M4 Mac Mini or M4 iMac?

[amitabhbansal]

Friends,
I was planning to buy M4 mac, and apple released iMac and Mac mini with m4 chip, my main purpose of buying it is for Mixing Music in Logic Pro and using FCP for video editing and all my office work, Now i am confused which one i should go for, Mac Mini or iMac?
I already have Apple Magic Keyboard and Trackpad with me, and a Monitor which is connected with my PC and i can connect Mac Mini with the monitor via HDMI, so which one should i choose? what will be the difference between Mac Mini and iMac?

 

[FreakinEurekan]

what will be the difference between Mac Mini and iMac?

If you already have a keyboard, trackpad, and display.... the big difference is cost.

Plus of course you have the option of M4 Pro with the mini, which (seems to me; I'm not a video editor) might be beneficial for FCP

 

[Andrey84]

Friends,
I was planning to buy M4 mac, and apple released iMac and Mac mini with m4 chip, my main purpose of buying it is for Mixing Music in Logic Pro and using FCP for video editing and all my office work, Now i am confused which one i should go for, Mac Mini or iMac?
I already have Apple Magic Keyboard and Trackpad with me, and a Monitor which is connected with my PC and i can connect Mac Mini with the monitor via HDMI, so which one should i choose? what will be the difference between Mac Mini and iMac?

What monitor do you have?

You'll need a monitor with a Mac OS-compatible resolution, otherwise things will look really grainy and unpleasant.

 

[JRobert@macrumors]

I can't tell you which way to go for your intended use, but here's what I found with a new iMac M3:

In March I upgraded from an iMac 27" (a late 2015 - so it was well past time ...) because I had long since hit the support limit (Apple and 3rd party) for OSes and software. It's a slick machine, but: I hated being squeezed into the 24" screen. I couldn't part with the iMac 27 hoping I'd find a way for the M3 to drive it as an external display. It turns out there isn't an Apple way, but Astropad makes Luna Display, which they claimed would do essentially that with a dongle for the M3 and an app for each machine. I wavered until a month ago, when I purchased the Luna dongle and set up display sharing. The verdict: It works a treat! There are limitations: Audio & protected video (including youtube) remain on the primary device (the M3, in my case). Neither was a deal breaker for me, and there may be a work-around for the audio (that I won't go into here as I haven't tried it yet).

Now I have two screens on my desk, and while it's pretty trippy to have all that real estate, I don't really need it and would rather take back the M3's desk space. If I had to do it over again, I would be considering a Mac Mini with the 27" Retina iMac (not the frightfully expensive Apple Studio). I seldom need more screen than that and when I do, Apple Sidecar and an iPad will meet my needs, where the 24" screen, with or without the iPad, just .. doesn't.

Update, Feb 16, 2025:
As seldom as I need both screens, it is awful handy to push documents or websites I want to refer to over to the M3 while I'm working on something on the big screen. Doesn't work expand to fit the facilities available!?

There is a minor (to me) glitch with getting dual displays started. Sometimes after a sleep, one or the other machine's Luna app will need to be quit and restarted. Once I've done that, the whole package is seamless until the next time I sleep one or both machines. It does mean I need to keep the iMac 27's mouse handy, but it a magic mouse and sits underneath it until I need it. I also have the 27's keyboard nearby in case I need it, but that is very seldom and I don't give it desk-space. If I had it to do over again, I'd make the same choices.

 

[amitabhbansal]

What monitor do you have?

You'll need a monitor with a Mac OS-compatible resolution, otherwise things will look really grainy and unpleasant.

i have LG 1080p monitor simple one.

I can't tell you which way to go for your intended use, but here's what I found with a new iMac M3:

In March I upgraded from an iMac 27" (a late 2015 - so it was well past time ...) because I had hit the support limit (Apple and 3rd party) for OSes and software. It's a Slick machine, but: I hated being squeezed into the 24" screen. I couldn't't part with the iMac 27 hoping I'd find a way for the M3 to drive it as an external display. It urns out there isn't an Apple way, but Astropad makes Luna Display, which they claimed would do essentially that with a dongle for the M3 and an app for each machine. I wavered until a month ago, when I purchased the Luna dongle and set up display sharing. The verdict: It works a treat! There are limitations: Audio & protected video (including youtube) remain on the primary device (the M3, in my case). Neither was a deal breaker for me, and there may be a work-around for the audio (that I won't go into here as I haven't tried it yet).

Now I have two screens on my desk, and while it's pretty trippy to have the the real estate, I don't really need it and woul rather take back the M3's desk space. If I had to do it over again, I would be considering a Mac Mini with the 27" Retina iMac (not the frightfully expensive Apple Studio). I seldom need more screen than that and when I do, Apple Sidecar and an iPad will meet my needs, where the 24" screen, with or without the iPad, just .. didn't.

same here i am having 27” mid 2010 imac. and the resolution is too bad as compare to now, i am using m1 macbook pro and the display speed everything is just satisying for me, so thinking to buy m4 but 24” is also ok ok for me, but in mac mini i can connect my lg oled 65‘“ 4k tv also. But i am confused if there is any difference between imac and mac mini with the base models

 

[Andrey84]

i have LG 1080p monitor simple one.

Unless you're the kind of user who doesn't care about a really bad image quality, for your purchasing decision purposes you should think you don't have an external monitor at all. This 1080p monitor will have quite a bad image quality because it's not resolution-compatible with the Mac.

There are several options for you:

1. New iMac. It will work great, cost-effective. Smaller 24" screen. Total price depending on spec will be around $1,800. However, when you upgrade next, you need to upgrade the whole thing.
2. New Mac mini + a compatible monitor. Large 27" screen. If you go for the Apple Studio Display, your total price will be above $2,200. If you upgrade, you just replace the Mac mini and keep the display.
3. Buy used - there are multiple options.
4. Combine new + used. For example, new Mac mini, but a used LG UltraFine 5K display, which is the Retina panel of the 27" iMac.

What are your top 2 priorities? Price, desk space, screen size, good looks, upgradeability?

Go to the Apple Store, take a look at all the devices, and discuss your question with an Apple employee there. There are always eager to help.

 

[amitabhbansal]

Unless you're the kind of user who doesn't care about a really bad image quality, for your purchasing decision purposes you should think you don't have an external monitor at all. This 1080p monitor will have quite a bad image quality because it's not resolution-compatible with the Mac.

There are several options for you:

1. New iMac. It will work great, cost-effective. Smaller 24" screen. Total price depending on spec will be around $1,800. However, when you upgrade next, you need to upgrade the whole thing.
2. New Mac mini + a compatible monitor. Large 27" screen. If you go for the Apple Studio Display, your total price will be above $2,200. If you upgrade, you just replace the Mac mini and keep the display.
3. Buy used - there are multiple options.
4. Combine new + used. For example, new Mac mini, but a used LG UltraFine 5K display, which is the Retina panel of the 27" iMac.

What are your top 2 priorities? Price, desk space, screen size, good looks, upgradeability?

Go to the Apple Store, take a look at all the devices, and discuss your question with an Apple employee there. There are always eager to help.

Brother, in office i dont do any high graphic related things, just net surfing or using numbers sheet, for video editing and other high level stuff i can join my 4k Oled tv 65" with it which i use at home only,
Main thing i want to know the difference which imac can do and mac mini cant

 

[FreakinEurekan]

Main thing i want to know the difference which imac can do and mac mini cant

iMac can display things on a built-in display, Mac mini can't.
iMac can play stereo sound out loud, Mac mini can't.

Mac mini can be configured with M4 Pro, iMac can't.
Mac mini can use whatever size/resolution display that you want as default, iMac can't.

 

[BigBlur]

This 1080p monitor will have quite a bad image quality because it's not resolution-compatible with the Mac.

It's not the resolution that matters; it's the PPI that matters. Ideally, you want to be around 110 PPI (non-retina) or 220 PPI (retina). I'm using a 23" 1080p monitor, and it looks fine. Of course, it's not retina quality, but it's no worse than Windows. Now, if it was a 27" 1080p monitor, then yeah...it'd probably look like crap with macOS and still look okay-ish with Windows. For displays 24" or smaller, you generally want 1080p or 4K; for 27" displays, you want 1440p or 5K. https://bjango.com/articles/macexternaldisplays2/

Main thing i want to know the difference which imac can do and mac mini cant

There isn't anything one can do that other can't as far as macOS goes. Sounds like you already have all the peripherals the Mac mini needs, so I would probably go that route. Or do you want a built-in display/speakers and another set of keyboard & mouse/trackpad?

Another thing to keep in mind with iMacs... If the display dies, you're out a computer. I suppose you could plug it into an external display, but you still have a dead display taking up space on your desk. Likewise, if the CPU dies, you have a beautiful display that's essentially trash because it can't be used for anything else, not even as an external monitor for another computer.

 

[ubinko]

I had the same dilemma. I went for a mac mini (Pro) and am using it with a 1440p monitor. The display is not great, but not awful.

I am holding out for either the Apple Studio Display to drop to a bargain price (i.e. Black Friday), or I will wait for Apple to finally release an updated ASD with a higher refresh rate.

If an alternative pops up in the meantime (like an affordable 5k 120hz display from another manufacturer), I might go for that instead.

 

[macfan2025]

I am in the same situation: I am using iMac 2013 now, want to upgrade to either iMac or Mac Mini, but dont know what display to pair with Mac Mini? Any recommendations? Just basic usage, surf, email, photos edit etc. Thanks!

 

[picpicmac]

but dont know what display to pair with Mac Mini? Any recommendations?

The Accessories forum has many threads on monitors.

 

[macfan2025]

Thanks!