Our first look at the new Mac Pro and Pro XDR 6K display
You can look, but you can't touch.
Apple just wrapped its two-hour-plus WWDC keynote, and though it was mostly focused on the company's software, it was two pieces of hardware news that ultimately stole the show. The company finally debuted its long-awaited new Mac Pro and with it, a $5,000, 32-inch 6K Retina display, the Pro XDR. (That's short for Extreme Dynamic Range, har har.) Neither device will be available until the fall, but we did find both of them set up inside a demo area today at the conference.
Before you get too excited, these were hands-off demos; Apple doesn't want a bunch of know-nothings like us trying their hands at pro-grade apps they've never used, only to write about how the new machine looks like a cheese grater. (It totally looks like a cheese grater.) So for now, what we have here is a hands-off, eyes-only look, in the form of photos.
Interestingly, though, Apple also had iPads set up wherein you could explore the Mac Pro in AR. One of the machine's biggest selling points -- aside from its sheer graphical and compute performance, of course -- is how relatively accessible the internal components will be. (Fun fact: Lifting the handle automatically shuts down the machine so that you don't electrocute yourself or anything.) Unfortunately, there wasn't a real-life demo where you could see someone grip the handle on top and lift the lid to expose the internals, but this was the next best thing: an AR simulation where you slide your finger up on the enclosure to remove it.
From there, you can tap on the components to learn a little more. As you walk around the table where the AR Mac Pro is set up, you'll see additional components that were possibly hidden from view from where you first started. An Apple spokesperson staffing the demo area confirmed that an AR-compatible file will also be available on the Mac Pro's product page for anyone to download.
As for the display, five minutes in a crowded pit is not long enough to judge on the quality of the display. That said, it's certainly striking. 6K is all well and good, but it's HDR where Apple's efforts push new ground. The company says its panel can hold 1000 nits of brightness across the panel indefinitely -- VESA only requires a 1,000-nit "full-screen flash" to put a panel its highest DisplayHDR 1000 tier.
Chris Velazco contributed to this report.
