The new Mac mini is essentially a desktop computer, but to call it that does it a huge disservice. That’s because while the Mac mini has always been small, this latest M4 chip version is tiny. It’s closer in size and appearance to the Apple TV 4K than anything else, just about 3cm (1.3 inches) wider in both directions and 2cm taller – and silver.
Compared to the previous generation it’s taller but has a much smaller footprint. While it has always sat neatly underneath your monitor, now it looks closer to one of my external hard drives than a full functioning Mac, which it very much is.
This diminutive machine packs either the latest M4 chip or the more powerful M4 Pro chip. It can be specced with up to 64GB of memory and up to 8TB of storage, and it can support up to three displays.
On the other end of the scale, the machine starts from just £599 / $599 with 16GB memory and 256GB storage, which is incredibly affordable for such a machine. Yes, you will need to buy your monitor, keyboard and mouse on top of that, but if you already have a home set up, you probably already have these bits.
I normally plug my laptop into a monitor and use a separate keyboard and mouse when working from home, so the Mac mini just swaps right into my set up. You can even continue to use Apple’s sidecar ability to move your mouse and keyboard between machines if you still want to use both.
I’ve been using the base level Mac mini for about a week now as my main home machine and I’m definitely convinced that this is the future of home setups. I paired the Mac mini with the Apple Studio Display, which at £1499 / $1499 is considerably more expensive than the Mac but essentially gives you a reasonably priced 27-inch iMac equivalent. Here’s how I got on.
How much is the Mac mini M4?
The Mac mini starts from £599 / $599 for the base level model, which as I mentioned before is the M4 chip with 10-core CPU and 10-core GPU, 16GB memory and 256GB storage. This is more than capable for most users, though I did find the 256GB storage a little restrictive and would suggest pairing it with an external hard drive.
The M4 Pro models start from £1399 and feature a 12-core CPU, 16-core GPU and 512GB storage. This, like the other models, can be upgraded in its memory and storage, and even to the more powerful M4 Pro chip with 20-core GPU and 14-core CPU. Go all in with the upgrades and you can spend up to £4699 / $4699 on the top spec Mac mini.
For me though, there’s a good middle ground in this range that will cost you around £1200 / $1200. That will get you the M4 chip version with 24GB memory and a 1TB SSD for storage.
What's new on the Mac mini M4?
The most interesting thing about the new Mac mini design is the physical size of the device. How Apple has managed to pack so much into this tiny box, I have no idea. But packed it in, it has. Without wanting to be really picky, I’d love to see this offered in other finishes to the silver, much like the MacBooks. I would definitely order the Mac mini in Space black if it were available.
It’s not just the size though, the Mac mini now has ports on the front for the first time, which really do come in handy. There are two USB-C ports and a headphone jack on the front, so you can quickly plug stuff in.
Then at the back, you have three more USB-C ports – this time either Thunderbolt 4 (M4) or Thunderbolt 5 (M4 Pro) – plus an HDMI port and ethernet port with up to 10Gb. It means you can have your essential items, like your monitor and external drive plugged in at the rear and then connect ad-hoc items at the front.
One thing missing from the last device is the USB-A ports, but it doesn’t feel like a great loss these days. The only thing missing for me is an SD card slot, like the one that features on the MacBook Pro and the Mac Studio. However, this seems to be a differentiator for Apple between its pro and consumer devices.
For wireless connections you also get Bluetooth 5.3 and Wi-Fi 6E connections. This is the same as the previous Mac mini and is Apple’s highest options across the range. It’s likely to be a few years before we start seeing Wi-Fi 7 support on these devices.
macOS 15 Sequoia
The Mac mini runs the latest macOS 15 Sequoia operating system and thanks to the M4 chip, it’s able to run all of the Apple Intelligence features that brings. Though formally launching in the UK in early December, many of these features have been available for sometime in public beta versions.
Perhaps the most useful are the writing tools that Apple intelligence offers. They can be used to help you to rewrite, proofread or summarise your emails or documents, not only in Apple’s own apps, but also in third-party programs.
The Photos app also benefits from AI, allowing you to search for pictures as you would ask a friend, describing things in the picture rather than just tags and dates in the metadata. The new Clean Up feature also allows for quicker editing and object removal. For the majority of users, you no longer need to use a separate image editing program, as Photos can do everything you need.
Sorting through hundreds of emails in the Mail app has been simplified thanks to the upcoming priority options and new email summaries. These summaries give an overview of the email contents both in the preview window and in a notification. Those I’ve seen in the Beta version aren’t perfect yet but they are getting better.
There’s also a big upgrade to Apple voice assistant Siri as part of the Apple Intelligence features, making it smarter and sounding more natural. Though my favourite feature is that you can now type your questions to Siri and get a written reply, which is ideal if you’re needing to keep the noise down – or just not in the mood to talk to your computer.
One of my favourite features though is something that has been around since 2022. Universal Control allows you to use a single mouse and keyboard for multiple devices. You can also use it to drag and drop files between devices and it works much like just having two displays. If you regularly use a laptop on the move, this is a handy way to still work with two screens and share things across the devices.
Performance
There’s a choice of chips for the Mac mini from the base level M4 up to the 20-core M4 Pro. There’s also a wide range of memory options from the base 16GB up to the fully expanded 64GB. All of this will affect how the device performs, so my tests are based on the base level model as the very minimum in performance.
We already know from the MacBook Pro M4 review that these new chips are extremely fast and should you opt for the M4 Pro, it’s giving you class-leading performance all day. What is interesting though is just how good the six hundred pound/dollar model is.
Using Geekbench 6 for consistency, the base Mac mini M4 delivered a CPU multi-core score of 15,000 on my machine. That’s just above the M2 Max version of the pro-level Mac Studio device and just below the M3 Pro MacBook Pro models, which is consistent with what we’ve seen on the M4 chip in other devices.
On the graphics side, the 36,703 metal score doesn’t seem to be much of a step up, in fact it’s slightly below some of the averages that Geekbench shows for the Mac mini in various configurations. This is where we tend to see the real benefit of the M4 Chip over the M4, with its scores ranking much higher.
In practice though, the performance of the M4 version is extremely impressive all round. The operation of apps like Photoshop and Lightroom are extremely fast to run, while games such as Civilization VI are extremely smooth.
What surprised me is how silent and cool it runs. With so much packed into such a small space I thought it would at least be some subtle fan noise or heat, but there was nothing here. I imagine the more powerful M4 Pro chip could generate a little more heat and so you would hear that fan a little but this model is really impressive.
Should I buy the Mac mini M4?
When it comes to desktop computers, the Mac mini is by far the best option on the market. I would argue that for some it makes even more sense than the iMac. It all comes down to the fact that the entry price for this device is so low. In fact, it’s one of the cheapest devices in Apple’s range capable of running Apple Intelligence features.
The beauty of the Mac mini though is that it is very customisable. Buy the base model and plug it into your existing home monitor and it’s incredibly cheap. Spec it up to an M4 Pro chip, or with a ton of memory though and you’ve got a super computer in a really tiny box.
Pair it to the Mac Studio Display and you really do have an incredible 27-inch set up, and if you’re feeling really fancy it will support up to three displays in a combination of Thunderbolt and HDMI.
Of course, you could argue that plugging in a MacBook Air or Pro into a monitor will do much the same as the Mac mini and give you the freedom to be portable, which is true. But it really depends if you want, or need, the extra cost of the MacBook and its screen compared to the screenless Mac mini.
If you have both the Mac mini and a Macbook, you don’t need to worry about plugging your MacBook in, and you can even swap files between the two devices and use the same mouse and keyboard, with Universal Control.
I’m a big fan of the Mac mini and this smaller, more powerful model is my favourite model to date. For me, it’s the perfect work-from-home device.
