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Review: Apple's M4 Mac Mini is the Best Desktop Mac
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I do agree especially with storage since there's zero reason to make it proprietary except to justify massive upgrade prices to please shareholders.
The Mac mini has a built-in speaker.
Has anyone operated their M4 Mac mini upside down so that the power button is readily accessible, does that affect any cooling ability?
And don’t forget that Apple is able to get RAM and SSD’s much cheaper as the prices we’re able to buy on free markets.
I tend to buy laptops as I needed portability (Pismo, the first intel macbook, 2 15" macbook pro intel..), but the older I get, the most I value my time out of the office, and iPads are a huge helper out of the office for possible light tasks or consume media, so my latest laptop was a 2012 15" rMBP. I waited to the MSM1Max (such a huge jump in performance...) so now I only work on large screens 2x27"+32". The price for same specs on a MBP would be prohibitive and the screen size is for young or good sight folks 
(not one or another, I'm afraid) now Im wondering if worth the long waiting for the next MS or update more often to a MacMini Pro...
(not one or another, I'm afraid) now Im wondering if worth the long waiting for the next MS or update more often to a MacMini Pro...For sure that is a huge limitation. But the compute power, power consumption, features, and price all make it perhaps the best computer ever made - even considering the limitations of only being able to run Macintosh software.
It's a rocket ship, blasting off into space at inconceivable speed.
With the big difference that 16GB base has been standard for years on PC’s and now a novelty on Mac.
I hope not, lol. Would be an expensive toaster if it did.
I recently bought one for home use, to replace one of the original Retina iMacs with the huge screen. I'm very happy that I'll no longer have to recycle a massive screen when the OS gets outdated...I would still use the retina iMac if I could run the latest OS on it.
Since it's my first iMac it's taken me a bit of adjustment to get all the dongles and such together. While I agree they're unsightly, everything is pretty much tucked away behind my monitor so I don't see it. But there's pros and cons to a setup like this.
Pro: I use a 4TB Crucial SSD connected through USB-C as my main drive. In an emergency (fire, flood, zombie attack) I can grab the drive, or even the entire mini, on my way out the door and not worry about losing my life's files (yes, it's backed up to iCloud as well, but...)
Pro: When it gets outdated, I can cheaply replace it using the same peripherals
Pro: If there's a hardware issue I can bring it in to a store easily, and plug the SSD drive into something else to use in the mean time.
Con: Had to buy a monitor, of course. But Asus ProArt is a great monitor to be had for $219 during Black Friday, so still overall spending far less than buying a new iMac.
Con: I need to buy a webcam. I thought I'd use an extra iPhone 10S as a Continuity Camera, but that functionality has been a ******** and completely unreliable.
Con: My mouse and keyboard are both USB-A. Fine for now, plugged into a dongle, but not pretty.
Clickbait statement obviously.
The USB A ports has been one of the main things keeping me on the M2 pro I have. 4 TB4 ports and 2 USB A ports have been great. As I still have flash drives and the keyboard and trackpad that can still use them. I don’t see getting a new Mac mini for a couple of years at minimum.
I wouldn't say it's a non-issue. Like Dan mentioned if you have a server farm or mount this somewhere it could be a potential issue
If you want a powerful Mini (i.e: 64GB RAM, 2TB SSD, M4 Pro), the Mac Studio has actually better value for the buck. I’m waiting for the M4 Mac Studio to be released (I really hope they don’t change the ports, as they are great in the Studio).
I bought one - my first desktop for home since 1997! (Dell Dimension Pentium 120MHz tower!) Using it for my music 'studio' and it performs amazingly well.
The M4 series of chips is beyond incredible. As I've said before, Mac Gaming is a real thing now thanks to Apple Silicon and it's only going to get better. My new M4 MBP is a base model and it SCREAMS! I can only imagine what the Pro and Max chips add to the performance. I never hear the fan even after hours of use and I don't suffer 3rd degree burns like my old Intel Macs did.
Best computer I've ever owned. ordered full ram 64 gig mini pro with 1TB SSD. I have an Owc Thunderbolt doc attached to it, as well as external storage. (I plan on having this thing for at least 5 years, so I don't mind paying for peace of mind to have enough storage on the machine. My music/photo library are on an external SSD.)
After a gaming marathon that Flaming image is spot on....Just no smoke or flame just hot hot hot...