Instead of having an event this year, Apple decided to do a bunch of press releases during the last week of October 2024 to update their entire Mac lineup to the M4 chip. And one of them was the new Mac Mini.
I have been using the brand-new M4 Mac Mini as my go-to desktop for the past three weeks.
As someone who has been a Windows user since introduction to any computer, I am honestly impressed with the performance of this machine, especially considering its value.
The base M4 Mac Mini is kind of incredible; I believe it is one of the best deals in tech right now.
I bet you are raising your eyebrow, but rest assured, your questions will be answered.
Design
The number one most insane thing about this refresh is it’s incredibly tiny. Apple has gone through and redesigned all its computers except this one until now.
The Mac Mini was kind of technically overdue for a redesign.
The new one looks a little bit more like a shrunken Mac Studio (which I like the most) than a shrunken old Mac Mini. It is now a five-inch by five-inch footprint and two inches tall.
If you tried to build or buy another computer to match this thing, you would either end up building a computer that's just as small but nowhere near as capable or a computer that's just as capable but nowhere near as small.
This Mac mini is smaller than my iPhone 7. The design is minimalist, with a clean aluminium finish. It's a beauty to behold.
Regarding ports, there are three Thunderbolt ports on the back, which will be either Thunderbolt 4 or Thunderbolt 5, depending on the chip you choose. Gigabit ethernet by default, a full-size HDMI is still here.
Additionally, there are two USB-C 3 ports on the front, along with a headphone jack, but no USB-A and SD card reader.
Apple has also improved the built-in speaker, which is significantly better than the one in the previous generation. However, there is no built-in microphone, so you will need a webcam or another audio input device for voice calls and other communications.
However, the power button placement is fine for me but the 3.5mm front audio jack is not aesthetically pleasing.
Performance
This year, the Mac Mini has jumped from M2 chip to M4. It is available with either the M4 chip or the M4 Pro chip, both of which are incredibly fast.
Now, four generations into Apple silicon, the performance gains are starting to stack up significantly compared to the M1. The difference from the Intel chips is already well-known, and I am feeling it.
This base M4 chip is super solid and power efficient, featuring a 10-core CPU that delivers 1.8x faster performance than the M1 chip.
The 10-core GPU features Dynamic caching, hardware-accelerated mesh shading and Ray tracing to the mini for the first time. So, graphics-intensive tasks are now 2.2x faster compared to M1. And the 16-core Neural Engine is over 3x faster. Basically, it handles most of my tasks without breaking a sweat.
The Pro offers even more with a 14-core CPU complex, offering multithreaded performance that is up to 1.9 times faster than the M1 Pro. Its 20-core GPU is twice as powerful as the one in M4 with the improved hardware-accelerated ray tracing engine in the M4 series.
Finally, the 16-core Neural Engine achieves speeds over 3 times faster than the M1 Pro.
The thermal design has been revamped and seems to be working just fine. The Mac mini remains quiet during typical use.
If you do resource-intensive tasks, the single fan spins up, and you can hear it. But other times, I can hardly hear any sound.
The good news is that this year, Apple made the decision much easier for us by starting the M4 Mac Mini with 16GB of RAM instead of 8 GB.
I think we should all be really thankful that Apple intelligence came to life. Apple has finally understood we needed 16GB as the base.
If you ask me what 16GB feels like, I will say I didn't notice any difference in browsing or regular activities compared to 32GB RAM on my Windows desktop.
This is due to the extremely high bandwidth and high-capacity unified memory architecture.
The M4 has 120Gb/s memory bandwidth, which is even more pronounced with the M4 Pro's 273Gb/s, a massive 75 per cent increase in memory bandwidth over the M3 Pro.
While there is a noticeable difference between 8GB and 16GB, the difference between 16GB and 24GB is less apparent unless you are doing something more intensive or extreme multitasking.
The only people who should consider more than 16GB are those who frequently use apps that need a lot of RAM.
Should you upgrade to M4 Pro?
Here are some straightforward reasons why you should consider paying extra for the M4 Pro.
If you are going to be frequently and heavily utilizing the CPU, GPU or both, you will notice that the M4 Pro base model configuration offers significant advantages over the M4.
The M4 Pro comes with 8GB of additional RAM and twice the storage capacity.
It also has two additional CPU performance cores and six additional GPU cores, which is a 60% increase in performance over the M4. In CPU or GPU-intensive workflows, this often translates into substantial performance gains.
However, you will only notice these improvements if you're regularly engaging in demanding tasks.
The M4 chip can still do those things too, it just takes longer and is less efficient. The M4 Pro also gets you Thunderbolt 5 ports instead of Thunderbolt 4. Thunderbolt 5 ports offer significantly higher bandwidth, but the reality is that their utility is mostly limited to displays.
The base M4 Mac Mini already provides excellent connectivity for external displays, supporting up to three of them.
Finally, if you are one of the few people in the world who own a Thunderbolt 5 accessory, you will eventually benefit from it, especially with Apple Display featuring 6K resolution and a 120Hz refresh rate.
Is the 256GB SSD enough?
I just do not believe 256GB is enough storage in any way. I hope that Apple will feel the same regarding the storage as they did for RAM.
But until then, it’s Apple, and what can we do about it? Fun fact: only 215GB out of the 256GB is usable after accounting for the MacOS operating system and other system files, even after deleting unnecessary apps like iMovie or GarageBand.
Now, you have two options: pay Apple's ridiculous $200 upgrade price for just 256GB of extra storage or provide your own storage via an external drive.
The 256GB SSD is usually enough to install your apps, and then you can just move your folders and files to an external SSD.
Pro tip: In the App Store settings, if you have an external drive attached to your Mac Mini, you can select to download and install large apps to a separate disk.
This way, any new apps larger than 1GB will go straight to your external SSD.
For your external drive solution, you can get a high-quality SSD drive enclosure with a fast NVMe SSD of your desired storage capacity.
I did the same. If the SSD fails or you want to upgrade in the future, you can simply replace the SSD drive with no fuss.
However, keep in mind that some applications either need to save data to your internal SSD or don't like to be installed on an external drive, which may cause errors.
Before going to market, consider your storage demand carefully.
I should also mention that iFixit teardowns have shown that the SSD drive inside the M4 and M4 Pro Mac Mini is removable, so it can technically be replaced or upgraded in the future.
My thoughts
When making your buying decision, the most important factor is the configuration.
The base M4 Mac Mini offers the best value, but any kind of upgrade to this configuration seriously reduces the overall value of your purchase.
It is just painful looking at those numbers on Apple’s website.
The only upgrade I recommend is the 10G Ethernet if you plan on using wired networking.
I think most people should never even look at the Pro chip unless they know their workflow demands because the base M4 is already very capable.
However, if you are still wondering whether to upgrade to the M4 Pro, I just want to say let your RAM and storage requirements guide your choice, whether it’s Mac Mini or even in the case of Mac Studio.
This year, the M4 Mac Mini is just an awesome system.
The author is a contributor and tech enthusiast
