Why not? I’m moving on from a spec’d up iMac 27” i7. I’m ready to drop money on either a base Studio or a top line Mini. I’m absolutely in the camp you describe.
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Mac Mini vs. Mac Studio Buyer's Guide
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HobeSoundDarryl
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That’s OK. The point is not to argue that one screen is THE one for all. It’s to encourage those who want something other than only 2 choices offered by Apple to jump on this encouraged(?) opportunity to shop around and see for themselves.
The truth is that not all but only 2 screens will appear blurry, etc. For example, I have 20:20 vision and the one I chose looks as "pin sharp" as the iMac 27” it replaces to me. I’m not anti-Apple or anything- it’s paired with a brand new $6K Mac, so Apple certainly got theirs out of me. But I definitely wanted WIDER than 27” 16:10… and got it… and LOVE it. If Apple offered an ultra-wide, I would have probably gone that way... but they don't offer the kind of monitor I wanted. They only offer 2 choices: exactly 27" or $6K. There's LOTS of possibilities other than those two.
Those with the ability and a MB should do themselves a service and take that MB to some retailers with a variety of screens of interest, hook it up and judge for themselves. They may very well find themselves right back to this new one from Apple or the cheaper, made-in-cooperation-with-Apple LG. Or… they may get the size bigger than 27” they really want… or the ultra-wide they really want… etc. It doesn’t hurt ANY consumer to at least take a look.
Those who land on this new one from Apple will get a great monitor. Those who land on that LG will get the “go to” monitor generally encouraged for a few years up until a few weeks ago. And those who end up with something else will enjoy whatever made them choose that other monitor. Everyone can get what they want.
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You might be surprised, since I expect many of us - myself included - went with the iMac because it came with a 27" 5K Retina display as standard and not because we preferred an AIO solution.
Like dazzer21-2, I only want a Retina display for my primary display and if I had not been effectively forced to replace my 2017 iMac 5K with a 2020 Intel model due to needing Intel and native x86 Windows Boot Camp support for Work From Home, I would have ordered an Apple Studio Display and paired it with my 14" MacBook Pro as a combined replacement.
And then consider that many folks who were using MacBook Pros or Mac Pros, but could not justify the Pro Display XDR, were ready and willing to actually buy an iMac 5K and use it only as a display if Apple had been able to keep Target Display Mode with the custom Timing Controller. The Apple Studio Display is exactly what they have been asking Apple to make for over half a decade and even at $1600, it's still $200 cheaper than the base 2020 iMac 5K.
Maybe. Maybe not. Who would buy a Mac Studio with M1 Max and 32 GB of RAM if you can get for less money a 32 GB Mac mini with the M1 Pro?
A Mac mini with 32GB and an M1 Pro/M2 Pro is likely going to be around $1699-1799 - so for $200-300 more, you will get an M1 Max, double the memory bandwidth and more ports.
I don't see Apple selling to many Mac minis with both a Pro SoC and 32GB. It will be Pro SoC+16GB or base SoC+32GB.
I have a feeling a Mac mini with M1 Pro 10 core CPU and 32GB RAM is only going to be a couple hundred dollars cheaper than the base Mac Studio. The main reason I want the M1 Pro is to upgrade to 10 CPU cores (over the base 8) and the ability to upgrade to 32GB RAM. If you look at the base MacBook Pro, that's $600 in upgrades right there. An M1 Mac mini 16GB RAM is $1,099 so that easily put it into the $1,700 range, not to mention if there is a fee just to upgrade from the M1 to the base M1 Pro (8 CPU/14 GPU).
So if that is about how the pricing works out, someone (and I'm talking about me here lol) who wants that configuration in a mini might be tempted to buy a base Mac Studio, since it exists now.
And that's why a Mac mini with M1 Pro doesn't make much sense. It would cost only 200, max 300 $ less than the base Mac Studio is 1,999 $ (at least in your country -> USA).
if you needed a Max and not a Pro, you would go for the Studio.
The price for an M1 Pro Mini is likely to be within a few hundred dollars of an M1 Max Studio.
If the only way to get 32GB is to also get a Pro-series SoC, I do agree that such a configuration would likely sell very poorly compared to a Mac Studio that was only a little bit more.
But if Apple does offer the base M2 with a 32GB option (even if said option is the same $400 it is for the Pro/Max SoC) as well as an M2 Pro option (at 16GB), then I think it makes sense as there are likely use cases where an M2 would be enough performance, but 16GB is not enough RAM. Or where 16GB is enough RAM for a task, but an M2 Pro's performance is necessary (or beneficial enough to cover the upgrade cost, which could be $200-400).
And such a configuration at $1299-1499 would still be sufficiently below the $1999 of a base Mac Studio to make it attractive to those people.
That may be, but I see virtually nil advantage of the Max over a Pro unless you are using software that can take advantage of those extra GPU cores. I’d prefer to have the cheaper and cooler M1 Pro.
I would buy something like this if (a) bluetooth actually worked and (b) PORTS, dammit.
Then why did you devote an entire article to a buyer's guide comparison? No one considering one of these is considering the other. Completely different machines.
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Like memory slots to expand memory. The option to add an internal hard drive to make time machine backups.
The mac mini server was ideal when it had DIMM RAM slots and SATA HDD slots. Give me back the DIMM Ram slots if you are going to keep putting 8GB of RAM in the starting system - that is just ridiculous now. Give me standard NVMe slots too so we can expand the disk when we start running out of space.
I'm all about the RAM -- let's keep everything in memory.
Mac Mini, 16GB RAM, 1TB SSD, $1299
Mac Studio, 32GB RAM, 1TB SSD, $2199
Mac Studio, 64GB RAM, 1TB SSD, $2599
Mac studio, 128GB RAM, 1TB SSD, $4799
A couple big jumps in there ! ?
Mac Mini, 16GB RAM, 1TB SSD, $1299
Mac Studio, 32GB RAM, 1TB SSD, $2199
Mac Studio, 64GB RAM, 1TB SSD, $2599
Mac studio, 128GB RAM, 1TB SSD, $4799
A couple big jumps in there ! ?
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Don't act like this is anything more than a budget workstation, real computing requires a whole lot more power bro.
So if no mac mini announcements today, how long do I wait for the mac mini upgrade? I need to run two 4K displays to replace my 10 year old imac 27in? Don't need the power of the Mac Studio but may need to splurge as the current mac mini won't cut it and upgrades to M2 are getting delayed?
So what did you wind up doing? My iMac 27 is from 2012 and I'm running out of patience waiting for the mac Mini upgrade to fill in the gap...
I really doubt there will be any Mac-related announcements today. Usually Apple has two fall events: one in September for iPhone and Watch-related stuff, and one in October/November for Mac and iPad-related stuff.
I have the maxed-out M1 mini. I don't think that the M2 version will be that drastic an improvement, although obviously there will be some speed gains. I don't have a need to run 2 displays; I just have a single 4k 60hz. But the mini has no problem with whatever I throw at it. So if your needs are immediate, the current mini should work. But if you want to wait to see if a new mini is announced later this year, realize that it could then possibly be 2023 before you have one in your hands.
If there will be any announcement, that will be in late October or November 2022, when the time is right for a Mac event and as they do in the last years.
It can also happen, that the Mac mini won't get any refreshment at all this year.
If no new Mini today, buy the base level Studio. You might not think you need the power but if you are running 2 4K displays you probably do (my 16GB M1 Mac Mini could barely handle 1 4K and a HD) but more importantly, you need the ports. The price difference is minimal and trust me, my Base Studio is fully worth it.
I loved my M1 Mini, but the Base studio is like a fully and proper functioning M1 Mini with a bit of a "plus" added in to boot. Worth every penny.
