The M4 Mac Mini Is One of Apple’s Best Black Friday Deals.
Black Friday sales officially kick off on Friday, November 28, and run through Cyber Monday, December 1. Before they end, Lifehacker is sharing the best sales based on product reviews, comparisons, and price tracking tools.
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Sales data is current at the time of publication, but prices and stock levels are subject to change.
It’s nice to have dreams that can be realized. Mine is an M4 Mac Mini home server, and it’s now even more real thanks to Amazon’s Black Friday sale. The already affordable entry-level M4 Mac Mini is $120 off on Black Friday and can now be yours (and mine) for just $479.
The M4 chip in the Mac Mini is no joke. I use the 14-inch MacBook Pro M4 Pro every day, and I love it. I love the power, the display, the whole package. But now that my wife and I have moved into a new apartment and created a great entertainment area, I really want a dedicated home computer for both of us. A home computer would be a great place for our weekly meditations and daily web browsing, and it could also serve as a media server and a place for my wife to review scans and schedule her appointments (she’s a dentist).
The Mac Mini is the perfect candidate because it’s small and inexpensive. We considered an iMac, but at $1,299, it was too expensive. Plus, we already have a monitor, keyboard, and mouse bundled with the Mac Mini. At 5.5 x 5.5 inches, it’s compact enough to fit inside my set-top box.
The base configuration isn’t as powerful as the M4 Pro, but it’s more than sufficient for our needs, and that’s likely true for most home users. The M4 chip includes a 10-core CPU (with a mix of performance and efficiency cores), a 10-core GPU, and a 16-core Neural Engine (NPU). All base Macs also come standard with 16GB of RAM, which bodes well for longevity. And because it runs on an ARM chip, it’s much more power-efficient than Intel or AMD processors, meaning I won’t feel guilty about using it 24/7 as my media center, hosting movies on my Jellyfin server . To be fair, the 256GB SSD is rather small, but it’s very easily expandable with USB-C drives.
If you need more power (something like my MacBook Pro), you might also want to check out the M4 Pro Mac Mini with 24GB of RAM and 512GB of storage, which is marked down from its usual $1,399 to $1,199 .
Does Apple have Black Friday?
Yes, Apple is participating in Black Friday deals, but you might want to compare their sales to those of other retailers like Best Buy and Walmart . Apple is offering an exclusive $250 gift card for eligible purchases, but the best Black Friday Apple deal right now is the MacBook M4 at an all-time low .
Which stores have the biggest discounts on Black Friday?
With both large retailers and small businesses competing for Black Friday shoppers, you can expect sales at virtually every store until Monday, December 1, 2025. The “best” discounts depend on your needs, but in general, the biggest discounts tend to be offered by large retailers that can afford lower prices, such as Amazon, Walmart, Target, Best Buy, and Home Depot. You can find all the best sales from major retailers on our blog .
Are Black Friday deals worth it?
In short, yes, Black Friday still offers deals you rarely see the rest of the year. If you’re shopping or looking for gifts, now is the time to look for deals on essentials, especially tech , home goods , and fitness equipment . Of course, if you’re looking to save money, the best way to save is to buy nothing.