Reviewers Criticize Apple’s Studio Display Webcam, But Software Fix Coming Soon

Numerous reviews of Apple’s new $1,599 Studio Display, including ours, were less than impressed with the built-in webcam’s quality. We noted that the image quality from the camera is acceptable for video calls, but it produces grainier images with worse detail than images from iPhone front-facing cameras or even decade-old 1080p webcams like the Logitech C920.

Apple has confirmed to several publications, including The Wall Street Journal, that a software bug is affecting the image quality of the Studio Display webcam and that the company is working on a fix.

John Gruber of Daring Fireball shares more details attributed to the “little birds”(in DF parlance, this is usually a thinly veiled reference to Apple employees who might know something). They say the Studio Display’s webcam quality issues were caused by a “last-minute bug”and that a software update should make the webcam’s image quality as good as on an iPad with the same wide-angle display. camera.

Studio Display uses an Apple A13 SoC to power the Center Stage, Siri, and a few other smart features, and the SoC runs a version of iOS (up to the same version and software build number). Updates for this built-in version of iOS will be available via Software Update on the connected Mac, just like other macOS updates. We’ve reached out to Apple about the content and timing of this update, and we’ll let you know if we get a response.

Listed image from Apple