Extremely anticipated: An upgraded Mac Mini is the second M4 Mac that Apple launched this week, more likely to be adopted by a brand new MacBook Professional within the coming days. Marking the primary main Mac Mini revision in virtually 15 years, the brand new mannequin debuts with the M4 Professional chip and is the primary Mac Mini to help Thunderbolt 5.
Pre-orders at the moment are open for 2 new Mac Mini variants that includes the M4 and M4 Professional processors, with shipments starting on November 8. Costs begin at $599 for the M4 mannequin and $1,399 for the M4 Professional variant, with college students eligible for a $100 low cost on every mannequin.
The bottom mannequin options the M4 chip, beforehand launched within the newest iPads and within the upgraded iMac revealed earlier this week. In comparison with final yr’s Mac Mini with the M2 chip, the M4 gives two extra effectivity cores, totaling 10 cores, and features a 16-core neural engine able to 38 TOPS for enhanced efficiency, notably with Apple’s new generative AI toolchain.
Apple Intelligence, now accessible on any Mac or iPad with an M-series chip, in addition to the iPhone 16 and iPhone 15 Professional, turned publicly accessible this week. Apple’s GenAI can summarize textual content choices, robotically manage notifications, edit photos, proofread a person’s writing, and extra.
The brand new Mac Mini additionally follows Apple’s current development of beginning gadgets with 16 GB of unified RAM as an alternative of the earlier 8 GB. Prospects can configure the M4 mannequin with as much as 32 GB of RAM, whereas the M4 Professional model helps as much as 64 GB. Storage choices vary from 256 GB to 2 TB on the bottom mannequin, whereas the M4 Professional gives between 512 GB and eight TB.
The Mini’s M4 Professional variant stands out with 10 efficiency cores, in comparison with the M2 Professional’s eight, bringing its complete to 14 cores. Moreover, the GPU now has 20 cores, up from 19, and consists of hardware-accelerated ray tracing. Reminiscence bandwidth has additionally elevated, from 200 GB/s to 273 GB/s.
Apple claims Logic Professional can now help as much as 1.8 instances extra audio impact plugins on the M4 Professional in comparison with the M2 Professional, and that Blender renders might be accomplished practically thrice quicker.
Wired connectivity marks one other vital change for this yr’s Mac Mini. Each fashions now have two USB-C 3.0 ports and an audio jack positioned on the entrance. The M4 mannequin options three rear Thunderbolt 4 ports, whereas the M4 Professional upgrades these to Thunderbolt 5, bringing the 80 Gbps connection protocol to the lineup for the primary time.
Apple is marking the event by promoting a brand new one-meter Thunderbolt 5 cable for $69. The Cupertino large is thought for charging a premium for equipment, however a cursory search by means of Newegg largely digs up half-meter cables for round $30, roughly in line with Apple’s pricing.
Nevertheless, OWC gives a one-meter Thunderbolt 5 cable for $40. As Thunderbolt 5 expertise turns into extra widespread, pricing choices are anticipated to broaden.
The brand new Mac Mini additionally brings a serious {hardware} redesign for the reason that 2010 M1 mannequin. Measuring 2x5x5 inches, the up to date mannequin is barely taller however considerably shorter, thinner, and lighter, resembling an Apple TV.
