What are your thoughts about M1 Mac Mini vs New Mac Studio?

I bought the M1 Mac mini when it came out last year to replace my Late 2014 Mac mini. I got 8 GB RAM and 500 GB SDD.

I use my Mac as an average user; video streaming, social media, mail, video chat/conferencing, web searches, simple photo collection, simple music library, editing papers, etc. It is more than sufficient for my needs and then some. For the average home user/student the M1 Mac mini is more than enough Mac and the Studio Mac would be a giant amount of overkill.

M1 Mac mini, macOS 12.3; Watch, series 5 GPS/cellular, watchOS 8.5; iPad Pro 2nd Gen, iPadOS 15.4; iPhone 12 Pro, iOS 15.4; TV 4th Gen, tvOS 15.4; HomePods, audioOS 15.4 and Airport Express w/ Airplay 2

I'm having a similar dilemma.

replace my wife's 2012 Mac Mini with an M1 Mac Mini

or...... give her my 2018 Mac Mini and replace that with a Mac Studio.

Yes an M1 Mac Mini is more that sufficient for an intermediate to light power user.

Slight correction. The Mac Studio Max does NOT have 6 Thunderbolt 4 ports. Only the Mac Studio Ultra has 6 Thunderbolt ports (4 on the back, 2 on the front). The Mac Studio Max has 4 Thunderbolt ports (on the back); the two front ports are only USB-C.

The key differences between the Mac Studio and the Mini are:

• ports, as you say
• maximum RAM (the Mini is limited to 16GB, isn't it?)
• speed - the Studio has a much more powerful chip (Max), or vastly more powerful chip (Ultra)

Look at YouTube. There is now a test comparing the Mini M1 with the Studio. It showed that the Mac Min M1 very close to the base Studio version so the Studio may not be required for many users.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kcb3AXCnjD0

Overkill, stick with M1 or wait for the mini to get upgraded chips. The Studio is also bigly grossly ugly…

I am also prefer desktop. I will compare M1 Mac Mini vs Mac Studio from the connectivity perspective.

M1 Mac Mini have 2 x Thunderbolt 3 / USB 4 ports, 2 x USB A ports, 1 x HDMI port, 1/10gb ethernet port. (total 6 ports with 4 USB ports))

Mac Studio Max have 6 x Thunderbolt 4 / USB 4 ports, 2 x USB A ports. 1 x HDMI port, 10gb ethernet port, (Front) 2 x USBc ports, (Front) 1 x SD card slot. (total 11 ports with 8 USB ports)

Which Mac studio will provide some flexiable connectivtly future expansion.

It depends whether you will need them.

They are two different concepts. The Ultra processor in the Mac Studio is several times the one in the M1 Mac mini in both speed and capabilities, there is no comparison.

You can always add a TB hub later for more ports to a Mini if needed which is what I did..

Curious to know what you mean by "bigly grossly ugly"? It is the same width and depth as the mini, but just 3.3 inches more in height. I too need a new desktop and was looking at the mini but the Mac Studio does look appealing.

Very interested in your expanded opinion on both of these solutions.

thanks

I do a lot of work with Adobe Creative Cloud. Graphic design, some animation, video production, as well as music production/recording using my Presonus Live 32 board and StudioOne software. I think I'm a little more than the average user, but certainly not what I would call a power-user. I'm still leaning towards the Mac Studio, but with the M1 Max, not the Ultra, although 20 cores do sound so nice, that would definitely be overkill for me. :-)

thanks for your input, that was very helpful.

Agreed, my current 2018 Mac Mini is fine for what I do, plus replacing her 2012 Mac Mini with a base model M1 is the most cost effective way to go.

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