Apple is now releasing hardware outside the usual themed events and developer conferences. Over the past couple of days, a new iPad with the M3 chip has dropped, followed by a MacBook Air M4, and the Mac Studio desktop which can be had with some beefy Apple Silicon chips.
What is curious here is Apple continuing to use the older M3 chipset in new models this year, and not going with just the M4 family variants. On top of that, word on the street (read: leaks) is that there will be an M5 chip released this year, probably at the Apple World Wide Developer Conference (WWDC), to go into the MacBook Pro laptops.
The Mac Studios are Apple's desktop workstations, with compact cases. Apple continues to sell the Mac Pro, which has the older M2 Ultra chip inside, with 24 central processing and 76 graphics cores (CPU and GPU respectively) housed in a big case.
It looks cool, but the smaller Mac Studio M3 Ultra can be had with more memory than the Mac Pro, as well as CPU and GPU cores. All for less money. Beyond being able to add expansion cards inside the case, the little Mac Studio M3 Ultra looks like a better deal.
What's the difference between the M4 Max and M3 Ultra in the Mac Studios? Let's nerd it out with a table:
M4 Max vs M3 Ultra
| Apple M4 Max chip | Apple M3 Ultra chip |
|---|---|
| 14-core CPU with 10 performance cores and four efficiency cores | 28-core CPU with 20 performance cores and eight efficiency cores |
| 32-core GPU | 60-core GPU |
| Hardware-accelerated ray tracing | Hardware-accelerated ray tracing |
| 16-core Neural Engine | 32-core Neural Engine |
| 410 GB/s memory bandwidth | 819 GB/s memory bandwidth |
| Media Engine | Media Engine |
| Hardware-accelerated H.264, HEVC, ProRes and ProRes RAW | Hardware-accelerated H.264, HEVC, ProRes and ProRes RAW |
| Video decode engine | Two video decode engines |
| Two video encode engines | Four video encode engines |
| Two ProRes encode and decode engines | Four ProRes encode and decode engines |
| AV1 decode | AV1 decode |
| Max configuration | Max configuration |
| 16-core CPU, 40-core GPU, 16-core Neural Engine, 128 GB of memory with 546 GB/s bandwidth, 8 TB of storage | 32-core CPU, 80-core GPU, 32-core Neural Engine, 512 GB of memory with 819 GB/s bandwidth, 16 TB of storage |
Due to the System-on-a-Chip (SoC) integrated Apple Silicon, there are some configuration quirks to bear in mind when you buy the Studios. For example, the base M4 Max with 14-core CPU can't be bought with more than 36 GB of memory, which is limited to 410 GB/s bandwidth.
Larger memory configurations require the 16-core M4 Max, which can be bought with 48, 64 and 128 GB, which also has faster, 546 GB/s bandwidth.
How much do the Studios cost then? The base model Studio with 36 GB for memory and 512 GB storage goes for $3999 including GST.
Option the M4 Max Studio to the hilt as per above, and you'll have to part with $11,799.
The M3 Ultra Studio, meanwhile, starts at $7999 for 96 GB of memory and 1 TB of storage; maxed out, that'll be $28,199, thank you.
For reasons only Apple can tells us, the Wi-Fi connectivity remains stuck at version 6E when it should be Wi-Fi 7, just like the competition has in 2025. This writer would happily swap the Apple Intelligence on-device artificial intelligence for Wi-Fi 7.
What do you do with maxed-out devices like the Studios? Video editing, software development, running biggish artificial intelligence models locally; after adding a nice monitor or two (or three) that is. They're not small-budget items, and some people (with money) are building Mac Studio and Mac mini clusters with several devices, to run very big AI models locally.
That's instead of hooking up to cloud servers in data centres somewhere, and sleeping with one eye open and on the provider's dashboard to avoid runaway usage costs - or to show off that you can do that with regular retail hardware.
It's all a bit esoteric and Deep Geek, so let's come back to earth with the iPad Air M3 and MacBook Air M4. Those new devices are aimed at every day use, and are of course mobile. The iPad Air M3 comes in two models, with 11 and 13 inch screens, starting at $1199 and $1549 respectively, for 128 GB storage models. You'll probably want at least twice the amount of storage, maybe even 512 GB, and that will add to the price.
Apple has also updated the Magic Keyboard which acts as a cover as well, but it's pricey at $599. The older Magic Keyboard model is great to type on, and you might want a screen-drawing Apple Pencil to round out the iPad Air M3 which has cameras rear and front.
Meanwhile, the MacBook Air M4 is a traditional clamshell laptop design, with 13 and 15-inch display options. We looked at the earlier MacBook Air M3, which is nicely thin and light, and has long battery life with good performance. The MacBook Air is a volume seller for Apple, and it's easy to see why as it ticks off most laptop buyer's needs.
That said, over the last bit of time, Apple has made it more difficult to decide between the MacBook Air and lower-end MacBook Pro laptops. A 15-inch MacBook Air M4 starts at $2499, whereas the Pro M4 is $500 more, but for a 14-inch screen. Once you drill down into the nitpick-y tech details like the Pro mini-LED screen being better, ditto the audio and battery life, plus the pricier machine has more ports, and then work out if extra spend is worth it.
Would an iPad, maybe a Pro model, work instead, or is the tablet format too different to a laptop? Total first world problem, that.
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