‘Small But Fierce’: New Mac Mini Has M4 Chip And Plenty of Ports

It measures just five inches by inches, comes powered by the M4 or new M4 Pro chip, and has several ports.

Welcome to Apple’s latest Mac Mini.

The company claims that the standard M4 chip delivers up to 1.8x faster CPU performance and 2.2x faster GPU performance than the M1 model (it’s unclear why Apple compared M4 with the first generation and not any subsequent release).

As for the M4 Pro [pictured at top], Apple says it’s a scaled up version of the M4 and is able to “tackle even more demanding workloads”.

The new Mac Minis include front-facing ports (two USB-C ports that support USB 3, and an audio jack with support for high-impedance headphones). On the back, Mac Mini with M4 includes three Thunderbolt 4 ports, while Mac Mini with M4 Pro has three Thunderbolt 5 ports.

Mac Mini comes standard with Gigabit Ethernet, configurable up to 10Gb Ethernet, and an HDMI port for connection to a TV or HDMI display without an adapter.

The new Mac Mini can support up to two 6K displays and up to one 5K display, and M4 Pro can support up to three 6K displays at 60Hz for a total of over 60 million pixels.

The new Mac Mini is also built for Apple Intelligence, and as Apple CEO Tim Cook pointed out on X, it’s the company’s first carbon neutral Mac.

Apple said it has cut greenhouse gas emissions across its materials, manufacturing, transportation and customer use by 80 per cent.

“It’s completely redesigned around Apple silicon, built for Apple Intelligence, and delivers phenomenal performance,” Cook posted.

“The new Mac Mini delivers gigantic performance in an unbelievably small design thanks to the power efficiency of Apple silicon and an innovative new thermal architecture,” said John Ternus, Apple’s Senior VP of Hardware Engineering.

“Combined with the performance of M4 and the new M4 Pro chip, enhanced connectivity on both the front and back, and the arrival of Apple Intelligence, Mac Mini is more capable and versatile than ever, and there is nothing else like it.”

The new Mac Mini footprint is less than half the size of the previous design – leading the company to describe it as “small but fierce” – which Apple says is due to the power efficiency of Apple silicon and “an innovative thermal architecture, which guides air to different levels of the system, while all venting is done through the foot”.

When compared to the best-selling PC desktop in its price range, Apple claims Mac Mini is up to 6x faster “at one-twentieth the size”.

Mac Mini with M4 features a 10-core CPU, 10-core GPU, and starts with 16GB of unified memory.

Meanwhile, the M4 Pro has the world’s fastest CPU core, Apple claims, with “lightning-fast single-threaded performance”.

“With up to 14 cores, including 10 performance cores and four efficiency cores, M4 Pro also provides phenomenal multithreaded performance,” Apple said. “With up to 20 cores, the M4 Pro GPU is up to twice as powerful as the GPU in M4, and both chips bring hardware-accelerated ray tracing to the Mac Mini for the first time.”

M4 Pro supports up to 64GB of unified memory and 273GB/s of memory bandwidth.

Customers can pre-order the new Mac Mini with M4 and M4 Pro from today at apple.com/au/store. They will be in-store from Friday November 8.

Mac Mini with M4 starts at A$999 (A$849 for education). Mac Mini with M4 Pro starts at A$2,199 (A$2,049 for education).

New accessories with USB-C include Magic Keyboard (A$149), Magic Keyboard with Touch ID (A$209), Magic Keyboard with Touch ID and Numeric Keypad (A$249), Magic Trackpad (A$179), Magic Mouse ($119) and Thunderbolt 5 Pro Cable (A$115).