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Apple’s Mac Studio was last updated in June 2023 to acclaimed reviews, filling a perfect niche in the ecosystem.
Now it is time to look ahead to the Mac Studio M4, which is expected to arrive in mid-2025 and bring the extraordinary performance of the M4 chip to desktop users who need something more powerful than a Mac Mini.
Here is everything you need to know about the upcoming launch, including the expected release date, design, specs, and pricing.
What is the Mac Studio M4?
Compact Desktop Designed for Creative Professionals Who Need Raw Power
The Mac Studio was first released in 2022 and is aimed at creative professionals who need a more powerful spec for video editing, 3D rendering, and music production.
The last upgrade, the Mac Studio 2023 edition, came with M2 Max and M2 Ultra chips — both excellent chips but beginning to show their age.
Apple’s 2024/2025 release schedule has been absolutely packed with new devices joining the M4 chip family. Now, with most of Apple’s product lines refreshed, it is time for the Mac Studio to join in.
Exected Mac Studio M4 Release Date
The Mac Studio M4’s release date is expected in June 2025, potentially at Apple’s WWDC25.
Apple analyst Mark Gurman, who has an extremely successful track record with Apple releases, first said Apple was targeting March 2025 for the next Mac Studio. At the end of October 2024, he reported that Apple had ‘slightly delayed’ the release by a few months and pointed at June 2025 as the likely launch window.
That timing aligns with Apple’s annual Worldwide Developers Conference, which might offer a good time to release the Mac Studio. If so, it may also coincide with a new iMac Pro.
Expected M4 Mac Studio Features & Design
With the M4 Pro Mac mini and the higher-end MacBook Pros, Apple introduced Thunderbolt 5, allowing for speeds of up to 120Gb/s, triple the theoretical maximum of Thunderbolt 4. Apple will likely introduce Thunderbolt 5 ports on the Mac Studio as well.
If the Mac Studio is not released in mid-2025, we would also expect it to support Wi-Fi 7, which supports speeds of up to 46 Gbps.
While 2024 headlines focus on how the Mac mini became the fastest desktop Mac on the market, we expect this title to be short-lived.
M4 will be the star of the show of the Mac Studio — and if Apple follows its previous form, the high-end M4 Ultra chip will be an option for those with the need and the money.
In theory, Apple’s could open up mouth-watering options for 64 GPU cores and a top-end version with a whopping 80 GPU cores, but we note this is our speculation for now.
The M4 Ultra-powered Mac Studio will be released three years after its debut. Other than a potential color option in space black to match the MacBook Pro range, we do not expect any other major design changes.
Apple did successfully shrink the Mac Mini 2024’s footprint down. If the Mac Studio design does change, going for a smaller footprint is the likely direction.
If you spend time on any Apple forum, you will quickly learn that the most prominent bone of contention is where Apple decides to place the on/off button.
On the Mac Studio 2023, the on/off button was on the back of the device, and the debate began after the tech giant moved the button to the bottom on the Mac Mini 2024, which nearly everyone found awkward.
Apple is a brilliant company, but it wouldn’t be Apple without the occasional left-field decision.
Expected Mac Studio Price
Apple has been generous with release date prices in 2024, often matching the price of the previous generation of devices.
So while there has yet to be an official release date or price available from Apple, we expect the pricing to match the current prices of 2023 models (which, in turn, will get discounted).
So we expect to see a price of $1,999 for a base model M4 (potentially M4 Pro) and $3,999 for M4 Ultra.
The Bottom Line
If you thought 2024 was a big year for Apple releases, we expect bigger and faster Mac desktops to come your way in 2025 — potentially a choice between the Mac Studio and an iMac Pro.
An M4 Ultra Mac Studio will be enough to get many Apple fans hitting the ‘buy now’ button in 2025. Adding WI-FI 7 and Thunderbolt 5 to the mix will only sweeten the deal.
