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No, what I'm disappointed by is the design. Frankly I think it looks very ugly, just as bad as the renders predicted, if not worse. A height-stretched Mac Mini has none of the elegance of the Mac Mini form factor, and is rather ridiculous.
Looks fine to me. Certainly looks better then a dark Mac Mini which is more noticeable.
The lighter color resembles Apples past Macs.

What looks bad in this image of a three monitor setup?

Apple_Peek_Performance_Event_00121.jpeg
 
Who cares about the looks of a discrete computer from Apple? Most of the people will have only Display, keyboard and mouse/trackpad on the table. Any non-laptop computer will most likely spend its' life somewhere hidden from eyes.
 
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Looks fine to me. Certainly looks better then a dark Mac Mini which is more noticeable.
The lighter color resembles Apples past Macs.

What looks bad in this image of a three monitor setup?

Apple_Peek_Performance_Event_00121.jpeg
What looks bad is that there are no wires connecting anything.
According to this image, none of the monitors or the Mac need power, and they all communicate wirelessly.
 
What looks bad is that there are no wires connecting anything.
According to this image, none of the monitors or the Mac need power, and they all communicate wirelessly.
The Mac and the displays have each power connector running behind the studio and displays. I have a 24" iMac it has a single power cable going to a power adapter that has its ethernet connection as part to it. The keyboards and mouse are wireless. Same with a optional trackpad. Does that bother you with no cables showing?

Its super easy to take the setup apart and set it up in a another room if your using a WiFI router and you have enough AC outlets. I imagine this is similar to move around. I just wish not all the displays had cameras and speakers that seems wasteful.
 
This is the Mac Pro 6,1 upgraded to today’s specs in a different (and probably far cheaper to manufacture) custom case. Even the physical ports are practically identical, upgraded protocols notwithstanding - both have 6 TB ports, 4 USB-A ports, and 1 HDMI. You trade one audio jack and one Ethernet port on the nMP for an SD card reader on the Mac Studio. I mean sure, it’s a different design, but in concept it’s practically identical to the nMP that everyone hated.

I love my 2013 Mac Pro, and I’m sure I’ll love my Studio just as much once it gets here in mid-May. My 6,1 is pretty neat looking, and I have it sitting on its side on a Twelve South stand. Unfortunately, I rarely get to see it since it’s on a shelf under my desk.

But yeah, the Mac Studio is pretty ugly.
 
I'm sure someone will make an under-desk mount to keep it out of sight. Most beautiful Mac was the Late 2013 Mac Pro IMO. The 2012 and 2019 models are good looking too. The Studio is all function and no form. It's just a box-o-profits.
Here's a larger image of the Mac Studio deployed, below is the rear.

05__j5ibvcf9rpm6_large.jpg


47351-92324-Apple-Mac-Studio-back-220308-xl.jpg


Its fairly sizable, modern looking from the front, you were expecting something like a smaller cheese grater design? Underdesk mount might block heat convection.
 
This is the Mac Pro 6,1 upgraded to today’s specs in a different (and probably far cheaper to manufacture) custom case. Even the physical ports are practically identical, upgraded protocols notwithstanding - both have 6 TB ports, 4 USB-A ports, and 1 HDMI. You trade one audio jack and one Ethernet port on the nMP for an SD card reader on the Mac Studio. I mean sure, it’s a different design, but in concept it’s practically identical to the nMP that everyone hated.

I love my 2013 Mac Pro, and I’m sure I’ll love my Studio just as much once it gets here in mid-May. My 6,1 is pretty neat looking, and I have it sitting on its side on a Twelve South stand. Unfortunately, I rarely get to see it since it’s on a shelf under my desk.

But yeah, the Mac Studio is pretty ugly.

This is not a modern 6,1. It's a tall Mac mini. The 6,1 was a Xeon workstation with server hardware and dual GPUs stuffed into a gorgeous little cylinder.
 
The Mac and the displays have each power connector running behind the studio and displays. I have a 24" iMac it has a single power cable going to a power adapter that has its ethernet connection as part to it. The keyboards and mouse are wireless. Same with a optional trackpad. Does that bother you with no cables showing?

Its super easy to take the setup apart and set it up in a another room if your using a WiFI router and you have enough AC outlets. I imagine this is similar to move around. I just wish not all the displays had cameras and speakers that seems wasteful.
Yes, I realize all that. It is a minor peeve of mine that nearly 100% of marketing images of any electronic devices or appliances show no wires anywhere in sight. Looks so nice and clean, yes, I want one of those.
 
I'm surprised no one has commented about the weight difference between the MMS and the UMS, which is 2 pounds heavier. Looks like the Mac Studio may have been designed to be cooled. And I think that is beautiful.

  • Weight (M1 Max): 5.9 pounds (2.7 kg)
  • Weight (M1 Ultra): 7.9 pounds (3.6 kg)
Ordered my UMS today. Can't wait to finally get my cMP off my desk - as beautiful as it is, it blocks my view.
 
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I'm surprised no one has commented about the weight difference between the MMS and the UMS, which is 2 pounds heavier. Looks like the Mac Studio may have been designed to be cooled. And I think that is beautiful.

  • Weight (M1 Max): 5.9 pounds (2.7 kg)
  • Weight (M1 Ultra): 7.9 pounds (3.6 kg)
Ordered my UMS today. Can't wait to finally get my cMP off my desk - as beautiful as it is, it blocks my view.
yes, remember this design and cooling must last for probably a decade of new generations of SoC, M2 Ultra M3 ultra.
Cant wait, i got the 22nd March delivery
 
Nope. Like literally who cares what a piece of pro-grade tech looks like as long as it's not an eyesore?
The specs are eyewatering. I can forgive its stretched forehead on the grounds that it's designed not to thermal-throttle as easily.
Arguably the Max Studio version barely needs any of that cooling and extra height and could have been built into a Mac Mini's case. But i'm ok with it.
 
People don't spend Mac Studio Ultra money on a computer because it looks nice. There might be a proportion of potential iPhone users and even potential 24" iMac users who go oh look at those pretty colours I must buy one, but the people dropping 5K+ on something they're going to use to help them pay their bills just want something that works, more than anything else.

Personally I'm absolutely delighted that this new Apple is continuing the trend they started last year of function over form again after such a long time of doing the opposite. Everyone complaining it doesn't look nice can just get in the sea IMO.
 
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Apple are now doing what the majority of posters on here seemed to want them to do for the last 5 years which is to end the obsession with form over function. Stop making things as thin as possible at the expense of performance and user experience.

The new iPhones are thicker as they have larger batteries. The new MacBook Pros and Mac Studio are thicker and as a result, they have great thermal performance and you hardly ever hear the fans. I'll take that over the Intel machines which sounded like jet engines whenever you were pushing them hard (or just installing Dropbox).
 
It’s a boring box , looks like a biscuit tin .

No way would Steve have allowed something like this out of the labs , looks like a test bed kit to me . the kind of thing Sony gives out to PlayStation devs then you get the pretty box on top

Maybe they’ll sell pretty box covers as an option ?
 
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