And maxing out the storage adds a huge $/£2,400 for 8TB, so you're seriously better off investing in a fast external drive for this.Īnd like the mini, you will need the extras – keyboard, mouse and monitor – with the Mac Studio so you'll need to factor these in. Upgrading to the M2 Ultra chip – as found in the Pro – essentially doubles the price in an instant, but is still a way away from the cost of the Pro. In many ways Mac Studio is our first choice Mac for music – it starts off at a reasonable $1,999/£2,099 for a base machine that has a decent 32GB memory and powerful M2 Max processor, and this standard machine sits perfectly at the top end of the Mac mini range in terms of price and specs (as Apple has clearly planned it to).Īs ever with Apple, it's those tempting upgrades where things might come undone and your bank balance comes under threat.

Read the full Apple MacBook Pro M2 review Best compact option Of course you are paying for this power, and beyond the base model the price quickly creeps up, but there’s no denying the latest MacBook Pros deliver incredible performance. Our review 14” MacBook Pro is likely the most powerful laptop we’ve ever used, and it’s not even close to being a maximum spec machine. These sound pretty good for a laptop and also support Spatial Audio for Dolby Atmos content. You also get the six-speaker sound with force-cancelling woofers. An M2 Pro-equipped machine can support up to two additional monitors and the M2 Max up to four. That's probably the most expensive laptop in existence, but one that will run anything you throw at it, probably faster than you wish for.Īpple’s laptops are well engineered, beautiful devices that perform very well. If you max everything out and really go for the biggest RAM, storage and CPU options, you are looking at $6,749/$6,500 for a top end 16' MacBook Pro. The larger models also offer bigger processing with M2 Max and Pro options. Leap over to the 14' and you start at 16GB RAM with options up to 96GB, while storage goes up to a massive 8TB if you need it (and can afford it). The memory and storage options for the 13', for example, are 8-24GB RAM and 512-2TB hard drive respectively. Really the two latter models are where things get super serious – and super expensive. The range has three M2 machines in 13', 14' and 16' screen sizes. The MacBook Pro is Apple's highest spec'd laptop. Read the full Apple Mac mini M2 review Best for performance on the go Even so, and despite the non-upgradable design, there can be no denying that the new Mac mini offers an excellent performance. Inevitably, any upgrades and additions all come at a price and, much like the M2 MacBook Pro, that price rises sharply as you bump up the spec of the memory and storage. 'Mac mini XL' or 'Mac maxi' might be a better description. For music production, it’s very important to check that any plugins or apps you want to use support this OS and Apple Silicon.Īs you can now supersize the spec of your Mac mini into something altogether different, the 'mini' name almost does the range an injustice. The Mac mini comes preinstalled with Mac OS 13 Ventura and this is the minimum supported OS. The two different designs are built around the M2 and M2 Pro processors, although there are many available spec options around these to choose from.

Two main types of Mac mini are now available, with specs that in many cases are indistinguishable from the new MacBook Pros. However, the range has also very much expanded upwards and the sky is the limit in terms of power and price. The company's latest Mac mini range retains this ethos – there are still cheap machines available to buy and if the spec of the latest M2 base model fulfils your needs, then $/£649 is a great price to pay. The Mac mini is Apple's no nonsense, compact Mac where you get a choice of core computer and add the keyboard, mouse and monitor yourself to save costs on the original machine. M2 Pro based units considerably more expensive

Mac os x record audio from computer