Apple ships first LG UltraFine 4K Display orders ahead of MacBook Pro w/ Touch Bar

Posted:
in Current Mac Hardware edited November 2016
Apple on Friday began shipping the new LG UltraFine 4K Display to customers who placed orders in late October, with current estimates showing deliveries scheduled to arrive in the middle of next week.




An exclusive to Apple, LG's UltraFine 4K Display went up for order on Apple's website alongside the new MacBook Pros just after both product lines were announced on Oct. 27. At the time, customers able to snag a unit from LG's initial batch were quoted a delivery date between Nov. 15 and Nov. 25.

For reference, AppleInsider's own test unit was purchased about five minutes after preorders went live and is currently showing a delivery date of Nov. 15.

Developed in partnership with Apple, the LG UltraFine 4K Display, and its larger 5K sibling, debuted as a surprise accompaniment to the redesigned MacBook Pro lineup at a special media event in October. The standalone displays serve as a replacement for Apple's erstwhile Thunderbolt Display, which ceased production in June.

Like the Apple-branded monitor, LG's UltraFine 4K Display acts as a breakout dock for port-limited notebooks like the new MacBook Pro without Touch Bar models that come with only two Thunderbolt 3 ports. The better equipped, and more expensive, MacBook Pro with Touch Bar models sport four Thunderbolt 3 ports, but lack USB-A inputs.

As for LG's new hardware, the 4K version comes in at 21.5 inches on the diagonal with a resolution of 4,096-by-2,304 and P3 wide color gamut support. On the back are three USB-C ports limited to USB 2 specification speeds. The display's internal power supply is also capable of charging external devices, but is limited to 60W over Thunderbolt 3.

LG's UltraFine 5K Display measures 27 inches and supports resolutions up to 5,120-by-2,880 with P3 color. The display boasts three USB 3.1 ports on the back for attaching high-speed accessories, and also includes stereo speakers, a microphone and front-facing camera. An uprated power supply produces enough juice for 85W of charging power over Thunderbolt 3.

Last week, Apple quietly announced a special discount that takes 25 percent off retail pricing for both LG UltraFine models, dropping the 4K model down to $524 and the 5K version to $974. The limited time offer is good through Dec. 31, 2016.

The 4K version can be purchased now with current a ship time of five to six weeks, while the 5K variant is expected to become available in December.
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Comments

  • Reply 1 of 31
    Trying really hard to get used to the future of physical appearance (or, lack thereof) of non first-party peripherals. This thing takes me back to SGI's 1600SW. :s
    jdw
  • Reply 2 of 31
    mike1mike1 Posts: 3,275member
    Read the headline and wondering why you think the two shipments are even related.
  • Reply 3 of 31
    flaneurflaneur Posts: 4,526member
    I'm still hoping that Niley Patel was being played and Apple is waiting till LG or Sharp can come through with large enough production of the oxide backplane technology for their own Cinema Displays.
    watto_cobra
  • Reply 4 of 31
    dreyfus2dreyfus2 Posts: 1,072member
    Really do not care if it says Apple on the box, I might even get the 5k model due to lack of alternatives. But even if Apple gets out of the monitor business (and several other ones I assume, Airports and Time Machines seem to be equally forgotten and behind), can't they extend their collaboration with these third parties to give them some designs? Hooking a $4k+ laptop beauty up to something that ugly just hurts.
    watto_cobrajdw
  • Reply 5 of 31
    paxmanpaxman Posts: 4,729member
    dreyfus2 said:
    Really do not care if it says Apple on the box, I might even get the 5k model due to lack of alternatives. But even if Apple gets out of the monitor business (and several other ones I assume, Airports and Time Machines seem to be equally forgotten and behind), can't they extend their collaboration with these third parties to give them some designs? Hooking a $4k+ laptop beauty up to something that ugly just hurts.
    It hurts. But beyond that I always thought high visibility items in the Apple ecosystem such as monitors would have more value in terms of marketing than direct margins. Even if all Apple did was design the casing it would signal the Apple brand loudly. Ditto Apple TV - I thought the value of a large Apple branded screen as the central focus in people's living rooms would be valuable in terms of brand awareness. Clearly I was wrong. Maybe Apple decided we have become much more sophisticated and see right through the large monitor on the wall or on the desk. 
    yojimbo007wozwozjony0
  • Reply 6 of 31
    MacProMacPro Posts: 19,718member
    Johnathan must be too busy these days.  How Apple could endorse such an ugly POS as that LG monitor is beyond me.
    jdwwozwoz
  • Reply 7 of 31
    dreyfus2dreyfus2 Posts: 1,072member
    paxman said:

    It hurts. But beyond that I always thought high visibility items in the Apple ecosystem such as monitors would have more value in terms of marketing than direct margins. Even if all Apple did was design the casing it would signal the Apple brand loudly. Ditto Apple TV - I thought the value of a large Apple branded screen as the central focus in people's living rooms would be valuable in terms of brand awareness. Clearly I was wrong. Maybe Apple decided we have become much more sophisticated and see right through the large monitor on the wall or on the desk. 
    Cinema Displays (and their successors) certainly did a lot for the Apple brand – people wanted these gorgeous things on their tables. Nobody wants Lucky GoldStar's latest plastic monstrosity, except for maybe specs and value for money. I (think I) do understand the TV thing. As long as the vast majority is on cable, there is no way to control the user experience. An Apple TV TV would still be a box relying on mediocre junk and displaying it. Plus, there is really no dime there.

    What starts to puzzle me quite a bit is Apple's output. What are all these additional employees they hired over the last years actually doing? Just a few years ago  they were actively maintaining and updating desktops, laptops, iPhones, iPads, even iPods still, displays, Airports, Time Machines, iWork and iLife were under constant development, plus there were several pro apps. Now, with all this additional staff, we get no desktops at all, laptop refreshes every four years, iWork is virtually dead, the only iLife app being developed is iTunes (and let's not talk about where this is going), Airport and TM far behind everything, displays dead, Aperture dead, Logic seeing no true love... Not saying all these things need to be updated all the time (most don't since Apple's stuff holds up extremely well), but I can't remember a recent time when they have done less. OK, I might have a bit tunnel-vision here since a lot of things they are doing now do not interest me (Apple Music, Siri, fireworks and emojis in messages, a photo stream that does not really work - or has a life of its own, but doesn't tell me, etc.). Then they start things and just seem to forget about them, like the 12.9" iPad Pro. It is fantastic hardware, and it was forgotten the day it was released. Not a single software feature in iOS 10, some of Apple's own apps still do not work properly on it, still no mean to find optimized (not scaled) apps in the store for it... it is like it never happened. Love the Watch 2, the 7 Plus and look forward to getting the new MBP on the 22nd, but I am fairly uncertain about where all this is going.
    jdwsecurtiswozwozwatto_cobraRemarksman
  • Reply 8 of 31
    dreyfus2 said:
    Really do not care if it says Apple on the box, I might even get the 5k model due to lack of alternatives. But even if Apple gets out of the monitor business (and several other ones I assume, Airports and Time Machines seem to be equally forgotten and behind), can't they extend their collaboration with these third parties to give them some designs? Hooking a $4k+ laptop beauty up to something that ugly just hurts.
    No you are not wrong... you make excellent points. If Apple is working with LG on these monitors.... as Phill mentioned at the last presentation.... WHAT HAPPENED TO APPLE DESIGN THEME....? They look like Dell monitors from 6 years ago. How does this complement the Apple design theme?? How does it promote the brand and its visibility?? (you know when we see those offices with filled with iMacs and Apple logo... or news conferances with reporters filling the room with macbooks and Apple logos....where did that go Apple and Why? Why are you doing this Apple? is perplexing .
    nubuswozwozwatto_cobra
  • Reply 9 of 31
    appexappex Posts: 687member
    Frustrating!
  • Reply 10 of 31
    paxman said:
    dreyfus2 said:
    Really do not care if it says Apple on the box, I might even get the 5k model due to lack of alternatives. But even if Apple gets out of the monitor business (and several other ones I assume, Airports and Time Machines seem to be equally forgotten and behind), can't they extend their collaboration with these third parties to give them some designs? Hooking a $4k+ laptop beauty up to something that ugly just hurts.
    It hurts. But beyond that I always thought high visibility items in the Apple ecosystem such as monitors would have more value in terms of marketing than direct margins. Even if all Apple did was design the casing it would signal the Apple brand loudly. Ditto Apple TV - I thought the value of a large Apple branded screen as the central focus in people's living rooms would be valuable in terms of brand awareness. Clearly I was wrong. Maybe Apple decided we have become much more sophisticated and see right through the large monitor on the wall or on the desk. 
    The reason this is happening is due to Apple having lost its visionary and its vision. Besides the fact that the iPhone 7, which came out just a month before the 2016 MacBook Pros, cannot be connected to the MacBook Pros without an additional cable (not included with either device), the earphones that come with the iPhone 7 cannot be connected directly to the 2016 MacBook Pros.

    Apple seems to have become confused between USB-C and Lightning connectors. The second generation of Magic Keyboard, Magic Mouse, and Magic Trackpad were released with the Lightning connector in 2015. Why put the Lightning connector in the non-mobile gear? Oh, that is so that folks could use their existing USB-A to Lightning cables to charge these devices. Amazing! Great vision, Apple!  But then, why not follow this path and put a Lightning connector in the 2016 MacBook and MacBook Pros so that everything converges on Lightning within the Apple ecosystem and on USB-C between the Apple ecosystem and other vendors? So, some time around the end of 2015, the vision must have switched back away from Lightning and to USB-C. The early 2016 MacBook never saw the Lightning connector and neither did the late 2016 MacBook Pros. However, why was the iPhone 7 released with the Lightning connector instead of USB-C? So, is the vision now that Apple mobile devices will stick tobthe Lightning Connector, while USB-C is reserved exclusively for Apple laptops and future desktops? Perhaps, but we now have Apple Bluetooth keyboards, mice, and trackpads, which have built-in batteries and need to be charged by USB, that cannot be charged from the new MacBook and MacBook Pros without buying an extra USB-C to Lightning cable. 

    Apple is now telling us that the future is in USB-C, yet we are stuck with the Lightning connector on the Generation 2 Magic Keyboard, Magic Mouse, Magic Trackpad, and on the brand spanking new iPhone 7. 

    What about Mac Pro? Apple released a revolutionary Mac Pro in 2013 after years of neglect just to neglect this platform again by not refreshing it for over 3 years now. 

    What about Mac Mini? Apple only released one refresh to the 2012 Mac Mini in 2014, but they crippled the platform by not providing a quad-core option. Since 2014, the Mac Mini platform appears to be neglected again.

    There is no more vision in Apple, which is now wondering in the dark without any direction. The cash hoard that Apple has accumulated is doing nothing. Apple doesn't know where to go next. The Apple Car project was a waste of time and nothing came out of it. Apple can't even nail down a streaming TV service.

    Apple HomeKit is a mess, and Apple support for HomeKit is as good as non-existent. The folks who answer the HomeKit support calls have never even configured HomeKit themselves. The don't know how to fix any issues with HomeKit access sharing, devices disappearing from HomeKit, remote HomeKit access not working, etc. 

    The quality of the Apple customer service as a whole has gone downhill. It now takes at least 20 minutes on hold before Apple Support answers a support call. Then you get a Level 1 technician who knows very little about the product they are supposed to support. They can help old people with navigating their iPhones, but that's about the extent of their knowledge. You have to escalate to a more senior technician almost any non-trivial issue, and then you are again on hold forever. The Level 1 technicians bullshit their way out of the issues they don't know how to solve and then they drop the call and never call you back even though they have just taken your phone number. 

    In the corporate world, Apple is extremely arrogant and stubborn. I'm trying to lead an effort to offer MacBook Pros as a choice to senior engineers in a large multinational corporation by piloting MacBook Pros in my engineering group, and we realized that the 2015 MacBook Pros procured for this pilot were ordered with too little storage. We want to upgrade SSD from 256 GB to 512 GB or 1 TB, but the Apple enterprise group refuses to sell us this upgrade. Our upper management are shocked by this arrogance on the part of Apple, especially provided that we can potentially buy tens of millions of dollars worth of hardware from Apple if this pilot succeeds. It seems as though Apple doesn't care. 

    In short, it's so sad to see what's been happening to Apple since Steve passed away. 
    edited November 2016 wozwozcommand_f
  • Reply 11 of 31
    Rayz2016Rayz2016 Posts: 6,957member
    paxman said:
    dreyfus2 said:
    Really do not care if it says Apple on the box, I might even get the 5k model due to lack of alternatives. But even if Apple gets out of the monitor business (and several other ones I assume, Airports and Time Machines seem to be equally forgotten and behind), can't they extend their collaboration with these third parties to give them some designs? Hooking a $4k+ laptop beauty up to something that ugly just hurts.
    It hurts. But beyond that I always thought high visibility items in the Apple ecosystem such as monitors would have more value in terms of marketing than direct margins. Even if all Apple did was design the casing it would signal the Apple brand loudly. Ditto Apple TV - I thought the value of a large Apple branded screen as the central focus in people's living rooms would be valuable in terms of brand awareness. Clearly I was wrong. Maybe Apple decided we have become much more sophisticated and see right through the large monitor on the wall or on the desk. 
    If no one actually buys them then I'm not sure how that is helping the brand. 
  • Reply 12 of 31
    Rayz2016Rayz2016 Posts: 6,957member

    dreyfus2 said:
    Really do not care if it says Apple on the box, I might even get the 5k model due to lack of alternatives. But even if Apple gets out of the monitor business (and several other ones I assume, Airports and Time Machines seem to be equally forgotten and behind), can't they extend their collaboration with these third parties to give them some designs? Hooking a $4k+ laptop beauty up to something that ugly just hurts.
    No you are not wrong... you make excellent points. If Apple is working with LG on these monitors.... as Phill mentioned at the last presentation.... WHAT HAPPENED TO APPLE DESIGN THEME....? They look like Dell monitors from 6 years ago. How does this complement the Apple design theme?? How does it promote the brand and its visibility?? (you know when we see those offices with filled with iMacs and Apple logo... or news conferances with reporters filling the room with macbooks and Apple logos....where did that go Apple and Why? Why are you doing this Apple? is perplexing .
    Apple was working with LG to make sure they are compatible with Macs. If the monitors adopted Apple's styling then they would be even more expensive and LG would have a hard job selling them to non-Mac users.   

    The monitors are meant to professional kit, and real professions will find the black surround a lot easier to work with. 
    edited November 2016 hmm
  • Reply 13 of 31
    MacProMacPro Posts: 19,718member
    I just hope Johnathan can give LG some design tips for the next gen.  This thing is so ugly it's beyond belief.
    wozwoz
  • Reply 14 of 31
    flaneurflaneur Posts: 4,526member
    @sirozha ;  Irrational rant. "Years of neglect" — How is it that you people cannot understand that while the MBPros are undergoing a thorough, ground-up, wholesale revision, reengineering the display, the keyboard, the chassis, the heat management, the speakers, two new touch interfaces, and so on, that you are not going to get updates of any significance, of anything that requires engineering, on the old platform? 

    How can you have the arrogance to assume that they have the staff to work on both the old and new platforms at once? Does Intel come up with new processors so often that Apple should create a separate engineering department just to maintain constant re-engineering on the fading platform, selling their customers half-new $3000 machines up to the point where they pull the rug out from under you and then offer you the new platform that obsolesces the updated model thst you just bought? I can't believe the kind of unsympathetic, non-technical illogic that goes behind a statement like "they neglected the MacBook Pros for three years" when they have just released a revamped, reconceived, ground-up revision that clearly would take three years of full-on engineering to accomplish. 

    "There is no vision at Apple" — you know what? Stuff your worthless rant. 

    I know you apocalytic complainers never think in causational terms, but back on topic. These LG displays have oxide backplanes, which is the only reason they are as brilliant, thin and efficient as they are. The new MacBook Pros have oxide backplane panels, which is also how the "lid" of the machine can be so thin, the color and brightness so good (and why the lighted logo is gone), and why the "base" of the machine can be totally redesigned with solid-state memory and a thinner keyboard and placed in a new power and heat management architecture — all stemming from the fact that the oxide display is 30% more energy efficient.

    Do you think the oxide-backed displays just magically appeared just as Apples's three-year hiatus in updating the MBPs was ending? Could it be that Apple was waiting for the new oxide (IGZO)-backplane technology to be ready in the necessary quantities? Could it be that the world supply of indium, or other IGZO film production difficulties, prevent Apple from producing their own Cinema Displays, or from updating every single large display in their lineup with new wide-color retina screens that demand an entire revamp of the form factor because of the thinness and the power and heat savings?

    I will grant that part of the problem is the tech press, which has virtually ignored the whole interlocking causational trail ever since Apple STARTED INVESTING IN IGZO FIVE YEARS AGO. Five years! (That we know of.) But I don't think that's any excuse for a rant like yours, especially one that ends with the cruel comment about Steve Jobs at the end. These guys have been working their asses off and this kind of whining is what they get for waiting for good technology.
    edited November 2016 Rayz2016watto_cobra
  • Reply 15 of 31
    wozwozwozwoz Posts: 263member
    Johnathan must be too busy these days.  How Apple could endorse such an ugly POS as that LG monitor is beyond me.

    Ugly POS ===  spot on.   Another clueless decision from Apple HQ.  It would be like Porsche deciding to do interior fit outs using Nissan parts. Lol.
     
    As a long-term Apple shareholder, I really do think it is time the Apple board found someone else to take the helm. You can only live in the slip-stream of Steve's ideas for so long, and this is just another indicator that Tim has no clue ... and has every intention of leaving the Pro market, failing to understand the Apple ecosystem, and the congruence of the product map.
    edited November 2016
  • Reply 16 of 31
    flaneurflaneur Posts: 4,526member
    wozwoz said:
    Johnathan must be too busy these days.  How Apple could endorse such an ugly POS as that LG monitor is beyond me.

    Ugly POS ===  spot on.   Another clueless decision from Apple HQ.  It would be like Porsche deciding to do interior fit outs using Nissan parts. Lol.
     
    As a long-term Apple shareholder, I really do think it is time the Apple board found someone else to take the helm. You can only live in the slip-stream of Steve's ideas for so long, and this is just another indicator that Tim has no clue ... and has every intention of leaving the Pro market, failing to understand the Apple ecosystem, and the congruence of the product map.
    Another clueless rant, ignorant of the IGZO factor. 

    Daniel, somebody at AI, somebody at iMore or Ars Technica, please do a story on display technology and straighten out these poor ignoramuses.
    watto_cobra
  • Reply 17 of 31
    flaneurflaneur Posts: 4,526member

    I just hope Johnathan can give LG some design tips for the next gen.  This thing is so ugly it's beyond belief.
    Much better formulation. Thank you. This I can agree with. I was directing my counter rant above @sirozha, by the way.
    edited November 2016 LeBart1968
  • Reply 18 of 31
    flaneurflaneur Posts: 4,526member
    Rayz2016 said:

    dreyfus2 said:
    Really do not care if it says Apple on the box, I might even get the 5k model due to lack of alternatives. But even if Apple gets out of the monitor business (and several other ones I assume, Airports and Time Machines seem to be equally forgotten and behind), can't they extend their collaboration with these third parties to give them some designs? Hooking a $4k+ laptop beauty up to something that ugly just hurts.
    No you are not wrong... you make excellent points. If Apple is working with LG on these monitors.... as Phill mentioned at the last presentation.... WHAT HAPPENED TO APPLE DESIGN THEME....? They look like Dell monitors from 6 years ago. How does this complement the Apple design theme?? How does it promote the brand and its visibility?? (you know when we see those offices with filled with iMacs and Apple logo... or news conferances with reporters filling the room with macbooks and Apple logos....where did that go Apple and Why? Why are you doing this Apple? is perplexing .
    Apple was working with LG to make sure they are compatible with Macs. If the monitors adopted Apple's styling then they would be even more expensive and LG would have a hard job selling them to non-Mac users.   

    The monitors are meant to professional kit, and real professions will find the black surround a lot easier to work with. 
    Reasonable points, thanks. But I can imagine that a slightly round-cornered, matte-black surround would be more attractive and "pro"-like than this glossy, sharp-cornered Dell-level crap. Without adding much cost or mooching off Apple's design language.
    edited November 2016 watto_cobraLeBart1968
  • Reply 19 of 31
    sirozha said:
    <Snip>
    Apple seems to have become confused between USB-C and Lightning connectors. The second generation of Magic Keyboard, Magic Mouse, and Magic Trackpad were released with the Lightning connector in 2015. Why put the Lightning connector in the non-mobile gear? Oh, that is so that folks could use their existing USB-A to Lightning cables to charge these devices. Amazing! Great vision, Apple!  
    <Snip>
    Interesting and measured analysis (the whole piece, not just the snippet above), thanks.

    I agree with the issue of the rechargeable peripherals but I have a different take on the root problem. Lightning is logical at the device end for compatibility. I think the problem lies at the other end: the world today has too many USB-A devices to ignore and this is one example. The new MBP has tomorrow's ports but it also needs to work today. To make it useful today, you need at least one USB-A adaptor and Apple should have put one, or two, in the box.

    They're cheap - that shouldn't mean that everyone should buy them, it just helps Apple supply them. Then the MBP would just work, out of the box, today,; not just in the future for which it is so well prepared. Personally, I reckon I may need three (like many individuals and businesses, I won't be updating all my kit in a single year); it only adds 1% to the cost of my 15" MBP but that's not the point - why isn't this "Pro" machine ready to use as supplied?
  • Reply 20 of 31
    flaneur said:
    @sirozha ;;  Irrational rant. "Years of neglect" — How is it that you people cannot
    How can you have the arrogance to assume that they have the staff to work on both the old and new platforms at once? Does Intel come up with new processors so often that Apple should create a separate engineering department just to maintain constant re-engineering on the fading platform, selling their customers half-new $3000 machines up to the point where they pull the rug out from under you and then offer you the new platform that obsolesces the updated model thst you just bought? I can't believe the kind of unsympathetic, non-technical illogic that goes behind a statement like "they neglected the MacBook Pros for three years" when they have just released a revamped, reconceived, ground-up revision that clearly would take three years of full-on engineering to accomplish. 

    "There is no vision at Apple" — you know what? Stuff your worthless rant. 
    You misquoted me and then ridiculed your own statement that was not what I said. 

    Apple neglected Mac Pro (not MacBook Pro) before 2013, when they completely reingineered the platform and released an amazing Mac Pro. However, since then they haven't refreshed it for over 3 years, which is exactly what I called it - neglect. One doesn't need much reingineering to put an updated CPU and graphics card in the same desktop platform. Apple simply became so arrogant that they think they can continue charging many thousands of dollars for three-year-old CPUs and graphics cards. 
    edited November 2016 LeBart1968
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