Remember the new Pro Display XDR, the 32-inch 6K display companion to the Apple MacCheese Grater Pro? Well, if you ordered one of these $5,000 beasts with the additional $1,000 nano-textured glass, Apple says you must exclusively use the cloth you will find in the box to clean it.
The new Mac Pro 2019 and the accompanying Pro Display XDR are now available for sale. In a support document called “How to clean your Apple Pro Display XDR”, Apple claims that you can’t use any other type of cloth but the Apple dry polishing cloth — which sadly doesn’t have any cool brand name like Apple MagicWipe.
“Use only the dry polishing cloth that comes with your display to wipe dust or smudges off the screen,” the tech note says, “don't add water or use other liquids to clean the nano-texture glass.” If you do, you will cause damage to the nano-textured coating, which was allegedly designed to provide with the perfect viewing conditions and avoid any glare.
If you lose the Apple MagicWipe (I’m going with that, sorry) then you need to “contact Apple to order a replacement polishing cloth.” The link embedded in that phrase only gets you to the Apple Support page and no order page, so we don’t know if the replacement will be free or cost money.
The Pro Display XDR is a 32-inch 6K panel that results in a 218 points-per-inch relative resolution. Apple claims it has a 1,000,000:1 contrast ratio, 1,000 nits full-screen sustained rightness, and 1,600 nits of peak brightness, plus what Apple calls Extreme Dynamic Range (XDR) that the Cupertino company claims goes beyond the standard HDR color range. The company says that XDR uses 10 bits to define color but that’s also what HDR10 does, so we have no clue what the difference is with HDR10 except having a cool name and a price tag as extreme as its branding.
Once again, the display with the nano-texture glass costs $6,000 — $1,000 more than the standard glass Pro Display XDR $5,000. The Pro Stand is an additional $1,000, but you can clean that with any old cloth you want. If you choose a VESA mount adapter, that’s “only” $200 extra.
At that price range, you better follow Apple’s cleaning instructions down to a T.
