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M4 Mac Mini to Become Apple's Smallest Ever Computer With Complete Redesign
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1) It's a breakthru for inventors, product designers - anyone who's been wanting to use the Mini in creative, non-standard ways, such as digital signage, robots, breakfast machines, etc. These people are salivating over the myriad new possibilities, including applications yet to be conceived. A mini could be part of skydiving, scuba diving, other applications where size was an obstacle.
2) There is no disadvantage (that I can think of). Why make it larger than necessary? (unless that would substantially increase cost)
3) As a sales angle, it puts additional pressure on current M-mini owners to upgrade, by making current model look "large and clunky"
4) Some people might like to have a separate keyboard and monitor setup at home, office, boat, RV, vacation home, etc etc. and just transport the "brain".
5) It's a step towards having one brain for 4 devices (phone, tablet, computer, TV) (which may never happen, but nice to dream about)
Think of all the devices which currently have computers built in - cameras, musical instruments, hospital equipment - literally thousands of consumer and industrial devices. Many could be "fair game" for having the digital processing portion of their overall function offloaded to a small M-mini, which would make manufacturing upgrading and iterating much simpler and cheaper.
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Yes, but only for the all-new entry-level Mac mini.
If I've learned anything about Apple's masterful product segmentation, then this petite mini is all about going harder than ever on spelling out the differences in Mac line-up, like Apple has done so well with iPhone, iPad, and with other product categories.
I think this is what will happen:
This all-new, smallest ever mini will essentially be equivalent to a desktop Mac "Mac mini SE", with less ports, smaller foot-print, and maybe even cheaper than the current $599. It'll basically be "M4 in a box" with maybe two USB-C ports on the back, no USB-A ports, no ethernet, just Wifi. But still one HDMI port. Probably no cooling. About as powerful as an M4 iPad Pro. Very limited RAM configurations. Only the essentials. Like an iPhone 16 without a battery running macOS. *Will not come in black, like Apple TV, but the same silver as mid-tier mini and Mac Studio.
The current Mac mini chassis will be then only come with M4 Pro, again starting at $1299. Maybe redesigned with better cooling(most likely just the same as M2 Pro). Overall, same concept as for the M2 Pro generation, same number of ports, both USB-A and C/Thunderbolt, ethernet, HDMI, etc.. Just like current M2 Pro Mac mini but M4 Pro.
Mac Studio M4 drops later in 2025. Same as previous generation but bumped up to M4 generation.
Keeping the current Mac mini design for the $1299+ M4 Pro also lets rack users keep buying mini without changing their racks. But the new budget mini will not fit in racks.
Apple is all about making its value/$ ladder fool-proof for anyone from a child to a senior to grasp. But having both the Mac mini Pro and the standard Mac mini be the same size will lead some to think that they are about the same value which hurts Apple's bottomline. Apple is correcting this with introducing a new smaller-in-every-way Mac mini.
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What about the many accessories that have been designed for the old Mini shape?
What about port count?
What is "necessary" had previously been determined by housing the power supply, as well as for cooling. A much smaller box implies an external brick power supply.
People already do that with the current Mini.
Had Apple actually worked a lot harder on the Enterprise front. The new Mac mini would have been perfect for them. No Servicing or anything. Just swap one in and out if things dont work.
And I have always thought the Mini would have had the Apple TV size since the transition to their own SoC. Although it is taking longer then expected. The New Apple TV+ size Mini with M4, assuming it has the same Fan as Apple TV, would be more powerful than most of the current PC.
My main question on my mind isn't the mini, assuming the Mini is now smaller, would that means the previous Mac Studio becomes Mac Pro ? What will happen to the Pros?
And I have always thought the Mini would have had the Apple TV size since the transition to their own SoC. Although it is taking longer then expected. The New Apple TV+ size Mini with M4, assuming it has the same Fan as Apple TV, would be more powerful than most of the current PC.
My main question on my mind isn't the mini, assuming the Mini is now smaller, would that means the previous Mac Studio becomes Mac Pro ? What will happen to the Pros?
In my fantasy world, Apple will eventually sell a super powered tiny M-series Apple TV as a gaming console, perhaps with the name Apple Arcade Pro.
the current mini design is time served - just hope it’s not an excuse for Apple to raise prices.
do you remember when the m1 iMac came out with a power supply that was over specified for the M1 cpu and it was later seen to be capable of pulling power closer to an M1 Pro? We surmised at the time that it was evidence of an M1 Pro iMac that has currently never come to pass. That might change with m4 pro though.
And recall that upper sku iMacs come with ethernet in the power adapter? Maybe Apple have come up with a design that will satisfy the co-location guys while reducing the shipping footprint (and as you say simplifying power supply replacement) while cost reducing the supply chain at the same time? The one downside of that is that I don’t think they offer 10 gig ports that way although if you have thunderbolt ports you can add any networking you like in a slightly more inelegant way.
obviously Mac Studio probably has another generation or two to go before it is due a redesign.
do you recall rumours of Apple experimenting with polycarbonate case to make minis more radio transparent at the cost of recyclability? A polycarbonate case may make it harder to cool.
if people are worried about ports I’d say that Apple don’t have to skimp, they can build ports up vertically like in a mini tower PC.
the thing I’d like to Apple to do here is create an Apple TV pro mode in macOS (eg ability to virtualise or boot into tvOS) and you then instantly have a super powerful (if expensive) games console which developers can target.
for what it’s worth I still think they’d keep usb-a Ports. Got to keep the people using wired keyboards and mice happy.
might also have been nice to make a mini vesa mountable but an external power supply might make that tricky.
Looking for my heavy duty roll of Velcro. 
👍👍
Ductape and bailing wired to any surface.
Glad to hear it is even smaller as there was a lot of empty space in it.
👍👍Ductape and bailing wired to any surface.
Glad to hear it is even smaller as there was a lot of empty space in it.
The entire accusation that a maker of retail products intends to be "anti-consumer" is ridiculous.
Apple exists to sell things to the masses.
And it's pretty good at it.
You just want to whine about it for some reason.
I’m guessing that Apple puts the Ethernet port on the external power supply, and uses the same iMac power Supply. It made sense to Apple for the iMac when everyone else was like “what?” I believe that it’s going to make just as much sense for Apple to make the power supply a separate component for the Mac Mini.
Power supply generates a lot of excess heat they have to handle, somehow. Excluding it would make a lot of sense, especially if they want to exclude the fan. The MacBook Air has neither a fan or a power supply. I expect these to be the same.
The most common repair for the Mac Mini is the power supply, integrating the power supply into the computer means “Genius Room repair, versus the ability to swap the power supply out in 10 minutes if external.
The 2005-2009 Mac Minis had external power supplies, so it would not be a surprise if they were not integrated here as well.
Power supply generates a lot of excess heat they have to handle, somehow. Excluding it would make a lot of sense, especially if they want to exclude the fan. The MacBook Air has neither a fan or a power supply. I expect these to be the same.
The most common repair for the Mac Mini is the power supply, integrating the power supply into the computer means “Genius Room repair, versus the ability to swap the power supply out in 10 minutes if external.
The 2005-2009 Mac Minis had external power supplies, so it would not be a surprise if they were not integrated here as well.
If it's 1.4" tall and 7.7" square (with rounded corners) I can see it moving to a external power supply with Ethernet like the iMac and moving to 6" square or at least 6" wide to match the stand on the Studio Display. That would put a crimp on Satachi and others with a dock that matches and still have sufficient ports. Apparently dropping the legacy USB-A pair of ports. Take up too much space I guess.
Apple is planning to debut completely redesigned Mac mini models with the M4 and M4 Pro chips later this year, Bloomberg's Mark Gurman reports.
The new Mac mini will be the first major design change to the machine since 2010, making it Apple's smallest ever desktop computer. The new Mac mini will apparently approach the size of an Apple TV, but it may be slightly taller than the current model, which is 1.4 inches high. It will continue to feature an aluminum shell. Individuals working on the new device apparently say that it is "essentially an iPad Pro in a small box."
Apple is said to have tested Mac mini models with at least three USB-C ports on the back, as well as an area for the power cable and an HDMI port. There will continue to be two versions of the Mac mini: one with the standard M4 chip, similar to the iPad Pro, and one with an M4 Pro chip. The base model is set to begin shipping from suppliers this month ahead of release later in the year, while the high-end model will not be ready until October.
The M4 generation of Apple silicon will purportedly be the first time that Apple has used the same chip generation across all of its Macs, with refreshes to add the M4 chip to the MacBook Air, MacBook Pro, iMac, Mac Studio, and Mac Pro planned to take place over the next year.
Article Link: M4 Mac Mini to Become Apple's Smallest Ever Computer With Complete Redesign
Anything Gurman writes I take with a huge crystal of salt.
The Mac Mini is just not that important, volume wise, for Apple.
If they do shrink it there will be one primary reason: less aluminum. Maybe also few parts.
The Mac Mini will never be a high volume product so there is no reason for Apple to invest a lot of development time into it with some goal of dramatically increasing sales.
Desktop computers are now a legacy market, and continue mostly because businesses don't like to change how they do things, so they buy PC boxes to run Windows.
The Mac Mini is just not that important, volume wise, for Apple.
If they do shrink it there will be one primary reason: less aluminum. Maybe also few parts.
The Mac Mini will never be a high volume product so there is no reason for Apple to invest a lot of development time into it with some goal of dramatically increasing sales.
Desktop computers are now a legacy market, and continue mostly because businesses don't like to change how they do things, so they buy PC boxes to run Windows.
It wouldn't surprise me, always hated external power supplies, but Apple just loves to make things thinner and smaller with little or no regard for Users actual needs.
If they can do it with an internal PSU, then I might bite, although I have too many Minis as is.
Hopefully they address the BT/Wifi signal interface issues of the current design.
If they switch to some new vapor chamber and copper heat sink, it could go fanless. If the 15" MacBook Air can manage it, at least the M4, not M4 Pro model should be able to. Or maybe one of the new salt water cooling solutions. AKA hygroscopic salt-loaded membrane-encapsulated heat sink. See https://www.tomshardware.com/pc-com...r-cooling-boosts-cpu-performance-by-almost-33
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Miniaturization is the name of the game always has been always will.
Until computers are paper thin they will keep being designed miniaturized.
Until computers are paper thin they will keep being designed miniaturized.
One advantage is it’s easily moved. I’ve got 2 offices. Each with a 27” monitor. And I take my laptop back and forth. But I rarely ever use my laptops keyboard and rarely use it in between moves.
I’ve been waiting on the Mac Mini with the latest generation processor for what feels like a couple of years now. If I’d have known they’d skip the M3 completely I’d have gotten an M2 Pro but it seemed like an M3 Pro unit would be just around the corner when the M3 MacBook Pros shipped. Oops…
They're more compact until you have to stick a dongle (or three) on them and waste money on external adapters that seem to disappear when you're not looking.
All USB ports are inferior, they started out as a cheaply made, universal adapters, and all its subsequent iterations are still cheaply made, though not cheap to purchase.