Apple surprised us all this morning during the Apple Event by announcing the modular Mac Studio computer and the 27” Studio Display monitor. There was not even a hint of this major move on the part of Apple in the rumor mill preceding the event.
It’s nice to see that Apple can still keep a secret! I was surprised and delighted by the announcement. On the other hand, I wasn’t really expecting to throw a lot of my money at Apple today …
The Mac Studio
The Mac Studio is apparently the replacement for the 27” iMac. It has disappeared from the Apple Store except in the refurbished and discontinued sections. At the end of the event, Apple announced that there was only one other Mac to be transitioned to silicon – the Mac Pro.
It looks kind of like a Mac Mini on steroids. It’s designed to sit on your desktop next to the new Studio display monitor.
The Mac Studio M1 Ultra has a number of ports. The M1 Max version substitutes USB C ports in the front for the Thunderbolt 4 ports on the M1 Ultra.
- Front: Two Thunderbolt 4 ports, one SDXC card slot
- Back: Four Thunderbolt 4 ports, two USB-A ports, one HDMI port, one 10Gb Ethernet port, one 3.5 mm headphone jack
It’s nice to see the ports on the front of the Mac Studio. It will make temporary connections (like a microphone) much easier without having to plug into the back.
The New M1 Ultra Chip
Apple announced the new M1 Ultra chip as the fastest CPU/GPU now in production. It’s only available in the Mac Studio, which also offers the M1 Max chip in its base model. The M1 Ultra chip is a combination of two M1 Max chips, which was the fastest chip Apple produced prior to today’s announcement. It makes the M1 Max chip look slow.
The New 27″ Studio Display Monitor
Many Mac enthusiasts have been requesting a new stand-alone monitor from Apple. For the past few years, the only monitor available has been the $5,000+ Pro Display XDR.
Although I would have liked to see a much less expensive 32″ monitor, I’ll take the 27″. I’ve looked at competing monitors and in the price range of the Studio Display, in my opinion, nothing even comes close to the richness of color, crispness, and overall delight of an Apple monitor.
The Studio Display is a 5K monitor with 6 speakers and spatial audio. It has a 12MP Ultra-Wide camera with the Center Stage feature and a new 3-microphone array. There are 3 USBC and 1 Thunderbolt port on the back of the monitor.
The Cost
The base model of the Mac Studio with the M1 Max chip sells for $1,999, and includes, 32GB of memory and 512GB of SSD storage. Options include faster chips, up to 64GB of memory, and up to 8TB of storage.
The base model of the Mac Studio with the M1 Ultra chip sells for $3,999 and includes 64GB of memory and 1TB of SSD storage. Options include faster chips, up to 128GB of memory, and 8TB of storage.
The tilt model of the Studio Display sells for $1,599. There are options for nano-textured glass for $1,899, a tilt-adjustable screen for $1,999, or VESA mount adapter for the same as the base model.
What I’ve Ordered
I’ve ordered a Mac Studio M1 Ultra with 64k memory and 2TB SSD drive. I’ve also ordered a 27” Studio Display monitor. These will replace my high-end 27” Intel iMac. Delivery of the monitor will be in about 10 days; the delivery date for the Studio Mac is 3-4 weeks.
Thank goodness I have a good trade-in value on my old iMac to bring the total price down. I also have a 10% military veteran discount and charged it on my Apple Card, which will pay me back 3%.
In the chart below you can see the estimated benchmarks that compare the performance of different types of chips. My present iMac is the very short bar at the bottom of each section. Needless to say, I’m looking forward to an amazing increase in computing speed on my desk.
