The entire objective of this computer, which is literally called the Mac Studio, is to be the ideal computer that is tiny and powerful enough to be used in a studio environment.
Apple had all these example studios at their event; From music studios to design studios to specifically video studios, so they built a little cube the size of two and a half mac minis with a load of io, new cooling, and a M1 ultra chip inside specifically for studio conditions.
Appearance.
When it comes to the M1 max chip, the M1 ultra basically doubles everything, so it’s like having two mac minis placed on top of each other and melted into one thick block.
It can sit on any desk with speakers, a monitor; or whatever else you set it up with because it is remarkably compact for the amount of power it produces.
There are four Thunderbolt connectors on the back of the computer; Which features a full suite of I/O ports, even more than the Mac Mini. A 10 gigabit ethernet port, a power socket, two USB-A ports, a HDMI 2.0 port (not 2.1 for some reason); and a headphone connection that can support higher impedance headphones, just like the MacBook pro.
If you get the regular M1 max version, you’ll get two USB C ports, but if you get the M1 ultra version, you’ll get two Thunderbolt 4 ports because there are literally more buses available, and an SD card slot because every studio I know has loads of SD cards laying about somewhere.
Modularity.
This thing isn’t modular at all; all of the parts are soldered in, and there’s no way to upgrade the RAM, GPU, or any other elements of the computer for the rest of its life. I’m not sure if there’s even a decent method to open it up and get into the Mac studio.
Performance.
It absolutely blew the doors off every other mac ever made, especially the iMac pro, dropping a multi-core score literally double the M1 max MacBook pro, and yes, that also makes it more powerful in the CPU department than any other mac ever made.
As a result, I believe individuals will seek out the benchmark that will demonstrate that this equipment will make them better at what they do. Just because it’s fast doesn’t mean it’s better. If you’re bad at editing and get this machine, you’ll still be bad at editing, just faster. However, I’m glad to see new machines like this still coming out that make significant improvements in performance.
