Last month, Apple introduced its first Macs featuring the M4 chip: the MacBook Pro, iMac, and Mac mini. This means that nearly half of the Mac lineup has been updated, leaving the MacBook Air, Mac Studio, and Mac Pro still waiting. Out of the two remaining desktops, the Mac Studio remains the preferred choice, despite being a bit outdated with its M2 Max and M2 Ultra chips. Below are the anticipated features of the upcoming Mac Studio, although details are somewhat sparse.
Enhanced Connectivity
With the introduction of the M4 Pro Mac mini and more advanced MacBook Pros, Apple has made the leap to Thunderbolt 5 – offering speeds of up to 120Gb/s, which is triple the theoretical limit of Thunderbolt 4. We can expect Thunderbolt 5 ports to also be available on the next Mac Studio.
Apple defines Thunderbolt 5 as follows:
MacBook Pro with M4 Pro and M4 Max features Thunderbolt 5 ports, boosting transfer speeds to 120 Gb/s, which facilitates faster external storage, expansion chassis, and advanced docking and hub solutions. For instance, music producers can now connect their entire studio with a single cable.
Additionally, Apple might roll out support for Wi-Fi 7, similar to what was seen with the iPhone 16 lineup. However, it didn’t appear in the initial release of M4 Macs, making this feature somewhat uncertain.
Wi-Fi 7 boasts speeds of up to 46 Gbps, significantly outpacing Wi-Fi 6E’s 9 Gbps. This latest standard also uses 320 MHz channels and operates within the 6 GHz band, effectively minimizing interference and signal congestion.
M4 Max and M4 Ultra Chips
The M4 Max chip has already been unveiled in the latest MacBook Pro, solidifying its status as one of the market’s fastest chips. It features a 16-core CPU and a 40-core GPU, suggesting that a theoretical M4 Ultra would double these specs – equipping a 32-core CPU and an 80-core GPU, owing to Apple’s UltraFusion technology.
Currently, the M4 Pro Mac mini stands as the swiftest desktop Mac, also being the smallest computer Apple has ever designed. Once the new Mac Studio arrives, this will likely change.
Launch Timing
As per Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman, the upcoming Mac Studio is expected to launch by mid-2025, hinting at a potential announcement at WWDC25.
