I don’t know what to think of Apple’s Peek Performance event…

Apple has just wrapped up their first event of the 2022 calendar year and my oh my did they announce a ton of exciting products. Unfortunately, most of this stuff… already leaked. But, there’s still tons more to talk about, so I’m gonna shut up now. Let’s talk Peek Performance. If you’re familiar with my Apple Event recaps, you’ll know that I first go through the boring stuff before getting to the main announcements. This time, I won’t because I’m trying to make this as concise as humanly possible. Why? Well, it’s because this event was abnormally short. Just under an hour. But regardless, let’s first talk about this M1 Ultra thing. That’s right! Apple has announced a new chip to “complete the M1 family.” M1 Ultra uses a Jade-2C die layout with Ultra Fusion technology to double M1 Max’s core count. What does this even mean? Yeah, let’s break it down. M1 Ultra is basically M1 Max times 2. It’s using a Jade-2C die layout, which is half of Jade 4C, which is the maximum size a chip can be according to Apple’s ARM instruction set. Previously, M1 Max was a Jade C die, which is the Jade 2C cut in half. M1 Pro was a Jade C Chop. If you still can’t understand the premise here, that’s alright because it’s not very important. The point is that M1 Ultra is 2 M1 Max chips glued together, combining cores, GPU cores, neural engine cores, and more. How did Apple do this? It’s with what Apple calls Ultra Fusion technology. Ultra Fusion is basically a set of software instructions coupled with hardware bridging. Apple’s Johnny Srouji, SVP of Hardware Technologies stated in the keynote “there’s a feature we haven’t talked about until now..” Well, dang it Johnny, this isn’t new stuff. It’s basically a hunk of transistors stuck at the end of each chip soldered together and bridged in software… and it’s FRIGGIN AWESOME! M1 Ultra doubles the core count in all directions. M1 Ultra at its max with no binning has 20 CPU cores, 64 GPU cores, 32 neural-engine cores, 800 gb/s memory bandwidth with 128GB of RAM. It’s an absolute beast of a chip that is insanity and basically nobody needs it except for people who are doing much more than the average content creator. And for those people, who need customizability and modularity and PCIe slots and more RAM, this just doesn’t make sense. All of your favorite creators who work from home/ a very nearby studio will never be able to take advantage of this in a million years, and frankly, that’s who this chip is intended for. It’s kind of weird and I frankly don’t know what to think about it. Regardless of who can take advantage of M1 Ultra, it’s a groundbreaking chip that truly shows what Apple can do with a chip that’s truly unleashed. I’m super impressed and you should be too.

Now that we have the M1 Ultra chip, Apple needed to put this in an actual computer. And put it in an actual computer they did, oh boy. Apple announced a computer indeed. Apple announced an all-new product category for the Mac today — The Mac Studio. Contrary to the name, this computer is absolutely a Mac mini Pro, and frankly, I think it should be called that. Unfortunately, Apple’s marketing team took a dump again, and we’re stuck with this mediocre name. However, this iMac really only appeals to one market — the indie creator community. Hello developers, podcasters, YouTubers, writers, photographers and so many more. This computer is for the ones who want an AMAZINGLY powerful computer that they can attach to an amazing display to complete their work. It’s not an all-in-one, but rather a cube — honing back to the G4 cube from ancient times. Honestly, if Apple sold an actually affordable display (which we’ll get to in a minute), I actually prefer this to an all-in-one. I’ll basically never need to upgrade my display as well as a custom mechanical keyboard, so I’m basically saving $800-$1000 every time a new Mac Studio comes out. Speaking of upgrades, the I/O is a huge, nay, MASSIVE improvement for professionals who stay home. hint, hint! The machine ships with 6 USB-C ports, 4 of which are thunderbolt on M1 Max and all 6 on M1 Ultra; 2 USB-A ports which is a GODSEND for everyone who’s not the average joe who isn’t really plugging in… stuff; and an HDMI 2.0 port (NOT 2.1, beware if you’d like to use it for a good monitor since the machine doesn’t ship with one cough). The I/O is honestly such a game-changer for me especially, because I usually have a USB-A Time Machine backup drive, mechanical keyboard using USB-A, USB-C charger, flash drive using USB-C, and now a thunderbolt display. But Apple didn’t stop there — if you’re an iMac user, you know the struggle of not being able to find the ports on the back and scratching up the aluminum. Apple has solved this problem ONCE AND FOR ALL BY BRINGING 2 PORTS TO THE FRONT!! YES! FINALLY! This is going to be so perfect for literally every time that I have some drive that my school gives me or whatever and all I have to do is plug it into the front it’s so perfect and revolutionary and oh my gaw- alright enough. Let’s talk cooling. Leaks from Luke Miani published by AppleTrack stated that the majority of the chassis would be occupied by a massive heat sink, replacing blower-style fans with a passive radiator; or, more likely, would be occupied by 2 massive blower-style fans that exhaust throughout the back. The latter proved to be true. The M1 Max seems to have a pretty sizable heat sink and blower fans at the top that intake through the front and exhaust through the back. But, there’s a catch with M1 Ultra — the entire machine weighs 2 POUNDS more than the M1 Max. Some amateurs have left this up to the larger size, but this is absolutely incorrect. It all boils down to the GINORMOUS fans that are only on the M1 Ultra spec. These things are probably bigger than ones by Noctua — they’re actually insane. But it makes sense; this is going to be a hot and power-hungry chip. And good! Apple has always compressed their chips with sub-par cooling solutions making them thermal throttle and eventually burn up cough 2013 Mac Pro cough but it seems like they’ve finally learned their lesson. So what’s missing from this package? Display, peripherals, a microphone, and biggest of all, modularity. I made a joke about this earlier, but Apple said that this computer is supposed to be “modular.” I hate to break it to you, Apple marketing team, but this computer is not modular under any stretch of the imagination. Modularity doesn’t mean that you can switch out the display and keyboard. Modularity means real options to switch out the RAM and storage and possibly even add MPX PCIe modules. I would have paid $500 more for the ability to add RAM (non-unified, but still more RAM) or add an extra M.2 NVMe SSD or perhaps even SATA just for extra storage. That would have made this machine more worth it, have a higher resale value and allow for real customizability drawing in more pros. Regardless of all of its shortcomings, Mac Studio is an absolutely terrific value. I made this point earlier, but for $2000, you get a computer that has more storage, faster RAM, 3x faster GPU, and 50% faster CPU than a $12,000 Mac Pro. Yikes to the Mac Pro! This is a 6x cheaper computer with 2 media encode/decode blocks that’s a godsend for video professionals and unified memory that crushes for programmers that’s smaller, lighter, and newer. I don’t think ANY PC computer on the market to this day can compete with this insanity of a computer. I’ve ordered one, and I can’t wait.

But you know what has more shortcomings than pros and is an abominable value? The new Studio Display. This is probably going to be a very unpopular take, but I’d rather take the 4K panel from the 24” iMac for $700 and call it a day. That would be a killer value and I’d buy one immediately! It wouldn’t need to have an A13 or speakers. If they just had a 1080p webcam without center stage, it would fly off the shelves. But regardless, I’m sure there’ll be at least 4 people interested in this display. The panel is basically the LG UltraFine 5K with 100 nits extra brightness with the Apple tax. The catch is, this monitor costs, not $1300, $1400, or $1500. This monitor costs $1600. So basically, it’s $200 less than the full-fledged, now discontinued $1800 iMac. This is the worst deal in computing, that it’s actually laughable. If you want the same panel with a webcam and all, get the UltraFine 5K. And if you’re anything like me and don’t want a 5K panel, just get the UltraFine 4K with a nice webcam and call it a day like I did. There’s your take.

So in total, Apple announced a new M1 Ultra dual-die M1 Max chip that rips through the competition, Mac Studio that’s 6x cheaper than the Mac Pro while being 1/10 the size and being 3x as powerful, an overpriced display but 5K with Center Stage, Spatial Audio, and more, an iPad Air that’s cheaper than the iPad Pro while being as powerful, an iPhone SE that’s great for most all in an hour. And I don’t know about you, but that sounds like a pretty good event to me. What do you think? Are you getting something? I’ve bought a Mac Studio with M1 Max and I sure as heck will be reviewing it. I’m pretty excited, and so are you. Until then, stay home, stay safe, and stay healthy. I’ll see you then.