Apple has refreshed its compact desktop lineup in India with the new Mac mini and Mac Studio, bringing its latest M6, M5 Pro, M5 Max and M5 Ultra chips to the range. The Mac mini targets casual users, students, developers and aspiring creatives, while the Mac Studio caters to professionals with more demanding work.
Both desktops also bring Apple’s latest on-device AI features, improved performance, and connectivity options. Here’s what the new Mac mini and Mac Studio offer.
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Mac mini, Mac Studio: price in India
| Models | Starting Price | Education Price |
| Mac Mini M6 | Rs 99,900 | Rs 88,900 |
| Mac Mini M5 Pro | Rs 2,09,900 | Rs 1,97,900 |
| Mac Studio M5 Max | Rs 2,79,900 | Rs 2,56,900 |
| Mac Studio M5 Ultra | Rs 6,29,900 | Rs 5,84,900 |
The new Mac Mini gets M6 and M5 Pro
Apple’s Mac mini comes in two chip options, the M6 and M5 Pro, giving users a choice between everyday performance and more power for demanding work. The standard M6 model uses a 12-core CPU and 12-core GPU, with Neural Accelerators in every GPU core for AI and graphical tasks.
The M6 also gets a dual 16-core Neural Engine and up to 170GB/s of memory bandwidth. It starts with 16GB of unified memory and can go up to 32GB. Apple claims up to 40 percent faster CPU performance, 2x faster graphics and 4x faster AI performance compared with the previous Mac mini. For most users, this should mean smoother multitasking and better performance in creative apps and AI features.
The M5 Pro is more powerful, with a 18-core CPU, 20-core GPU and 64GB of unified memory. It also offers up to 307GB/s of memory bandwidth, making it better suited to heavier tasks such as video editing, game development, and software work which may require large file transfers often.
Both models support Wi-Fi 7, Bluetooth 6 and 2.5Gb Ethernet, with a 10Gb Ethernet option. The M5 Pro also comes with Thunderbolt 5 ports, which can help users connect faster external storage and other high-speed accessories.
Mac Studio now offers M5 Max and M5 Ultra
Apple has also refreshed the Mac Studio with the M5 Max and M5 Ultra chips, targeting professionals who work with demanding tasks such as video editing, 3D design, software development and AI. The M5 Max has an 18-core CPU and up to a 40-core GPU, while the M5 Ultra goes even further, to a 36-core CPU and 80-core GPU.
The M5 Max supports up to 128GB of unified memory, while the M5 Ultra can go all the way up to 512GB with memory bandwidth of up to 1.2TB/s. Apple says the Mac Studio can deliver up to 4.3x faster AI performance and 1.8x faster graphics, depending on the configuration. For professionals, the extra memory and graphics power should help when working with large video files, complex 3D projects or AI models directly on the Mac.
The device comes with Thunderbolt 5 ports, with data speeds of up to 120Gbps. The Mac Studio can support up to eight displays, including up to four Studio Display XDR monitors running at 5K and 120Hz. For users running AI workloads, Apple also supports connecting multiple Mac Studio systems through Thunderbolt 5 and RDMA, which the company says can deliver up to 3x faster distributed AI inference than what a single system can achieve.
Should you buy the new Mac mini and Mac Studio?
The new Mac mini and Mac Studio target different users, so the choice mostly comes down to how much performance you actually need on a daily basis. The Mac mini M6 should be more than enough for students, regular users, developers, small businesses and aspiring creatives, especially for office work, coding, light editing and general AI tasks. The M5 Pro version is more suitable for users who regularly handle heavier creative or technical workloads.
The Mac Studio is a more specialised machine and caters to a specific crowd. The M5 Max and M5 Ultra models target professionals working with heavy video, 3D, music and AI workloads where the more powerful CPU, GPU, and memory configurations can save a lot of time. The ability to configure up to 512GB of unified memory also makes the M5 Ultra relevant for users running very large AI models locally. =
For most buyers, the Mac mini is simply the more practical option because it offers plenty of performance in a much smaller and cheaper package. The Mac Studio is mainly when your work can actually take advantage of its higher performance and memory limits. Apple also offers education pricing from Rs 88,900 for the M6 Mac mini, which makes it a more approachable option for students and educators.
