Apple is officially done making displays

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The LG UltraFine 5K is the closest thing we'll get to an Apple Thunderbolt 3 display.
The LG UltraFine 5K is the closest thing we'll get to an Apple Thunderbolt 3 display.
Photo: Apple

The days of Apple making its own stand-alone displays for the Mac Mini and Mac Pro are dead.

Apple revealed a new 5K 27-inch Thunderbolt 3 display during its “Hello Again” keynote yesterday, only instead of being made by Apple, the company partnered with LG to create the monitor. And according to people who talked to Apple at the event, there are no plans to ever make an Apple display again.

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The Verge editor-in-chief Nilay Patel tweeted this afternoon that he was informed by Apple that “it’s out of the stand-alone display biz.”

Apple’s Thunderbolt Display was introduced on July 20, 2011. The company discontinued it on June 23, 2016. A rumor claimed Apple was working on a new Thunderbolt 3 display with a built-in GPU, but it was quickly shot down.

What’s special about LG?

Despite getting out of the display business, Apple did add some tech to LG’s display so that it integrates better with Macs. Jason Snell reports that you can adjust the brightness settings on the LG 5K UltraFine display from your Mac, rather than pushing buttons on the display itself.

The new 5K display will go on sale for $1,300 in December. If you don’t need that big a screen you can step down to the 4K version that uses USB-C for $700.

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