As part of its week of announcements focusing on Macs, Apple has just unveiled a smaller but much better-performing Mac Mini. It’s now sporting Apple’s latest M4 chip, which can support Ray Tracing for the very first time, and comes with 16GB of RAM as default. It’s a sign of the norm within the Apple Intelligence age.
The Mac Mini is priced at $599 for the standard M4 processor, whereas the more robust M4 Pro model has a starting cost of $1,399. As with the new iMac that was announced yesterday, this Mac Mini is available for pre-order now and will be on sale on the 8th of November.
The first thing to notice is a new appearance. As it’s been reported, it appears that the Mini has been reduced significantly and was a fairly tiny desktop computer at the beginning. It’s now a tiny machine with a size of five inches both width and length. If you’re thinking about what it is that Apple can keep everything functioning cool Apple claims it’s because of the M4’s efficiency as well as “an innovative thermal architecture, which guides air to different levels of the system, while all venting is done through the foot.”
But, Apple has loaded this gadget with plenty of I/O ports: on the front, there are two USB-C ports, as well as a 3.5mm audio Jack. On the back are ethernet, HDMI, and three USB-C/ Thunderbolt ports. These USB-A ports were the norm, but it’s worth noting that the basic M2 Mini only came with two Thunderbolt 4 ports as well as two USB-A ports. The M4 has more ports, and with it you get five ports total. Also, you’re loosing native USB-A however you’ll gain an additional Thunderbolt port.
The speed of these Thunderbolt ports will differ depending on the M4 processor you select. The standard M4 processor comes with Thunderbolt 4, whereas the M4 Pro gets you the most up-to-date Thunderbolt 5 throughput.
The M4 Pro Mac Mini also provides better overall performance due to its 14 cores of CPU and 20 GPU. RAM can be set up to 32GB using the standard M4 and 64GB when using M4 Pro. Storage capacity is 8TB. While the Mini isn’t huge you can make it extremely powerful when you’re willing to invest enough. 10 gigabit Ethernet remains an option for those who wish to upgrade.
We’ll likely see an M4 Pro chip come to the 16-inch and 14-inch MacBook Pros, which Apple is rumored to unveil this week, and an even more powerful M4 Max chip that’s not available on the Mini. However, the Pro will be adequate, as is a great choice for prosumers and creatives.
It’s been a busy week for Apple. The M4 iMac debuted this week on the Monday. In addition, Apple has also launched its initial Apple Intelligence software capabilities across iOS, iPadOS, and macOS. (More AI features, including the generation of images and ChatGPT integration, are expected to be available later in December.) Tomorrow could be the day that we see the release of those MacBook Pros that have been upgraded as Apple unveils its new equipment. Apple is scheduled to announce its quarterly earnings on Thursday, and during that time it is likely to announce its new collection of Macs.
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