Customer Ratings & Reviews

I'm illustrating and animating at the same time across 5 different screens!

Really excited that they came out with a fast speed unit that can compete against PCs!

I had upgraded from a late 2018 Mac Mini (Intel i7 + eGPU/RX 580) and I can confirm that the performance is significantly greater on this M1 Max Mac Studio. I use my Mac primarily for web app development, specifically with React development. The time to compile code is much quicker on the initial run, and each hot reload compiles in less than half the time on the app I work on, with browser hot reloading almost in an instant. The best part of this upgrade is that this Mac Studio is quiet, I only ever heard the fans run on the initial setup when I first got it, but nothing ever since — yet the chassis itself is cool, and I mean VERY cool to the touch. Unlike my Mac Mini which was uncomfortably hot to the touch, and the fan was at full speed the entire time of use (even with an external GPU offloading GPU tasks). My Mac Mini increased the ambient temp in my room by 20 degrees, and the Mac Studio lowered it. This alone — for someone who hates being stuck in a hot and muggy room all day — is a big deal. One thing worries me: When in use, it gets very cold (good thing). But when I put the Mac to sleep, overnight it actually gets warm as if it's not really asleep and is still doing something. I disabled everything that could that might wake it up, but nothing fixes this. Physically setting up the box isn't difficult, it was simple and to the point. And it looks ok, though kinda goofy. It's like two and a half Mac Mini's high, but it's got the same general shape. There is an annoying issue with this Mac: It slides around the desk easily with the slightest touch. I can imagine if you had something plugged into it and accidentally yanked it, you can send this Mac flying off your desk. There is no grip at the bottom. There is one major improvement over the Mac Mini however: I no longer have persistent Bluetooth issues when a USB3 cable is plugged into the Mac (see the history on this by searching on Google). And all my headphones and other devices connect quickly and remains connected, unlike the Mac Mini which was a 50/50 chance on connecting or would just drop connections. The only issue keeping this from being a 5-Star review is that like all the Apple computers I had before this: Power Mac, Macbook Pro, Mac Mini, ALL of them have issues managing a triple monitor setup. I have Triple 2k monitors, and while all of these Macs were able to use Triple once you set it up, the problem is when waking it up from sleep, the Mac forgets which monitor is which and will re-arrange my workspaces on the wrong monitors, and it will even re-arrange the actual monitors themselves. Perhaps most disappointing of all, the Mac Studio is even worse at this. 100% of the time I wake my Mac Studio up, I have to rebuild my desktop environments on all three monitors, and half the time it won't even wake up one of the monitors and I have to do a full shut down and then power on just so it does wake up and recognize the monitor. It's very frustrating as my Linux and Windows machines do not have this issue on the same monitors. This is some kind of Apple Exclusive issue that I had hoped would be fixed by now, but they actually made it worse. The other issue I discovered with Triple 2k Monitors is that the image becomes blurry when setting the refresh to 120Hz. My monitors support this (works fine on my PC), but I can't use it on Mac Studio because everything is blurry. I can either set them to 100Hz, or 144Hz, but not 120Hz. At 100Hz screen is sharp, but motion is blurry. I can't set all three monitors to 144Hz because the Mac is unable to drive all three at 144Hz so one of them blinks off and on as the Mac struggles. Right now I have to have one monitor at 100Hz and the other two at 144Hz and it's disappointing, but then again, it's an Apple. Aside from all the disappointing issues with monitors, the Mac itself as a performant machine is good (compared to other Apple machines). I'm not convinced that it's a real $1999 machine, it feels more like a $1499 machine when compared to some of my $1400 PC builds. It doesn't match my PCs in performance, but for what I need it to do in an Apple environment, it's good. Overall I would recommend as an overall solid "general" machine if $1999 doesn't break the bank.

I am a retired I.T. professional. This is a very powerful and nice computer to use but is not like a windows system. So if you have only used a windows system you will have to learn new things. For example when you download something in your browser you cannot go to the download section of the browser to open it. You have to go to the Finder and open it via the download folder. When I went to use it after it has been idle and went to sleep it would not reconnect to my wired or wireless network. I had to turn them off and on to reconnect. I found it works best to hard set the IP address and network speed and it minimized this. Linux does the same thing and MacOS is based on Linux. This problem is most likely exasperated due to having wired and wireless on but Apple recommends this. My apple watch unlocks this so it needs wireless on. I like this so much I traded this M1 for an M2 studio! But I'm a geek and like toys....

I had a base M1 Mac Mini (256 GB SSD, 8 GB RAM). I ran out of disk space quickly and started getting warning messages. I suspect this is because the 8 GB RAM wasn't enough and my SSD was being used as a swap disk for virtual memory. I'd often have to reboot to clear the disk of the swap files. Thus, when I heard about the Mac Studio I immediately bought one. I am very pleased with it so far. 32 GB of RAM and 512 GB SSD is the sweet spot for power users such as myself. I am not a video editor or photographer. I use my Mac to run my small business and trade stocks. I also have a ton of apps open at the same time. I did the following test where I had all of these applications open: Safari and Chrome with tabs open, Evernote, Discord, Excel, Word, Apple Music, Apple Photos, Twitter, Slack, VLC, Zoom, plus more apps I'm forgetting now. I had 20 apps open at the same time and according to Activity Monitor I was using 24GB of RAM with no swap usage! Most importantly, the system felt just as snappy and responsive with all these apps open as it did with just 1 app open. On the Mac Mini I couldn't even think about having this many apps open; if I had 10 apps open I'd get the dreaded "beach ball". Also, now I can hook up to four monitors via thunderbolt whereas in the Mini I was limited to 1 monitor via thunderbolt and 1 via HDMI. In summary, if you want the best possible MacOS experience, with no slowing you down, get the Mac Studio. I anticipate having this computer for the next 5 years at least.

Stellar. Upgraded to the M1 Max Studio from a 2017, 27" iNtel iMac. Are you kidding me? The advancements of Apple silicon are just ridiculous. I am a freelance creative who does a lot of photo editing--tasks that might take 6 to 8 minutes processing time on iNtel, about 6 seconds on Apple Silicon. There is just no comparison. Do you need the latest and greatest M-whatever version has just come out? Probably not, however, if are still on an iNtel MAC, you gotta make the jump to the new M chips. You won't regret it. Been about a year since purchase and I have yet to slow this thing down let alone crash---was a daily occurrence with the intel iMac. Is well worth the upgrade. Keep in mind, do NOT upgrade the internal storage, get a SSD can connect via USB--the Apple price on internal storage is just plain stupid. I keep only my apps on the Mac hard drive, all my documents and content are on a SSD. No reason to pay Apple even more money!!

Although I haven't had the computer very long, so far it's great. Very fast and able to handle ProTools Ultimate with lots of plug-ins without breaking a sweat. A very nice upgrade from the Mac "Pro" trashcan that I never did grow to like. Very quiet and cool running. Lots of ports but you'll still want those docks and hubs if you have lots of externals. I'm running 3 HDMI monitors using an external dock that has 2 additional HDMI ports. One is mirrored, but I believe you can also have 3 different ones now... (not sure about that though.) As with all Macs now... just be sure you buy what you'll need since they have no real hardware upgrade options. I had 64gb of ram in my Trashcan, but 32gbs here seems to be more than enough now. Video post editors might want to compare this one with the more maxed out models. But do your homework... this is a lot more computer for the money than we've seen from Apple in the past. My only complaint so far is the power switch on the back. My computer is shelved in a closet out of the control room. This was necessary in the past because of the fan noise. The M1 Max is very quiet and would probably not be a problem in the control room, but since I don't want to rewire everything, it's in the closet. The power switch is perfectly flush with the unit... you know Apple... very sleek... but almost impossible to feel while reaching from the front with no visual! But I'll get used to it. If that's all I find to whine about, I'll be very happy.

I had been waiting with anticipation to replace an aging 27-inch iMac. Since the pandemic started, I've been working from home more, And, my iMac simply didn't have the horsepower to handle my workload. I don't do video editing. But, I typically have many apps open at once for presentations, spreadsheets, memos, notes, calendar, email, web browsing, Zoom, Twitter, Slack, etc. The pivot to this base version Mac Studio Max has been life changing. It's the desktop equivalent of a Porsche. The 32gb of memory is more than enough for my workload. And I have an external drive and iCloud for supplemental storage, so the 512ssd storage is plenty. This machine is a beast -- ultra fast and responsive. It's also uber functional, with its four thunderbolt ports, two USB-A ports, HDMI, 10g ethernet connection and headphone jack. Conveniently, it also has two UBC-C ports and and an SDXC card slot on the front. It has all of the connections you'll need. To replace my iMac, I also bought the base 27-inch Studio Display. This setup is not cheap. But if you're looking for a workhorse computer that should last for years, this Mac Studio M1 Max is worth the investment.

This computer is quite a bit faster and quieter and uses less power than the Mac mini it replaced. I do audio production and it has handled all the tasks I have given it without breaking a sweat. There are some compatibility issues but that has to do with non M1 native software rather than the computer itself, and these issues will lessen over time. This was the base model which I think would be adequate for almost everybody. You will need to supply your own keyboard, monitor and mouse, but I had those items already. I would recommend looking at non-Apple monitors as you’ll get more bang for the buck.

The Mac Studio M1 Max is a great machine with a lot of power. It was very easy to setup on my wireless network. I'm also running Windows 11 as a VM through Parallel with no issues at all. Office 365 runs well on it too. Printing to my multifunction brother printer was easy to setup too. I don't ever seem to run out of memory anymore like i did on the mac mini. I also have a sandisk usb nvme drive connected to it and it has worked flawlessly.

This is a beast. Very powerful and makes no noise. Tons of ports

I like Mac Studio, it's fast , it had everything I need USB A , USB-C, and thunderbolt USB-C and HDMI, SD card I don't have spend more money for buy external dongle or dock. It working good , Logic Pro X and garageband work good. Mac OS very easy to use , I was thinking build PC intel core i9 12900K, But I like MAC better ,I'm been using MAC from 2015. Mac studio with M1 Max is a beast, a Monster for $2000 it worth every penny. It small and compact , you can go travel with Mac studio with portable monitor and small keyboard and mouse .Nothing to say more. I'm highly recommend this MAC STUDIO .

Apple has done it again by causing waves throughout the computing market! For those looking for Top Level performance and a reasonable price point, the Mac Studio fits the bill in every single department! Plenty of IO ports, Apples M1 MAX chipset with ample RAM for 4k-8k video editing, and a sleek minimal design to round everything all together! What more can be said, Apple has really stepped up their game in recent years and its exciting to see what follows up!

My 2017 Macbook Pro was slowing down and it was getting frustrating to do basic tasks on it. So it was time for an upgrade. I decided to go with M1 Mac Studio since I am not traveling for work or need a computer on the go. I purchased this Mac Studio at a discount because the new M2 Mac Studio was announced. This thing is an absolute beast and it does everything I need really fast. I am a developer, and the firepower in this machine is more than adequate. I will eventually get into video editing and photography, so we will see how the machine holds up. With the M2 now out, if you can get this one on a deal, I would absolutely recommend it. Especially if you're not a power user, this will be more than adequate for what you need.

Wonderful computer. Fast and compact. Completely silent and easy to setup and use.

Bearing in mind that I have an iMac 27, MacBook Air 2020, iPad Pro, and several iPhones, I was never happy with Apple products like I was from Mac Studio. Everything works flawlessly. I was deciding between MacBook Pro 14' and Mac Studio. By purchasing Mac Studio, I have a better machine for the same price. If you are in the same situation, don't think. Just get Mac Studio. You will be impressed.

I purchased the base model of the M1 Mac Studio. While lacking a bit in stock storage (as all Apple products do), it's performance has been flawless. It handles everything I throw at it. I use it as a development box, file server, and graphics editing. I have literally no complaints about it. I do strongly recommend getting AppleCare for it though, as it's basically a single board computer, and you can't simply replace components as they're all soldered in.

Coming from being a 20yr windows user, this computer met my needs for running my recording studio. Even though Pro Tools and most other 3rd party developers aren't natively compatible yet with M1, everything is running good for me with Rosetta. Would highly recommend for doing audio recording.

Was a great buy! It’s really fast and good for video editing

Best investment I’ve made in years. I was using an hp laptop to create music for about 5 years and upgraded to the Mac Studio. An amazing piece of equipment. No lagging or buffering issues even with multiple open tabs and a bunch of plugins running if I could give more than 5 stars I would. Best part is even though it’s not a laptop it’s compact enough to go where I go.