Apple reportedly making a cheaper monitor for MacBook Pro, and I'd buy one in a second

At last, an Apple monitor that doesn't cost more than a second-hand car

Apple Pro Display XDR
(Image credit: Apple)
Carrie Marshall
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Apple's Pro Display XDR isn't the best MacBook Pro monitor unless you've got a really big budget: while it's an incredible display it's also incredibly expensive, coming in at £4,599 for the standard model or £5,499 for the one with Nano-texture glass. So it's good to hear that Apple is working on something much cheaper – and we don't mean cheaper compared to five thousand quid. And that means I might actually be able to afford one.

Two sizes for considerably less cash

According to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman, as reported by MacRumors, Apple is making a successor to its much-missed Thunderbolt Display. Unlike the Pro Display XDR, which is strictly for the highest of high-end users, it's going to be a consumer model.

The new display may come in two iMac-sized versions, 24 inches and 27 inches, and there may also be a 32-inch version. That's the same size as the Pro Display, but we don't know if this is a direct replacement or a cheaper, less well-specced alternative. It and the 27-inch are expected to be mini-LED displays with variable 120Hz refresh rates.

As for the price, that's reported to be around $999 for the entry level model – which is fairly pricey by display standards but not by Apple standards. The 27-inch may come in at around $2,500.

There's no sign of a release schedule just yet so here's hoping Apple uses some of its time to fix the annoying display bug that currently plagues non-Apple USB-C displays: there seems to be a bug in the M1 MacBook Pro's USB-C display support and it's really rather annoying, waking my external display any time it feels lonely. That's irritating enough on a third party display but it'd be much worse on an Apple one costing twice the price.

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Carrie Marshall
Carrie Marshall

Writer, musician and broadcaster Carrie Marshall has been covering technology since 1998 and is particularly interested in how tech can help us live our best lives. Her CV is a who’s who of magazines, newspapers, websites and radio programmes ranging from T3, Techradar and MacFormat to the BBC, Sunday Post and People’s Friend. Carrie has written more than a dozen books, ghost-wrote two more and co-wrote seven more books and a Radio 2 documentary series; her memoir, Carrie Kills A Man, was shortlisted for the British Book Awards. When she’s not scribbling, Carrie is the singer in Glaswegian rock band Unquiet Mind (unquietmindmusic).

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