I look forward to seeing if the M1 Ultra is truly twice as fast as the M1 Max, but I expect that the Mac Studio with M1 Ultra will be so fast that any future Mac Pro will become even more of a niche product for the most deep-pocketed high-end users.Īs for the M1 Max? If you know how fast an M1 Max-based 2021 MacBook Pro is, you know more or less how fast the M1 Max-based Mac Studio is. Unfortunately, the Mac Studio Apple provided to me for review was an M1 Max version (32-core GPU, 2TB, 64 GB of RAM) that lists for $3199. The M1 Ultra chip in the Mac Studio is something we’ve never seen before, and it has the potential to make the high-end Mac Studio the fastest Mac ever released by a wide margin. While I didn’t fill up all of those ports, I did transfer an array of cables and adapters from the back of my iMac Pro to the Mac Studio and didn’t have to dig out a single adapter or find a USB hub to accommodate them.
MAC MINI MEMORY CARD SLOT FULL
(My test unit was an M1 Max model, so those front ports were USB-C on models with the M1 Ultra chip, they’re full-fledged Thunderbolt 4.)Īnd then there’s the full array of ports on the back: Four Thunderbolt 4, two USB-A, HDMI, a headphone jack, and 10Gb Ethernet. I also plugged a keyboard into that front USB port. I used the SD card on the front of the Mac Studio twice on the very first day I had it connected. That’s the story of the Mac Studio.Īpple hasn’t skimped on the Mac Studio when it comes to what a certain portion of its customer base wants-connectivity.
When you choose to stick ports on the front of a computer- hey everybody, Apple put ports on the front!!-you are choosing function over form. But that may be the point: this is a computer designed to be used, not to be looked at as a piece of art.
I wouldn’t really call the Mac Studio attractive-in fact, I think it’s kind of homely. If Apple’s designers were going for “utilitarian minitower,” they nailed it. The Mac Studio’s front is featureless except for a small power light, two USB-C ports, and an SD card slot. Like the Mac mini, it’s a silver aluminum block 7.7 inches long and wide, but it’s 3.7 inches high, making it about as tall as two and a half Mac minis. But Apple didn’t go back to the drawing board when it came to designing the Mac Studio: It’s really a very tall Mac mini. The Power Mac G4 Cube was a little bit taller.Īnd now, here in 2022, there is suddenly a fourth choice, the closest thing to a minitower Mac since the beige Power Mac G3 desktop. But during this century (with the brief and interesting exception of the Power Mac G4 Cube) if you’ve wanted to plop a Mac on your desk, your choices have been the iMac, the Mac mini, or the (increasingly expensive) Power Mac/Mac Pro. The pizza box, the mid-range desktop, and the tower were standard configurations of Power Mac. In fact, that might be the most beautiful thing about the Mac Studio: It fills a very specific ecological niche to perfection.īack in the olden days, Apple made a load of different desktop Macs in different shapes and at different prices. I bought one for myself on the day the product was announced, and after a week of using one provided by Apple, I’m sticking with that purchase, but plenty of people will be better served by a different Mac model. The beauty of the Mac Studio is, I suppose, in the eye of the beholder. For the moment, it’s the fastest Mac ever made-and yet if you’re a MacBook Pro user, you might find that your laptop offers equivalent performance. Some will find it utterly boring-but others will consider it the fulfillment of a decades-long dream. The Mac Studio isn’t for everyone, that’s for sure. It’s more powerful than an iMac or Mac mini but more affordable than a Mac Pro. It’s a kind of Mac- the mid-range-desktop-that used to be common, but vanished shortly after Steve Jobs returned to Apple. The Mac Studio is the first entirely new entry in the Mac product line in a very long time.
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