If you watched Apple’s 8th of March Peek Performance event, then you must have shared my shocked expression when Apple announced a couple of unexpected products – like the Mac Studio with the new M1 Ultra chip and the 27-inch Studio Display.

You may have caught the few YouTube shorts and IG Reels that I posted on the unboxings several days ago. Well, here’s an additional treat: my hands-on and first impressions three days in!

 

Design & Build

Before the big announcement, the rumor mills were actively talking about a new “Mac Mini Pro,” and I personally expected that too. Well, Apple being Apple, LOVES to surprise. We got an all-new product line – the Mac Studio and a new Studio Display instead.

The Mac Studio looks strikingly familiar. The form factor is like the Mac Mini but taller. In fact, it’s almost like two Mac Minis stacked on top of each other, where I just like to call it “Mac Mini on steroids.” You’ll find out why in a bit.

It has the same footprint as the Mac Mini, measuring 197 millimeters square. It’s, of course, taller by 2.5 times, at 95 millimeters, compared to the slimmer 36 millimeters Mac Mini.

There’s a reason why it’s tall and has the extra bulk is because of a stronger thermal system to cope with the even more powerful M1 Max and M1 Ultra processors. 

If you take a peek underneath, there are intake vents or perforated holes surrounding the enclosure.

Then on the back, you will find similar holes to push out hot air, and over there, you’ll find an array of connectivity ports which we will talk about in the next section.

Overall, the Mac Studio is compact and features the signature Apple design and build, and yes, just from an aesthetics point of view, I absolutely love it, and there is nothing quite like it.

–

Next is the all-new 27-inch Studio Display, a beautiful 5K display that’s perfect for the Mac Studio.

It has an all-screen design reminiscent of the Pro Display XDR, with super slim black bezels. 

This model that I have comes with nano-texture glass that minimizes glare, and as you may know, the Studio Display comes with two types of stands or a VESA mount adapter option.

The one I have here is with the Tilt- and height-adjustable stand that features a beautiful counterbalancing arm that allows 30 degrees of tilt with 105 millimeters of height adjustment.

It’s incredibly well-engineered, and you can see how smooth and weightless it feels when you adjust both tilt and height.

By default, you can fit the Mac Studio neatly under the Studio Display or even on the side as they definitely look perfect together and REALLY Stunning, don’t you think?

 

Specs

Now, let’s just quickly run through the specs.

As you know, the Mac Studio comes with either the M1 Max or M1 Ultra chipset. This unit that I have features the M1 Ultra, which is built from two M1 Max chips. 

It rocks the 20 CPU cores and a 64-core GPU and comes with 128GB of RAM and 4TB of SSD storage.

Now, the reason why I didn’t go all the way with the 8TB option is because it was just too expensive for me, and also because I’ve always used an external SSD when it comes to collaborating on the video editing that I usually do on a daily basis.

And it’s incredible how much power this chip packs, supporting up to 18 streams of 8K ProRes 422 video playback and supporting up to 5 displays. 

With that, I can’t wait to test what this beast can do in my full review! Where I am going to take this M1 Ultra chipset to its limits of working with H.265 files to 12k resolution videos, testing it on Final Cut Pro, Davinci Resolve, and other creative software workflows like Logic Pro, Adobe After Effects, and more so stay tuned for that over here.

Despite its compact size, the Mac Studio offers plenty of connectivity ports, too. On the front are two Thunderbolt 4 ports or 2 USB-C ports on the M1 Max model and an SDXC card slot.

At the back, there are 4x Thunderbolt 4 ports, 1x 10 Gigabit Ethernet port, 2x USB-A ports, 1x HDMI port, and a 3.5mm high-res headphone jack, which is well enough to get you going without having to spend extra on a Thunderbolt hub or a docking station.

–

Then moving on to the Studio Display. This display is no less impressive.

It features a 27-inch 5K Retina display that packs 14.7 million pixels and pushes 600 nits of brightness and 1 billion colors. 

It boasts a P3 wide color gamut and True Tone, meaning it uses a built-in ambient light sensor to adjust the color temperature to match your environment automatically.

The display comes standard with the anti-reflective coating standard glass, and as mentioned earlier, I went with the nano-texture glass, which is ideal for bright light environments or light reflections like here in my studio.

What’s also cool is the built-in 12MP Ultra Wide Camera that has a 122-degree field of view and also features Center Stage. Center Stage, of course, keeps you centered in the frame as you move around during video calls. Works excellent also with video conferencing apps like FaceTime, Zoom, Webex, and many similar software.

Then when it comes to the ports at the back, there are 3x USB-C ports and 1x Thunderbolt 3 port.

What’s also amazing is that the Studio Display is powered by the A13 Bionic chip. I know, right, what the…? Well, there’s a good reason for this. The A13 Bionic chip is what powers features like Center Stage, Spatial Audio, and even “Hey Siri”

Speaking of audio, the Studio Display packs a studio-quality three-microphone array that’s great for video calls and video recordings. There’s also a six-speaker system under the display that consists of four force-canceling woofers and two high-performance tweeters. 

And thanks to Spatial Audio, you get immersive, cinematic sound whether you’re playing music or videos with Dolby Atmos.

So yes, you better believe that it sounds fantastic; where during my first impressions, I even edited this video and mixed my Voice Over and Music Audio only using the Studio Display’s speakers.

 

Conclusion

So yes, based on me having this for several days, it really does seem like the Mac Studio with Studio Display is like a match made in heaven, and based on my first impressions, it certainly looks and sounds like it. 

I just can’t believe that a computer so tiny can pack so much performance, and I can’t wait to really push it to the limits in my full review and if you have anything that you would like for me to test on with this combination, especially on the Mac Studio, do let me know in the comments section of my YouTube video, and I will revert back in my full video review

Purchase links:
Apple Mac Studio
https://www.apple.com/my/shop/buy-mac/mac-studio

Apple Studio Display
https://www.apple.com/my/shop/buy-mac/apple-studio-display