Last month, Apple announced upgraded models of the Mac mini with the M6 / M5 Pro chips and the Mac Studio with the M5 Max / M5 Ultra chips, and those machines were available to pre-order. Yesterday, the embargo for the said machines was lifted, giving us a first look at Apple’s latest desktop offerings. As of today, those machines are now officially available. Powered by the next-generation macOS 27 Golden Gate, both the updated Mac mini and the Mac Studio models are now ready to tackle the latest AI-related workloads and even the latest Apple Intelligence features and Siri AI.
However, because of the off-the-charts demand for those machines, you may need to keep in mind that you could wait even longer for those machines to ship, depending on the configuration you’re looking at. Here are the shipping estimates for each of the memory/storage configurations for both the Mac mini and Mac Studio:
- M6 Mac mini
- M6 Mac mini with 16GB memory
- 256GB storage: September 28
- 512GB storage: September 28
- 1TB storage: October 9 – October 16
- 2TB storage: October 9 – October 16
- M6 Mac mini with 24GB memory
- 256GB storage: October 9 – October 16
- 512GB storage: October 2 – October 9
- 1TB storage: October 9 – October 16
- 2TB storage: October 9 – October 16
- M6 Mac mini with 32GB memory
- 256GB storage: October 9 – October 16
- 512GB storage: October 9 – October 16
- 1TB storage: October 16 – October 23
- 2TB storage: October 9 – October 16
- M6 Mac mini with 16GB memory
- M5 Pro Mac mini
- M5 Pro Mac mini with 24GB memory
- 512GB storage: September 28
- 1TB storage: October 9 – October 16
- 2TB storage: October 9 – October 16
- 4TB storage: October 9 – October 16
- 8TB storage: October 9 – October 16
- M5 Pro Mac mini with 48GB memory
- 512GB storage: October 9 – October 16
- 1TB storage: October 9 – October 16
- 2TB storage: October 9 – October 16
- 4TB storage: October 9 – October 16
- 8TB storage: October 9 – October 16
- M5 Pro Mac mini with 64GB memory
- 512GB storage: October 9 – October 16
- 1TB storage: October 9 – October 16
- 2TB storage: October 9 – October 16
- 4TB storage: October 9 – October 16
- 8TB storage: October 9 – October 16
- M5 Pro Mac mini with 24GB memory
- M5 Max Mac Studio
- M5 Max Mac Studio with 32-core GPU and 36GB memory
- 512GB storage: September 28
- 1TB storage: October 16 – October 23
- 2TB storage: October 16 – October 23
- 4TB storage: October 16 – October 23
- 8TB storage: October 16 – October 23
- M5 Max Mac Studio with 40-core GPU and 48GB memory
- 512GB storage: October 16 – October 23
- 1TB storage: October 16 – October 23
- 2TB storage: October 16 – October 23
- 4TB storage: October 16 – October 23
- 8TB storage: October 16 – October 23
- M5 Max Mac Studio with 40-core GPU and 64GB memory
- 512GB storage: October 16 – October 23
- 1TB storage: September 28
- 2TB storage: October 16 – October 23
- 4TB storage: October 16 – October 23
- 8TB storage: October 16 – October 23
- M5 Max Mac Studio with 40-core GPU and 128GB memory
- 512GB storage: October 23 – October 30
- 1TB storage: October 23 – October 30
- 2TB storage: October 23 – October 30
- 4TB storage: October 23 – October 30
- 8TB storage: October 23 – October 30
- M5 Max Mac Studio with 32-core GPU and 36GB memory
- M5 Ultra Mac Studio
- M5 Ultra Mac Studio with 64-core GPU and 96GB memory
- 1TB storage: November 16 – November 13
- 2TB storage: November 16 – November 13
- 4TB storage: November 16 – November 13
- 8TB storage: November 16 – November 13
- 16TB storage: November 16 – November 13
- M5 Ultra Mac Studio with 64-core GPU and 256GB memory
- 1TB storage: November 16 – November 13
- 2TB storage: November 16 – November 13
- 4TB storage: November 16 – November 13
- 8TB storage: November 16 – November 13
- 16TB storage: November 16 – November 13
- M5 Ultra Mac Studio with 80-core GPU and 96GB memory
- 1TB storage: 16-18 weeks
- 2TB storage: 16-18 weeks
- 4TB storage: 16-18 weeks
- 8TB storage: 16-18 weeks
- 16TB storage: 16-18 weeks
- M5 Ultra Mac Studio with 80-core GPU and 256GB memory
- 1TB storage: 16-18 weeks
- 2TB storage: 16-18 weeks
- 4TB storage: 16-18 weeks
- 8TB storage: 16-18 weeks
- 16TB storage: 16-18 weeks
- M5 Ultra Mac Studio with 64-core GPU and 96GB memory
In summary, very few amount configurations of the Mac mini or Mac Studio are available to ship within less than a week; however, a majority of them are seeing significant shipping delays going into either October or November (with the highest-end Mac Studio configurations seeing shipping estimates of 16-18 weeks!). Apple also stated that the 512GB memory option for the M5 Ultra (in the Mac Studio) would come in late October; however, I wouldn’t be surprised if that would see significant shipping delays too.
With that said, if you’re in the market for either of those machines for your AI needs, I’d highly suggest you place your order soon.
