Apple Unveils Much Smaller Mac Mini and M4 Pro in One Fell Swoop
The next step in a big week of announcements is that Apple is following up yesterday’s iMac update news with a much more significant redesign. Meet the new, much smaller Mac Mini .
There are two big changes here. The first is an upgrade to the M4 series of chips instead of the M2 chip in the previous model. Secondly, this is a new design, almost in the style of Apple TV. This thing is small , measuring just five by five inches, compared to nearly eight by eight inches on the latest model.
Part of what makes this design possible is a new “foot” at the bottom that simultaneously draws air into the device and exhausts it out. This improves thermal efficiency, which is what makes the Mac Mini so small.
If you raised an eyebrow when I said “M4 series chips” earlier, please be kind. Yes, with the new Mac Mini, Apple is also expanding the M4 family with the M4 Pro, which will likely arrive on MacBooks later this week, or at least later this year. The M4 was originally introduced alongside the iPad , but the M4 Pro is more of a power-user chip, increasing the core count from 10 CPU cores and 10 GPU cores on the base M4 to 14 CPU cores and 20 GPU cores. on Pro. The new Mac Mini has both regular M4 and M4 Pro options, so let’s get to the performance numbers.
Apple promises that the new Mac Mini with the regular M4 will be 1.7 times faster at Excel than the Mac Mini with the M1 chip, and 2 times faster at AI-powered speech-to-text. With the M4 Pro, Apple says it can render 3D renders in Blender 2.9 times faster than a Mac Mini with the M2 Pro. The company also says the neural engine in the M4 Pro is more than three times faster than the M1 Mac Mini, which will be a boon for Apple Intelligence.
There are other measurements in the ad, but it’s best to take these manufacturer numbers with a grain of salt until reviewers can get their hands on the device themselves.
Benchmarks aside, both the M4 and M4 Pro give the Mac Mini access to hardware-accelerated ray tracing, which should appeal to gamers, and the M4 Pro finally supports Thunderbolt 5 for faster data transfers with compatible accessories.
The M4 Pro also supports up to 64GB of memory, and Apple fans can breathe a sigh of relief: just like on the new iMac, even the cheapest M4 Mac Mini starts with 16GB of memory.
Speaking of Thunderbolt 5, there are also a few new ports on the M4 Mac Mini, the most notable of which are two USB-C ports and a front-panel audio jack. On the back, you’ll find a power jack, an Ethernet port that can be configured to support up to 10Gbps of bandwidth, an HDMI port, and three Thunderbolt ports (Thunderbolt 4 on the M4 base and Thunderbolt 5 on the M4 Pro). In terms of display connectivity, the M4 can use up to two 6K displays (or one 5K display), while the M4 Pro can use up to three 6K displays (but only at 60Hz). Oddly enough, the power button is located on the bottom of the device .
Like a Mac, the new Mac Mini also comes with all the Apple Intelligence features in macOS Sequoia, which is interesting to note alongside Apple’s promise that the new Mac Mini will be the “first carbon-neutral Mac” given the high energy costs of AI. .
The new Mac Mini is available for purchase now and will go on sale on November 8th. It starts at $599 for a model with a base M4 chip (albeit with the maximum number of cores), 16GB of memory and 256GB of internal storage. Conversely, it can be configured for up to $5,198, which will give you an M4 Pro chip (with the maximum number of cores), 64GB of memory, 8TB of internal storage, 10GB of Ethernet, Final Cut Pro, and Logic Pro. Even the most experienced users will probably want to choose something in between—the model with the M4 Pro chip starts at $1,399. Unlike the iMac, the Mac Mini doesn’t come with a magic keyboard or magic mouse. It’s also only available in silver, at least for now.