Apple announces redesigned Mac Mini with M4 chip – and it’s so damn small

As part of the company’s week of Mac-focused announcements, Apple has just introduced a smaller but even more powerful Mac Mini. It’s now equipped with Apple’s latest M4 silicon, supports ray tracing for the first time, and comes standard with 16GB of RAM – apparently the new normal in the Apple Intelligence era. The machine still starts at $599 with the regular M4 chip, while the more powerful M4 Pro model has a starting price of $1,399. Just like the updated iMac announced yesterday, the Mac Mini is can be pre-ordered immediately and will be in stores on November 8th.

The first thing you will notice is the new design. As rumored, the Mini has been shrunk considerably – and it was already a relatively small desktop machine to begin with. Now it’s downright tiny, measuring five inches in both length and width. If you’re wondering how Apple manages to keep things running, says the company it’s through the M4’s efficiency and “an innovative thermal architecture that directs air to different levels of the system, while all venting happens through the foot.”

Still, Apple has loaded this thing with plenty of I/O: On the front, there are two USB-C ports and a 3.5mm audio jack. Around the back you’ll find ethernet, HDMI and three USB-C / Thunderbolt ports. The USB-A ports are actually history, but it’s worth noting that the base M2 Mini only had two Thunderbolt 4 ports and two USB-A ports. With the M4, you get a total of five ports. So you lose built-in USB-A, but get an extra Thunderbolt port.

The speed of these Thunderbolt ports will vary depending on which M4 processor you choose. The regular M4 chip includes Thunderbolt 4, whereas the M4 Pro gives you the very latest Thunderbolt 5 throughput.

The M4 Pro Mac Mini also delivers greater overall performance with its 14 CPU and 20 GPU cores. RAM can be configured up to 32 GB with the regular M4 or 64 GB with the M4 Pro. Storage tops out at a whopping 8 TB. So even though the Mini is pretty small, you can make it seriously mighty if you’re willing to spend enough. 10 gigabit ethernet also remains an optional upgrade for those who want it.

We’ll likely see the M4 Pro chip make it to the 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pros that Apple is rumored to announce this week, along with an even more capable M4 Max chip that isn’t available in the Mini . But the Pro should be plenty, as it is for many prosumers and creatives.

It’s a busy week for Apple. The M4 iMac made its debut on Monday, and the company also launched its first Apple Intelligence software features across iOS, iPadOS and macOS. (More AI features, including image generation and ChatGPT integration, will be released in December.) Tomorrow sees the debut of the upgraded MacBook Pros as Apple rounds out its new hardware. The company is set to report quarterly earnings on Thursday, where it will no doubt trumpet its latest fleet of Macs.