Did the new M4 iMac just tip us to a new Mac display coming from Apple?

Update October 29: Apple has amended the M4 iMac tech specs to remove mention of a 120Hz display.

Apple announced the new M4 iMac and it looks like a substantial upgrade. One of its new features is its boosted external display support. On the 10-core M4 iMac models, the external display support is impressive on paper. Here’s what the $1,499, $1,699, and $1,899 iMacs can do with external displays over Thunderbolt:

• Run up to two external displays, with each display at 6K/60Hz, or
• Run one external display at 8K/120Hz

Foundry

Apple has since tweaked the specs to replace 120Hz with 60Hz. The 8K reference remains. To clarify, the four-port model on the new iMac supports full native resolution on the built-in display at 1 billion colors and up to two external displays with up to 6K resolution at 60Hz, or one external display with up to 8K resolution at 60Hz.

That’s a nice upgrade from the previous single external display support (up to 6K/60Hz) on the M1 and M3 iMac and Apple’s other Macs. The funny thing is, while you can find third-party 8K displays, Apple doesn’t currently offer one. The current Apple Studio Display and Pro Display XDR have resolutions of 5K display and 6K respectively, and both displays have refresh rates of 60Hz.

So, could this 8K/120Hz support by the M4 iMac be a sign that Apple is planning to release a new display? Considering that the Pro Display XDR will be six years old in December, it’s due for an update–60Hz for a professional display is ludicrous, not to mention that the Pro Display XDR does not have a camera. The Apple Studio Display was released two years ago and is probably not going to be updated; it would remain the “affordable” alternative to a new Pro Display XDR (if they call it that).

Apple is rumored to be launching a new redesigned Mac mini this week, which is offered as a base M-series model and a model with an M-series Pro chip. If the M4 can run one 8K/120Hz display, you can bet the M4 Pro can too and probably more. So the new M4 Pro Mac mini release seems like a good time to release a new 8K Pro Display XDR with a variable refresh rate up to 120Hz. Will it happen? We’ll find out sometime in the next two days.