The new M4 Mac mini

Apple has released a brand new Mac mini powered with the latest M4 chips in a completely redesigned and super compact design.
And at a starting price of $599, it is in my opinion one of the best value products that Apple has released in a very long time.

Before we get into the details of this new release, I think it’s important to talk about what the Mac mini is and who the target audience is.
When Apple released the first Mac mini in 2005, Steve Jobs called it “The cheapest, and most affordable Mac ever”. It has always been marketed towards people who are interested in purchasing a Mac for relatively cheap, and those who may prefer using keyboards and external monitors from other brands.
It is meant to more closely resemble what you can do with Windows PCs, where you often have a lot more freedom to customize your PC as you see fit.

New Design, and lots of power:

The most obvious change with this M4 Mac mini is the much smaller design, after a long period that saw no new design changes to the Mac mini since 2010.
The Mac mini is now only 5 inches by 5 inches on each side, by 2 inches tall. It is a very small design that sits somewhere in size between the Apple TV and the previous Mac mini. It has a really small footprint and it is going to be super easy to fit one of these on pretty much any kind of desk, even in really tight spaces.

You have two options when it comes to what computer chip you can get in this new Mac mini. There is the base model M4 chip, and you also have the option to upgrade to the M4 Pro chip, which comes with more Unified Memory (RAM), more internal storage and a more powerful GPU. The M4 Pro version is better suited to intensive tasks such as video editing, or more demanding gaming. But with a starting price of $1,399, the M4 Pro option more than doubles the price of the computer before you even consider any upgrades.

I’ve watched a lot of videos and read a ton of articles from different reviewers regarding the base model that sells for $599, and the general consensus is that it is an incredible value for the money and is more than enough for the vast majority of users. Even for doing reasonably intensive tasks such as photo editing in a program like Lightroom or Photoshop, or light video editing, the entry level Mac mini is super capable and has been really impressive in a variety of tests.

Apple has added more unified memory (RAM) to the entry level model, with 16GB by default, which is great since you only got 8GB with the previous version. Since Apple has been really marketing their new Apple Intelligence features, it seems like 16GB of RAM was deemed necessary for all new Macs. You can add more RAM to these computers with up to 64GB of unified memory in the M4 Pro option, but keep in mind that you can only do so at the time of purchase, since it’s not something you can add later. Which is also true with the internal storage. You only get a 256GB SSD with the base model, but you can add more at the time of purchase. Unfortunately, Apple still charges way too much for adding extra internal storage. For most people, buying an external SSD will be a far better option since you can now buy a super fast 2T SSD drive for under $150, while Apple chooses to charge $800 for a 2 TB internal drive.

The new Mac mini also comes with plenty of ports. Both the M4 and M4 Pro version come with 2 USB-C ports and a headphone jack on the front, which is really nice since the previous Mac mini did not have any ports on the front. Then on the back, they both have an Ethernet port, an HDMI port, and 3 Thunderbolt ports. But, and this could be very important for some, the basic M4 version has 3 Thunderbolt 4 ports, while the M4 Pro version has 3 Thunderbolt 5 ports. Thunderbolt 4 has transfer speeds up to 40Gb/s while Thunderbolt 5 has speeds of up to 120Gb/s. Thunderbolt 5 is a very new technology, and there’s not that many products that support it at this time. But that will change within the next couple of years and external drives and peripherals that can take advantage of those speeds will become more widely available. So, if you are someone who regularly transfer very large files between your Mac and external drives, the M4 Pro version may be worth the money just for that. You may not be able to get the most out of it for another year or two, but eventually, it could make a big difference.
It is also worth noting that this is the first Mac mini that does not come with any USB-A ports that were so common since the 90’s. If you have some peripherals that still use USB-A, you’ll either need an adapter or a hub for your Mac mini. Generally speaking, a hub is a great idea since you’ll typically get a wide variety of additional port options, such as camera card readers, and they’re quite cheap nowadays.

Finally, one of the other key differences between the basic M4 model and the M4 Pro model is the type of cores that are used in each model. Both models have a 10-core CPU, but they are not using the exact same type of cores. Apple computers using the Apple Silicon chips blend two different types of cores, performance cores and efficiency cores. Efficiency cores are best suited for less intensive tasks, such as web browsing, email, and basic productivity apps. The performance cores take over when you’re asking your computer to perform more intensive tasks such as video editing, gaming, or AI transcription. So, if you have a Mac with more performance cores, it will be better suited to handle demanding tasks such as music production, video editing and graphic design tasks, or heavy duty coding or scientific calculations.

In summary:

These new Mac minis are awesome little computers, and the base model M4 version is an absolute bargain as far as I’m concerned.
If you want a really small but powerful Mac that you can use for pretty much any task, this new Mac mini stands out as an outstanding option with very few downsides. Obviously, it does not have the portability advantage of a laptop. And the internal hard drive is quite small unless you’re willing to pay extra for more storage space. But in so many key areas, this new addition to the Mac line-up is just incredibly good.

If you want to get more detail on the Mac mini, you can find more info on Apple’s webpage for the mini and view the different options on offer:
https://www.apple.com/mac-mini/

And if you’re in the Atlanta area and have any questions regarding this Mac or any other other Mac, feel free to call me.