Kyle Erickson
Comparing the 2023 Mac Mini with the M2 Pro and the 2023 MacStudio with the M2 Max— find the desktop Mac that’s best for you!
PRODUCT LINKS ARE LISTED BELOW 👇
The 2023 Mac Mini with the M2 Pro was my primary working machine for the last 5 or so months until the Mac Studio came on to the scene, which I picked up as soon as it was announced at WWDC 23.
While these machines might be surprisingly similar in a lot of ways, there are some key differences that might make you choose one over the other. Today we’re taking a look at both Macs, and comparison the M2 Pro vs M2 Max in the hopes that it helps other people find which one best suits them.
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I monitor and manage all my macs with CleanMyMac X: https://macpaw.audw.net/c/3460079/263631/1733
MY DESK SETUP GEAR:
LG 27UQ850-W Ultrafine 4K Monitor | https://amzn.to/3o1Beoh
Vivo Monitor Arm | https://amzn.to/3CtYkWE
Logitech MX Master 3S Mouse | https://amzn.to/3mkvEfS
Logitech MX Keys Mini | https://amzn.to/3PrfUQE
Flexispot Standing Desk | https://bit.ly/3xUYJ40
Monoprice Cable Tray | https://amzn.to/3A5nb3t
Orbitkey Desk Mat & Keyholder | https://bit.ly/41jSoMg
Fluance Ai41 Speakers | https://amzn.to/3oi6wah
Kanto S4 Speaker Stands | https://amzn.to/3A6cWvw
CalDigit TS4 USB Hub | https://amzn.to/3Fc80Ji
Acasis USB4 SSD Enclosure | https://amzn.to/3L07z5V
Western Digital SN770 SD | https://amzn.to/3A6aZPI
Grid Studio iPhone Classic Kit | http://shrsl.com/3nsgi
BenQ ScreenBar Monitor Light | https://amzn.to/3w7DQBH
Gove RGBIC Strip Lights | https://amzn.to/3CvITx3
Mandalorian Lego Figures | https://amzn.to/3Et0oyB
Nomad Base One Max | https://www.dpbolvw.net/click-100415534-14527713?url=https%3A%2F%2Fnomadgoods.com%2Fproducts%2Fbase-one-max-carbide
Autonomous ErgoChair Pro | https://www.autonomous.ai/office-chairs/ergonomic-chair?utm_source=pr&utm_medium=influencer&utm_campaign=growth&utm_content=Youtube&utm_term=22KYLE
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00:00 | Intro
00:55 | Arrival Of The Mac Mini M2 Pro
01:57 | Inside The M2 Pro Mac Mini
02:12 | Why Buy The Mac Mini?
02:54 | Enter The Mac Studio M2 Max
03:19 | Storage Comparison
04:17 | Performance Comparison
08:06 | Design Comparison
10:46 | Wrapping Up
small correction — USB-A ports are capable of 5 Gbps, not 10! whoopsie daisy
Thank you but thanks for the YT speed control. Hey, 65yo brain what can I say 🧐
Amazing video Kyle!!!! what model would be better if I only use it to edit photografy and watch Netflix?
Take care.
a Video editor that aspires to the future M3-PRO Mac Mini & former owner of 3 iMacs, am waiting as APPLE "parses out" features that were releaased by others YEARS before. It comes down to the CEO, others would have OBSERVED the 25th Anniversary of the iMAC this Year & reLeased a Special edition of the iMac, but Cook doesn't care about anything other than bottom line & perceived eco-conscisiousness. the Apple silicon is Exciting . . .
Your advise is bullshit, sorry. IF you don't need all the stuff, the Mac Studio M2 Max offers, you don't even think of the Mac Studio. But IF you need it, the Studio M2 Max is even cheaper, than the Mac Mini M2 Pro! Choose the Topmodel of the Mac mini M2 Pro for 1299$, add RAM up to 32GB, add SSD up to 1TB SSD, add the better 12C CPU and 19C GPU, add even the 10GB Ethernet Port and you'll pay 2299$, a 100$ more, compared to the Mac Studio M2 Max with the same 1TB SSD but 11 Graphics Cores more. If you don't need all this Power, you'll be happy with the Mac Mini M2 in Base Configuration. But the upgraded Mac Mini M2 Pro is not a great deal. Even with the smaller M2 Pro with 10C CPU and 16C GPU, 32GB of RAM but with 10GB Ethernet, it is just 200$ cheaper, than the Mac Studio M2 Max but with overall less Performance. That's a bad deal.
I went through a similar calculus and came to the same conclusion. Now with the studio on my desk, replacing an M1 mini, I am extremely happy. The speed upgrade of course is quite noticeable from that baseline, but where things really shine is in the port availability. Once again my baseline there were only 2 thunderbolt ports and the ability to drive only 2 monitors, but with the new machine I've been able to eliminate the use of one piece of switchgear being utilized for a multi-USB-a connection keyboard, allowing a much smaller unit to house my Yubikey and charging cords. I may or may not go back to 3 monitors but it's nice to know I can. When making my choice the truth is I really didn't need the speed bump from the M2 pro mini, but am still ecstatic about the relative lack of clutter on the desktop, and feel good about some future-proofing with the capabilities of the studio. If you're contemplating an M2-Pro with really any significant upgrades, I'd just go with the Studio.
With the Macs, the only thing I care about is recording my songs. That means 24 tracks or more with all the plugins on each track. Then the next step is to mix the tracks with more plugins and get a good panning and volume for how the song will sound, and the last step is to master those tracks in left and right stereo, which means more plugins. Then I can upload the song to Spotify, Amazon Music, Apple Music, etc. I don't care how the computer does for gaming or complex videos. I have the entry level Mac M2 Pro.
Thanks for the great video Kyle. I'm looking for a new Mac, had the MacBook Pro M2 Pro for a few days and am honestly not a laptop person as it turns out, so I returned it and am looking for a Mac mini M2 Pro OR the Mac Studio. For photo editing and future proofing, I want to go with 32GB, 1TB SSD and 10GBit NIC to connect it directly to my NAS. However, on 3rd party sellers (here in Germany), the Mac mini with 10G is 5€ more than the Mac Studio. Guess this is the decision then 😉
I went with the m2 pro Mac mini
thanks very good. I have A mini 3ghz 6 core i5/ 64gb ram, but I am feeling the crunch on the editing my red files.
so I am trying to see if Mini Pro or Base Studio will do the trick.
thanks.
Bro from 8 to 15 minutes is a huge difference! The value of time should be one of the most important things.
M2 studio looks much better imo so that is the one id buy.
Which site are you using for the benchmark comparisons at 2:43 ?
The Base mac Studio is far more expensive in Australia than it is in the US, any explanation for this?
Very unhelpful.
Personally, having been in IT for over 35 years, I feel the $100 more is well worth it for future proof reasons. I personally need my computer to last 5 to 6 years before it needs replacing. Macs in general have lasted 8 to 10 years for my use.
if you upgrade your memory on the mini to 32 mb there is not much difference in price
FYI the M2 Mac Mini Pro base model is on sale at Costco for $1099 until July 30.
I have a base Mini M2 Pro with 32GB RAM. I use it for development (web development, JVM-based creative coding, occasionally C++-based stuff too), UI/UX design, photography and general productivity. It's pretty much perfect for me.
I've heard many say it's such a poor value over the base Studio, but if I truly don't need any of the upgrades than I think that is poor value. This idea of ”good value” in a general abstract sense is so silly. Value depends on your needs! The Mini I have fulfils my needs pretty much exactly and I'm extremely happy with it. I also strongly prefer the form factor, it's just less unwieldy (which matters when switching the monitor cable with my work laptop). It's also funny people being worried about base SSD performance, aside from the OS and light weight documents (because iCloud needs to be on default drive)… I just run everything off an regular Samsung T7 which AFAIK is much slower than even that SSD and it's still plenty fast for my needs. I don't need the most fancy thing, I just need the thing that does the job well, and this does.
I need a 32GB setup but not a 1TB SSD. The M2 Pro Mac Mini base configurations work perfectly for me. Should I buy the M2 Pro Mac Mini with a 32GB ram upgrade for $1699? (it's $1590 in my country, btw). I've mainly used it for dev with data engineering stacks for PoC on the local machine. For serious large dataset processing, I always run it on the cloud.
Seriously impressive video, as always, Kyle! I ended up going with the Studio myself, mainly because of the type of videos I render out and the 10gbe port, since I edit off my NAS. That said, I think it's kind of ugly, so I picked up an under-desk mount so I don't have to look at it, lol!
Hey Kyle, from what you say in the video, it seems you were using the regular m1 mac mini during your software development days? What kind of dev were you doing, and what config was your m1 mac mini?
Curious, since you have a 4k 27" (as I do also), what do you scale at? 1440?
Hey Kyle! I love your videos! They are super informative and overall very well done! I’m about to go into grad school for my MBA and also am a hobby photographer and do some editing in photoshop and Lightroom. Also looking to have my next Mac be our family computer for the next several years to come. What Mac should I go for? The Mac Mini M2 Pro? Thanks Kyle!
Was stuck deciding between these two and ended up going with a base M2 Max Studio. Super happy with it, as a wedding photographer having the SD slot on the front is nice to have after coming home from a long wedding day.