Five years ago Apple announced they were moving the Mac to their own silicon. The bet paid off — the M-series chips are the reason the Mac is the best laptop platform in the world today. We've now built and rebuilt our internal hardware policy four times. Here's where we landed for 2026.
The studio-wide buying matrix
| Role | Default | Upgrade path |
|---|---|---|
| Engineer (web) | 14" MBP, M4 Pro, 24GB / 1TB | 36GB if heavy local Docker |
| Engineer (heavy / native) | 16" MBP, M4 Pro, 36GB / 1TB | 48GB if Xcode + simulators |
| Designer | 14" MBP, M4, 24GB / 1TB | External 4K display + ProMotion when away |
| Video / motion / 3D | 16" MBP, M4 Max, 64GB+ / 2TB | Mac Studio + Studio Display for desk-only |
| Installation / kiosk | Mac mini M4 | Studio Display in retail / event contexts |
Apple Silicon buying matrix per role, 2026.
Engineers
- 01 Default: 14-inch MacBook Pro, M4 Pro, 24GB RAM, 1TB SSD.
- 02 Upgrade if running heavy local Docker / VMs: 16-inch, M4 Pro, 36GB RAM.
- 03 Three-year machine, easily. Battery still lasts a full work-day.
- 04 16GB is no longer enough — modern dev tooling pushes past it daily.
Designers
- 01 Default: 14-inch MacBook Pro, base M4, 24GB RAM, 1TB SSD.
- 02 Figma and most design tools don't need a Pro chip — but the screen matters.
- 03 External 4K monitor at the desk, ProMotion display when away.
Video / motion / 3D
- 01 16-inch MacBook Pro, M4 Max, 64GB+ RAM, 2TB SSD.
- 02 Or a Mac Studio with M4 Max / Ultra plus a Studio Display for desk-only roles.
- 03 GPU cores matter here in a way they don't for engineers — spec accordingly.
Installation / hardware / on-prem
- 01 Mac mini M4. The 2024 redesign halved the footprint and stayed cool — best on-prem Mac we've ever deployed.
- 02 Often paired with a Studio Display in retail and event contexts.
- 03 Cheap, quiet, fast. The Mac mini is doing more of our installation work each year.
What we'd still avoid
- 01 Base M4 MacBook Air with 8GB — fine for content consumption, painful for any real work.
- 02 iPad Pro M4 as a primary work device for engineers. We've tried; it isn't.
- 03 Buying ahead of the chip cycle. M5 is rumoured for late 2026.
Hardware stopped being a topic of conversation — and that's the strongest signal that the platform is working.
The biggest surprise
Five years in, the most striking thing is how much faster the studio runs. Builds that used to be coffee breaks are now muscle memory. Engineers stay on a single battery charge longer. Designers don't get blocked by export times. Most importantly, hardware stopped being a topic of conversation — and that's the strongest signal that the platform is working.