The More Mini Mac mini

October 29, 20242 Mins read36 Views

Today, Apple announced the new M4 Mac mini via a press release. The new mini’s chip jumped from M2 to M4, which is available in both its base and Pro configurations. However, what’s most remarkable about the Mac mini is its size. The new design measures just 5 inches deep, 5 inches wide, and 2 inches tall. By comparison, the old Mac mini is 1.41 inches tall and 7.75 inches deep and wide, and the Apple TV is 1.2 inches tall and 3.66 inches deep and wide. Also, the old M2 mini weighed 2.6 pounds, while the new M4 model weighs just 1.5 pounds.

Apple says the new mini is also the company’s first carbon neutral Mac. The company released a video showing off the new Mac too:

Other specs of the new mini include:

A choice of M4 and M4 Pro processors that extend up to 14 CPU cores
Up to a 20-core GPU
Up to 64GB of memory
Up to 8TB of storage
Three Thunderbolt 5 ports on the M4 Pro model, with up to 120 Gb/s data transfer speeds
Three Thunderbolt 4 ports on the base M4 model with up to 40GB/s data transfer speeds
Two USB-C ports on the front of the mini, with up to 10Gb/s data transfer speeds
A front-facing 3.5mm headphone jack
Support for up to three 6K displays on the M4 Pro model and two 6K and one 5K display on the M4 model at 60Hz
Gigabit Ethernet with a 10GB Ethernet option

Apple also released a one meter Thunderbolt 5 cable for $69.

That slots the mini right between the new iMac released yesterday and the existing Mac Studio. The mini offers mid-range performance with more CPU and GPU cores, memory, and storage than the iMac, while the Mac Studio can take things further with significantly more CPU and GPU cores and memory.

Compared to the existing Mac mini, the new model is significantly smaller, fitting almost exactly between the width and depth of an Apple TV and the previous generation mini. The headphone jack and USB-C ports on the front of the Mac mini are welcome additions if you regularly swap in new peripherals as you work.

I’ve used Mac minis since they had CD/DVD slots, sometimes as my day-to-day desktop and other times as a headless server. What I love about the mini is its versatility. The new size and more powerful CPU/GPU configurations should only extend the flexibility of this tiny powerhouse.

The new M4 Mac mini starts at $599 ($499 for education customers), and the M4 Pro model starts at $1,399 ($1,299 for education customers). A fully-loaded M4 Pro Mac mini costs $4,269, and all models can be pre-ordered today, with deliveries and in-store availability beginning on November 8.