Apple’s recently launched Mac Studio just dethroned their M1 Mac Mini that was released in November 2020. It is currently their most powerful standalone desktop PC that also comes with a hefty price tag. The M1 Mac Mini is also an admirable portable PC at a relatively lower price tag than the Mac Studio. Considering this, is going for the most high-end tech always the best call? Or should you stick with the Mac Mini and save up some bucks? Let’s walk through a head-to-head comparison between two apple products.
Design
Similar to the Mac Mini, Mac Studio is designed to be used on top of your desk. The size, however, is in no way similar at all. It seems like Apple has stacked up 2 Mac Minis on top of each other. Consequently, it weighs about 7.9 Pounds which you will definitely feel while carrying it. Apart from that, this versatile device is loaded with ports. On the front, you get 2 USB-C and an SD card slot, and on the back, we have 4 Thunderbolt 4, 1 Ethernet Jack, 2 USB-A, an HDMI, and a headphone jack. The SD Slot will definitely come in handy to import photos and video from your camera while the additional connectivity options are bound to make your studio work more convenient.
Mac Mini on the other hand is slim and lightweight. It measures about 1.4 inches high, 7.7 Inches Wide, and has a depth of 7.7 inches. Simply put, it can fit most narrow corners while the 2.6 Pounds of weight is effortless to carry. Connectivity options are quite limited due to the slim profile of this device. You get 1 Ethernet Jack, 2 Thunderbolt ports, 1 HDMI, 2 USB-A, and a headphone jack on the back. And that is pretty much it. While they both have a 3.5mm audio jack, the one in the Mac Studio, however, supports high-impedance headsets. Another thing about the Mac Studio is that it can support 4, 6K Displays and 1, 4K, whereas, you can work with 1, 6K Monitor and 1, 4K monitor with the Mac Mini.
Specs
What sets apart the Mac Studio from the Mac Mini other than the size is the M1 Silicone. Mac Studio integrates an M1 Max and M1 Ultra variant while the Mac Mini is available with an M1 chip or previous intel models. M1 Ultra is basically 2 M1 Max Chips fused together resulting in a total of 20 Core CPUs and 48 Core GPU with a maximum of 800 GB/s bandwidth. You get Up to 64GB of Unified Memory with up to 8TB of configurable storage on the Mac Studio, whereas the Mac Mini offers up to 16GB of RAM and 2 TB of Storage. It goes without saying that the Mac Studio is all about raw performance judging by the specs.
Benchmark
M1 Ultra is way higher in terms of Multi-Core performance compared to any other M1 silicones released by Apple to this date as per Appleinsider’s testing.
Their GPU benchmark also shows an amazing result, given how the M1 Max yielded a score of 71614 on Geekbench 5 Metal testing whereas the M1 has only 21425.
Final Verdict
The base Mac Studio starts at 1999 dollars while the M1 Mac Mini costs around 699 dollars. If your work relates to heavy rendering and editing work and you can care less about the price, going for the Mac Studio won’t hurt you that much. Otherwise, the Mac Mini will suffice for light to medium editing tasks.
