The first reviews of the compact desktop computer Apple Mac mini with M4 and M4 Pro processors have been published on the Internet, thanks to which system performance has been improved by 25% and 45%, respectively. The Mac mini has an updated design and a thinner body, and two USB Type-C ports have appeared on the front panel.
Image source: Brian Heater/techcrunch.com
The redesign was definitely a big deal, as the previous version of the Mac mini had remained unchanged since 2010. Chris Welch of The Verge writes: “Every time I look at the new Mac mini on my desk, it seems perfectly shaped. The redesigned chassis makes the most of Apple Silicon’s small footprint, and with the M4 chip and a wide selection of ports, the 2024 Mac mini will remain a fast and reliable PC for years to come. It has never been this powerful.”
Despite rumors that the new Mac mini will be the size of an Apple TV, the device turns out to be larger. As TechCrunch reports, its dimensions are 5 x 5 x 2 inches, while the Apple TV 4K is 3.66 x 3.66 x 1.2 inches. Compared to its predecessor, the new Mac mini is much closer in size and proportions to the Apple TV. The appearance of the device resembles a smaller version of Mac Studio with the same rounded corners.
Image source: Brian Heater/techcrunch.com
Due to the new, more compact body, the Mac mini has fewer ports: three Thunderbolt ports on the back and two USB-C ports on the front. Also on the rear panel are HDMI and Ethernet, and the headphone jack has been moved to the front of the device. One of the unusual points is the placement of the power button on the bottom of the device. Reviewers commented on the placement of this button.
Wired’s Brenda Stoylar writes: “The front ports are great. Moving the power button down? Not good. Previously it was at the back, but this new implementation is not intuitive. I have to pick up the device and press a button to turn on my PC. It’s just weird. “You’ll probably leave this thing on all the time, but like the USB-C port on the underside of the Magic Mouse, it’s just a bad design decision.”
Chris Welch of The Verge: “Apple made the curious decision to move it [the power button] to the bottom of the machine, near the rear left corner. Do I wish the button was in a different location? Certainly. To press it, you need to reach the mini and slightly lift the device. It’s stupid, but it didn’t affect my experience in any significant way. If you have an Apple Magic Keyboard with Touch ID, you’ll remember its awkward placement during setup, where you have to double-press the power button to create a secure connection between the fingerprint sensor and your Mac. Given that the mini is used in a variety of environments, including home theaters, one can imagine that button position would become an issue in some of these scenarios…”
Image Source: Apple
The Mac mini 2024 is powered by M4 and M4 Pro chips, which are capable of delivering significant performance gains over previous models—the M4 by 25% and the M4 Pro by 45%. According to Geekbench tests, the version with the M4 Pro chip (14-core processor) scored 22,094 points in multi-threaded mode, which is significantly higher than the previous Mac mini based on the M2 Pro. According to Engadget’s Devindra Hardawar, the Mac mini handles modern games like Lies of P and Resident Evil 4 well, maintaining a stable 60 frames per second at a resolution of 1440 pixels.
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In addition, the new Mac mini demonstrates strong performance in tasks related to artificial intelligence. For example, the Whisper Transcription app was able to transcribe a 60-minute podcast in just two minutes and nine seconds, which is faster than a MacBook Pro on an M4. The new chip also features an updated GPU architecture, support for hardware-accelerated ray tracing, AV1 decoding and up to 64GB of LPDDR5X RAM, which obviously makes it a good use case for both everyday tasks and more resource-intensive processes such as professional photo and video editing.
Hardawar writes: “To test the AI capabilities of the Mac mini, I used the Whisper Transcription app to transcribe an hour and nine minutes of an Engadget Podcast episode. It took two minutes and nine seconds using a small language model. By comparison, the M4-based 14-inch MacBook Pro took three minutes and three seconds, and the M3-based 14-inch MacBook Pro took three minutes and thirty-seven seconds. These numbers tell us that Apple’s M4 hardware can help students quickly retrieve notes from lecture recordings or even transcribe classes in real time without much effort.”
An Apple Mac mini with an M4 processor starts at $600, while upgrading to either an M4 Pro increases the cost to $1,399. Note that this is $100 more than the new M4-based iMac, which has a display, TouchID keyboard and mouse. As for the Mac mini with M4 Pro with a 14-core CPU and 10-core GPU, 48 GB of memory and 1 TB of storage, it will cost $2,299. That’s $300 more than the entry-level Mac Studio on M2 Pro. A fully loaded Mac mini with 8 TB of storage and 64 GB of memory will cost $4,699. Sales start tomorrow, November 8th.