> Apple, if you ship a monitor with a non-adjustable stand in 2022, please make sure that the default height is at an ergonomic level. It should be at least 5-8 centimeters higher.
That's terrible advice. For a non-adjustable stand it needs to be at or near the lowest that people would want, because it is way easier to raise a fixed stand that is too low by putting something under it than it is to lower a fixed stand that is too high. (At least when the stand base is a simple rectangle--it might be harder on monitors that have narrow crescent bases).
Bricks are cheap [1] and would be great for raising such a monitor.
According to the specs at Apple the top of the monitor when on the non-adjustable stand is 47.8 cm above your desk. They don't give the bezel size but I've seen reviews say it is about 1/2", and that looks reasonable from the photos, so call it 1.3 cm. That would put the top of the screen at 46.5 cm.
I just measured my 27" iMac, which has the same size screen and a non-adjustable stand. The iMac top of screen is 49.5 cm about the desk.
I found the iMac a little too high. I ended up getting larger wheels [2] for my chair to effectively lower the iMac and putting a pillow on my chair to get a little more height for myself to make the iMac relatively lower. (Those are great wheels BTW. Unlike regular chair wheels these do not seem to end up clogged with hair wrapped around the axles).
Best advice. Those things are totally worth it. My work setup is an iMac with a VESA arm, adjustable to any height, distance and angle that I prefer on any given day. I can even improvise a standing-desk setup simply by getting out of the chair, adjusting the monitor arm, and placing the keyboard/mouse on a laptop stand on the desk.
I’ve never really understood how so many people could come to the conclusion that the 5K iMac was too low. An ideal ergonomic screen height is the top of the screen 5 to 10 cm above eye level, and I’ve always wondered what kind of desk setups people have where it ends up way below that to the point that it needs raising. If anything the 5K iMac was a few cm too tall, and it is a good thing the studio display is lower.
Because it depends on torso height too and that varies from person to person? What's a few cm too tall for you could easily be 5 cm too short for me. This combined with different chairs and different table heights results in different eye level points.
I don't understand why Apple is just so cheap here. On a $200 monitor you can maybe make the case it shouldn't be height adjustable to save a few bucks, on a $1600 one it's just inexcusable.
Interesting, you and the poster you are replying to are the only people I’ve ever heard saying the 27” iMac is too high. Perhaps the difference is where your keyboard and mouse are located? If they are under the desktop on a keyboard tray, then your desktop height is effectively a few inches higher than it otherwise would be, and so is the iMac. But if the iMac is sitting on the same surface as the mouse and keyboard, then you must just have an odd preference for looking at a downward angle or a very short torso?
I've been using a laptop as my primary computer for ~8 years now. Now I find it difficult (unergonomic) to go back to a normal monitor; I'm more comfortable with my head tilted down 20º. I wonder if laptop use leads to this preference for lower monitors.
In our office when we had the earlier Thunderbolt displays, which had the same tendency to be too low, everyone used reams of copier paper to raise them a couple of inches.
That's terrible advice. For a non-adjustable stand it needs to be at or near the lowest that people would want, because it is way easier to raise a fixed stand that is too low by putting something under it than it is to lower a fixed stand that is too high. (At least when the stand base is a simple rectangle--it might be harder on monitors that have narrow crescent bases).
Bricks are cheap [1] and would be great for raising such a monitor.
According to the specs at Apple the top of the monitor when on the non-adjustable stand is 47.8 cm above your desk. They don't give the bezel size but I've seen reviews say it is about 1/2", and that looks reasonable from the photos, so call it 1.3 cm. That would put the top of the screen at 46.5 cm.
I just measured my 27" iMac, which has the same size screen and a non-adjustable stand. The iMac top of screen is 49.5 cm about the desk.
I found the iMac a little too high. I ended up getting larger wheels [2] for my chair to effectively lower the iMac and putting a pillow on my chair to get a little more height for myself to make the iMac relatively lower. (Those are great wheels BTW. Unlike regular chair wheels these do not seem to end up clogged with hair wrapped around the axles).
[1] https://www.homedepot.com/p/8-in-x-2-1-4-in-x-4-in-Clay-Bric...
[2] https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01CGZPOK2/