According to John Gruber of Daring Fireball, the Apple Studio Display runs a complete version of iOS 15.4.
The Studio Display's software may be found in System Information, under "Graphics/Displays," and it runs "Version 15.4 (Build 19E241)." The Studio Display has the same build number as iOS 15.4 and iPadOS 15.4, suggesting that it runs the complete version of iOS.
To enable its 12-megapixel Ultra Wide front-facing camera with Center Stage and six-speaker sound system with Spatial Audio, the Studio Display incorporates an A13 Bionic chip, the same chip used in the iPhone 11 series, 2020 iPhone SE, and ninth-generation iPad. The existence of the A13 processor suggested that the display ran a variety of current Apple software, similar to how the HomePod and HomePod small run a version of tvOS, but the device's specific software remained unclear until recently.
The first reviews of the Studio Display were published yesterday, and a prevalent criticism among reviewers was that the image quality of the built-in webcam ranged from "ancient BlackBerry" to "terrible" in their hands-on testing. Gruber claimed in his in-depth evaluation of the Studio Display that the camera is "crushingly disappointing" and "astonishingly awful," with the image being "horrible" and Center Stage being "glitchy."
With the revelation that the Studio Display runs iOS, Apple's anticipated upgrade to increase the webcam's quality will surely be included in an iOS update. Other details concerning how software upgrades for the Studio Display function are unknown at this time.
