if apple squeezed a mac pro into a mac
mini you might end up with something
like a studio mac i mean
mac studio i mean i mean m1 mac studio
max
studio mac no trash can no cheese grater
just a single block of extruded aluminum
with plenty of room for fans and ports
they've got ports on the front just like
the max we used to love apple has gifted
us two forward-facing usb-c ports and an
sd card slot for anyone who's been
living in johnny have's dongle versus
the past decade this is a breath of
fresh air remember all the ports that
max used to have welcome back to the
future the back is decked out with four
thunderbolt 4 ports ethernet usba hdmi
and even a glorious headphone jack the
studio is just about two and a half mac
minis tall but is dwarfed by steve jobs
stunning powermak g4 cube something
tells us this cube won't have a
convenient opening handle enough for the
outside time to figure out how to crack
this thing open don't get stumped by
that smooth exterior peeling up the foot
ring reveals four friendly torx screws
we're not in mac mini anymore toto this
black expanse is the underside of the
power supply not the antenna plate we've
seen in mini's past a couple stubborn
connectors later we find out the studio
really commits to this fashion statement
apple's industrial design team covered
the entire power supply in black tape
and color synchronized goop this thing
weighs a ton and is giving off some
serious darth vader vibes our next
victim a super exciting frame that gets
in the way of storage removal say what
you owe about the trashcan pro at least
it had immediately accessible upgrades a
single torque screw and some isolation
tape and the internal storage is free
there's even a spare slot right here on
the board time to find out if this
modular storage is actually upgradable
after a lot of testing some of it
interrupted by apple server issues we
actually have some definitive answers we
popped this stick into another base
model mac studio's empty slot but
configurator kept giving us dfu restore
errors no matter the configuration we
haven't gotten two base model drives to
boot in a single machine however when we
swapped the spare studio's drive for the
one in the teardown unit and used
configurator to do a dfu restore it
worked storage swaps are possible at
least between drives of the same size
jury's still out on upgrades but we can
always hope for a software update from
here this layer cake is a bit of a
puzzle we're desperate to get at those
modular looking ports but there's a lot
of tetris to take care of first
brackets connectors oodles of torque
screws even a torque standoff and we
finally free the usba board power
connector usb-c ports and glorious sd
card reader
with some more brackets and connectors
sprinkled throughout
dispatching more torque screws most of
the antennas and a heat sink bracket
finally frees the logic board
this heatsink honestly takes our breath
away we should probably be more excited
about the silicone but look at this
monster it looks like the dual m1 is
riding a little quadcopter in the ultra
that little chip is doubled and thanks
to ultrafusion architecture the dual die
looks and acts like a single ultra fast
2.5 terabyte chip an incredible feat of
engineering a feat we didn't spend the
money on that speed comes with a price
the ram is built in so upgrade it
purchase or forever hold your piece back
to the quadcopter it's actually a
massive heatsink and two fans
well a dual fan assembly anyway this
impressive array manages the heat
created by the m1 max and judging by
rave reviews they're doing a good job
oh and there's an antenna in here just
for fun these fans are just so much more
massive than other mac fans and the
heatsink positively dwarfs the m1 mini
with more than six times the weight the
ultra powered studio is even beefier
with a copper heatsink that's a whopping
two pounds heavier than the aluminum one
in our mac studio let's hope this system
likes dust it's gonna be a heck of a
chore to clean these out every couple
years
then again without upgradable storage
maybe the studio won't stay relevant
long enough to get dusty there's a
depressing thought
one more thing we couldn't resist
tearing into the studio display that
reviewers are ripping to shreds we're
excited to find out how much of a
computer this screen is turns out it
slices like an imac opens like an imac
and looks a lot like an imac we can't
wait to dig in the power supplies are
crazy thin and the fans surprisingly
hefty but what's up with that webcam it
peels up fairly easily and is definitely
a match for the iphone 11 but webcams
rely so much on software that we can't
say anything definitive quality wise
let's hope for an update but more on
this display later much more we love
that apple had the courage to beef up
their desktop allowing for awesomely
modular ports and a hefty heat
management system but the mac studio
falls short thanks to odd choices like
buried fans and non-upgradable storage
not to mention baked in ram all told the
mac studio nets a 6 out of 10 on our
repairability scale the max studio is a
worthy successor to the mac mini but it
isn't quite ready for the pros that said
it gives us a lot of hope for a
repairable upgradable and reasonably
priced mac pro maybe without a cheese
crater this time
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