Mac Studio review

Apple’s latest Mac for creators, the Mac Studio, is here. It's fast, compact and looks good, but is it worth buying?

Mac Studio on a wooden desk
(Image: © Future)

Our Verdict

The Mac Studio is one of the best creative workstations you can buy right now, especially if you're after high performance in a small form factor. It makes light work of even the most intense projects, from editing ultra-high definition videos in Final Cut Pro, to working with multi-tracked audio projects in Logic Pro. Saying that, it's overkill for most people and is certainly not cheap.

For

  • Very powerful
  • Compact design
  • Plenty of ports
  • Silent in use

Against

  • Expensive
  • Non-upgradable
  • Overkill for many people

Why you can trust Creative Bloq Our expert reviewers spend hours testing and comparing products and services so you can choose the best for you. Find out more about how we test.

The Mac Studio is Apple’s latest workstation that’s aimed at creative professionals. Looking a bit like a Mac mini that’s hit the gym, the Mac Studio is an impressively compact PC that comes with a huge amount of power. Remember the hugely powerful M1 Max that powered the MacBook Pro 14-inch and MacBook Pro 16-inch? Well, the Mac Studio comes with one as well, offering you the kind of performance that’ll make light work of even the most intense projects, from editing ultra-high definition videos in Final Cut Pro, to working with multi-tracked audio projects in Logic Pro.

Still not enough power? Well, the Mac Studio can also be configured to come with the brand-new M1 Ultra chip. This is essentially two M1 Max chips connected together via a low latency, high bandwidth connector, turning them into one large M1 Ultra chip, which offers double the cores, memory and bandwidth of the already uber-powerful M1 Max. With an M1 Ultra installed, the Mac Studio is one of the most powerful machines Apple has ever built, coming close to rivalling the most expensive Mac Pro configuration, all while keeping the overall size of the machine small enough to fit on a desk. With specs like these, it seems the Mac Studio is likely to go straight to the top of our best computers for video editing and best computers for graphic design buying guides, but is Apple's latest machine really a viable purchase for most creative professionals? We tested it to find out...

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The Verdict
9

out of 10

Apple Mac Studio

The Mac Studio is one of the best creative workstations you can buy right now, especially if you're after high performance in a small form factor. It makes light work of even the most intense projects, from editing ultra-high definition videos in Final Cut Pro, to working with multi-tracked audio projects in Logic Pro. Saying that, it's overkill for most people and is certainly not cheap.

Matt Hanson

Matt has been a technology journalist for over 15 years, writing for publications such as T3, MacFormat and Creative Bloq. He's a managing editor of TechRadar, Creative Bloq's sister site, where he can be found writing about and reviewing laptops, computers, monitors and more. He often writes for Creative Bloq, helping creatives find their perfect laptop or PC.