Christian de Looper for BGR

The 2025 Mac Studio steps performance up to the extreme, with options for huge amounts of memory, and the same awesome design.

Sleek design

Front-facing ports

Tons of ports on the back

Massive performance

Lots of options for memory and storage

Expensive

Buy FromList PriceSale Price

Apple$1,999$1,999See It

The Mac Studio is growing up.

When it first launched, the Mac Studio arguably felt kind of like a compromise, sitting in between the low-cost Mac Mini and the high-performance Mac Pro. But these days, it has grown into its place, serving as the machine to get if you want the highest performance you can get, with the best Apple Silicon has to offer. For 2025, the M3 Ultra Mac Studio is that machine.

To be clear, the 2025 Mac Studio models don’t necessarily reinvent the concept of the Mac Studio. They also don’t need to — they have the same small footprint, with the same excellent port selection, including some ports that remain accessible on the front. They also introduce some confusion into the lineup, given the fact that they’re now available with the super-fast M4 Max available in the MacBook Pro, and an all-new chip that exists in the M3 family — the M3 Ultra. That’s the model we’re reviewing.

So, how much better is the Mac Studio in 2025 — and how should you decide between the M4 Max and the M3 Ultra?