CES 2025: This Dock Solves the Mac Mini Power Button Problem
Among all the weird and wonderful announcements at CES 2025, one Apple product accessory caught my attention. Remember the awkwardly placed power button on the M4 Mac mini that required you to lift the device to turn it on? This is one of the most puzzling design decisions Apple has ever made. Now accessory manufacturer Satechi has a solution to this problem .
The company’s new products at CES include a Mac Mini M4 stand and hub with an SSD enclosure that has a cutout right where the Mac mini’s power button is located. This means you can press the power button without moving your Mac mini much. The dock fits snugly into the base of the Mac mini and adds only a small amount of height to the device. This, combined with the notch, is enough to allow you to easily press the power button.
The Satechi dock comes with a USB-C cable that allows you to connect it to your M4 Mac mini, meaning you’ll have to sacrifice one USB port on your computer to use this dock. It also features an SSD enclosure that allows you to expand your Mac mini’s storage up to 4TB. There are also useful ports on the front panel – an SD card slot and three USB-A ports. (Every photographer will tell you that it’s incredibly convenient when you don’t have to squirm to insert an SD card.) Satechi claims that the aluminum dock has heat-dissipating vents that keep the device cool, but at the moment these claims remain untested .
This Satechi dock is scheduled to be released in the spring of 2025; there is no price for it yet. If it’s well priced and works as advertised, it could be a good alternative way to upgrade the storage on the new M4 Mac mini. Now someone: please make something this elegant so I can charge my Apple Magic Mouse .