LG UltraFine 5K Display listed as 'unavailable' through online Apple Store

AppleInsider

Apple's online store is currently sold out of LG's UltraFine 5K Display in multiple regions, leading some to speculate that the product might soon be discontinued.

Online Apple Stores in Brazil, Canada, the U.S. and the UK list the 27-inch LG UltraFine 5K as "Currently Unavailable," with no option to pick up the product from brick-and-mortar stores.

The updated availability follows a period in which customers saw longer than usual shipment quotes, suggesting LG is facing supply constraints. It is possible that the Korean company, like many other hardware manufacturers, is grappling with coronavirus fallout. Apple's webpage does not indicate when more units will be in stock.

Another possibility is a refreshed 5K panel or discontinuation of the joint Apple and LG project.

In May 2019, Apple listed the UltraFine 5K as "Sold Out" on its online storefront prior to releasing a refreshed model in July.

Apple's own Pro Display XDR, a cutting-edge 32-inch 6K display, went up for sale alongside the new Mac Pro in December. At $4,999 (without stand), however, the Pro Display is in no way a direct replacement for the $1,299 LG unit.

The change in Apple's UltraFine 5K stock was spotted by 9to5Mac earlier today.

Deals available elsewhere

Although the LG UltraFine 5K Display is out of stock at Apple, you can pick up the high-res panel at Amazon via 6ave for $1,175.43.

Apple Authorized Reseller Adorama is also offering AppleInsider readers an exclusive $100 promo code discount with coupon code APINSIDER. This brings the cost of the monitor down to $1,196.99 when shopping through this pricing link with the code.

Grayeagle

I just bought one from Amazon, with no problem.

Fatman

For the life of me I cannot understand why Apple doesn’t sell ‘iMac matching’ Apple branded 21.5”and 27” 4K and 5k stand-alone monitors. They’ve had a gap in their offering for years - could charge a heavy premium (say $850 and $1400 respectively) and people would still buy them.

InspiredCode

Fatman said:

For the life of me I cannot understand why Apple doesn’t sell ‘iMac matching’ Apple branded 21.5”and 27” 4K and 5k stand-alone monitors. They’ve had a gap in their offering for years - could charge a heavy premium (say $850 and $1400 respectively) and people would still buy them.

If the rumored new design language for iMac comes true, I hope they release a new Cinema Display based on the design.  I would buy one in a heartbeat.

sflocal

Fatman said:

For the life of me I cannot understand why Apple doesn’t sell ‘iMac matching’ Apple branded 21.5”and 27” 4K and 5k stand-alone monitors. They’ve had a gap in their offering for years - could charge a heavy premium (say $850 and $1400 respectively) and people would still buy them.

I ended up buying a few of Apple’s 27” thunderbird displays for my two workstations.  Sure, they’re not 4K, but nothing out there matches Apple’s quality.

if Apple comes out with an Apple-branded 4K or 5K stand-alone monitor, I would buy a few with minimal hesitation,

Even the LG Monitor was a step down for me.

mcdave

InspiredCode said:

Fatman said:

For the life of me I cannot understand why Apple doesn’t sell ‘iMac matching’ Apple branded 21.5”and 27” 4K and 5k stand-alone monitors. They’ve had a gap in their offering for years - could charge a heavy premium (say $850 and $1400 respectively) and people would still buy them.

If the rumored new design language for iMac comes true, I hope they release a new Cinema Display based on the design.  I would buy one in a heartbeat.

That’s a point. Why would they release 4/5/6K Pro Display HDR imminently with the existing iMac design instead of waiting for the new one (unless the display had a slot for Apple Silicon)

entropys

mcdave said:

InspiredCode said:

Fatman said:

For the life of me I cannot understand why Apple doesn’t sell ‘iMac matching’ Apple branded 21.5”and 27” 4K and 5k stand-alone monitors. They’ve had a gap in their offering for years - could charge a heavy premium (say $850 and $1400 respectively) and people would still buy them.

If the rumored new design language for iMac comes true, I hope they release a new Cinema Display based on the design.  I would buy one in a heartbeat.

That’s a point. Why would they release 4/5/6K Pro Display HDR imminently with the existing iMac design instead of waiting for the new one (unless the display had a slot for Apple Silicon)

Awesome idea. Would need a logic board, SSD and rAM as well, but you could imagine an iPad mini sized slab that would slot into a Vertical Tb port behind the display.

EsquireCats

These screens are a nightmare. If Apple kills and replace it, it would be a blessing.

They were supposed to be the 3rd party answer to the discontinued Cinema displays (i.e. combining a Display with USB hub, webcam + microphone + speakers). However for they have been causing regular issues especially with mac laptops:

- The screen is known to reliably crash the mac (Fortunately recent macOS updates appear to be limiting the scenarios when this occurs.)
- The screen may or may not wake from sleep, or force the system to crash/reboot when in sleep.
- If it does wake, it'll often wake "late", meaning the desktop/windows are flying back and forth across displays
- After waking, the screen may exhibit unusual flickering lines (resleeping/waking the display does seems to resolve these however)

For the cost of the screen and the fact that it's sold 1st party from Apple (with no true alternatives from Apple) is a disgrace to the brand, one of the strongest motivators I have to buy through Apple is knowing that the hardware isn't going to crash my system or generally misbehave. Additionally because it's 3rd party: all attempts at resolving the issues lead no where, if you don't refund the screen within your 2 week grace period, you're stuck with a very expensive lemon.

caladanian

EsquireCats said:

These screens are a nightmare. If Apple kills and replace it, it would be a blessing.

They were supposed to be the 3rd party answer to the discontinued Cinema displays (i.e. combining a Display with USB hub, webcam + microphone + speakers). However for they have been causing regular issues especially with mac laptops:

- The screen is known to reliably crash the mac (Fortunately recent macOS updates appear to be limiting the scenarios when this occurs.)
- The screen may or may not wake from sleep, or force the system to crash/reboot when in sleep.
- If it does wake, it'll often wake "late", meaning the desktop/windows are flying back and forth across displays
- After waking, the screen may exhibit unusual flickering lines (resleeping/waking the display does seems to resolve these however)

For the cost of the screen and the fact that it's sold 1st party from Apple (with no true alternatives from Apple) is a disgrace to the brand, one of the strongest motivators I have to buy through Apple is knowing that the hardware isn't going to crash my system or generally misbehave. Additionally because it's 3rd party: all attempts at resolving the issues lead no where, if you don't refund the screen within your 2 week grace period, you're stuck with a very expensive lemon.

I also experienced the same behaviour but never realised these crashes were not bugs of macOS! Wow

dewme

With all of the “working from home,” which increased demand and disruption to manufacturing, which disrupted supply, a number of highly rated monitors are in short supply. Same deal for web cams. 

LG could very well be getting ready to drop a refreshed monitor, but with all the craziness going on it’s hard to really tell. 

As much as I’d like to see Apple sell their own secondary monitors like the old Thunderbolt Display they were always cost prohibitive compared to other brands, which in some cases had the same panels as Apple’s monitor. I have a Dell 27” monitor that is indistinguishable from the one built into my iMac. It cost about one-half of what Apple was charging for the TB monitor at the time. It’s mini display port and not TB but still a single connector solution.  

barthrh

EsquireCats said:

These screens are a nightmare. If Apple kills and replace it, it would be a blessing.

They were supposed to be the 3rd party answer to the discontinued Cinema displays (i.e. combining a Display with USB hub, webcam + microphone + speakers). However for they have been causing regular issues especially with mac laptops:

- The screen is known to reliably crash the mac (Fortunately recent macOS updates appear to be limiting the scenarios when this occurs.)
- The screen may or may not wake from sleep, or force the system to crash/reboot when in sleep.
- If it does wake, it'll often wake "late", meaning the desktop/windows are flying back and forth across displays
- After waking, the screen may exhibit unusual flickering lines (resleeping/waking the display does seems to resolve these however)

For the cost of the screen and the fact that it's sold 1st party from Apple (with no true alternatives from Apple) is a disgrace to the brand, one of the strongest motivators I have to buy through Apple is knowing that the hardware isn't going to crash my system or generally misbehave. Additionally because it's 3rd party: all attempts at resolving the issues lead no where, if you don't refund the screen within your 2 week grace period, you're stuck with a very expensive lemon.

What? The screen is responsible for sleep crashes? I was blaming the drivers on my Pegasus J4 (they are unsupported as Promise decided to abandon updating OS support just a few years in). I've taken to just shutting down instead to avoid it. I'll unplug the display to night to test this.

My main issue with the display is ghosting. Overall, I don't notice it too much, I paid a pretty good price for the monitor ($950 in the early incentives), and it still does look great. I have an older 20" cinema display next to it and the difference is huge. No real regrets.

Alger

Been using one of these at work for the past 2.5 years.  The after-images/latent images/ghost images (whatever you're supposed to call them) are growing more pronounced every week, to the point where you literally cannot do Photoshop work on an image (for example) until it has been on screen, stationary, for a couple minutes.

neilm

We have two of these, one first release model at the office, one more recent at home (plus a couple of their 4K cousins). We’ve never seen burn-in problems on any of them. Brightness is set at a reasonable level. Occasional problem with waking from sleep on the newest display, although since it’s fixed by a reboot, it seems as likely to be a software issue at the host end. Never had a sleep crash, never seen flickering lines.

If we were seeing those connection/negotiation problems I’d be looking at alternative TB3 cables.

GG1

Alger said:

Been using one of these at work for the past 2.5 years.  The after-images/latent images/ghost images (whatever you're supposed to call them) are growing more pronounced every week, to the point where you literally cannot do Photoshop work on an image (for example) until it has been on screen, stationary, for a couple minutes.

This is good info. I was seriously considering the LG 4K display, but I'll wait. (What EsquireCats said above is troubling.)

And I continue to hear how people are still using their old Apple Cinema displays (including Barthrh above). I'd pay extra for that type of longevity and quality.

davgreg

I have an LG 32” 4K display for far less than that and it works just fine.

Rayz2016

Never had a problem with mine. A joy to use.

I do remember that the earlier models were an absolute nightmare for a lot of people.

If you want the job done properly …

dysamoria

EsquireCats said:

These screens are a nightmare. If Apple kills and replace it, it would be a blessing.

They were supposed to be the 3rd party answer to the discontinued Cinema displays (i.e. combining a Display with USB hub, webcam + microphone + speakers). However for they have been causing regular issues especially with mac laptops:

- The screen is known to reliably crash the mac (Fortunately recent macOS updates appear to be limiting the scenarios when this occurs.)
- The screen may or may not wake from sleep, or force the system to crash/reboot when in sleep.
- If it does wake, it'll often wake "late", meaning the desktop/windows are flying back and forth across displays
- After waking, the screen may exhibit unusual flickering lines (resleeping/waking the display does seems to resolve these however)

For the cost of the screen and the fact that it's sold 1st party from Apple (with no true alternatives from Apple) is a disgrace to the brand, one of the strongest motivators I have to buy through Apple is knowing that the hardware isn't going to crash my system or generally misbehave. Additionally because it's 3rd party: all attempts at resolving the issues lead no where, if you don't refund the screen within your 2 week grace period, you're stuck with a very expensive lemon.

This is why I never bought the cylinder Mac Pro. There was no Retina display for it and Apple never released one. I kept reading about problems with third-party displays and there weren’t high-PPI offerings until it was no longer worth buying the machines anyway (and the tech problems continued with those, as you’ve listed).

Long after the fact, I learned those machines also suffer from thermal failures (like MacBooks), so I’m glad I never wasted my money on one.

Apple have been continually dropping the ball on pro/power-user machines. Now they’ve priced that ball into an insanely tiny market. Any failure to sell this stuff is a self-inflicted injury on Apple’s part.

sflocal

barthrh said:

What? The screen is responsible for sleep crashes? I was blaming the drivers on my Pegasus J4 (they are unsupported as Promise decided to abandon updating OS support just a few years in). I've taken to just shutting down instead to avoid it. I'll unplug the display to night to test this.

I've had similar issues with my Promise TB2 R8 and R6.  I updated the firmware on both of them, problem solved.  This was back in April I think.  Promise still maintains current firmware for these models.  Have you checked yours?

dysamoria

Alger said:

Been using one of these at work for the past 2.5 years.  The after-images/latent images/ghost images (whatever you're supposed to call them) are growing more pronounced every week, to the point where you literally cannot do Photoshop work on an image (for example) until it has been on screen, stationary, for a couple minutes.

Why does this even happen?

[Deleted User]

Fatman said:

For the life of me I cannot understand why Apple doesn’t sell ‘iMac matching’ Apple branded 21.5”and 27” 4K and 5k stand-alone monitors. They’ve had a gap in their offering for years - could charge a heavy premium (say $850 and $1400 respectively) and people would still buy them.

Given Apple has a history of making displays and would know how many Mac users buy a display, I'm guessing they aren't doing it because there isn't a market. 

barthrh

sflocal said:

Fi has similar issues with my Promise TB2 R8 and R6.  I updated the firmware on both of them, problem solved.  This was back in April I think.  Promise still maintains current firmware for these models.  Have you checked yours?

Yeah. The problem started with High Sierra. Driver crashed the whole OS (this unit requires a driver). Enough users complained that they released an unsupported patch. They say the unit (released in 2013) is out of support; i.e. they abandoned it only 5 years in, when as a TB2 SSD enclosure it's still perfectly current. No new firmware or driver patches will be issued. Lesson learned: Never get an enclosure that requires a driver (and nothing from Promise since they seem to have no issue abandoning a product if sales weren't what they expected).

In Catalina, it sort of kind of works. The driver doesn't crash but it's hit or miss as to whether the enclosure will mount. Sometimes it'll mount and then immediately drop. If it lasts 5 min, you're generally good until the next sleep / restart. I plan to replace it with an OWC Thunderbay Mini at some point.