M2 Max Mac Studio VS 16" MacBook Pro

I think you should go for the Mac Studio, because it has more power, memory, and display options than the MacBook Pro. You can also save some money and keep your current laptop for transferring files.

The Mac Studio is better for your post production work at your desk, and you don’t need to edit on the go very often. That’s my opinion, but you can make your own decision based on your budget and convenience

But I can also suggest you a guide that is not focusing on the specs just like every website do, but focusing on real examples on which one is best: M2 Mac Studio vs MacBook Pro 16 inch for different type of user I hope you found it very helpful, if you not( because I guess you would have now bought ) then someone else maybe.

Note that now the 14"/16" MacBook Pros are available with M3 Pro and M3 Max chips. The Mac Studios are still using M2 Max and M2 Ultra chips.

That throws an additional variable into comparisons.

You pay dearly for the optimization for portability and light weight of the battery-capable MacBook Pro. You will get more computer for less money when you buy a desktop system like the Mac Studio.

If you keep you old MacBook Pro 13-in for occasional portability, the Mac Studio is the more capable solution for the kind of work you are doing.

RAM memory and drive size are essentially NOT upgradeable later. In addition, Display memory will be taken from main memory. Buy MORE than you think you will ever need, you will not be sorry.

Are you talking about machines equipped with the same processor, amount of RAM, and SSD space?

In which case, the differences would be that a 16" M2 Max MacBook Pro

• Is a self-contained, portable system (even if a bit on the heavy side)
• Has a smaller display than a typical desktop Mac would (although you could fix that by having a large monitor, keyboard, and mouse at home – for additional cost)
• Might thermally throttle a bit sooner under heavy load
• Has a battery that will wear out and eventually need to be replaced

Plus the Mac Studio has a 10 Gb Ethernet port built in should more networking or a NAS be in your future, as might be the case if you keep your library of past photos available.

The Mac Studio can also be expanded to 128 or 192 GB of RAM compared to the 96 GB of the MBP; obviously not an issue if you were intending to get a 32 or 64 GB machine.

If you already have an external display choose Mac Studio because it’s cheaper and has more ports. And you can choose more powerful option of SoC: M2 Ultra. Even the baseline will have more cores than the M2 Max (all configurations) anyway remember that the VRAM for GPU takes from unified memory. So it’s logical to take more than you need. But if you don’t have an external display upgrade to the MacBook Pro 14" or 16".

Great point.

Honestly, other than the price I can't come up with a downside other than the lack of portability.

Simple solution, I have both.

That works, too. 😁

Is there any performance difference between the two? ie, is the Mac Studio noticeably faster at all?