What Display Daily thinks: A new professional display from Philips sent us down a rabbit hole of looking at the way companies have been trying to attract creative professionals away from Apple.
It’s actually frustrating that Apple doesn’t have a coherent display strategy. You can count the Vision Pro as part of that. It is probably equally frustrating trying to sell displays to Apple’s premium users, the creatives who have kept Apple going through its worst days, especially those years between Steve Jobs leaving and coming back.
The real issue should be how to take advantage of the opportunities inherently available for multi-monitor setups. I know that I am not alone in having a very powerful hub for my MacBook Pro and multiple displays that I can dock with on my desk. It’s a very productive set up, and it is a very easy process with a MacBook. My family will often just plug a MacBook Air into the same dock and use one of the screens every time they want to do a watch party, for example.
Selling one display and over-thinking the feature-to-feature comparisons is not a game that you can play with Apple. The brand is value-proof. However, expanding the visual real estate for users is underserved. That may be anecdotal, but it also may be a reflection of the conservatism or rigidity of the display industry.
As Jon Peddie has been saying since the 90s: the more you can see, the more you can do.
Philips First Venture Into Professional Displays for Creatives
Well, I have to say that Bob Raikes sent me down a rabbit hole today by saying that Philips’ launch of the Creator series of monitors is the first time the company has had a product for professional creatives. It was actually the notion that the Philips 27E2F7901 Creator could be a good monitor for MacBook users.
Full disclosure: I cannot figure out why Apple does not have a display business that includes a range of products and TVs. I am sure there are plenty of arguments for profitability, and product focus, but it makes no sense whatsoever that a company that essentially sells so much based on the perception of the value of the user-facing display would not have a wall of displays and TV in every one of its stores. It makes even less sense when it is willing to sell a pretty useless MR headset for over $3,000 with a dubious market opportunity, and an even more dubious profit margin.
| A Non-Definitive List of Displays for Creatives | Size | Resolution |
| Acer Nitro XV282K | 28″ | 3840 × 2160 |
| Acer Predator X32 | 32″ | 3840 × 2160 |
| Asus ROG Strix XG27UQR | 27″ | 3840 × 2160 |
| Asus ROG Swift OLED PG42UQ | 42″ | 3840 × 2160 |
| Cooler Master Tempest GP27U | 27″ | 3840 × 2160 |
| Dell Alienware AW3821DW | 38″ | 3840 × 1600 |
| Dell G3223Q | 32″ | 3840 × 2160 |
| Dell S2721QS | 27″ | 3840 × 2160 |
| Dell S2722QC | 27″ | 3840 × 2160 |
| Dell S3221QS | 32″ | 3840 × 2160 |
| Dell U2723QE | 27″ | 3840 × 2160 |
| Dell U3223QE | 32″ | 3840 × 2160 |
| Dell UltraSharp U2720Q | 27″ | 3840 × 2160 |
| Gigabyte AORUS FI32U | 32″ | 3840 × 2160 |
| Gigabyte AORUS FO48U OLED | 48″ | 3840 × 2160 |
| Gigabyte AORUS FV43U | 43″ | 3840 × 2160 |
| Gigabyte M27U | 27″ | 3840 × 2160 |
| Gigabyte M28U | 28″ | 3840 × 2160 |
| Gigabyte M32U | 32″ | 3840 × 2160 |
| Gigabyte M32UC | 32″ | 3840 × 2160 |
| Innocn 27M2V | 27″ | 3840 × 2160 |
| LG 27GN950-B | 27″ | 3840 × 2160 |
| LG 27GP950-B | 27″ | 3840 × 2160 |
| LG 32GQ950-B | 32″ | 3840 × 2160 |
| LG 32UL500-W | 32″ | 3840 × 2160 |
| LG 38GN950-B | 38″ | 3840 × 1600 |
| LG 38WN95C-W | 38″ | 3840 × 1600 |
| LG 40WP95C-W | 40″ | 5120 × 2160 |
| LG 42 C2 OLED | 42″ | 3840 × 2160 |
| LG 42 OLED Flex | 42″ | 3840 × 2160 |
| LG 48 C1 OLED | 48″ | 3840 × 2160 |
| LG 48GQ900-B | 48″ | 3840 × 2160 |
| LG 49GR85DC-B | 49″ | 5120 × 1440 |
| MSI Optix G321CU | 32″ | 3840 × 2160 |
| Philips 27E2F7901 Creator | 27″ | 3840 × 2160 |
| Samsung 43 QN90B QLED | 43″ | 3840 × 2160 |
| Samsung C49RG9/CRG9 | 49″ | 5120 × 1440 |
| Samsung Odyssey Ark S55BG970 | 55″ | 3840 × 2160 |
| Samsung Odyssey G7 S28AG70 | 28″ | 3840 × 2160 |
| Samsung Odyssey G7/G70B S32BG70 | 32″ | 3840 × 2160 |
| Samsung Odyssey G9 | 49″ | 5120 × 1440 |
| Samsung Odyssey Neo G7 S32BG75 | 32″ | 3840 × 2160 |
| Samsung Odyssey Neo G8 S32BG85 | 32″ | 3840 × 2160 |
| Samsung Odyssey Neo G9 | 49″ | 5120 × 1440 |
| Samsung Odyssey OLED G9/G95SC S49CG95 | 49″ | 5120 × 1440 |
| Samsung Smart Monitor M7 S43BM70 | 43″ | 3840 × 2160 |
| Sony 42 A90K OLED | 42″ | 3840 × 2160 |
| Sony Inzone M9 | 27″ | 3840 × 2160 |
If you try and figure out how to pitch a display to creatives, based on the product SKUs that are most visible in the market, most of which I hope are captured in the table above, you notice that there are Samsung, LG, and Sony on one side, a whole lot of game hardware companies, and Dell, which sits in a unique position, all by itself. Dell is probably the only pure business brand on this list (I am treating Alienware as a standalone gaming brand even though it is a part of Dell).
There are a couple of research papers, involving Microsoft. One, dating back to 2003, Toward Characterizing the Productivity Benefits of Very Large Displays, says that there are significant benefits to the use of larger displays for productivity and user comfort. A more recent 2022 paper (Do We Still Need Physical Monitors?) suggests a mix of virtual and physical monitors could be effective in providing larger, more productive, display options. I don’t think it is anecdotal to believe that Microsoft may know a thing or two about productivity in front of a computer, and has a lot invested in making its corporate customers happy about their software choices and the value they bring. And, judging by the size of most Excel spreadsheets the average product manager or financial analyst has to review, working on a laptop screen is about as enjoyable as picking needles out of a haystack.
Surely, there is no argument to make against the use of larger displays or more display areas for improved productivity and user comfort. Not that display size, or number of displays, is the only criteria for productivity. We tend to get so focused on smartphones because of their ubiquity and constant presence and use that we forget the value of ergonomics. Eye strain and eye fatigue all have a significant impact on productivity for people who are constantly in front of a screen. Lighting is pretty important. No doubt, most of you know of that, and anyone who can back to the very early days of high-resolution displays, the 800 × 600 and 1024 × 768 monitors of the late 80s and early 90s, will know that ergonomics was a big part of the selling proposition.
I can’t say that I would be excited about a 27-inch display, no matter how good it is. However, as an add-on to the typical 15-inch laptop display, it certainly is a big improvement. For creatives, their perception of colors and accuracy on a monitor plays an important role in their productivity and the ergonomic appeal of a product. Philips has done well to pitch its screen at just under $500. You just have to wonder whether creatives are being served as well as they could be by the industry. More display real estate, same high-quality values, but pricing that would allow for multiple display setups to become ubiquitous and not just unique or specialized.
