Mac mini (M5 Pro) vs Mac Studio (M5 Max)

Mac mini (M5 Pro)¹Mac Studio (M5 Max)²

Quick look

Quick look: Mac mini M5 Pro against Mac Studio M5 Max
Figure	Mac mini M5 Pro¹	Mac Studio M5 Max²
Price	£1,699³Apple UK store	£2,499⁴Apple UK store
Chip	M5 Prochip	M5 Maxchip
CPU	15-coreCPU	18-coreCPU
GPU	16-coreGPU	32-coreGPU
Memory	24GBunified memory, base	36GBunified memory, base
Storage	512GBstorage, base	512GBstorage, base
Released	22 September 2026⁵ReleasedIn Apple Stores; pre-order from 25 August 2026.	22 September 2026⁶ReleasedIn Apple Stores; pre-order from 25 August 2026.
Security updates	Not available⁷Security updates	Not available⁸Security updates

Price: The Mac mini M5 Pro is £1,699 on Apple’s UK store; the Mac Studio M5 Max is £2,499 on Apple’s UK store.

True to scale

Mac mini (M5 Pro) · 127 × 50 mm frontMac Studio (M5 Max) · 197 × 95 mm front

Front faces, from Apple’s published dimensions, drawn to one scale and superposed. Corner rounding is our drawing convention, not a measurement.

Specifications

Each figure is from the source marked by its Mac’s name unless it carries its own small number, which links to where that figure was read.

Body

Body: Apple Mac mini (M5 Pro) against Apple Mac Studio (M5 Max)
Specification	Mac mini M5 Pro¹	Mac Studio M5 Max²
Dimensions	50 x 127 x 127 mm	95 x 197 x 197 mm
Weight	0.73 kg	2.7 kg
Colours	Silver	Silver
Ports	Front: two USB-C ports with support for USB 3 (up to 10Gb/s), 3.5mm headphone jack. Back (M5 Pro): 2.5Gb Ethernet port (configurable to 10Gb Ethernet), HDMI port, three Thunderbolt 5 (USB-C) ports	Four Thunderbolt 5 (USB-C) ports, two USB 3 (USB-A) ports (up to 5Gb/s), HDMI 2.1 port, 10Gb Ethernet, 3.5mm headphone jack; on front (M5 Max): two USB-C ports (up to 10Gb/s), SDXC card slot (UHS-II)
Thunderbolt ports	3	4
Thunderbolt version	Thunderbolt 5	Thunderbolt 5
USB-A ports	No USB-A ports.⁹	2
HDMI	HDMI port	HDMI 2.1 port
SD card slot	No SD card slot.¹⁰	Yes
Headphone jack	Yes	Yes

Chip and memory

Chip and memory: Apple Mac mini (M5 Pro) against Apple Mac Studio (M5 Max)
Specification	Mac mini M5 Pro¹	Mac Studio M5 Max²
Chip	Apple M5 Pro chip	Apple M5 Max chip
Apple silicon	Yes	Yes
CPU cores	15	18
Super cores	5¹¹	6¹²
Performance cores	10¹¹	12¹²
GPU cores	16	32
Neural Engine cores	16	16
Chip options	M5 Pro with 15-core CPU and 16-core GPU, or M5 Pro with 18-core CPU and 20-core GPU	M5 Max with 18-core CPU and 32-core GPU, or M5 Max with 18-core CPU and 40-core GPU¹²
Memory (base)	24GB	36GB
Memory (maximum)	64GB	128GB¹²
Memory options	24GB, 48GB or 64GB	36GB; 48GB, 64GB or 128GB (40-core GPU)¹²
Memory upgradeable by user	No, as Apple documents¹³	Not available¹⁴
Memory bandwidth	307 GB/s	460 GB/s
Storage (base)	512GB	512GB
Storage (maximum)	8TB	8TB¹²
Storage options	512GB, 1TB, 2TB, 4TB or 8TB	512GB, 1TB, 2TB, 4TB or 8TB¹²
Media engine	Hardware-accelerated H.264, HEVC, ProRes and ProRes RAWvideo decode enginevideo encode engineProRes encode and decode engineAV1 decode	Hardware-accelerated H.264, HEVC, ProRes and ProRes RAWvideo decode enginetwo video encode enginestwo ProRes encode and decode enginesAV1 decode

Battery and power

Battery and power: Apple Mac mini (M5 Pro) against Apple Mac Studio (M5 Max)
Specification	Mac mini M5 Pro¹	Mac Studio M5 Max²
Maximum continuous power	155 W	480 W

Connectivity

Connectivity: Apple Mac mini (M5 Pro) against Apple Mac Studio (M5 Max)
Specification	Mac mini M5 Pro¹	Mac Studio M5 Max²
Wi-Fi	Wi‑Fi 7 (802.11be)	Wi‑Fi 7 (802.11be)
Bluetooth	6	6
Ethernet	2.5Gb Ethernet (100/1000/2500BASE‑T Multi‑Gigabit Ethernet; configurable to 10Gb Ethernet)	10Gb Ethernet (Nbase-T Ethernet with support for 1Gb, 2.5Gb, 5Gb and 10Gb Ethernet using RJ-45 connector)
External displays (base)	3	5

Camera and audio

Camera and audio: Apple Mac mini (M5 Pro) against Apple Mac Studio (M5 Max)
Specification	Mac mini M5 Pro¹	Mac Studio M5 Max²
Speakers	Built-in speaker¹⁵	Built-in speaker¹⁶

Platform

Platform: Apple Mac mini (M5 Pro) against Apple Mac Studio (M5 Max)
Specification	Mac mini M5 Pro¹	Mac Studio M5 Max²
Newest macOS	macOS 27 Golden Gate¹⁷	macOS 27 Golden Gate¹⁸
Model identifier	Mac17,16¹⁹	Mac17,14²⁰
Model year	2026	2026²¹

Sources

Apple Support (UK) — Mac mini (M6 or M5 Pro) - Tech Specs · Default for Mac mini M5 Pro · Apple’s figure · read 30 Sep 2026
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Apple UK — Mac Studio Technical Specifications · Default for Mac Studio M5 Max · Apple’s figure · read 15 Sep 2026
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Apple UK store — Mac mini M5 Pro, 15-core CPU, 16-core GPU, 24GB, 512GB — From £1,699 · Apple’s figure · read 2 Oct 2026
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Apple UK store — Mac Studio M5 Max, 18-core CPU, 32-core GPU, 36GB, 512GB — From £2,499 · Apple’s figure · read 22 Sep 2026
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Apple Newsroom (UK) — Apple unveils a more powerful Mac mini featuring the all-new M6 and M5 Pro · Apple’s figure · read 30 Sep 2026
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Apple Newsroom (UK) — Apple introduces new Mac Studio with M5 Max and M5 Ultra · Apple’s figure · read 15 Sep 2026
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Security updates: no end date published. Checked: endoflife.date. Read 30 Sep 2026
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Security updates: no end date published. Checked: endoflife.date. Read 22 Sep 2026
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Mac mini (M5 Pro): No USB-A ports. Checked: Apple Support (UK) — Mac mini (M6 or M5 Pro) - Tech Specs. Read 30 Sep 2026
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Mac mini (M5 Pro): No SD card slot. Checked: Apple Support (UK) — Mac mini (M6 or M5 Pro) - Tech Specs. Read 9 Oct 2026
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Apple Support (UK) — Mac mini (M6 or M5 Pro) - Tech Specs · Apple’s figure · read 2 Oct 2026
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Apple UK — Mac Studio Technical Specifications · Apple’s figure · read 2 Oct 2026
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Apple Support (UK) — Upgrade or install memory in your Mac mini · Apple’s figure · read 18 Oct 2026
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Not published by Apple. Pages checked: Apple Support (UK) — Mac Studio (M5 Max or M5 Ultra) - Tech Specs; Apple Newsroom (UK) — Apple introduces new Mac Studio with M5 Max and M5 Ultra; Apple Support (UK) — Identify your Mac Studio model. Read 9 Oct 2026
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Apple Support (UK) — Mac mini (M6 or M5 Pro) - Tech Specs · Apple’s figure · read 9 Oct 2026
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Apple UK — Mac Studio Technical Specifications · Apple’s figure · read 9 Oct 2026
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Apple Support (UK) — macOS 27 Golden Gate is compatible with these computers · Apple’s figure · read 30 Sep 2026
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Apple Support (UK) — macOS 27 Golden Gate is compatible with these computers · Apple’s figure · read 22 Sep 2026
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Apple Support (UK) — Identify your Mac mini model · Apple’s figure · read 10 Oct 2026
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Apple Support (UK) — Identify your Mac Studio model · Apple’s figure · read 2 Oct 2026
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Apple Support (UK) — Identify your Mac Studio model · Apple’s figure · read 9 Oct 2026
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Not published by Apple

Mac mini M5 Pro. Apple doesn’t publish for this Mac: storage upgradeable by user, microphones, the macOS it shipped with. Geekbench 7: the Mac chart has no entry for this Mac, so no figures are shown (chart read 10 Oct 2026). Pages checked: Apple Support (UK) — Mac mini (M6 or M5 Pro) - Tech Specs; Apple Support (UK) — Identify your Mac mini model; Apple Newsroom (UK) — Apple unveils a more powerful Mac mini featuring the all-new M6 and M5 Pro, read 9 Oct 2026.

Mac Studio M5 Max. Apple doesn’t publish for this Mac: storage upgradeable by user, microphones, the macOS it shipped with. Geekbench 7: the Mac chart has no entry for this Mac, so no figures are shown (chart read 10 Oct 2026). Pages checked: Apple Support (UK) — Mac Studio (M5 Max or M5 Ultra) - Tech Specs; Apple Newsroom (UK) — Apple introduces new Mac Studio with M5 Max and M5 Ultra; Apple Support (UK) — Identify your Mac Studio model, read 9 Oct 2026.

If you own one of them

Whether to move is a different question from which is better. Each Mac has a page on it: what its successor changes (the newest Mac in its line where Apple sells one, otherwise the Mac this site treats as its replacement, which can be in another line), what it fetches and whether it still gets updates. Should I upgrade my Mac mini M5 Pro? · Should I upgrade my Mac Studio M5 Max?

The pairs a buyer of either Mac would also weigh. Any two Macs in the catalogue can be compared from the chooser.