Apple left the standalone display market back in 2016 when it discontinued sales of its Thunderbolt Display. However, the company appears to have made a U-turn, confirming in April 2017 that it has plans to make a new standalone display to go with the new Mac Pro currently in development.

The revelation came when three Apple execs were speaking about the company’s plans for the Mac Pro. It was revealed that a new display is in the works at Apple, expected to ship in 2018.

Apple’s head of marketing Phil Schiller said: “As part of doing a new Mac Pro — it is, by definition, a modular system — we will be doing a pro display as well.”

In this article we will assess when Apple is likely to start to sell this new standalone display; whether this display is likely to be 5K like the iMacs, or even 8K; and how much it’s likely to cost.

Apple’s manufacturing partner Foxconn has announced plans to open a US plant where it will build 8K TVs, could this include an 8K Apple display…

You might also be interested in reading about How to connect two screens to a Mac and Best screens for Mac.

When will Apple launch a new display?

It’s been a very long time since Apple last launched a display. The Apple 27in Thunderbolt Display first went on sale in July 2011. It offered what would now be considered a poor 2560 x 1440 resolution that can’t even match the 2560 x 1600 of the 13-inch Retina MacBook Pro, and is dwarfed by the 5K iMac’s 5120 x 2880.

We’ve been hoping for some years now that the company would update its monitors. Sources predicted that a new Apple external 5K monitor, complete with integrated GPU, would be unveiled at WWDC 2016, but no hardware of any kind was unveiled at the company’s summer bash and instead Apple removed the display from sale.

But now the company seems to have had a change of heart and has revealed that it will start to sell a new display in 2018.

As for when that new display might go on sale in 2018, that probably depends a lot on the development of the new Mac Pro.

Apple tends to make announcements relating to the Mac Pro at WWDC, so it’s feasible that we could find out more about it’s plans for the Mac Pro, and the accompanying display, at WWDC in June 2018, with the new models shipping later that year, or even in 2019. This would follow the way the Mac Pro was launched – with a preview at WWDC followed by it going on sale in January the following year.

The new display will be designed for Mac Pro users, but Apple may want to push its range of displays to the MacBook market as well, encouraging owners of the MacBook Air and MacBook Pro to purchase a second screen.

New Apple display design

We expect that the new display will have a design similar to the iMac, or the now discontinued Thunderbolt display range. However, it could look a little different if some blury images said to be a new Apple product are to be believed.

Prolific (if somewhat unproven) leaker Benjamin Geskin has tweeted pictures of what is said to be an Apple television or display being tested. They come from Chinese social media and are blurry – which you may consider to be suspicious, or may think is to be expected given how secretive the leaker would need to be.

Alleged Apple OLED TV testing photos.

Metal body, thin bezel. Around 60-inch.

What do you think?

(via https://t.co/cswEGwOdEt) pic.twitter.com/os7ZIj8vbF

— Benjamin Geskin (@VenyaGeskin1)
August 16, 2017

Rather than the rumoured television screen, could this be the new 8K display? We know that Apple is working on a display for use with the Mac Pro, so perhaps this is it.

The logo seems to have been put on wonky, and we can’t say we’re wholly convinced at the credibility of the photos, but this could be the new Apple display… Or it could be a TV screen… We think the former is more likely.

Dimensions

As for size, Apple used to sell a 30in display until replacing it with the 27in Cinema Display back in July 2010. The company could again sell a 30in display, but we expect Apple to stick to a maximum screen size of 27 inches, as it has done with its iMac line.

That said, the display could feasibly be larger than 30-inches – the Dell display mentioned above measures 32-inches.

New Apple display spec

The new display is likely to have pro level features that could include 8K resolution and 10bit colour. A touch screen seems unlikely, however.

8K resolution

With the Mac Pro able to support up to three 4K displays or six Thunderbolt displays. There was some speculation back in 2014 that Apple would launch a 4K monitor with a resolution of 4069 x 2160 (or 3840 x 2160) pixels.

Then there were suggestions that a new monitor would have 5K resolution, like the 27-inch 5K iMac. That’s a resolution of 5120 x 2880.

However, it looks like we can expect more than that. A report on Pike’s Universum has now suggested that the new display could offer an 8K resolution.

8K resolution (or 8K UHD) is the same resolution offered by ultra high definition TV. To offer 8,000 pixels the total image dimensions need to be 7680×4320. 8K is the successor to 4K. Few cameras have the capability to shoot video in 8K but you can expect that to change over the next few years.

Apple wouldn’t be the first company to offer an 8K display, for example, the Dell 32-inch UltraSharp 32 Ultra HD 8K monitor launched in March 2017 and cost $4,999. That display has a resolution of 7680 x 4320 pixels, 33.2 million pixels and more than 1 billion colours. Video refresh rate is 60Hz and the viewing angle is 178 degrees. It costs $4,999.

An 8K display is equivalent to having four 4K displays, so you could essentially edit or play four 4K videos in each corner, depending on your processor and graphics capabilities. An 8K display won’t run unless the machine powering it has very specific specs, so if Apple launches an 8K display it will likely only work with the new Mac Pro when that launches.

An 8K machine would have very specific uses, perhaps an architect who needs to view fine details, or someone who needs to see the deeper details in pictures from space.

Future televisions may also offer 8K playback. Funny enough, Apple’s manufacturing partner Foxconn has recently announced plans to open a new plant in the US where it will build TVs. These screens will offer 8K resolution. Could Foxconn be set to build Apple’s new display at its new Wisconsin factory?

10-bit

Since Apple launched OS X El Capitan the Mac has been able to display 10-bit colour, the only limitation has been the display.

Now that the iMac display has been updated to display a sort of 10-bit colour, thanks to a dithering technology, which basically changes the colour of the pixels so quickly that the human eye can’t notice it, we anticipate that Apple will either offer such a technology with its new display, or it will offer an actual 10-bit display.

Currently 10-bit displays are expensive, it could be Apple’s desire to bring the cost down to an affordable level for Mac professionals.

However, a 10-bit display needs a Mac that supports the technology. The graphics card needs to be up to the job. So, this would not be a display to use with your MacBook, and likely it would have a professional-level price.

Touch screen

One thing we know for sure is that the display won’t be controlled by touch. When asked whether Apple would consider a touch display, Apple’s Phil Schiller said: “No. We’ve talked a lot about touch on the Mac. It’s certainly, as we’ve talked to pros, not a big request for things they would want in a Mac Pro and not the problems that they most want us to solve.”

We have looked at the Microsoft Surface Studio as an alternative to the iMac, and concluded that it’s no real competition, because it only answers one need (the need for a computer and a tablet). We believe the best answer here is a Wacom tablet coupled with a Mac. The price of the iMac and the tablet is similar to the price of the Surface Studio.

Integrated GPU

The new monitor could feature its own integrated GPU, which would enable it to offer high-res graphics when attached to lower-powered Macs – such as MacBooks, which as discussed above are often used in conjunction with second screens.

MacBooks generally don’t have room for a GPU, but by integrating a GPU into a standalone display Apple would bring 5K, or even 8K, to its laptop customers without compromising on the portability of the MacBook itself. By hooking up to the monitor when in the office and then detaching the MacBook for life on the road, business users would be able to get the best of both worlds.

9to5Mac’s sources said back in 2016: “Upon connection to the new Apple display, the Mac will intelligently decide whether to use its own internal graphics power or rely on the external GPU included with the Thunderbolt display; the more powerful GPU will be used while the less powerful GPU will be inactive.”

New Apple display price

Before Apple stopped sales of the Thunderbolt display it cost £899. It would be reasonable to expect a 5K replacement to cost rather more (although it’s possible that Apple will roll out the new display for £899 and offer a price cut on the lower-res display).

Apple’s lowest-spec 5K iMac retails for £1,449, so we’d expect the new 27-inch display to come in at around £1,000 or slightly more.