Do I regret buying the LOWEST End Mac Studio?

Don't think of this as the full review. But I wanted to give some initial thoughts on if I regret my Mac Studio purchase!

Comment: 📝 Let me know what you think...

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[manart]

1:00 The design is great IMO. How computers should be. Small with no “pretty lights” or fans humming loudly. Just small and simple.

[finalbattle]

The design is exactly what people who use macs look for. Simple, clean, no nonsense. So it checks out. No one buys a mac because they want razor like gamer leds.

[ivandubinsky]

I like the design of the Mac Studio...understated and elegant. I don't know what you mean by more flair, all sorts of gaudy, flashing led's like those Windows gaming laptops, perhaps? I'm more interested in how well it performs and, by all accounts, it does that very well.

[Yeee___hhjg]

I disagree with you and your opinion. The Mac studio is aesthetically pleasing to 90% of the consumers. I challenge you to find something more better looking then the Mac studio other than apple products, because god knows all you’re going to find is some plastic PC Build with some RGB LIGHTS that looks like kids would use to customise their Computer

[Sméagol-xi]

Base model is perfect machine. I upgraded from m1 Mac mini. Main reason for upgrade is 8 gb not enough so I have to take loss, then this is best option, 32 GB ram and m1 max very future proof. I never use internal drives so base model is good enough. Reviewing audio speakers is Total waste of time no one uses it or even consider in buying option any monitor or speakers will do better.

[DensDigitalDen]

The speakers are so that you know it is starting up, for firmware upgrades. Not really for listening to music. You can use an iPad Pro with it as a screen - airplay, So the portability it awesome.

[newt]

WOW was my response when I set my Mac studio up today. I was about pull the trigger on a M1 Mac Mini 16 gig before researching the Mac Studio. Of all places I ordered online at Costco, which gives that extra warranty built into the purchase. I have always purchased from the Apple Store, but none of the stores around had inventory. I ordered it on Monday and It arrived today! Coming from a maxed out 2012 Mac Pro 5, 1 and Retina 5k 27 imac this base model Mac Studio checked all my boxes. The speed and ports alone just blew me away. The joy of editing has returned as the Mac Studio just ate Final Cut Pro for breakfast. I have also the M1 Macbook 13" for reference, but I have always been more of desktop consumer. I am was so used to my loud Mac Pro, but this little machine is whisper quiet in comparison. Maybe I am off base, but I actually really like the industrial design and feel of this Mac. As an audio nerd the built in speaker is not a deal breaker at all. I just plug in my dedicated desk speakers/receiver to the headphone port in the back and my ears were happy. The sound was better for me, so I need to research why that is because I wasn't expecting that. Did I mention all these ports were gold for me, including that front SD card slot. Such a simple concept, but It is a winning design to simply put your SD card in the front. I have every port accounted for this beast including my external 4k Blu-ray burner that feeds into 80 TB Plex server. I know this product had a lot of bashing, but hats off to the engineers for designing a product for a long time Mac desktop user that checks every box for me. From my old bluetooth issues and an aging Intel CPU experience I fell in love with this Mac today! It was flawless in both the setup and performance. No more headphones disconnecting so far or other bluetooth devices! For 2K you get a ton of value especially if you are not already in the M1 product line. If you already have an M1 Mac as a daily driver I would wait to see what is around the corner with the M2 chips coming out. I tend to keep my Mac's for a very long time, so I feel confident about this purchase lasting a long time. I pulled out the 2009 Mac Mini for a little photo shoot today for nostalgic purpose and I just had to laugh how far Apple has come. Hey that bad boy had 5 USB ports, so they were doing something right back in those days and I could upgrade the ram to 8 Gigs haha! I hope others give this studio a try if you are in the market for a desktop solution.

[richardwright]

I disagree about the form factor. I love the simplicity. Thanks for the review though.

[Slurkz]

Love this video! One thing: @ 06:48, these figures can’t be right. I think the labels are mixed up.

[eduardowatkinz]

IMHO - 95% of users will benefit from a M1 Mac Mini, M1 MacBook Air or iMac M1 in composing/creating videos. The iMac 27 (later models) are still very much capable, or yet, an older MacBook Pro/Intel. How many users actually shoot and edit 8K or even 4K video for YouTube?

[PetrKlapper]

Fans at idle are cooling the power supply inside - and since it's close to Mini in form and yet full fast computer, it's easy to forget :)

[slres]

I’m not really into aesthetics, when it comes to my computers, I just need them to work. If it looks plain, and does the job I need it to do, then so be it! Thank you for your perspective.

[heyjustj]

The last part where you talked about RAM is really the ONLY reason to upgrade. M1 bottle necks pretty quick when using illustrator, photoshop, and premiere at the same time with any sort of complexity. And After Effects eats up the RAM in half a second once you start doing RAM previews. Still love my M1 but since switching from my intel Mac mini while my M1 is faster in many ways I’m realizing I need a machine that has at least 64GB RAM in order to run consistently smooth.

[robertfloyd]

I always appreciate your good efforts to provide useful information. You seem like someone who genuinely wants to be helpful. IMHO, you're the best reviewer on this channel and the main reason I subscribed.

[park]

I did wonder about Audio, Logic Pro things. Basically Ram is important. My old cheese grater 5, 1 out performed at low latency modes over the Mac book pro max. So I took it back and just bought a bed Mac mini M1 just to keep current but when my 5, 1 Dies, I’ll defiantly be looking at the Mac studio with maxed Ram.

[garfieldirwin]

Really torn -- I just can't see buying a mini for video editing right now -- I would think the base Studio would be much more future proof?

[robeigner]

No flare? It's a minimalist design and perfect one at that. I don't want a bunch of external garbage, I just want something that works. I don't need to see the insides like on the Cube, I don't need it in a bunch of colors, I don't need it on wheels or hanging from the ceiling. This design shows how much punch Apple can fit into a small package, especially when more than half the interior is for cooling. Internal speaker is mainly for startup chime, use the Studio Display for regular sound. On all your benchmarks, it would have been more beneficial to include some Intel-based Macs for comparison. Statement at end saying if you have the original M1 versions (MBA, MBP, mini) don't bother with the Studio is missing a huge point. The original M1 has restricted TB ports and is much slower than the Pro and Max. The 14/16" MBPs are way better than the original M1 Macs (I have a MBA and it's great but the screen is too small. Yes, my first new purchase might be the Studio Display then I'll worry about the computer (your LG Ultrafine is no longer being sold by LG). As for getting the base model, that's always a problem. It uses a binned M1 Max and only 512GB storage. Yes, you can add external storage but nothing as fast as the internal storage and if you try, you'll need a NVMe RAID setup, which ends up costing as much as the internal storage upgrade. What you bought is fine for a few projects, offloading them as soon as you're done. If that's your work process, then 512GB might be ok but if you have as many photos and apps loaded on your Mac as I do, 512GB really isn't enough. My MBA is for travel and uses a subset of what's on my older iMac.

Question: At 8:20 mark, what do you have the Mac Studio sitting on, a foam cushion? The whole airflow design requires unrestricted access to all the air intake holes on the bottom.

[ricardorgomez]

Miles! I like the style of the Mac Studio. I think it's seriously chic. Love the minimalist look.

I wont get a desktop for a few months so I'll get a chance to see the nee Mac Pro with Apple Silicon. I personally think it's going to be over the top for me. I think Apple really nailed the needs for most creative professionals with the Studio. I'm really eyeing the Ultra. I want to be so busy with client work to need that power! I need to be ready!

[cactustweeter]

I think the Mac Studio design is quite ingenious.

[MarbsMusic]

Personally I love the design, I was about to get a mini when they announced the Studio so I waited and decided on the base studio. Thus far I'm very happy with the base model studio.