Availability shrinking for LG UltraFine 5K Display at Apple Stores
The online Apple Store is no longer offering in-store pickup for the LG UltraFine 5K Display for a large number of outlets around the globe, a possible indication that the screens may be replaced by a new model, potentially even the anticipated Apple-produced displays.
In-store pickup results for U.S. online Apple Store
Attempts to check the availability of the LG UltraFine 5K Display for in-store pickup in the United States provides the message "Unavailable for Pickup" in many locations, in AppleInsider's testing. In some areas, such as New York City, there is limited stock available for the display.
The unavailability is unusual as Apple has offered store pickup options for the display since its launch, and highlighted it along with the 2016 MacBook Pro redesign.
The Apple Website in other markets also offers similar notifications that it is unavailable as a pick-up order, with regional online stores for Canada, the United Kingdom, Germany, France, and Australia. Not all markets are listed as completely unavailable, as pickup is still available in Singapore.
While store pickup is not available in the majority of cases, it does appear that customers are still able to order the monitor for delivery.
Some stores revealed to AppleInsider the LG monitor hasn't been restocked for a while, with multiple locations said to have sold out "weeks ago" with no new shipments. The current belief expressed to AppleInsider is that retail will sell-through its existing stock and won't receive any further shipments.
Typically, a global reduction of availability for a product in the online Apple Store is an indication that something will be changing, such as its removal, a replacement with an Apple-produced version, or an upgraded model. While not completely global, the unavailability for pickup is significant enough to consider there to be something happening soon to the product line.
There isn't an obvious reason for the reduced availability, but considering the LG monitor arrived at a time when Thunderbolt 3-equipped monitors were rare, and that market now has many Thunderbolt 3 and USB-C-compatible monitors, it is less of an issue for consumers wanting such a display for their Mac.
Apple did advise in 2017 it was working on a new "pro display" to go with a new Mac Pro, originally slated for launch in 2018. While the Mac Pro is now believed to be shipping in 2019, it is possible for Apple to ship the display separately, possibly even earlier than the Mac Pro itself.
In-store pickup results for U.S. online Apple Store
Attempts to check the availability of the LG UltraFine 5K Display for in-store pickup in the United States provides the message "Unavailable for Pickup" in many locations, in AppleInsider's testing. In some areas, such as New York City, there is limited stock available for the display.
The unavailability is unusual as Apple has offered store pickup options for the display since its launch, and highlighted it along with the 2016 MacBook Pro redesign.
The Apple Website in other markets also offers similar notifications that it is unavailable as a pick-up order, with regional online stores for Canada, the United Kingdom, Germany, France, and Australia. Not all markets are listed as completely unavailable, as pickup is still available in Singapore.
While store pickup is not available in the majority of cases, it does appear that customers are still able to order the monitor for delivery.
Some stores revealed to AppleInsider the LG monitor hasn't been restocked for a while, with multiple locations said to have sold out "weeks ago" with no new shipments. The current belief expressed to AppleInsider is that retail will sell-through its existing stock and won't receive any further shipments.
Typically, a global reduction of availability for a product in the online Apple Store is an indication that something will be changing, such as its removal, a replacement with an Apple-produced version, or an upgraded model. While not completely global, the unavailability for pickup is significant enough to consider there to be something happening soon to the product line.
There isn't an obvious reason for the reduced availability, but considering the LG monitor arrived at a time when Thunderbolt 3-equipped monitors were rare, and that market now has many Thunderbolt 3 and USB-C-compatible monitors, it is less of an issue for consumers wanting such a display for their Mac.
Apple did advise in 2017 it was working on a new "pro display" to go with a new Mac Pro, originally slated for launch in 2018. While the Mac Pro is now believed to be shipping in 2019, it is possible for Apple to ship the display separately, possibly even earlier than the Mac Pro itself.
Comments
No need for speakers. No need for cutesy features (I don’t know what that might be, but Apple has been putting lots of unnecessary cutesy stuff in iOS... looking at you, Animoji...).
It would be interesting if this new “pro” display was a microLED (nanoLED?) display, using LEDs as pixels (instead of LCD with backlight), but that technology seems to still be in its infancy, and super expensive.
But I’m expecting LG is just iterating this existing display. I expect no pro hardware from Apple this year, mini or otherwise. After the iMac Pro, I’m kind of worried about what a “Mac Mini Pro” would look like. If it’s planned by the iMac Pro team, it likely won’t be cost-effective, which was the whole original point of the mini (and the iMac, right??) and stopped being so, years ago.
It seems likely, based on the iMac and LG displays, that Apple will go with a 27" screen. That's a pretty small space for for that many pixels, and has me wondering if it will result in UI elements and text being too small if the monitors are placed a few feet away from me? I'm also wondering whether pushing that many pixels will have an adverse affect on the performance of my 2016 MacBook Pro (Radeon Pro 460 4GB).
Are any of you using the 27" 5K iMac? Would you find the display comfortably legible if it were placed roughly the length of your arm away from you, or maybe even a little further? Other than being able to fit more things on the screen at once, is there any real benefit to 5K over 4K at that size? Would I maybe be better off with 4K monitors in this application?
You want “a zero dead pixel manufacturing tolerance” on 4K displays with upwards of 8 million pixels? Don’t ask for much do ya? First, the words “zero” and “tolerance” don’t exactly go together in the same sentence - almost oxymoronic if you ask me, at least in terms of 6 Sigma quality and manufacturability.
Second, I don’t know any manufacturer on the planet who can promise you that. Now, I’m sure they could conduct post-fab inspections and maybe 1 out of 15-20 printed screens might be free of light or dark pixel defects. But that post-fab inspection process would cost you dearly.
For professional use I’ll happily take a Class II display with a handful of dead pixels on it. Probably won’t even be able to see them. Light pixels (permanently on) might be more of an annoyance and I wouldn’t accept that.
Damn. I had budgeted this for next year.
That comment is really helpful on two fronts. First, it tells me that you think my GU load/UI concerns are not a big issue. Second, I was able to prove to my wife that I do *SO* think before I act. In fact, I OVERthink!
Again, maybe I'm worrying too much, but I wonder if it will be even more fast enough with lower-res monitors, Like, my car can go 150 miles per hour but the ride experience suffers. It's much more comfortable going 80 miles per hour. Plus running it at 150 puts a bigger strain on the system so it'll fail sooner than if I only go 80. Does that analogy apply here?
Noted, thanks. That doesn't actually apply in my particular case since I'll be viewing the video on a dedicated monitor, but I get your point.
Jeez, I hope not, because it will do much more damage and hit my wallet a lot harder when I throw the @#$%&!!! thing out the window in frustration like I've done a few times with the square hockey puck. The existing model survives a night outside in the rain. A TV version probably wouldn't.
Well yes, everything at non-native gets weird, adds some GPU overhead, and adds some visible lag. As much as I like "more space," it should probably be disregarded and avoided.
That said, a 5k iMac, at native resolution, doesn't scale anything at all. The same UI elements render at the same visible size, drawn with more pixels, thus looking better. At 4k some scaling happens, you're at a less-than-ideal focal point, and you will see some weird artifacts and ugliness. There is no chance that Apple will release a display running anything other than 5k, though. (Will it have the good white balance and low-reflection that others here are moaning about? beats me.)
Fun analogy. I would say that your laptop GPU is designed to maybe go 300mph, and your built-in display is demanding maybe 75mph, leaving a lot of overhead for GPU calculations that are handy for stuff like computational rendering and the kind of thing that the maligned 2013 Mac Pros are actually really good at.
With a single 5k display you'd be running at 150mph and still have a lot of that overhead left but not as much. 3D renders or Xcode builds would not be as fast.
With two hooked up, you'd get almost none of the benefits of GPU calculation, and now an external GPU is going to start to look like a pretty good deal.