Renders show claimed Mac Studio product ahead of March 8 announcement

Mac Mini Studio Render (Image credit: Luke Miani)

What you need to know

Apple is now expected to announce a new Mc Studio product during its March 8 event.
Rumors have the new Mac Studio being around twice the thickness of the current Mac mini.
Apple is said to be testing an M1 Max chip as well as a whole new chip inside this machine.

Apple will announce a whole new type of Mac dubbed Mac Studio during tomorrow's online event, according to a new report. Mac Studio will effectively take up the same amount of desk space as the current Mac mini but will be around four inches tall, according to that same report.

Citing people "familiar with the matter," YouTuber Luke Miani and Apple Track report that the machine will be around the same height as two M1 Mac mini devices stacked on top of each other.

It isn't yet clear exactly what Apple silicon this machine will have inside it, although a previous report suggested that Apple was testing both the M1 Max and a "variant of the Apple Silicon chip that is even more powerful than the current M1 Max." That's likely why this machine is taller than a Mac mini — the additional space gives Apple room for more cooling.

The report and accompanying YouTube video suggest we should look forward to a "wide array of IO" and more USB-C ports than are currently available on the current M1 Mac mini

Apple's March 8 event is already looking set to be a big deal with new iPad Air and iPhone SE products coming. Talk of an M2-powered MacBook Air and MacBook Pro won't go away, either. But the latest rumors point to the Mac being a big part of the event with Mac Studio at the point of the spear. A new display is also rumored, likely aimed squarely at people who by Apple Studio.

Oliver Haslam has written about Apple and the wider technology business for more than a decade with bylines on How-To Geek, PC Mag, iDownloadBlog, and many more. He has also been published in print for Macworld, including cover stories. At iMore, Oliver is involved in daily news coverage and, not being short of opinions, has been known to 'explain' those thoughts in more detail, too. Having grown up using PCs and spending far too much money on graphics card and flashy RAM, Oliver switched to the Mac with a G5 iMac and hasn't looked back. Since then he's seen the growth of the smartphone world, backed by iPhone, and new product categories come and go. Current expertise includes iOS, macOS, streaming services, and pretty much anything that has a battery or plugs into a wall. Oliver also covers mobile gaming for iMore, with Apple Arcade a particular focus. He's been gaming since the Atari 2600 days and still struggles to comprehend the fact he can play console quality titles on his pocket computer.