Apple's New Mac mini Sports up to an M4 Pro with 14-core CPU and 20-core GPU

[GGforever]

Apple's much awaited M4-based Mac Mini is finally here. As previously indicated by analysts, the Mac mini has received a massive redesign - its first in over a decade. With an amazingly compact chassis that is significantly smaller than before, the Mac mini boasts impressive computing horsepower thanks to the M4 and M4 Pro chipsets, now starting with 16 GB of unified memory.

We are already quite familiar with the M4, which made its debut in the OLED iPad Pro last May. However, the M4 Pro is all-new, boasting up to a 14-core CPU with 10 P-cores and 4 E-cores along with up to a 20-core GPU. The standard M4 packs only 4 P-cores by comparison, and manages to quash Intel's Core Ultra 9 288V in synthetic benchmarks by as much as 60% while trading blows with AMD's Strix Point APUs. The M4 Pro features more than twice the number of P-cores, making it a suitable competitor for Intel's upcoming Arrow Lake-H lineup as well as AMD's Strix Halo.




The Mac mini gets rid of its USB-A ports, in favor of USB-C ones. The system boasts, for the first time, dual USB-C ports on the front along with a 3.5 mm headphone jack. At its back, the M4 variant rocks triple Thunderbolt 4 ports, while the M4 Pro variant boasts triple Thunderbolt 5 ports. Both the variants sport a single HDMI port along with up to a 10 G Ethernet port. Wireless connectivity is taken care of by Wi-Fi 6E as well as Bluetooth 5.3. With dimensions of 5" x 5" x 1.96" and a weight of 1.48 to 1.61 lbs, the Mac mini is undoubtedly 'mini' indeed.

The Mac mini with the M4 SoC, 16 GB of memory, and 256 GB of storage starts at $599. The M4 Pro variant is unsurprisingly quite expensive, coming in at $1,399 for the 12-core version with 24 GB of memory and 512 GB of storage.



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[Fouquin]

Storage upgrade pricing of $400/TB is still asinine, but I'll give Apple the single compliment that over the course of 19 years the Mac Mini has only seen a $100 increase for the base model spec. $499 in 2005, $599 in 2024.

 

[kondamin]

nice, Just have to remember to do every on a thunderbolt drive.
It should also make used prices tank for the older e-waste models.

 

[bonehead123]

nice, Just have to remember to do every on a thunderbolt drive.

No problem, just head over to OWC, I'm certain they will have tons of over-hyped, over-priced, BUT really pretty drives that will match the mini's appearance & store all your files, hehehe

It should also make used prices tank for the older e-waste models.

Trudat, a good thing if you're in the market for one of those....

 

[Daven]

I didn’t know TB5 existed yet to be honest.

 

[docnorth]

Well two USB-C ports that support USB 3 and an audio jack is a generosity from Apple .
Storage that makes server SSD's look like a flash sale, not many (if any) upgrade options and closed ecosystem mean NO. I have used iMac's in the past, still own a Macbook pro from 2010 (currently under surgery for no charging), but the only Apple product worth buying (for me) is a simple and discounted iPad.

 

[Lew Zealand]

Why are there holes on the front?

Did someone at Apple forget to use Photoshop's Fill command? Does it need that much cooling? Did someone drop the prototype and nobody noticed?

 

[Nanochip]

I didn’t know TB5 existed yet to be honest.

Intel released the spec a while back. Usb4v2 was also released. The first Discrete tb5 controller is Barlow ridge jhl9580. Apple appears to be the first in the world to embed a tb5 controller into its cpu. Intel arrow lake has a tbt controller in the cpu but it is only tb4...

 

[cvaldes]

Why are there holes on the front?

Did someone at Apple forget to use Photoshop's Fill command? Does it need that much cooling? Did someone drop the prototype and nobody noticed?

Very funny.

Two of the holes are the USB-C ports, just like on the Mac Studio that debuted two years ago.

The other is a 3.5mm headphone jack, sanely placed on the front (the one on the Mac Studio is stupidly placed on the back, just like the old Mac minis).

Apple has finally come to its senses in putting some ports on the front. It has been a long time coming (my first Mac mini was purchased in 2010). Now that Jony Ive is gone Apple can include some practicality in their industrial designs.

It's a computer first, not an objet d'art. And that's coming from me, someone who has had a Mac in the house for over 30 years.

 

[RUSerious]

Apple has finally come to its senses in putting some ports on the front. It has been a long time coming (my first Mac mini was purchased in 2010). Now that Jony Ive is gone Apple can include some practicality in their industrial designs.

It's a computer first, not an objet d'art. And that's coming from me, someone who has had a Mac in the house for over 30 years.

100%. Well, except the power button location.

 

[kondamin]

No problem, just head over to OWC, I'm certain they will have tons of over-hyped, over-priced, BUT really pretty drives that will match the mini's appearance & store all your files, hehehe


Trudat, a good thing if you're in the market for one of those....

a company called lindy seems to have an affordable TB4 enclosure, no point in going over priced OWC or Lacie

 

[Lew Zealand]

Very funny.

Two of the holes are the USB-C ports, just like on the Mac Studio that debuted two years ago.

The other is a 3.5mm headphone jack, sanely placed on the front (the one on the Mac Studio is stupidly placed on the back, just like the old Mac minis).

Apple has finally come to its senses in putting some ports on the front. It has been a long time coming (my first Mac mini was purchased in 2010). Now that Jony Ive is gone Apple can include some practicality in their industrial designs.

It's a computer first, not an objet d'art. And that's coming from me, someone who has had a Mac in the house for over 30 years.

I am a very long time Apple user and the slow burn of Apple coming to (maybe just one or two of) its senses the past few years is simply a surprise to me. HDMI and Magsafe returned to laptops. Front accessible ports and headphone jack. I'm amazed to see someone convince management that being very slightly sensible might be good. But of course they removed USB-A and upgrades are still highway robbery so yeah lots of Apple still in effect.

 

[AusWolf]

My vote is on no because
1. It's Apple, only available in Apple devices and
2. No e/p-core mixture for me, thanks (only in my phone).

 

[Verpal]

The base model actually doesn't look half bad, $599 for an extremely tiny mini PC that you can probably grab and go at this point, and finally usable ram number, I think the use case vastly expanded.

Price of every >16GB ram model before this would crash very hard though, and deserving so, who in their right mind buy a 8GB ram mini PC in year 2023? Because 8GB is like 16GB in mac?

 

[cvaldes]

I am a very long time Apple user and the slow burn of Apple coming to (maybe just one or two of) its senses the past few years is simply a surprise to me. HDMI and Magsafe returned to laptops. Front accessible ports and headphone jack. I'm amazed to see someone convince management that being very slightly sensible might be good. But of course they removed USB-A and upgrades are still highway robbery so yeah lots of Apple still in effect.

Losing Jony Ive wasn't entirely bad.

Anyhow there are USB-C to USB-A hubs. Like everyone who has been computing for a long time, I still have plenty of USB-A peripherals. But I've noticed that these days, I'm using more peripherals that can be connected via USB-C.

My earbuds charging case, tablet, and notebook computer all take USB-C for power now. Once I switch to the iPhone 16, I won't need to travel with a Lightning cable. At some point in the not-too-distant future I will end up with a multiport USB-C only travel AC adapter. And then anything with a USB-A port or connector can stay at home.

Good riddance, it always seems like I need three tries to successfully connect any USB-A connector into a plug.

The upgrade pricing will never be a bargain for Apple. We know they love their fat margins which they will not achieve by giving us 1 TB SSD upgrade for fifty bucks.

 

[Easy Rhino]

This thing blows the crap out of all of those mini PCs that are future ewaste. Apple FTW on this!

 

[cvaldes]

This thing blows the crap out of all of those mini PCs that are future ewaste. Apple FTW on this!

I own both a Mac mini M2 Pro and a cheap Beelink Wintel mini PC (based on Intel N100). They both have several usage cases and not all of them overlap. I paid less than $150 for the Beelink which I think is about right. I can buy four of those for the price of one Mac mini.

For sure there are some tasks that I can easily accomplish on my M2 Pro that the Intel N100 struggles at.

The M4 Mac mini looks like a good Mac replacement, especially for those still on Intel-based minis and maybe those with the original M1 chip.

I will not be upgrading this cycle, I will stay with my M2 Mac mini and wait for the M5 (possibly the M6) to upgrade. That will give the peripheral manufacturers a chance to catch up and provide a new generation of accessories for the smaller form factor.

 

[Darmok N Jalad]

I’ll likely get the 16/512 when budget allows. That will do me for a long long time.

 

[Hankieroseman]

Apple doesn't play well with others.

 

[[crs]]

I've always like the Mac Mini systems, and always wanted one, but I know I would never use it.

 

[TumbleGeorge]

Storage upgrade pricing of $400/TB is still asinine, but I'll give Apple the single compliment that over the course of 19 years the Mac Mini has only seen a $100 increase for the base model spec. $499 in 2005, $599 in 2024.

Today base price is cheaper. Why?

$499 in 2005 is worth $805.61 today​

$599 << $806.61.

 

[R0H1T]

Intel released the spec a while back. Usb4v2 was also released. The first Discrete tb5 controller is Barlow ridge jhl9580. Apple appears to be the first in the world to embed a tb5 controller into its cpu. Intel arrow lake has a tbt controller in the cpu but it is only tb4

Is it or does it rely on external (chips) support like the ones you mentioned?

but I'll give Apple the single compliment that over the course of 19 years the Mac Mini has only seen a $100 increase for the base model spec.

Not really a complement when you consider what $100 worth could buy you in terms of NAND or DRAM just 5 years back! I've said probably a million times now but worth mentioning it again that Apple's upgrade, or base, prices are an effin daylight robbery

Because 8GB is like 16GB in mac?

That's likely one of the biggest lies ever, surprised some Mac cultists still defend it to this day

 

[trsttte]

Why I answered "No" to the poll: software compatibility. Be it embedded tools or games, the things I use just don't work on ARM, or Mac for that matter. Then there's how Apple treats developers and users, I want to use my computer however I want, not however Apple sees fit.

The hardware is pretty awesome, but until Apple changes their attitude it's all going to waste.

 

[Chaitanya]

Storage upgrade pricing of $400/TB is still asinine, but I'll give Apple the single compliment that over the course of 19 years the Mac Mini has only seen a $100 increase for the base model spec. $499 in 2005, $599 in 2024.

Even the 10Gbps NIC is an optional extra and RAM upgrades are ridiculous. So just another day of robbery from fruit company.

 

[Redwoodz]

Locked ecosystem means I can't run most of the programs I use and it's virtually impossible to upgrade. There simply is no reason to use it vs an x86 PC. Now if I was just concerned about being "hip" I might consider wasting my money on it.