,Retina 4.5K display for the iMac.

Apple"s Retina displays are not an absolute standard for display sharpness, but vary depending on the size of the display on the device, and at what distance the user would typically be viewing the screen. Where on smaller devices with smaller displays users would view the screen at a closer distance to their eyes, the displays have more PPI (Pixels Per Inch), while on larger devices with larger displays where the user views the screen further away, the screen uses a lower PPI value. Later device versions have had additional improvements, whether an increase in the screen size (the iPhone 12 Pro Max), contrast ratio (the 12.9” iPad Pro 5th Generation, and iMac with Retina 4.5K display), and/or, more recently, PPI count (OLED iPhones); as a result, Apple uses the names “Retina HD display", "Retina 4K/5K display", “Retina 4.5K display", "Super Retina HD display", “Super Retina XDR display”, and "Liquid Retina display" for each successive version.

When introducing the iPhone 4, Steve Jobs said the number of pixels needed for a Retina display is about 300 PPI for a device held 10 to 12 inches from the eye.skinny triangle with a height equal to the viewing distance and a top angle of one degree will have a base on the device"s screen that covers 57 pixels. Any display"s viewing quality (from phone displays to huge projectors) can be described with this size-independent universal parameter. Note that the PPD parameter is not an intrinsic parameter of the display itself, unlike absolute pixel resolution (e.g. 1920×1080 pixels) or relative pixel density (e.g. 401 PPI), but is dependent on the distance between the display and the eye of the person (or lens of the device) viewing the display; moving the eye closer to the display reduces the PPD, and moving away from it increases the PPD in proportion to the distance.

In practice, thus far Apple has converted a device"s display to Retina by doubling the number of pixels in each direction, quadrupling the total resolution. This increase creates a sharper interface at the same physical dimensions. The sole exception to this has been the iPhone 6 Plus, 6S Plus, 7 Plus, and 8 Plus, which renders its display at triple the number of pixels in each direction, before down-sampling to a 1080p resolution.

The displays are manufactured worldwide by different suppliers. Currently, the iPad"s display comes from Samsung,LG DisplayJapan Display Inc.twisted nematic (TN) liquid-crystal displays (LCDs) to in-plane switching (IPS) LCDs starting with the iPhone 4 models in June 2010.

Apple markets the following devices as having a Retina display, Retina HD display, Liquid Retina display, Liquid Retina XDR display, Super Retina HD display, Super Retina XDR display or Retina 4K/5K/6K display:

Reviews of Apple devices with Retina displays have generally been positive on technical grounds, with comments describing it as a considerable improvement on earlier screens and praising Apple for driving third-party application support for high-resolution displays more effectively than on Windows.T220 and T221 had been sold in the past, they had seen little take-up due to their cost of around $8400.

Writer John Gruber suggested that the arrival of Retina displays on computers would trigger a need to redesign interfaces and designs for the new displays:

The sort of rich, data-dense information design espoused by Edward Tufte can now not only be made on the computer screen but also enjoyed on one. Regarding font choices, you not only need not choose a font optimized for rendering on screen, but should not. Fonts optimized for screen rendering look cheap on the retina MacBook Pro—sometimes downright cheesy—in the same way they do when printed in a glossy magazine.

Raymond Soneira, president of DisplayMate Technologies, has challenged Apple"s claim. He says that the physiology of the human retina is such that there must be at least 477 pixels per inch in a pixelated display for the pixels to become imperceptible to the human eye at a distance of 12 inches (305 mm).Phil Plait notes, however, that, "if you have [better than 20/20] eyesight, then at one foot away the iPhone 4S"s pixels are resolved. The picture will look pixelated. If you have average eyesight [20/20 vision], the picture will look just fine... So in my opinion, what Jobs said was fine. Soneira, while technically correct, was being picky."

Apple fan website CultOfMac hosts an article by John Brownlee"Apple"s Retina Displays are only about 33% of the way there."visual acuity in the population saying "most research suggests that normal vision is actually much better than 20/20" when in truth the majority have worse than 20/20 vision,WHO considers average vision as 20/40.presbyopia

The first smartphone following the iPhone 4 to ship with a display of a comparable pixel density was the Nokia E6, running Symbian Anna, with a resolution of 640 × 480 at a screen size of 62.5mm. This was an isolated case for the platform however, as all other Symbian-based devices had larger displays with lower resolutions. Some older Symbian smartphones, including the Nokia N80 and N90, featured a 2.1 inch display at 259 ppi, which was one of the sharpest at the time. The first Android smartphones with the same display - Meizu M9 was launched a few months later in beginning of 2011. In October of the same year Galaxy Nexus was announced, which had a display with a better resolution. By 2013 the 300+ ppimark was found on midrange phones such as the Moto G.Samsung Galaxy S4 and HTC One (M8) had 1080p (FHD) screens around 5-inches for a 400+ PPI which surpassed the Retina density on the iPhone 5. The second major redesign of the iPhone, the iPhone 6, has a 1334 × 750 resolution on a 4.7-inch screen, while rivals such as the Samsung Galaxy S6 have a QHD display of 2560 × 1440 resolution, close to four times the number of pixels found in the iPhone 6, giving the S6 a 577 PPI that is almost twice that of the iPhone 6"s 326 PPI.

The larger iPhone 6 Plus features a "Retina HD display", which is a 5.5-inch 1080p screen with 401 PPI. Aside from resolution, all generations of iPhone Retina displays receive high ratings for other aspects such as brightness and color accuracy, compared to those of contemporary smartphones, while some Android devices such as the LG G3 have sacrificed screen quality and battery life for high resolution. Ars Technica suggested the "superfluousness of so many flagship phone features—the move from 720p to 1080p to 1440p and beyond...things are all nice to have, but you’d be hard-pressed to argue that any of them are essential".

Due to the peculiar diamond Sub-Pixels layout found in the iPhone X, iPhone XS and iPhone XS Max, the actual density of the Red and Blue Sub-Pixels is lower than that of the Green Sub-Pixels, being reportedly 324 Sub-Pixels per inch.

Apple Inc. sold a variety of LCD and CRT computer displays in the past. Apple paused production of their own standalone displays in 2016 and partnered with LG to design displays for Macs.Pro Display XDR was introduced, however it was expensive and targeted for professionals. Nearly three years later, in March 2022, the Studio Display was launched as a consumer-targeted counterpart to the professional monitor. These two are currently the only Apple-branded displays available.

In the beginning (throughout the 1970s), Apple did not manufacture or sell displays of any kind, instead recommending users plug-into their television sets or (then) expensive third party monochrome monitors. However, in order to offer complete systems through its dealers, Apple began to offer various third party manufactured 12″ monochrome displays, re-badged as the Monitor II.

Apple"s manufacture history of CRT displays began in 1980, starting with the Apple III business computer. It was a 12″ monochrome (green) screen that could display 80×24 text characters and any type of graphics, however it suffered from a very slow phosphor refresh that resulted in a "ghosting" video effect. So it could be shared with Apple II computers, a plastic stand was made available to accommodate the larger footprint of the display.

Three years later came the introduction of the Apple manufactured Apple IIc computer to help complement its compact size. This display was also the first to use the brand new design language for Apple"s products called Monitor 100, a digital RGB display for the Apple III and Apple IIe (with appropriate card), followed shortly by the 14″ ColorMonitor IIe (later renamed to ColorMonitor IIc (later renamed to AppleColor Composite Monitor IIc), composite video displays for those respective models. All of these Apple displays support the maximum Apple II Double Hi-Res standard of 560×192.

In 1986 came the introduction of the AppleColor RGB Monitor, a 12″ analog RGB display designed specifically for the Apple IIGS computer. It supported a resolution of 640×400 interlaced (640×200 non-interlaced) and could be used by the Macintosh II, in a limited fashion, with the Apple High Resolution Display Video Card. Also introduced that year was the Apple Monochrome Monitor, which cosmetically was identical to the former model but was a black and white composite display suitable in external appearance for the Apple IIGS, Apple IIc or Apple IIc Plus.

The second generation of displays were built into the Lisa and Macintosh computers. The Macintosh had a 9-inch monochrome display that could display 512×342 pixels which would be used in all monochrome Compact Macintosh computers.

A new external AppleColor High-Resolution RGB Monitor was introduced in 1987 for the Macintosh II. It had a 13″ Trinitron CRT (the first Apple display to use an aperture grille CRT) with a fixed resolution of 640×480 pixels. The Macintosh II was a modular system with no internal display and was able to drive up to six displays simultaneously using multiple graphics cards. The desktop spanned multiple displays, and windows could be moved between displays or straddle them. In 1989, Apple introduced a series of monochrome displays for the Macintosh, the 20″ Macintosh Two Page Monochrome Display which could display two pages side by side, the 15″ Macintosh Portrait Display with a vertical orientation to display one page, and the 12″ High-Resolution Monochrome Monitor. In 1990, two 12″ displays were introduced for the low end, a 640×480 monochrome model and a 512×384 color model (560×384 for compatibility with Apple IIe Card), meant for the Macintosh LC. These were succeeded by the Apple Macintosh 16″ Color Display, and Apple Macintosh 20″ Color Display with resolutions of 640×480, 832×624 and 1152×870, respectively. There were also the Apple Performa Plus Display (a low-end Goldstar-built 14″ display with 640×480 resolution) for the Macintosh Performa series and the Apple Color Plus 14″ Display.

The third generation of displays marked the end of the monochrome display era and the beginning of the multimedia era. The first display to include built-in speakers was introduced in 1993 as the Multiple Scan series of displays began with the Multiple Scan 17 and 20 with Trinitron CRTs and the Multiple Scan 14 with shadow mask CRT, and would ultimately become Apple"s value line of shadow mask displays. The AppleVision series of displays then became the high-end display line, using 17″ and 20″ Trinitron CRTs and with AV versions containing integrated speakers. The AppleVision line was later renamed to Steve Jobs returned to Apple.

The Macintosh Color Classic introduced a 10″ color Trinitron display to the Classic compact Macintosh, with a slightly enhanced resolution of 512×384 (560×384 to accommodate the Apple IIe Card) like the standalone 12″ color display. Apple continued the all-in-one series with the larger 14″ Macintosh LC 500 series, featuring a 14″, 640×480 Trinitron CRT until the LC 580 in 1995, which heralded the switch to shadow mask CRTs for the remainder of Apple"s all-in-one computers until the switch to LCDs in 2002. The last Macintosh to include an integrated CRT was the eMac, which boosted the display area to 17″ with support up to 1280×960 resolution. It used a 4th generation flat-screen CRT and was discontinued in 2006.

The fourth generation of displays were introduced simultaneously with the Blue & White Power Macintosh G3 in 1999, which included the translucent plastics of the iMac (initially white and blue "blueberry", then white and grey "graphite" upon the introduction of the Power Mac G4). The displays were also designed with same translucent look. The Apple Studio Display series of CRT displays were available in a 17″ Diamondtron and a 21″ Trinitron CRT, both driven by an LG-Manufactured chassis. The 17″ displays were notorious for faulty flybacks and failing in a manner that could destroy the monitor and catch fire. It"s also reported that these monitors can destroy GPU"s, and sometimes the entire computer. The last Apple external CRT display was introduced in 2000 along with the Power Mac G4 Cube. Both it and the new LCD Studio Displays featured clear plastics to match the Cube, and the new Apple Display Connector, which provided power, USB, and video signals to the display through a single cable. It was available only in a 17″ flat screen Diamondtron CRT. It was discontinued the following year.

The history of Apple LCDs started in 1984 when the Apple Flat Panel Display was introduced for the Apple IIc computer, principally to enhance the IIc"s portability (see Apple IIc Portability enhancements). This monochrome display was capable of 80 columns by 24 lines, as well as double hi-res graphics, but had an odd aspect ratio (making images look vertically squished) and required a very strong external light source, such as a desk lamp or direct sunlight to be used. Even then it had a very poor contrast overall and was quite expensive (US$600), contributing to its poor sales and consequently it dropping from the market not long after its introduction. An estimated 10,000 IIc LCD displays were produced.

The next attempt at a flat panel was with the Macintosh Portable. More of a "luggable" than a laptop, it contained a high-resolution, active-matrix, 1-bit black & white, 9.8″ LCD with 640×400 resolution. Like the IIc Flat Panel, it was not backlit and required a bright light source to be used. A second generation model employed a backlit LCD. The PowerBook and MacBook series would continue to use LCD displays, following an industry-wide evolution from black-and-white to grayscale to color and ranging from 9″ to 17″. Two primary technologies were used, active matrix (higher quality and more expensive) and passive matrix displays (lower quality and cheaper). By 1998 all laptops would use active-matrix color LCDs, though the Newton products and eMate portables would continue to use black and white LCDs. Apple"s current MacBook portable displays include LED backlighting and support either 2560×1600 or 2880×1800 pixel resolutions depending on screen size. The iPod series used black-and-white or color LCDs, the iPhone line uses LCD and OLED displays, and the Apple Watch uses OLED.

In 1997, Apple released the Twentieth Anniversary Macintosh (TAM), its first all-in-one desktop with an LCD display. Drawing heavily from PowerBook technology, the TAM featured a 12.1″ active matrix LCD capable of displaying up to 16 bit color at 800×600. While Apple chose to retain traditional and cheaper CRTs for its all-in-one desktop line for the next 4 years, the TAM is undoubtedly the predecessor for the successful LCD-based iMac line of all-in-one desktops starting with the iMac G4 released in 2002. A substantial upgrade over the TAM, it contained a 15″ LCD supporting up to 1024×768 resolution. It was followed by a 17″ and 20″ models boasting resolution of up to 1680 × 1050. In 2005, the iMac G5 dropped the 15″ configuration and in 2007, the new iMac dropped the 17″ and added a 24″ to the line-up, further boosting resolution to 1920 x 1200. In October 2009, new iMac models moved to 16:9 aspect ratio screens at 21.5 and 27 inches.

The first desktop color flat-panel was introduced on March 17, 1998, with the 15″ Apple Studio Display (15-inch flat panel) which had a resolution of 1024×768. After the eMate, it was one of the first Apple products to feature translucent plastics, two months before the unveiling of the iMac. Apple called its dark blue color "azul". It had a DA-15 input as well as S-video, composite video, ADB and audio connectors, though no onboard speakers. In January 1999 the coloring was changed to match the blue and white of the new Power Macintosh G3s, and the connector changed to DE-15 VGA.

The 22″ widescreen Power Mac G4 and in the beginning was sold only as an option to the Power Mac G4, selling for US$3,999. It had a native resolution of 1600×1024 and used a DVI connector. The display had a striped look on the bezel, similar to previous Studio Displays and iMacs. In December, the colors of the 15″ display were changed to "graphite" to match the new Power Mac G4s, and the input was changed from VGA to DVI, the audio and video features dropped, and the ADB functionality replaced by a two-port USB hub.

In 2000 the 22″ Cinema Displays switched to the ADC interface, and the 15″ Studio Display was remodeled to match the Cinema Display"s easel-like form factor and also featured the Apple Display Connector. In 2001 an LCD-based 17″ Studio Display was introduced, with a resolution of 1280×1024. In 2002 Apple introduced the

In 2004 a new line was introduced, utilizing the same 20″ and 23″ panels alongside a new 30″ model, for $3,299. The displays had a sleek aluminum enclosure with a much narrower bezel than their predecessors. The 20″ model featured a 1680×1050 resolution, the 23″ 1920×1200, and the 30″ 2560×1600. The 30″ version requires a dual-link interface, because a single-link DVI connection (the most common type) doesn"t have enough bandwidth to provide a picture to a display of this resolution. Initially, the only graphics cards that could power the new 30″ display were the Nvidia GeForce 6800 DDL series, available in both GT and Ultra forms. The DDL suffix signified the dual-link DVI capability. The less expensive of the two cards retailed for US$499, raising the net cost of owning and using the display to nearly $3,800. Later graphics options included the NVIDIA Quadro FX 4500; the card included two dual-link DVI connectors which allowed a Power Mac G5 to run two 30″ Cinema Displays simultaneously with the total number of pixels working out to 8.2 million.

In 2006 along with the introduction of the Mac Pro, Apple lowered the price of the 30″ Cinema Display to US$1999. The Mac Pro featured an NVIDIA GeForce 7300GT as the graphics card in its base configuration which is capable of running a 30″ Cinema Display and another 23″ display simultaneously. The Mac Pro is also available with both the ATI Radeon X1900XT card and the NVIDIA Quadro FX 4500 as build-to-order options. Each of these cards is capable of driving two 30″ Cinema Displays.

With the introduction of the Unibody MacBook family, Apple introduced the 24-inch LED Cinema Display, its first desktop display to use the new Mini DisplayPort connector, and also the first with an LED-backlit LCD. It had built-in speakers, a powered 3-port USB hub on the rear, an iSight camera and microphone, and a MagSafe power adapter for laptops. It also connected by USB for peripherals. It has a resolution of 1920×1200 and retailed for US$899.00. In 2010 it was replaced with a new 27-inch version with a resolution of 2560×1440.

In 2011 Apple released the Apple Thunderbolt Display, replacing the Mini DisplayPort and USB connector with a Thunderbolt plug for display and data. A Gigabit Ethernet port, a FireWire 800 port and a Thunderbolt 2 port were added as well, and the iSight camera was upgraded with a 720p FaceTime camera. On June 23, 2016, Apple announced it had discontinued the Thunderbolt Display, ending Apple"s production of standalone displays.

After Apple discontinued production of standalone displays in 2016, they partnered with LG to design the UltraFine line, with a 21.5-inch 4K display (22MD4KA-B) and 27-inch 5K display (27MD5KA-B), released in November 2016 alongside the Thunderbolt 3-enabled MacBook Pro.USB-C connector, with the 27-inch version integrating Thunderbolt 3 connectivity. On the rear of the displays is a three port USB-C hub. The 21.5-inch version provides up to 60W charging power, while the 27-inch provides up to 85W. The 21.5-inch is compatible with all Macs with a USB-C port, while the 27-inch version can only be used natively at full resolution with Macs with Thunderbolt 3, which includes all Macs with USB-C except the Retina MacBook. The 27-inch model is compatible with older Thunderbolt 2-equipped Macs using an adapter, but is limited to displaying their maximum output resolution.

In May 2019 the 21.5-inch model was discontinued and replaced with a 23.7-inch model (24MD4KL-B) which added Thunderbolt 3 connectivity and increased the power output to 85W. In July 2019, the 27-inch model (27MD5KL-B) was updated with USB-C video input, adding compatibility with the 3rd generation iPad Pro at 4K resolution, and increased power output to 94W.Apple Studio Display, but the display is still in production according to LG.

Apple announced the Pro Display XDR at the 2019 WWDC, the first Apple-branded display since the Apple Thunderbolt Display was discontinued in 2016. The display contains a 6016×3384 6K color-calibrated Extreme Dynamic Range (XDR) panel.

Apple announced the Apple Studio Display at the March 2022 Apple Special Event. It features a 27-inch, 5K Retina monitor, with 5120-by-2880 resolution at 218 pixels per inch, 600 nits brightness, wide color (P3), and True Tone technology.

The Apple Display Connector (ADC), which carries DVI, VGA, USB and power in one connector, was used on the PowerMac G4 and early models of the PowerMac G5.

A DVI connector was used on the 2001-2002 titanium PowerBook G4; all aluminum PowerBook G4 15” and 17”; all aluminum MacBook Pro 15″ and 17″ models; Mac Mini G4, Power Mac G4, G5; Intel Mac Mini, and Mac Pro 2006–2012. PowerBook G4 12”, iMac G5 and Intel white iMacs mini-DVI ports.

A mini-VGA connector, which can provide VGA via a short adaptor cable. It appears on the white iBook, eMac, iMac G4 and G5, and first generation 12-inch PowerBook G4. Later models also support a composite and S-video adapter attached to this port.

The Retina MacBook introduced USB-C connectivity for displays. The 2016 MacBook Pro uses a combination Thunderbolt 3 USB-C connector. They are backwards compatible with HDMI and DisplayPort.

Phono connector video out on the Apple II, II+, IIe, IIc, IIc+, IIGS, III, and III+. While not technically NTSC or PAL compatible, a suitable image would display on NTSC/PAL television monitors

The Apple VGA Display Adapter was specially designed to allow users to connect certain Macintosh computers to an extra VGA display or external projector (equipped with VGA) for 24-bit video-mirroring. The VGA cable from your external display or projector cable plugs into the Mini-VGA video port built into your Macintosh via the Apple VGA Display Adapter.

Compatible with: eMac, iMac G5, iMac G4 flat-panel, 12-inch PowerBook G4, or iBooks having a Mini-VGA port. Most Macintosh computers with the Mini-VGA port can also use the Apple Video Adapter for S-video & Composite output options.

12-inch PowerBook G4 (first generation) models supported video-mirroring and extended video desktop modes through a mini-VGA port. All 15 and 17 inch PowerBook G4 models have a DVI port as well as an S-Video out port. The mini-VGA port on the 12-inch PowerBook was replaced by a mini-DVI port starting with the second revision of the machine.

"Apple"s Online Store Now Offering New 5K 27-Inch LG UltraFine Display". www.macrumors.com. Archived from the original on September 26, 2022. Retrieved April 3, 2020.

Welch, Chris (March 8, 2022). "Apple announces 27-inch 5K Studio Display for $1,599". The Verge. Archived from the original on March 15, 2022. Retrieved March 8, 2022.

You can find out what the manufacturer, model number, and type of LCD panel you have in any of your Macs, including the iMac, MacBook Air, MacBook, or any model MacBook Pro by using a fairly complex looking terminal command.

With the first line being the LCD panel model and the second line being the color profile you are using (same as set in your Display preferences). You can then find out what the manufacturer and specs of the display are by googling for the model number, for instance LTN154BT turns up this page indicating it is a Samsung 15″ display running at 1440×900 and capable of displaying a maximum of 262,000 colors.

This is particularly helpful information to know if your MacBook screen has been cracked and you want to do the installation yourself. Official repairs are often very expensive, but with a little patience and the right tools it can be done by anyone. You can typically pick up an LCD panel through Amazon or eBay for rather cheap and the installation takes about 30 minutes if you follow a guide.

It can also be handy to know if you’re just curious which particular panel or screen type is used in your Mac, since Apple often sources different panels from different manufacturers, but otherwise using them in the same Mac models.

Apple today introduced a new Studio Display along with Mac Studio. Obviously, we will focus on the Studio Display which pairs not only with the Mac Studio but also with any Mac. It features an expansive 27-inch 5K Retina display (5120 x 2880 px) with 600 nits of brightness, 10-bit color support, True Tone technology. There"s a 12MP ultra-wide camera with a 122° field of view, f/2.2 aperture, and Center Stage...

The Apple Pro Display XDR is now available for purchase worldwide. The monitor features a 32-inch IPS panel with a 6K resolution and a zone dimming LED backlight. It offers up to 1600 nits peak brightness and up to 1000 nits of typical brightness. The model supports true 10-bit colour and covers the DCI-P3 colour space. It also provides 25 times better off-axis contrast than a typical LCD. To ensure the lowest glare...

LG will supply the panels for Apple"s premium Pro Display XDR desktop monitor. This information comes "sources close to the matter" who cite product descriptions from Apple"s website saying that the LCD panels were applied with Oxide TFT and IPS technologies - both being proprietary LG techs. "There are very few display makers that can realize 6K picture resolution with Oxide technology," an LG Display executive...

The first Mac monitor from Apple with HDR supports is a fact. Enter the Pro Display XDR. The unit features a 32-inch IPS panel with a 6K resolution and a zone dimming LED backlight. The display offers up to 1600 nits peak brightness and up to 1000 nits of typical brightness. The model supports true 10-bit colour and covers the DCI-P3 colourspace. It also provides 25 times better off-axis contrast than a typical LCD...

If you’re used to the coherence of the Apple cocoon, the PC monitor market is a strange and frightening place. Despite a long history of producing quality screens like the 27-inch Thunderbolt Display, Apple no longer makes monitors other than the insanely priced $5000 Pro XDR Display. Instead, Apple endorses the $700 24-inch LG UltraFine 4K Display and the $1300 27-inch LG UltraFine 5K Display by virtue of selling them—and them alone—in the online Apple store. Alas, those monitors are costly and, in my opinion, underwhelming apart from their pixel density.

Buying a monitor is like navigating a minefield. The market is full of 27-inch and larger screens that support only 1080p resolution and a pixel density of around 100 pixels per inch, about half of any Retina display you’re used to. Even if you find a sharp enough monitor, you may have trouble connecting it to your Mac. Many displays still feature hoary VGA ports that first appeared in 1987. Some have only HDMI ports (that’s a TV, not a monitor), and HDMI is chock full of gotchas: you could buy a 1440p monitor and, thanks to weird HDMI limitations, be stuck at a blurry 1080p resolution. Or you could buy a monitor that advertises USB-C connectivity only to find that the USB-C port works only for power and accessory connections, not video. One false step, and boom, you’ve got a worthless monitor.

If you use a 27-inch iMac with Retina 5K display like many of us here at TidBITS, it’s easy to be spoiled by its pristine image quality. Unfortunately, there’s no way to press a Retina iMac into service as an external display—Target Display Mode works only with a small subset of pre-Retina iMacs. It’s challenging to find a reasonably priced display that fits the bill, especially since 5K monitors never took off (see “What Happened to 5K Displays?,” 16 November 2018).

During a recent Black Friday sale, Amazon reduced prices on LG monitors, which caught my attention because LG makes the panels Apple uses in iMacs. I’ve been in the market for a new monitor because my Dell monitor had developed an intermittent shadow across the display. Sometimes resetting the monitor’s settings would dispel it temporarily, sometimes not, and I had grown tired of fighting it all day.

Staring these cold, hard facts in the face, I decided to spend a bit more than I had hoped and buy the LG 27UK850-W, which usually sells for $450 but was on sale for $380. Even at full price, it’s $250 cheaper than the LG UltraFine 4K display and $850 less than the LG UltraFine 5K.

The LG 27UK850-W features a 27-inch IPS panel with a 3840-by-2160 resolution, which I calculate to be about 163 ppi. By comparison, the 21.5-inch iMac with Retina 4K display features 219 ppi, and the 27-inch iMac with Retina 5K display offers 218 ppi. LG advertises 10-bit color, though a careful reading of the specs reveals that it’s actually an 8-bit display plus A-FRC, which approximates the other colors. The display features HDR10 support for the handful of Macs that support it, plus the Apple TV 4K and various videogame consoles. It supports 99% of the sRGB spectrum.

The screen can produce up to 350 nits of brightness, which is much less than the 500 nits that the Retina 5K iMac can emit. This isn’t a problem for my light-sensitive eyes, but it could be a dealbreaker if you like your brightness cranked up.

Sadly, you won’t find support for P3 wide color or Apple’s True Tone technology. The screen is matte, unlike the iMac’s glossy screen, and it features an anti-glare coating.

In terms of connectivity, the LG 27UK850-W features one USB-C port that supports data, video, and 60-watt charging; one DisplayPort; two HDMI ports; two USB-A ports; and a headphone jack. It comes with white USB-C, HDMI, and DisplayPort cables.

The LG 27UK850-W’s design is very Apple-esque, at least as of about 2005. The back of the monitor is encased in white plastic. The front bezels are black. LG advertises the display as “virtually borderless,” which means there is a bezel, but it’s a thin one on the top and sides. It has less bezel space than the iMac, though the thicker bezel on the bottom bothers me somewhat because it’s uneven (the iMac has a chin as well).

I especially like the curved stand, which I believe is aluminum. It provides sufficient weight to keep the monitor stable. The ergonomics aren’t as slick as the $1000 stand Apple sells for the Pro Display XDR, but it’s easily adjustable with one hand. Unlike complaints I’ve heard about the UltraFine monitors, I haven’t noticed any shaking or instability in regular use.

Note that the panel and stand do not come preassembled, but putting it together is as easy as putting the display face down on a table and clicking the stand into place. It also comes with a plastic ring you can clip around the stand arm to hold cables in place.

In addition to a height adjustment of 4.3 inches (110 mm), the display also tilts between -5º and 20º and rotates 90 degrees. However, I wouldn’t recommend buying this monitor to use in portrait orientation because the screen is so tall you feel as though you’re staring into the monolith from 2001: A Space Odyssey. It also tends to pull at the cables a bit when you do this, so you need to be sure they have plenty of slack. The panel features a VESA mount if you’d prefer a different stand or monitor arm.

I like how the cables connect in the rear. Unlike my old Dell monitor, which awkwardly forced me to insert cables upward, the cables on the LG 27UK850-W plug straight into the back, making life much easier.

I’m more ambivalent about the LG 27UK850-W’s internal settings control system, a small joystick behind the bottom of the panel. A quick flick up or down shows display information. A flick left or right controls speaker volume. You click the joystick to access the menu or select on-screen items.

I’m even less happy about the gap between the screen and bezel, something that’s still commonplace among monitors. Don’t spray cleaner on the screen, as it could drip down and short out electronics because there’s nothing to block moisture and dust. I love the laminated, gapless display of the iMac for that reason. You’d think monitor makers could at least add a gasket, but cutting costs seems to be the main priority for most PC peripherals.

An interesting fact about the LG 27UK850-W is that, unlike most monitors that take a standard, three-prong power cable, it comes with a power brick that connects with a DC barrel plug. Some online reviewers complained about this approach, but I like that if the power supply fails, I can replace it without cracking open the monitor. I also like not having to fool with a big, clunky power cable if I need to move the monitor. Those three-prong power cables can be a bear to insert and remove.

Connectivity is almost as important as image quality. It’s hard to find monitors with the right assortment of ports. And they always have too many HDMI ports. I’d prefer two USB-C ports, two DisplayPorts, and just one HDMI port, if that. As noted previously, the LG 27UK850-W provides one USB-C port, one DisplayPort, two HDMI ports, two USB-A ports, and a headphone jack.

The USB-C port works as advertised, at least with my 2019 iMac and my 2016 MacBook Pro. I plugged the included cable into both machines and the picture popped up almost instantly. A nice feature of the LG 27UK850-W is that it prompts you to switch to the appropriate input when it detects a new device; just click the joystick to switch over. When my 13-inch MacBook Pro is connected to the monitor through USB-C, the monitor keeps the laptop charged.

HDMI, as always, is thorny. My Apple TV 4K connected to the LG 27UK850-W beautifully, with full 4K and HDR right away. I decided to connect my iMac to the monitor through HDMI, to leave the monitor’s DisplayPort open for my ThinkPad and its USB-C port for my MacBook Pro. However, the iMac doesn’t have HDMI output, and none of my USB-C hubs support 4K output. I ended up buying an inexpensive Anker USB-C to HDMI adapter, which works fine with full 4K 60 Hz output.

One minor annoyance is I can’t control the monitor’s speaker volume from the Mac; I have to use the monitor’s volume control. This seems to be a macOS limitation since I can control it from Ubuntu Linux on my ThinkPad just fine. It would be a bigger deal with a Mac mini, but since the iMac’s speakers are so much better than those in the LG 27UK850-W, I use those instead.

You’re probably wondering how the LG 27UK850-W compares to Apple’s Retina displays given that its 163 ppi is much lower than the 218/219 ppi in Apple’s iMacs. The LG 27UK850-W is still plenty crisp, but I noticed some eye strain after a few days of using it. Upon close inspection, I noticed that text on it is ever so slightly fuzzy compared to the 27-inch iMac. Even with font smoothing disabled, text on the LG 27UK850-W is fuzzy.

I think this is primarily an artifact of how Apple tunes macOS to look best on Retina displays.  When I crank my Linux machine to 4K, text on the LG 27UK850-W looks as razor-sharp as it does on the iMac’s screen, if not more so. (Don’t take this as an endorsement of Linux; it has more than its share of headaches, such as poor support of scaling to ultra-high-resolution displays.)

Speaking of scaling, the first thing I had to do when I connected my Macs to this display was open System Preferences > Displays. Then, on the window that appeared on the LG monitor, I selected Scaled and then the second option, which scales the resolution to match the 2560-by-1440 resolution of my iMac’s screen.

The LG 27UK850-W has a feature called Super Resolution+ that adds an extra layer of sharpness to the image. In other words, it adds aliasing or “jaggies.” It can be helpful when viewing soft text or upscaled content, and if you’re the sort of person who hates how smooth text looks on the Mac, you’ll probably love this feature.

I can confirm that the LG is not as bright as the iMac. I cranked up the brightness on both, and the LG is considerably dimmer. That said, I tend to find Apple displays painfully bright, so if you’re somewhat light-sensitive like me, this isn’t a big deal.

As for color, it looks pretty good after some calibration. I used the RTINGS settings for the LG 27UK650-W and installed their ICC color profile, which got me pretty close to the iMac’s display. Looking at the two side-by-side, the LG looks slightly duller than the iMac, though I don’t do enough graphics work to care much.

LG offers software to interface the monitor with a hardware calibrator, but it reportedly does not work with macOS 10.15 Catalina. That might be a dealbreaker for some professionals, but the good news is that the LG 27UK850-W has a slew of fine calibrations. Beyond just three-color adjustments, you can make six-color adjustments for red, green, blue, cyan, magenta, and yellow. I haven’t found that necessary.

The LG 27UK850-W has several built-in presets, none of which are particularly helpful. There’s a reader mode that acts like Night Shift, putting a yellow haze over the screen to reduce blue light, but it looks much weirder than Night Shift. There are the typical photo and cinema modes, which again look strange to me. There’s an HDR effect mode that tries to make everything look like HDR video, which is odd but interesting. And there are three special gaming modes: two for first-person shooters and one for real-time strategy games, which is something I’ve never seen before. I can’t comment on these modes, though I have found gaming presets helpful in the past because they often do special tricks to enhance the display’s response time.

Speaking of HDR, I don’t have a compatible Mac, but I do have an Apple TV 4K, and despite its 8-bit panel, HDR looks great on the LG 27UK850-W. The Apple TV 4K immediately turned on both 4K and HDR, and I was able to bump the chroma setting without issue. I sampled a few films that take advantage of HDR, such as Mad Max: Fury Road and The Fifth Element. Both looked great, with the full, rich color you’d see on an HDR-compatible iPhone or iPad. However, note that the LG 27UK850-W supports only HDR 10 and not Dolby Vision.

At first, I thought the display looked a bit soft when watching movies, but after sampling a few, I realized that it was the camera that was soft. While Mad Max: Fury Road had some soft edges, I could count every spec of film grain next to Bruce Willis’s head in The Fifth Element. That’s remarkable sharpness, though a bit annoying.

Viewing angles are fine. I haven’t noticed any color change or brightness dropoff as I move around my office. Nor is there any ghosting or other issues associated with cheap LCD screens.

My one quibble with display quality is that my unit came with a single dead pixel. It took me a couple of days to notice it, so it’s not worth the trouble of trying to exchange the monitor.

The built-in 5-watt speakers are way better than those in my ThinkPad but not as good as my iMac’s speakers. I’d say they’re middle-of-the-road for speakers built into an LCD screen. However, I do enjoy the convenience of connecting an HDMI or DisplayPort device and having audio right there without having to set up additional speakers on my desk. It will make Apple TV testing easier.

I tested the headphone port while sampling movies from the Apple TV 4K. Sometimes monitor headphone jacks diminish the audio quality, but I was blown away at how good the audio sounded on my Sony MDR-V6 headphones. I much prefer connecting my headphones directly to my computer, but that’s not an option with the Apple TV 4K. If you want your monitor to act as a personal movie machine, the LG 27UK850-W is a great pick. Note that MaxxAudio is disabled when headphones are connected.

The LG 27UK850-W is a good monitor for the price, but no monitor on the market is as good as I’d like. If only Apple would bring back a modernized Thunderbolt Display!