I replaced my Windows PC with a Mac Studio for a week – here are my takeaways so far

I’ve never really been an Apple guy. Most of the tech I have owned has either been Windows- or Android-related. I’ve never had an iPhone, and outside of a few instances, I never used a Mac for an extended period of time. However, writing for ZDNET has given me opportunities to try out hardware I may never have touched. And a week into testing Apple’s new M4 Max Mac Studio, I’m seriously considering switching teams.

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See, one of my pet peeves is dealing with clutter. I’m not the biggest fan of having a bunch of stuff on my desk with wires going everywhere. The Mac Studio is the complete opposite, sporting a compact form factor and minimal cabling. Apple redesigned its desktop to take up less desk space, now measuring just 7.7 x 7.7 inches. It is taller at nearly four inches, but the height is a non-issue; It’s not like the Mac Studio obscures the view of your monitor. 

I knew Apple’s M4 Max was a powerful chipset going into things. But knowing something is quite different from experiencing it firsthand. I had a good first day with the SoC (system on a chip). Features powered by Apple Intelligence ran quickly. Siri is easier to talk to since it has better awareness of context. I didn’t have to repeat its name multiple times to get an inquiry across. It knew what I was talking about.

But as the week went on, the M4 Max really began to shine. Multi-tab browsing went off without a hitch, and I ran multiple apps simultaneously — there was no slowdown whatsoever. As part of testing, Apple sent over a Studio Display. I couldn’t help it be also take it for a spin. One of the first things I did was boot up Netflix and watch a few shows. Content like Culinary Class Wars looked great. Programs on the small desktop continued operating smoothly even as the workload increased.

I played a few games on the Mac Studio, too. Steam has a small library of Mac-supporting titles. I was worried at the beginning that the test games wouldn’t run well, but I was happily proven wrong. The Steam titles ran all great, with gameplay feeling impactful and fluid.

Benchmark tests provided a clearer picture of the hardware’s capabilities. I ran Cinebench 2024, a software that tests a computer’s ability to render complex images and graphics. According to the app, the chip earned a score of 2,094. To put that into perspective, the M1 Max chipset, which most consumers may be currently using and upgrading from, sits at 791. This makes the M4 Max nearly three times more powerful than the first generation of Apple-owned silicon. 

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I performed other benchmarking tests, most notably Geekbench, which measures the computer’s processing power. I won’t spoil the exact results yet, but just know the Mac Studio earned high marks and, unsurprisingly, delivers better performance than a high-end MacBook Pro.

Image Playground is the other major AI feature alongside Siri. It’s fine for generating profile pictures, but it’s nowhere near the level of quality that you would get from other image generators like Adobe Firefly. But for most Mac users, especially if you’re eyeing a Studio, you’ll likely be leveraging the dedicated NPU and processing power for running custom AI agents, scripts, multi-step automation, and more — all of which the computer should handle with grace.

First-party accessories are an essential aspect of the Apple experience. In addition to the Studio Display, Apple sent over a Magic Keyboard, Magic Trackpad, and Magic Mouse to test with the Mac. The keyboard stood out for me, as the keys had just the right amount of travel and were ergonomically sound. It reminded me a lot of the Plugable Folding Keyboard.

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The Magic Mouse, on the other hand, wasn’t as terrific. Even with the tracking speed set to its maximum, its cursor was too slow for my liking. Fortunately, the TrackPad provided a better experience — and you can always opt for a third-party peripheral, so long as it supports MacOS gestures and inputs.

So far, my experience with the new M4 Max Mac Studio has been mostly positive. I’m looking forward to seeing what more this little silver box can do. Will it convince me to finally drop Windows? Only time will tell, so stay tuned as I review Apple’s latest supercomputer.