Apple Unveils Redesigned Mac Mini with M4 and M4 Pro

After Apple unveiled its new 24” iMac with M4 chip yesterday, the company is following up today with a redesigned Mac mini with M4 and M4 Pro chips. The new model looks very much like an Apple TV, and Apple finally added two USB-C ports on the front to make it easier to connect accessories.

This new Mac mini is just 5 by 5 inches compared to 7.75 by 7.75 inches for the previous model with M2 chips. However, it’s also slightly taller at 2 inches compared to 1.41 inches for the previous design.

“When compared to the best-selling PC desktop in its price range, Mac mini is up to 6x faster at one-twentieth the size,” Apple said today. “For a wide range of users, from students to aspiring creatives and small business owners, the Mac mini with M4 is a tiny powerhouse.”

Just like the new 24” iMac with M4 chip, Apple’s new Mac mini now comes with a minimum of 16GB of RAM. Models with an M4 chip come with 10 CPU cores, 10 GPU cores, up to 32GB of unified memory, and up to 2TB of storage. For users who need more power, the Mac mini with an M4 Pro chip offers 12 CPU cores, 16 GPU cores, up to 64GB of unified memory with 273GB/s of memory bandwidth, and up to 8TB of storage. The M4 Pro chips also supports Thunderbolt 5 and its up to 120 Gb/s data transfer speeds.

“Mac mini with M4 Pro features the world’s fastest CPU core5 with lightning-fast single-threaded performance,” Apple said today. “With up to 20 cores, the M4 Pro GPU is up to twice as powerful as the GPU in M4, and both chips bring hardware-accelerated ray tracing to the Mac mini for the first time. The Neural Engine in M4 Pro is also over 3x faster than in Mac mini with M1, so on-device Apple Intelligence models run at blazing speed.”

Design-wise, this new Mac mini offers to two USB-C ports with USB 3 capabilities on the front, and the headphone jack has also been moved from the back to the front. On the back, there are now three Thunderbolt 4 ports (three Thunderbolt 5 ports on M4 Pro models),  an HDMI port, and a Gigabit Ethernet port configurable up to 10Gb Ethernet. M4 models support up to two 6K displays and up to one 5K display, while M4 Pro models support up to three 6K displays at 60Hz.

Overall, the design of this new Mac mini is certainly a big improvement compared to the previous design that was first introduced 2010. However, a picture on the official product page reveals that the power button on this new Mac mini is located… on the bottom of the device. Previous  models at that power button on the back, which isn’t exactly ideal either. Anyway, it’s like Apple didn’t learn its lesson after putting the charging port on its Magic Mouse at the bottom, a design decision that was universally panned.

Anyway, Apple also announced that its new Mac mini is the “first carbon neutral Mac.” In detail, it’s made with made with over 50 percent recycled content overall, with 100 percent recycled aluminum in the enclosure. The packaging is also entirely fiber-based.

Apple’s new Mac mini starts at $599 for models with an M4 chip and $1,399 for models with an M4 Pro chip. It’s available for pre-order and will start shipping on November 8.