On Day 2 of Apple’s Mac announcements, the company announced the new M4-powered Mac Mini. And it was redesigned as many expected. It now looks like a mini Mac Studio, with a couple of USB-C ports and a headphone jack on the front. This marks the first time the Mac Mini has received a redesign in over a decade. If it isn’t broken, don’t fix it.
The new Mac Mini comes with either the M4 or M4 Pro chipset. Much like the M4 iMac that was announced yesterday, Apple is also moving the starting memory to 16GB on Mac Mini. So for $599, you’re getting the M4 with a 10-core CPU, 10-core GPU, 16GB of unified memory and 256GB of SSD storage. That’s a pretty good value right there. You can bring the M4 version up to 32GB of RAM and 2TB SSD.
There’s currently only one pre-configured option for the M4 Mac Mini, which offers a 12-core CPU, 16-core GPU and 24GB of unified memory. It also has 512GB SSD for $1,399. The M4 Pro version can be upgraded to 64GB of unified memory for $600 more, and 8TB of SSD for a whopping $2,400 more.
The main difference in hardware between M4 and M4 Pro is going to be the number of Thunderbolt 4 ports. The M4 has three Thunderbolt 4, and the M4 Pro has 5 Thunderbolt 4 ports.
Pre-orders start today, shipping on November 8
Similar to the iMac that was announced on Monday, pre-orders for the new Mac Mini also start today and they will be shipping on November 8. The Mac Mini starts at $599 for the M4, and $1,399 for the M4 Pro.
You can max out the M4 Mac Mini for $1,899. Or max out the M4 Pro Mac Mini for a whopping $4,699. However that M4 Pro does also include an upgraded M4 Pro with a 14-core CPU and 20-core GPU, as well as 64GB of RAM and 8TB SSD. So you can really do a lot with the Mac Mini. Leading many to wonder whether the Mac Studio will continue or not.
