Amazon Leaks Smaller Mac Mini With M4 and M4 Pro Chips, Two Front USB-C Ports, Up to 64GB of RAM, and More

[Tyler O'Bannon]

The hope is that Apple has an iMac Pro in the works, but has issues with the cooling [which is why we have not yet gotten one]

I honestly don’t think we will. I think the wind is blowing the direction of only 24” iMac with only base level chip, and mini and studio are for any higher needs.

 

[Tyler O'Bannon]

It will be the same largely is my bet. They might refresh it with a different camera but Apple treats their displays worse than the Mac Pro

I think they will drop A13 manufacturing so they will move to A16 or even A18 and that will help camera, plus might put that 24MP camera coming to iPhone 17 Pro next year.

Of course I’m hoping for MBP level display quality but there are technical limitations to that right now so I don’t even know if it’ll be refreshed at all.

 

[LightProtector]

It's a UniCord port, Apple's proprietary port to save space. By 2026 it will be the only port on new Macs.

The press release:

Apple UniCord

Designed as the ultimate unifying connector, UniCord could serve as Apple's next-gen cable standard, integrating data transfer, power, and display into one sleek cable. With faster data rates, higher power delivery, and cross-device compatibility, UniCord would embody Apple's minimalistic philosophy—one cord for everything, from iPhones to Macs, AirPods to iPads.

Marketing line: "UniCord. One connection, endless possibilities."

LMAO

 

[LightProtector]

Turn on/off button?

Ended up being a headphone jack. I was right

 

[tomtad]

What’s that black dot on the right side? A headphone jack?

Yes.

Bizarrely after courageously declaring war on this port, removing it from the front of the iMac in 2002, the Mac Pro in 2012, the iPhone in 2017, and finally all iPads this year, it has now reappeared on the front on the all new, built from the ground up for the next decade 2024 Mac mini.

Apple have lost their mind

 

[JohannesO]

No, you would be too limited to the edge of the desk. It will be the iTape, a custom fit piece of double stick tape with strong adhesive. Stick it where you want it, but get it right the first time!

The other option is a bit of hot glue, then a heat gun should detach it again.

I guess you missed the word adhesive in my posting ...

 

[creediddy]

Absolutely. 256GB is a joke these days. Have the Airs / Mini / iMac start at 512GB and the MacBook Pros / Studio start at 1TB.

The buyer who is buying a Mini with 256 doesn’t use much storage. If you take a poll of number of users who max out a 256GB drive is very unlikely due to iCloud and secondary or external drives. Yes 256 is small based on industry standards, but will not be a deal breaker for $599 Mini buyers.

 

[Serqetry]

The buyer who is buying a Mini with 256 doesn’t use much storage. If you take a poll of number of users who max out a 256GB drive is very unlikely due to iCloud and secondary or external drives. Yes 256 is small based on industry standards, but will not be a deal breaker for $599 Mini buyers.

Yeah exactly. 256gb is actually huge when you are talking about just a basic system. Even if they started the base model at 512gb it wouldn't be enough for a pro system. External storage has always been the way to go with the Mac Mini, so you can have cheap 2TB storage without paying Apple's outrageous prices.

 

[JCoe13]

You can't see the power light on any Macs anymore when they are turned off. It's not the '80s, they don't use 3mm LEDs behind embedded lenses... as much as that might be a cool retro style.

The only thing I can think of is maybe Apple put a high quality microphone there for Apple Intelligence, and they will add one to the Mac Studio too when it gets refreshed. Either that or it really is a combo headphone/microphone jack for the same reason, but that does not seem like something Apple would do anymore.

In several photos of the Mac mini, the light is illuminated. Looks like they're still using that 80s technology! That said, now that it's released it looks like there's the LED light indicating power and black circle next to it which is the headphone jack.

 

[sunny5]

However - the Max option got a lot more powerful w.r.t. the rest of the range with the M3 Max, and if that continues with the M4 Max then a M4 Max Studio would be a pretty good system that could be released without an Ultra option.

Of course - even if the M4 Max doesn't out-perform the M2 Ultra it's not going to make the $4k M2 Ultra Studio or $7k M2 Ultra Mac Pro look good... This is one of those annoying "Apple doesn't want to compete with Apple" situations.

Max chip is limited by 100W while Ultra is 160~200W which is way lower than any other desktop's power. They really need Ultra and beyond.

 

[phrehdd]

A mini mac studio; that's so cute!
Anyway the mini is slowly becoming a beast, being able to be configured with 64GB

Interesting take. I always considered the Mac Studio a Mini on steroids (or what the Mini could have been years before the Studio arrived). I also think Apple knows that their shift to "intelligence" is going to require far more power and memory than from past Macs to be smooth in operation. I look forward to see some feed back on real world experience with the new Mini in various configurations. I have an M1 Studio Max and want to see bench marks for a comparable new Mini (configuration with 64 gigs RAM and at least 512-1 terabyte drive).

 

[Velli]

Yes.

Bizarrely after courageously declaring war on this port, removing it from the front of the iMac in 2002, the Mac Pro in 2012, the iPhone in 2017, and finally all iPads this year, it has now reappeared on the front on the all new, built from the ground up for the next decade 2024 Mac mini.

Apple have lost their mind

It is already on the iMac as well - not disagreeing about the weirdness about the turnaround, just saying.

 

[Velli]

I have an M1 Studio Max and want to see bench marks for a comparable new Mini (configuration with 64 gigs RAM and at least 512-1 terabyte drive).

I'd guess an M4 Pro would scream past it on CPU. Not sure if the GPU can keep up, with a lower number of cores, but newer. It's a very interesting comparison - if a maxed out M4 Pro Mini outpaces a base M1 Studio, that's a hell of a difference in power per dollar.

 

[Serqetry]

In several photos of the Mac mini, the light is illuminated. Looks like they're still using that 80s technology! That said, now that it's released it looks like there's the LED light indicating power and black circle next to it which is the headphone jack.

I was saying you can't see the light when it's OFF. it's behind tiny laser cut holes in the aluminum. Of course when on it's visible.

The headphone jack was a welcome surprise. Seems very regressive for Apple though.

 

[DaniTheFox]

My prediction is that the base Mac mini M4 will have only two USB-C 3.1 Gen 2 ports at the front. However, it will support three display connections. One 8K 120Hz display can be connected via HDMI or DisplayPort.
The Mac mini M4 Pro will support TWO 8K 120Hz displays. As a writer, you can imagine having your entire book in front of you. As a developer, you can imagine working with millions of lines of code. Your DAW will display 512 channels. As a banker, you can imagine managing all of your clients.

Boy I was wrong. No 8K 120Hz support. But TB5!

 

[phrehdd]

I went to the Apple site and seems the Mini only goes up to 32 Gigs of RAM. Pity.

 

[Velli]

I went to the Apple site and seems the Mini only goes up to 32 Gigs of RAM. Pity.

64 if you get the M4 Pro.

 

[phrehdd]

64 if you get the M4 Pro.

Yes. I stand corrected. Thank you!

 

[shatalin]

I wish Apple would bring back the optical audio port, I prefer that connection for my Logitech THX 2.1 speakers...

Cubilux USB C to SPDIF Transmitter, Unidirectional Type C to Optical Audio Output Adapter with 192KHz/24bit DAC for MacBook Pro/Air, Laptop, Computer

Cubilux USB C (Thunderbolt 4/3 compatible) to TOSLINK (S/PDIF) Optical Audio Converter transmits the digital audio signal from the laptop to home theatres, home stereo system, soundbar or surround sound speakers, AV amplifier/receiver, audio mixer, etc.

www.amazon.com

 

[Velli]

With all our nitpicking and theorising, can I just marvel a bit over how insane a computer Apple has put into this form factor? I know the price is equally insane, but a 64GB M4Pro is a very powerful computer, that would take quite a serious Windows computer to match. What is the most powerful Windows computer in a similarly sized package?

 

[Boil]

With all our nitpicking and theorising, can I just marvel a bit over how insane a computer Apple has put into this form factor? I know the price is equally insane, but a 64GB M4Pro is a very powerful computer, that would take quite a serious Windows computer to match. What is the most powerful Windows computer in a similarly sized package?

The price is insane if you max out everything (full-fat M4 Pro SoC/64GB RAM/8TB SSD/10Gb Ethernet), but then you consider all that is in a package that is 0.82 liters in volume...!

 

[Velli]

The price is insane if you max out everything (full-fat M4 Pro SoC/64GB RAM/8TB SSD/10Gb Ethernet), but then you consider all that is in a package that is 0.82 liters in volume...!

Also, more than half of that price is SSD… you’d have to have. Pretty specific use case to pay for that instead of using external storage.

 

[DaniTheFox]

Boy I was wrong. No 8K 120Hz support. But TB5!

Upon initial review of the iMac specifications, I observed that the refresh rate was set to 120Hz for external monitors. Consequently, I presumed that the Mac mini would also possess the same refresh rate. Has anyone else noticed this in the beginning?