Apple's 4K Mystery

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Less than a month ago, Apple’s European online stores posted a 4K monitor by Sharp for sale, but it was taken down shortly after. Could this be the 4K monitor we have been waiting for?

The Sharp 32-inch PN-K321

Apple blogs and other tech news websites reported that the display was posted on 6 December 2013. But as of 8 December 2013, Apple removed the monitor from the Apple online store.

The display in question is the 32-inch PN-K321 from Sharp.

The resolution is 3840 x 2160 pixels, 4K Ultra HD LCD display and  based on IGZO technology. It can display approximately 1.07 billion colours, has the obligatory 16:9 aspect ratio, a pretty dismal contrast ratio of 800:1, and a brightness rating of 350 cd/m2.

Apple’s latest Retina MacBook Pros are able to support one 4K display with the newly released Mac Pro being able to support up to three via thunderbolt or HDMI. We think it was about time that Apple offered something other than the current 27-inch Thunderbolt display, so that pro consumers can take full advantage of the new 4K support in their new Mac product lineup. With a resolution of 2560 x 1440 pixels, the Thunderbolt display is still a decent desktop monitor despite the fact that it has not been updated since July, 2011.

The aging Thunderbolt display from Apple costs $999 USD while the short-lived listing of Sharp’s 4K monitor was reported to cost $5500 USD.

With the futuristic Mac Pro recently released in the US market, the release of a 4K display must be following close behind. The starting price is a hefty $3000 USD which includes 12GB of memory, a Quad Core Intel Xeon E5 processor, Dual AMD300 FirePro graphic cards, and 256GB of PCIe flash storage. This machine is an engineering marvel and a beast of a computer. The future of the Mac Pro, and 4K displays look promising. “Full Speed Ahead”

Sources – MacRumors, Apple

Originally posted at http://www.blanksuniverse.ca .