Apple Mac Studio (M4 Max, 2025) Review: Small but Mighty

In her review of the 2023 variation of the Apple Mac Studio, Brenda Stolyar called the pint-sized powerhouse “the Goldilocks Mac” – suggesting its operation of show and terms was conscionable astir cleanable for powerfulness users, astatine slightest those that don’t request the hemorrhage-level bleeding borderline show of the Mac Pro tower.

Today Apple aims to support that verdict, upgrading the instrumentality to support up with the times and again releasing the Studio successful 2 versions, 1 of which should beryllium perfect for immoderate creative.

The 2025 Mac Studio tin beryllium configured either with the caller M4 Max CPU oregon with the M3 Ultra. It whitethorn dependable counterintuitive, but the M3 Ultra mentation is really the much premium of the 2 SKUs, and by a important margin; the Ultra plan household has been described arsenic merging 2 Max CPUs that the machine addresses arsenic a azygous chip. There’s nary M4 Ultra CPU yet, truthful ultra-power users get the equivalent of a brace of M3 Max CPUs instead. This isn’t a consolation prize. Most head-to-head benchmarks spot the M4 Max arsenic lone somewhat faster than the 2023-released M2 Ultra, with the M3 Ultra importantly up from there. For the moment, Apple bills the caller Mac Studio arsenic “the astir almighty Mac ever made.”

Like its predecessors, the Mac Studio is simply a lunchbox-sized instrumentality that does not look astatine each similar it should beryllium the astir almighty Mac ever made, but alternatively similar thing that should beryllium operating a truly bully stereo system. But looks are of people deceiving, and wrong the sealed container you’ll find plentifulness of oomph, designed with creators firmly successful mind. I tested the entry-level M4 Max version, which includes a 14-core CPU, 32-core GPU, and 16-core Neural Engine, positive 36GB of unified representation and a 512GB SSD for $1999. That lattermost spec feels a spot stingy successful today’s clime, but it tin beryllium upgraded (only astatine purchase) connected the M4 Max exemplary each the mode up to 8TB of SSD storage.

For comparison, the $3999 M3 Ultra mentation starts with a 28-core CPU, 60-core GPU, and 32-core Neural Engine, positive 96GB of unified representation and a 1TB SSD. Maxed retired with an 80-core GPU, 512GB of RAM, and a 16TB SSD, your terms tag volition deed a chill $14,099. The astir almighty Mac ever made whitethorn good equate to the astir costly Mac ever sold arsenic well.

It possibly goes without saying that the instrumentality is meltingly fast, to the constituent wherever it’s hard to accurately convey its powerfulness successful text. The M4 Pro-based Apple MacBook Pro I reviewed past autumn astir apt provides the champion examination I tin offer, considering it’s lone 1 measurement down connected the CPU ladder from the M4 Max.