A new review calls Apple’s Pro Display XDR a “no go” for professional colorists

HDTVTest reviewer Vincent Teoh took Apple’s Pro Display XDR through its paces, concluding that the $5,000 monitor fails to offer performance on par with Sony’s BVM-HX310 reference display that takes advantage of dual-layer LCD technology and costs $43,000.

In his video review embedded below, via The Loop, Vincent says that Apple’s display is a “no go” for professional colorists due to issues with screen uniformity, color accuracy and contrast at peak brightness. At the end of the day, he said, the Pro Display XDR is “just an IPS display with 576 full array local dimming zones that happens to carry Apple’s logo and costs $5,000.”

Here’s the gist of what he complained about:

Compared side by side with the Sony HX310, the Pro Display XDR exhibits a number of shortcomings, particularly in dark scenes such as localized luminous fluctuations, blooming artifacts, as well as noticeably grayer blacks. For a monitor to be used as a reference for commercial color grading, there can be no doubt whatsover about the picture on screen.
Let’s say J.J. Abrams is looking over your shoulders and wants a bit more lens flare in a particular scene. Can you be hundred percent sure that the visual effects you’re adding in post will be reproduced accurately when watched on other displays? With the Pro Display XDR, there’s no way you can tell.

I wish he compared the stands as well…

Be that as it may, the reviewer went on to opine that Apple’s marketing teams may have been a bit overzealous in calling the Pro Display XDR the “world’s best pro display.”

One could point out that it’s not especially fair to compare a $5,000 monitor to one costing over $40,000, but Apple actually brought this type of scrutiny upon itself — in announcing the Pro Display XDR, the company’s executives pointed out that the Pro Display XDR matches the performance of professional reference monitors that sell for much more, mentioning Sony.

It’s unclear whether the reviewer is aware that the Pro Display XDR offers several reference modes that match the requirements of HDR, HD, SD video, digital cinema and broader uses such as photography, web development, design and print.

“Just select a mode, and the display reconfigures itself to match a specified color space, white point, gamma and brightness,” according to Apple’s website. Customers will soon have the ability to create custom reference modes, the company added.

What do you think about this review?

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