Apple delays LG UltraFine 5K Display, blocks store sales

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LG UltraFine 5K Display
Customers now have to wait up to 6 weeks for shipping.
Photo: LG

Apple has delayed the LG UltraFine 5K Display while it awaits new units that are not susceptible to interference from Wi-Fi routers. The company has also blocked stores from selling existing stock, leaving fans to wait 5-6 weeks for new orders.

Apple started marketing LG’s new monitors after giving up on its own Thunderbolt Display. The UltraFine 5K Display even got some stage time during the company’s big MacBook Pro event back in October. But that move is beginning to backfire.

Soon after the display started making its way to customers, many stumbled across a strange interference problem. It turns out that placing the monitor too close to a Wi-Fi router can cause the image to flicker or disappear entirely until the router is moved away.

LG confirmed this issue last week and vowed to add extra shielding to new units to rectify it. However, all of the stock Apple currently holds is no good anymore, so the company won’t be making it available to customers.

The shipping estimate for the UltraFine 5K Display has slipped to 5-6 weeks on the Apple online store, while the company’s retail stores appear to have been blocked from selling any units they currently hold.

“Tonight I went into a Walnut Creek CA Apple Store and attempted to purchase an LG 5K UltraFine monitor which the store manager confirmed he had literally received yesterday, in the hopes I would get a model with updated Wifi shielding,” explains CoM reader Matthew Taylor.

“When the Apple store manager tried to sell it to me, the internal system would not allow him to sell it. As an experiment he tried inputting a 4K model, successfully, which confirmed that the sales lockout only applies to the 5K monitor.”

Taylor has now started a Change.org petition calling for Apple to make its own displays again.

Until LG rolls out new units, then — which looks to be in around five weeks — the UltraFine 5K Display will be unavailable. Apple is still selling the UltraFine 4K Display, and that’s available with immediate shipping and in-store pickup.

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