Apple released the Studio Display in March 2022, alongside the first Mac Studio, and it has not received any hardware upgrades since.
The current Studio Display features a 27-inch LCD screen with a 5K resolution, a 60Hz refresh rate, up to 600 nits brightness, a built-in camera and speakers, one Thunderbolt 3 port, and three USB-C ports. In the U.S., the monitor starts at $1,599.
Below, we recap rumors about a potential Studio Display 2.
Mini-LED by Early 2026
Apple plans to release a new Studio Display in late 2025 or early 2026, according to Ross Young, a display industry expert and VP at Counterpoint Research.
In a subscriber-only post shared on X in February, Young said the new Studio Display would feature the same 27-inch screen size as the current model, but add mini-LED backlighting. This upgrade would result in increased brightness and higher contrast ratio compared to the current model, which has traditional LED backlighting.
Young did not share any further details, so it is unclear if any other Studio Display specifications would change, such as the refresh rate.
Young has a respectable track record with display-related information for future Apple products. For example, he was the first source to reveal the iPhone 16 Pro and iPhone 16 Pro Max would feature 6.3-inch and 6.9-inch displays, respectively, over a year before the devices launched. He is the founder and former CEO of Display Supply Chain Consultants, a research firm that was acquired by Counterpoint Research in late 2023.
A new Studio Display with mini-LED backlighting has been rumored by a few other sources, including Apple supply chain analyst Ming-Chi Kuo and Bloomberg's Mark Gurman. The display will likely launch in 2026, according to Gurman.
90Hz Rumor
In November 2024, an anonymous listener of the Relay FM tech podcast "Upgrade" claimed that Apple was developing 90Hz display technology that could be used for the next Studio Display. This higher refresh rate would make content like videos and text while scrolling look smoother to the eye, but 90Hz would stop short of the 120Hz refresh rate that iPhones and Macs with ProMotion support can achieve. It is not clear to us if this individual has any established track record with Apple-related rumors, so keep that in mind.
