We last heard of Apple coming up with refreshes for its Mac Studio Displays back in September, thanks to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman. More recently code within iOS 26 looks to have revealed that the Studio Display refresh is indeed a thing. Some of its specs have also been gleamed from said code.
More specifically, Macworld reports that this comes from an internal pre-release build of iOS 26. Identified by its J527 code, it’s been noted to support a variable refresh rate VRR of up to 120Hz. This would bring it parity with the ProMotion display on other Apple devices featuring the tech. Whether it does itself come with ProMotion remains to be seen. Though it’s still quite the upgrade over the current Studio Display that’s locked to 60 Hz.
These references also indicate support for both SDR and HDR, where the current Studio Display is locked to SDR. Incidentally, the report also notes that the current generation display has a cap of 600 nits of brightness. Not brightness figures for the upcoming model. But for context, the newer MacBook Pro models can go up to 1,600 nits with HDR content.
Probably most notably, the upcoming Studio Display is noted to be powered by the A19 chip, used in this year’s iPhone 17. This doesn’t necessarily turn it into an AIO, but the chip will be used to handle webcam image processing and Spatial Audio.
The report also notes that Apple is targeting a launch of this refreshed Studio Display for sometime in 2026, This will likely coincide with a new M5 Mac Studio. But whether or not it pans out that way remains to be seen.
(Source: Macworld)
