That leaves us back here, with the Mac Studio and Studio Display. Will the next Mac Pro, teased at the very end of the Mac Studio introductory webcast, follow in the Studio's footsteps and look like an elongated Mac Mini? And how will it address the issue of discrete graphics cards and upgradable components, both must-have features for many of those highest-end buyers? The GPU issue is especially important, as M1 systems don't currently support any AMD/Nvidia GPUs (so for example, you can't hook up a Black Magic eGPU to an Apple Silicon MacBook or Mac Studio). That system seems to change radically with each new generation, from the original tower to the black tube version to the current massive cheese grater design. I'm also leaving room in my creative pro thinking for the long-promised Mac Pro update. I'm reserving judgment on the M1 Ultra version of the Mac Studio until we can test one. Remember that the $5,000 XDR may seem expensive next to even high-end consumer displays, but it's considered very reasonable compared to true professional models. For instance, HP's new Z27xs G3 Dreamcolor monitor, a 4K color-accurate display with similar specs plus HDR support, is less than half the price. The Studio Display doesn't have every high-end feature you might want, but it's right around where some comparable prosumer displays sit, although they also can come cheaper because they don't toss in the speakers and webcam. A comparable MacBook Pro can cost $1,000 more, making the M1 Max version of the Mac Studio seem more reasonably priced. Through a certain lens, the financial side works out. The speakers support spatial audio and the built-in webcam supports Center Stage, which lets the camera zoom and pan (not physically, all within the original 12MP camera image) to keep faces centered and visible. The new Studio Display still has a few unique tricks courtesy of the built-in A13 chip. We'll offer a full benchmarked separate review of the Studio Display soon. There seemed to be slightly better detail in the darkest shadows in photos on the XDR, understandable given the wider tonal range. We haven't finished our formal testing yet, but eyeballing the Studio Display and XDR side by side shows excellent consistency between the colors in the reference modes. Like the XDR, the Studio Display's controls are all in software, so, for instance, if you want to disable it or power it down you have to unplug it, and it's basically unusable with anything other than a Mac, unless you want a non-smart display with no controls. The Studio Display doesn't even support HDR content, despite its 600-nit peak brightness.īoth Apple displays top out at 60Hz refresh rates, although other Apple products, like the iPad Pro and some MacBook Pro models, have ProMotion, Apple's variable refresh rate technology that goes up to 120Hz.The XDR is two years old, so that's understandable it's a big disappointment in the Studio. Specifically, it's a typical standard-definition IPS monitor with an undisclosed backlight tech, not HDR like the 1,600-nit XDR display, which uses a Mini LED backlight. But it's also missing some key features you might want. I asked our display guru Lori Grunin to weigh in on the Studio Display as well.Īt $1,600, the Studio Display is certainly more attainable than the $5,000-and-up XDR. It's a lower-cost alternative for the XDR in some ways, but doesn't cover all of the same ground. The Mac Studio is being pitched hand-in-hand with the Apple Studio Display, the first new Apple display since the Pro Display XDR. Razer Blade 14 ( 3.3GHz AMD Ryzen 5900HX, Nvidia GeForce RTX 3080)Īsus Zephyrus GX701 (Core i7-8750H, Nvidia RTX 2080 Max-Q) The Mac Studio version was marginally faster in many tests, perhaps because if its better cooling. That review includes a deeper dive into the differences between the M1 Pro and M1 Max chips, as does this M1 family performance comparison. I sometimes design 3D printed objects in a CAD program, too.Īs expected, the M1 Max Mac Studio performed similarly in our testing to the M1 Max MacBook Pro. I also do some design and layout work in Illustrator and Photoshop and a little recording and mixing in Logic Pro. I'm not a full-time high-end creative pro, but especially during the Covid era I've been shooting and occasionally editing my own videos, usually in 4K. Both systems have M1 Max chips with 10 CPU cores and 32 GPU cores. I wasn't expecting anything radically different in our basic benchmark testing when compared to the 16-inch MacBook Pro we tested last year. Plenty of ports on the back of the Mac Studio.
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