Apple Shrinks the Mac Mini and Adds an All-New M4 Chip

On the heels of yesterday's M4 iMac announcement, Apple today introduced a second Mac desktop with its latest M4 processor in the form of a redesigned Mac Mini. It's the first overhaul to the Mini since the first unibody design in 2010 and the first update of any kind in nearly two years since the M2 Mac Mini was released in early 2023. 

The new Mac Mini is significantly smaller than the previous version while offering an M4 chip. And the higher-end Mini models introduce the M4 Pro chip, which we've yet to see in the M4 updates to the iPad Pro or iMac, and Thunderbolt 5 connectivity.

A more mini Mac Mini

The new Mini is tiny. It measures just 5 by 5 inches, down from the 7.75 by 7.75-inch previous model. The M4 Mac Mini is slightly taller at 2 inches in height compared with M2 model that was 1.4 inches tall.

The new Mini is also greener than the model it replaces. Apple is calling it the first carbon neutral Mac. It's made from more than 50% recycled materials and is manufactured using 100% renewable energy.

And for the first time on a Mac Mini, you get easy-to-access ports on the front. Apple has outfitted the M4 Mini with two USB-C ports and a headphone jack on the front. The front USB-C ports are of the USB 3 variety, with up to 10Gbps speed.

And in back, you get three USB-C Thunderbolt 4 ports (up to 40Gbps) along with Ethernet and HDMI connections. The higher-end M4 Pro model features Thunderbolt 5 connectivity, which delivers transfer speeds of up to120Gbps and the ability to connect up to three displays.

As we saw with the M4 iMac yesterday, the M4 Mac Mini misses out on Wi-Fi 7 and supplies previous-gen Wi-Fi 6E wireless networking.

Mini moves from M2 to M4

With this update, Apple skips over its M3 processor and jumps from the M2 in the previous Mac Mini to the M4. And as we saw with the M4 iMac, the new Mac Mini delivers a minimum of 16GB of RAM to help the computer handle Apple Intelligence and other AI tasks.

The starting price of the Mac Mini stays the same. The baseline model costs $599 and has a M4 chip with 10 CPU cores and 10 GPU cores, 16GB of RAM and a 256GB SSD. A $799 model doubles the SSD to 512GB, and a $999 model ups the RAM to 24GB. 

At the top of the line is a $1,399 Mac Mini model that introduces the new M4 Pro processor, which features a 12-core CPU and 16-core GPU and supports up to 64GB of RAM and up to an 8TB SSD. That's double the maximum memory allotment of the previous M2 model. For an extra $200, you can upgrade to an M4 Pro with a 14-core CPU and 20-core GPU. Apple says you can expect up to twice the performance from the M4 Pro Mini as the M2 Pro model.

Ships next week

The new Mac Mini is available to preorder from Apple now and will start shipping on Friday, Nov. 8.