The new M4 Mac Mini is incredibly small and impressively powerful
Apple’s most affordable computer finally gets the serious upgrade it deserved all along – now, about that pricing…
KOSTAS FARKONAS
PublishED: October 30, 2024
Following up yesterday’s announcement regarding the new M4-based iMac models, Apple unveiled – just as it was expected to – its new Mac Mini models built around the same processor line. Unlike the M4 iMac, though, the M4 Mac Mini sports the different, redesigned enclosure Mark Gurman has been talking about for some time now: it’s way smaller than the one employed by every Mac Mini model of the last decade, barely larger than an Apple TV device (but sadly only available in silver rather than black). It may not be a huge deal in practical terms, but it’s a testament to the efficiency of Apple’s processors and a bold statement of how compact a powerful desktop computer can be these days.
Because powerful these small things can most certainly be. The Mac Mini does not just feature the same M4 chip the new iMac or the new iPad Pro are based on: it can also offer the M4 Pro chip, which sports 8 performance cores and 4 or 6 efficiency cores, as well as a 16-core or 20-core graphics subsystem, all working with very fast unified memory to deliver the kind of processing power usually associated with much larger desktop computers. The redesigned Mac Mini relies on a new “thermal architecture” in order to keep things cool for longer when demanding applications push the M4 Pro to its limits, as is expected of Mac systems designed for professionals.
The new Mac Mini based on the M4 Pro come with a number of other advantages too. They can make use of up to 64GB of system memory, they officially support Thunderbolt 5 (allowing for transfer speeds of up to 120GB/sec between compatible devices using the right cables) and they can drive up to three 6K monitors at 60 Hz at once. All the upgraded Mac Mini models feature three Thunderbolt ports at the back (and two USB-C ports along a headphone jack on the front) but the M4-based ones sport Thunderbolt 4 ports instead of Thunderbolt 5. All models offer an HDMI 2.1 port and a Gigabit Ethernet port too.
Despite the fact that the Mini is not the kind of a Mac computer mainstream consumers and casual users often go for, Apple insists on offering an M4-based entry-level model sporting just 256GB of storage – as close to unacceptable as any configuration can get, especially now that the Mac Mini line comes with at least 16GB of system memory. The most affordable M4 Pro model comes with 512GB of storage (configurable up to 8TB while the M4-based models can only go up to 2TB), which is still not enough for demanding or professional use. Apple’s nonsensical pricing when it comes to RAM and SSD upgrades means that the cost of a maxed-out M4 Pro-based Mac Mini comes at $300 shy of five grand.
Now, $5K is a lot of money for a desktop computer in 2025 terms. Platform-agnostic consumers will be easily able to get a Windows PC more powerful than this for much less money than that come Black Friday. Furthermore, Apple fans who would rather stick with macOS and intend to use a Mac Mini professionally might also want to wait and see what the M4-based Mac Studio has to offer before deciding (it’s currently expected at some point during the first half of next year). There’s still a number of better-balanced Mac Mini configurations pros could look into, though, as a couple of those may very well meet their needs.
Things can get tricky when it comes to the affordable M4-based Mac Mini models too. On one hand, the base model costs the same as it always has and it’s now more powerful than ever, sporting 16GB of system memory too. On the other hand, 256GB of storage just won’t cut it long-term for anything other than Web-based use, in which case why get a powerful new Mac Mini anyway? But going from 256GB of storage to even 512GB costs an extra $200, so if one is getting a decent monitor, keyboard and mouse for that base model the total cost of using it is actually closer to $999 or more (depending on how nice a screen one needs). In which case an affordable MacBook would be a better, more versatile choice for many people, maybe?
Still, one can’t deny that these impressively compact M4- or M4 Pro-based Mac Mini models do deliver a lot of processing power – at astonishingly low levels of power consumption, presumably – for the asking price of many of the configurations available. They’ll be able to run any Mac app or game better than most systems Apple has released in the last four years regardless of cost, which speaks volumes, while being able to offer Apple Intelligence functionality to the masses in 2025 and beyond. They will be available to purchase on November 8, starting at $599.
For people currently looking into macOS – in order to finally leave Windows behind – the barrier to entry has never been lower, has it?