The MacBook Neo is the first major new Mac aimed at the consumer market in the Apple Silicon era. It’s meant to make a dent — perhaps a minuscule dent in the universe, but a big dent in the Mac’s share of the overall PC market.

Not sure if this page was there yesterday, but the main “Displays” page at Apple’s website is a spec-by-spec comparison between the regular and XDR models. Nice.

Juli Clover, at MacRumors, notes that neither the new Studio Display nor the Studio Display XDR are compatible with Intel-based Macs. (I’m curious why.) Also, in a separate report, she notes that Macs with any M1 chip, or the base M2 or M3, are only able to drive the Studio Display XDR at 60 Hz. You need a Pro or better M2/M3, or any M4 or M5 chip, to drive it at 120 Hz.

Update: My understanding is that if you connect one of these new Studio Displays to an Intel-based Mac, it’ll work, but it’ll work as a dumb monitor. You won’t get the full features. I’ll bet Apple sooner or later publishes a support document explaining it, but for now, they’re just saying they’re not “compatible” because you don’t get the full feature set. Like with the Studio Display XDR in particular, you won’t get HDR or 120 Hz refresh rates.

Jason Snell, Six Colors:

Here’s the backstory: With every new generation of Apple’s Mac-series processors, I’ve gotten the impression from Apple execs that they’ve been a little frustrated with the perception that their “lesser” efficiency cores were weak sauce. I’ve lost count of the number of briefings and conversations I’ve had where they’ve had to go out of their way to point out that, actually, the lesser cores on an M-series chip are quite fast on their own, in addition to being very good at saving power!

Clearly they’ve had enough of that, so they’re changing how those cores are marketed to emphasize their performance, rather than their efficiency.

Apple Newsroom:

Apple today announced a new family of displays engineered to pair beautifully with Mac and meet the needs of everyone, from everyday users to the world’s top pros. The new Studio Display features a 12MP Center Stage camera, now with improved image quality and support for Desk View; a studio-quality three-microphone array; and an immersive six-speaker sound system with Spatial Audio. It also now includes powerful Thunderbolt 5 connectivity, providing more downstream connectivity for high-speed accessories or daisy-chaining displays. The all-new Studio Display XDR takes the pro display experience to the next level. Its 27-inch 5K Retina XDR display features an advanced mini-LED backlight with over 2,000 local dimming zones, up to 1000 nits of SDR brightness, and 2000 nits of peak HDR brightness, in addition to a wider color gamut, so content jumps off the screen with breathtaking contrast, vibrancy, and accuracy. With its 120Hz refresh rate, Studio Display XDR is even more responsive to content in motion, and Adaptive Sync dynamically adjusts frame rates for content like video playback or graphically intense games. Studio Display XDR offers the same advanced camera and audio system as Studio Display, as well as Thunderbolt 5 connectivity to simplify pro workflow setups. The new Studio Display with a tilt-adjustable stand starts at $1,599, and Studio Display XDR with a tilt- and height-adjustable stand starts at $3,299. Both are available in standard or nano-texture glass options, and can be pre-ordered starting tomorrow, March 4, with availability beginning Wednesday, March 11.

Compared to the first-generation Studio Display (March 2022), the updated model really just has a better camera. (Wouldn’t take much to improve upon the old camera.) The Studio Display XDR is the interesting new one. Apple doesn’t seem to have a “Compare” page for its displays, so the Studio Display Tech Specs and Studio Display XDR Tech Specs pages will have to suffice. Update: The main “Displays” page at Apple’s website serves as a comparison page between the new Studio Display and Studio Display XDR.

The regular Studio Display maxes out at 600 nits, and only supports a refresh rate of 60 Hz. The Studio Display XDR maxes out at 1,000 nits for SDR content and 2,000 nits for HDR, with up to 120 Hz refresh rate. Nice, but not enough to tempt me to upgrade from my current Studio Display with nano-texture, which I never seem to run at maximum brightness. I guess it would be nice to see HDR content, but not nice enough to spend $3,600 to get one with nano-texture. And I don’t think I care about 120 Hz on my Mac?

Unresolved is what this means for the Pro Display XDR, which remains unchanged since its debut in 2019. Update 1: Whoops, apparently this has been resolved. A small-print note on the Newsroom announcement states:

Studio Display XDR replaces Pro Display XDR and starts at $3,299 (U.S.) and $3,199 (U.S.) for education.

Update 2: I neglected to mention what might be the biggest upgrade: Thunderbolt 5 with support for daisy-chaining multiple displays. With the original Studio Display (and Pro Display XDR), each external display needed a cable connecting it to your Mac. Now, you can connect your Mac to one Studio Display, connect that one to a second, and connect the second to a third. Nice.