Apple is working on a cheaper external display that won’t cost $5,000

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Mark Gurman of Bloomberg sent out his first Power On missive for the year, which includes his prediction that Apple is working on a cheaper external display to add to its range. That display isn’t a direct successor to the existing Pro Display XDR but will feature many of the same features.

Gurman also has a hopeful prediction for when the new display will be released, “in the coming year.” That’s possibly more of a wish than any concrete evidence, but we like to live in hope.

This prediction builds on his musings from last month, which mentioned that the cheaper external display was in development. Will that be released later this year, alongside M2-powered Macs?

“I strongly believe [Apple will launch a new external monitor for its latest Macs.] At this point, the cost of building that monitor has likely come down, and with a few tweaks and perhaps a slight drop in brightness, Apple might be able to get to a similar quality monitor (at a slightly smaller size) at perhaps about half the price. By the way, it’s still hilarious that Apple tried to justify the current monitor’s price by comparing it to a $43,000 Hollywood-grade reference monitor.” Mark Gurman – Bloomberg’s Power On

Another leaker, @dylandkt, mentioned before the holidays that Apple had “three LG made displays” in the labs currently.

One of those “seems to be an improved 32 inch Pro Display XDR,” with custom silicon powering it. Earlier leaks had the existence of an external display with the A13 Bionic chip inside (the one that powers the iPhone 11), so this is likely that display.

While we can’t say we’re not excited about a new Pro Display XDR with onboard Neural Engine capabilities; it’s the rumored cheaper Apple external display that has our full attention.

If it’s even close to the existing Pro Display XDR for features, it will sell like crazy. We just hope it doesn’t require a $1,000 stand as well.

Editor’s recommendations:

• Apple is seriously going to charge customers a grand for a monitor stand
• Apple’s new Pro Display XDR is expensive, but packs a lot of features
• A fully-loaded Mac Pro costs more than a Tesla Model 3
• The iPhone 13 Pro is a creative powerhouse that starts at $999

Joe Rice-Jones

Maker, meme-r, and unabashed geek with nearly half a decade of blogging experience at KnowTechie, SlashGear and XDA Developers. If it runs on electricity (or even if it doesn't), Joe probably has one around his office somewhere, with particular focus in gadgetry and handheld gaming. Shoot him an email at joe@knowtechie.com.