Apple has introduced an all-new Mac desktop and display – the Mac Studio and Studio Display – which are aimed at the high-end users to deliver a level of performance, connectivity and capabilities that have never been seen before.
And it’s all powered by Apple’s brand new M1 Ultra processor which Apple says is the most powerful chip for a personal computer ever produced.
Mac Studio is a compact yet powerful desktop computer that’s built from a single aluminium extrusion that measures 19.7cm wide and 9.5cm tall so it takes up very little space and can fit under most displays.
Apple’s new Studio Display offers a 27-inch 5K retina display and a 12-megapixel ultrawide camera with Centre Stage and a six-speaker sounds system.
Mac Studio and Studio Display will go on sale on March 18.
“We couldn’t be more excited to introduce an entirely new Mac desktop and display with Mac Studio and Studio Display,” said Greg Joswiak, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Marketing.
“Mac Studio ushers in a new era for the desktop with unbelievable performance powered by M1 Max and M1 Ultra, an array of connectivity and a compact design that puts everything users need within easy reach.
“And Studio Display — with its stunning 5K Retina screen, along with the best combination of camera and audio ever in a desktop display — is in a class of its own.”
The M1 Ultra chip includes ultra-fusion, a new packaging architecture that connects the die of two M1 Max chips to create a larger system on a chip with new levels of performance and capabilities.
The chip has a powerful 200core CPU with 16 high-performance cells and four high efficiency cores.
The result is a 90 per cent higher multithreaded performance than the fastest available 16-core desktop PC chip.
The M1 Ultra can also be configured with 128GB of unified memory.
The new Mac Studio will be the first to take advantage of the new M1 Ultra silicon.
It has a unique thermal design with double-sided blowers and precision airflow channels with more than 4,000 perforations on the back and bottom of the aluminium enclosure to guide air through the internal components and keep things cool.
Apple will offer the new Mac Studio with the M1 Max and M1 Ultra processors which will offer remarkable performance.
Mac Studio Powered by M1 Max Enables:
– Up to 2.5x faster CPU performance than the fastest 27-inch iMac with 10-core processor.
– Up to 50 per cent faster CPU performance than Mac Pro with a 16-core Xeon processor.
– Up to 3.4x faster graphics performance than the 27-inch iMac, and over 3x faster than Mac Pro with its most popular graphics card.
– Up to 7.5x faster than the 27-inch iMac, and up to 3.7x faster than 16-core Mac Pro when transcoding video.
Mac Studio Powered by M1 Ultra Enables:3
– Up to 3.8x faster CPU performance than the fastest 27-inch iMac with 10-core processor.
– Up to 90 per cent faster CPU performance than Mac Pro with 16-core Xeon processor.
– Up to 60 per cent faster CPU performance than 28-core Mac Pro.
– Up to 4.5x faster graphics performance than the 27-inch iMac, and up to 80 per cent faster than the fastest Mac graphics card available today.
– Up to 12x faster than the 27-inch iMac, and up to 5.6x faster than 28-core Mac Pro when transcoding video.
The Max Studio with M1 Ultra can handle 18 streams of 8K ProRes 422 video. There is no other computer in the world that can do that right now.
The Mac Studio has a compact design but still offers plenty of essential connectivity at your fingertips.
On the rear panel are four Thunderbolt 4 ports to connect displays and other high-performance devices, a 10Gb Ethernet port, two USB a ports, an HDMI port and a pro audio headphone jack that works with high impedance headphones or externally amplified speakers.
On the wireless connectivity side is Wi-Fi 6 and Bluetooth 5.0.
To complement the new Mac Studio, Apple has created the sleek Studio Display with 27-inch 5K Retina display.
The display has a slim profile and in all aluminium enclosure with a stand that allows it to be tilted up to 30 degrees.
The stand is also available with counterbalancing arm that offers more tilt and height adjustment and makes the display feel like it’s weightless.
Customers can also choose a VESA mount adapter which supports landscape or portrait orientation.
The 27-inch 5K retina screen has more than 14.7 million pixels with 600 nits of brightness and support for over 1 billion colours.
The Studio Display is powered by the A13 bionic chip to deliver an even better experience with its built-in camera and audio system.
It has a 12-megapixel ultrawide camera with centre stage along with a studio quality three-microphone array.
Also on board is a six-speaker high-fidelity sound system that includes four force cancelling woofers to reduce distortion and produce punchy bass.
The speakers also support Spatial Audio and Dolby Atmos.
The Studio Display has three USB C ports to directly connect other high-speed peripherals, storage and networking devices with a Thunderbolt 4 port to link up to three Studio Displays or connect and charge a MacBook Pro.
Naturally, pairing the Mac Studio and Studio Display will create the ultimate set-up for creative professionals including:
– Musicians and producers can work on the most complex compositions with hundreds of tracks, plug-ins and virtual instruments, all played in real time.
– 3D artists can work with more extreme geometry, edit massive environments that were previously impossible to render and run complex particle simulations in a fraction of the time.
– App developers can build new versions of code with incredible speed, and run more automated integration and testing than ever.
– Photographers can sort through thousands of images with speed and precision, composite massive images with hundreds of layers and export final images for publish in a flash.
– Videographers can edit multi-camera projects and more streams of 8K video than ever before, add more colour corrections to projects while maintaining fluid playback, and encode video for final delivery faster than ever.
The new Mac Studio and Studio Display can be pre-ordered from today and will be released on Friday, March 18.
Mac Studio starts at $3,099 for the M1 Max configuration and from $6,099 for the M1 Ultra configuration.
Studio Display is priced at $2,499 with standard glass and $2,999 for Nano-texture glass.
The Studio Display with a tilt and height adjustable stand starts at $3,099.
Studio Display with VESA mount adaptor is priced from $2,499.
