OLED Screens, Mac Studio, and MacBook Pro

by Rian

My last TV, the one I had replaced just few months ago, lasted well over a decade. It was a 3DTV, (the one with the 3D glasses) but as far as the screen goes as a generic television, its panel wasn’t damaged even as I was planning to have it upgraded. It didn’t support HDR or 4K, and any smart features it came equipped with fell out of software maintenance, but it was ‘functional’. I will leave it at that. No doubt I can dig up some expert opinions on the longevity of consumer grade TV panels, but that’s not my point. My point is rather straight forward. My IPS monitor that is roughly 6-7 years old is dying and it’s showing —corners of the screen are smoked in like the faulty iMacs I had to deal with while ago.

As many threads around the Mac Pro have discussed it, previous Intel Mac Pro audience is now looking into two product categories for the future: MacBook Pros, and Mac Studios. Mac Pro is out the window —unless you need PCIE cards, and Apple doesn’t seem so shy to share the news. On my current setup, even if MacBook Pro doesn’t offer M3 Ultra, one of the most exciting upgrade would be the screen. True HDR displays are expensive as-is, and to find a XDR display, you don’t have that many choices. If you are looking for OLED, for the best of both worlds with color accuracy and response time, now we are talking about disposable income for maintenance.

As I was testing out an AI dictation software, I was struggling to get it to run on an Intel Mac, despite the fact that I run most of my LLM projects on it. Contrary to the common belief, macOS applications that do take advantage of Apple Silicon prowess run remarkably poorly on older x86 Macs. My machine, 2019 Mac Pro, struggled to run 1.6GB model. It’s one thing to see a modern app not optimized for older machines, another thing to see a laptop, M2 MacBook Air, outperform a beefy workstation. Categorically, having both machines do get me the “best of both worlds”, but seeing as I might be hit with $1300 price tag just for an OLED monitor, it does make me wonder where Apple is at with it.

Apple was incredibly late in the OLED game when it comes to smartphones. I believe it went without much backlash due to the fact that there were growing concerns over how early version of OLED screens were forcing consumers to upgrade with its infamous burn-ins. No doubt iPhone’s OLED screen has its shares of smacks —as far as I am aware, OLED still has set lifespans, just longer. If Apple were to move forward in terms of ‘better screen’ on Macs, OLED panels are certainly within reach. The Californian company has done it with iPhone and market it to professional photographers and film makers as another pro-level tool. I don’t see any reasons not to extend the invitation to Macs.

As for my setup, for those of us who are in the same boat as I, I am actually waiting for Apple to release OLED MacBook Pro. I’ve grown tired of caring for displays. It irritates me on the same level as aging Li-ion batteries do. It’s bulky to get rid of,* has little to no value to sell it off, and lastly, it’s a pain to get it fixed. It’s not the most environmentally friendly to simply swap out the entire laptop if something breaks, but I’ve come to terms with the fact it is better for the environment than owning a car only to maintain a monitor and a workstation. And don’t even get me started on buying a parcel that is big enough to fit either one of them.

* Most parts of the world do run e-waste disposal system. I’ve seen it working brilliantly when either trade-in or disposal is offered by the seller or by the platform, but my experience with getting rid of archaic devices that only the urban miners want was nothing short of nightmarish.