MacDirectory magazine is the premiere creative lifestyle magazine for Apple enthusiasts featuring interviews, in-depth tech reviews, Apple news, insights, latest Apple patents, apps, market analysis, entertainment and more.
Issue link: https://digital.macdirectory.com/i/1471136
On the Go? Apple’s New Mac Studio Can Surprisingly Be a Portable Powerhouse By Jesse Hollington The sheer horsepower and compact size of Apple’s new Mac Studio has opened up a whole new world of possibilities for creative professionals, with the ability to more easily create pop-up studios across multiple locations. Even with a set of $400 wheels, Apple’s ultra-powerful Mac Pro wasn’t anything near what we’d call “portable”; mine came in a 74-pound box that required two UPS guys to haul it onto my front porch, although to be fair about a third of that was the weight of the box itself. Still, it’s hard to imagine anybody picking up a Mac Pro and taking it with them on the road. That might make sense for pros who are taking an entire studio setup with them — after all, it’s nothing compared to the size of most amps and speakers — but the Mac Pro is still very much the kind of computer that once it’s in place, it’s pretty much designed to stay there. That’s clearly not the case with the Mac Studio, which is arguably the second-smallest Mac that Apple has ever made. It’s 2.5 times larger than the Mac mini — and that’s all in its height — yet it can offer more than eight times the performance at general computing tasks. Further, it weighs in at only 5.9 or 7.9 pounds, depending on whether you opt for the M1 Max or the M1 Ultra version (the latter is heavier because it requires a more intense cooling system). While that’s 2-3 times heavier than the Mac mini, it’s nothing compared to the 40-pound Mac Pro. Sure, there are slightly lighter and arguably more portable Macs — Apple’s 16-inch MacBook Pro comes in at 4.8 pounds, and the 14-inch version is only 3.5 pounds. However, these can’t match the performance of an M1 Ultra equipped Mac Studio. Plus, “portable” can be a somewhat relative term in a case like this. While there’s no arguing that a MacBook Pro is a