Review: Apple's M4 Mac Mini is the Best Desktop Mac

[SeeC]

I get that it can work, but the whole idea of a mini computer then needing a bunch of external dongles and storage strapped to it kind of makes the fact it's so small pointless.

Yeah I am glad I’m not the only one to see/think that.
As owner of a previous Mini in use with an external drive I’m amazed how much people rationalize Apple terrible pricing to use this.
They even put the single jack port in front which means that if you want a permanently connected speaker system you will need an USB audio card on top of an hub because it’s unlikely you can do away without old school USB 2 ports.
I guess Apple expects you to change everything…

It’s small but you need 2-3 permanent fixtures to make good use of it, making the small size purely a marketing point.

The only qualities are that it has a pretty good chip and it’s affordable at its base price. Venture outside of this basic proposition and it’s really not that great of a value proposition, both from a cost and practicality perspective.

Apple is completely lost in their greed and over designing mindset but it please the masses so I guess it must be good. A lot like McDonalds must be good in my eyes…

 

[star-affinity]

Cutting the power won't make it reboot on power return? Even when getting a dark screen? I haven't had to do this, so don't know.

Not sure what happens if cutting power and then bring it back again. In this case I felt it was easier to just hold down the power button until the Mac mini turned off and then press the button again.

 

[4look4rd]

Terrible. The placement of the power button will go down as one of, if not the biggest, tech failures of all time. I've actually lost sleep over it.

The power button placement is fine. It’s easy enough to reach when laying flat, but it’s likely there because people often mount Mac minis behind displays.

 

[Andy_2341]

Yeah I am glad I’m not the only one to see/think that.
As owner of a previous Mini in use with an external drive I’m amazed how much people rationalize Apple terrible pricing to use this.
They even put the single jack port in front which means that if you want a permanently connected speaker system you will need an USB audio card on top of an hub because it’s unlikely you can do away without old school USB 2 ports.
I guess Apple expects you to change everything…

It’s small but you need 2-3 permanent fixtures to make good use of it, making the small size purely a marketing point.

The only qualities are that it has a pretty good chip and it’s affordable at its base price. Venture outside of this basic proposition and it’s really not that great of a value proposition, both from a cost and practicality perspective.

Apple is completely lost in their greed and over designing mindset but it please the masses so I guess it must be good. A lot like McDonalds must be good in my eyes…

For light users, like me, this is not accurate. I went from a 2011 HP Compaq 8200 Elite with a cd disk drive to the base model M4 Mini. Even with my usb-c to usb-a converter ( Not a dongle) and a portable disk drive plugged into it, my desk is so much clearer. The size difference is night and day. I didn't need extra storage, but if I did then a drive could easily sit between the mini and my monitor, out of the way. For power users or moderate users, it may not be as good, but for everyday-joes, it is great.

 

[Apple_Robert]

It is a good price if one already has keyboard, mouse or trackpad, and a monitor. Otherwise, one is looking at iMac pricing.

 

[triptolemus]

They even put the single jack port in front which means that if you want a permanently connected speaker system you will need an USB audio card on top of an hub

Are you saying you can't connect your audio system permanently to the 3.5mm jack on the front? Do you know what will happen if I leave it connected permanently? Will I damage the Mac?

 

[turbineseaplane]

They even put the single jack port in front which means that if you want a permanently connected speaker system you will need an USB audio card on top of an hub because it’s unlikely you can do away without old school USB 2 ports.
I guess Apple expects you to change everything…

I hear ya -- Agree with your overall point

That said, the extra port situation can be solved quite easily for $10-40 with a Hub or Dock and/or some adapters

I snagged this Orico hub for $16 and it works wonderfully to add the USB-A and SD card reader I needed

Zip. Boom. Done!

My Mini M4 is out of sight anyhow, so it mattered not to add something like this

For another $9 I grabbed a couple of these USB-C to A adapter cables .. "just to have)

 

[hagjohn]

I get that it can work, but the whole idea of a mini computer then needing a bunch of external dongles and storage strapped to it kind of makes the fact it's so small pointless.

What are you still plugging in? I have an external monitor and Thunderbolt drive for Time Machine. Everything else can run externally through bluetooth or wi-fi.

 

[John_Blackthorne]

It may in fact be the best computer ever made.

If it started with 512, it would be the best desktop computer, for sure.

 

[Andy_2341]

It is a good price if one already has keyboard, mouse or trackpad, and a monitor. Otherwise, one is looking at iMac pricing.

Well, presuming you aren’t after the best quality and all of the features of an iMac, you can avoid this. 22inch QHD monitors can be found for around $150, the anker version of the magic keyboard is $30 and functions the same, and a second hand magic mouse can be found for about $30 too. That puts you at $210 in accessories plus the Mini at $599, for a total of $820ish. That’s $479 less than the base iMac. The difference is most notable in the screen, but you could go up a bit and still save a good amount. Plus you get 3 more thunderbolt ports, an HDMI port, a headphone jack, and ethernet standard.

 

[brofkand]

If it started with 512, it would be the best desktop computer, for sure.

Act like you’re in college and buy it for $500 then hang an SSD off the back.

 

[Tagbert]

Has anyone operated their M4 Mac mini upside down so that the power button is readily accessible, does that affect any cooling ability?

When you do, make sure to attach a post-it and mark down every time you need to use that power button. Add them up at the end of next year and decide if this was a worth while concern or not. I’m guessing…. Not.

 

[turbineseaplane]

The power button kvetching is really something to behold

It's amazing how much I don't care about that

I never turn mine off short of when taking it somewhere, at which point I'll be unplugging/plugging other stuff and hitting the power button is a total non issue

 

[anthogag]

Yes, Apple's 5K Retina display looks quite excellent. I will consider it for my next monitor for my Mac.

 

[JosephAW]

When you do, make sure to attach a post-it and mark down every time you need to use that power button. Add them up at the end of next year and decide if this was a worth while concern or not. I’m guessing…. Not.

So far with my existing M2 Mac mini I’ve used the power button 100% of the time I’ve ever used the computer.

 

[fathergll]

When I compare it with my iMac, I am not convinced.
My 2020 iMac (1TB "disk", 64GB RAM (3rd party), nano-texture glass) was $3200 (not including tax).
A new Mac Mini (1TB, 32GB RAM) and
Studio Display (nano, adjustable)
Keyboard
Mouse
is $4000 (not including tax)

1. $3200 in August 2020 = roughly $3900 today
2. Not sure why you are comparing an adjustable Studio Display when the iMac wasn't adjustable. You just added $400 MSRP to the Studio Display cost for the comparison.
3. The Studio Display can be reused for many years with different computers.
4. Yes there is no keyboard and mouse though I would say most are happy not to be forced into buying it. It's 2025 and I already have a mouse and keyboard.....probably too many to count.



If you wanted to spend $3900 for something comparable to the cost of that 2020 iMac you could get a Nano non-adjustable 27" monitor from B&h at $100 off and a M4 pro 12 core Mac Mini with 1TB SSD and 48 GB memory/10 gig Ethernet for $3900.

 

[840quadra]

Nothing but happy with my base M4 Pro with only a minor memory upgrade. Have been using Thunderbolt M.2 external drives for video / photo editing and have zero complaints with speed or performance.

Hit on the power consumption is absolutely tiny with this thing being on 24/7 hosting a bunch of local and remotely accessed services.

Couldn't be happier!

 

[Jonbinary]

Very happy with my M4 Pro 48gb 1tb. I upgraded from a M2 Pro Mini and have seen a big difference. I compose music with large and cpu heavy sample libraries. With large projects the m2 pro would struggle. The M4 Pro hasn’t even had to think yet. My only complaint is that does seem it get a little warmer than the old mini

 

[FlyingDutch]

It may in fact be the best computer ever made.

Paying over 700€ in EU for something with 256 GB of storage is utterly ridiculous …
I’m sorry but this has to be changed: Apple is cheating users with starting prices. The only model to be considered as barely usable is the 900€+ with 512 GB. Not so cheap for a computer.

 

[brofkand]

Paying over 700€ in EU for something with 256 GB of storage is utterly ridiculous …
I’m sorry but this has to be changed: Apple is cheating users with starting prices. The only model to be considered as barely usable is the 900€+ with 512 GB. Not so cheap for a computer.

Hang a portable SSD off the back if you need more storage (and pretty much everyone does).

You still won’t find a better computer out there, without spending substantially more.

 

[FlyingDutch]

Hang a portable SSD off the back if you need more storage (and pretty much everyone does).

You still won’t find a better computer out there, without spending substantially more.

Talk about justify Apple greed by hanging on an external storage (nowhere fast as internal) … good job

 

[DELLsFan]

Very happy with my M4 Pro 48gb 1tb. I upgraded from a M2 Pro Mini and have seen a big difference. I compose music with large and cpu heavy sample libraries. With large projects the m2 pro would struggle. The M4 Pro hasn’t even had to think yet. My only complaint is that does seem it get a little warmer than the old mini

Congratulations!

We replaced both PCs in the house with M4 Pro Minis - same configuration as yours! I knew upgrading the Unified RAM and Storage would make our fillings ache, but we'd been waiting for too long for the new Mini. They've been awesome! Of course, we added RayCue hubs w/ nVME SSDs installed just for Time Machine use.

The systems are way overkill for regular use, but we're definitely future-proofed for a few years. It's been a great gaming experience so far. Ripping and archiving our media collection is much improved (over the 2018 Intel Mini's performance). They get a little warm, but not so much that we would consider applying external heat sinks.

 

[brofkand]

Talk about justify Apple greed by hanging on an external storage (nowhere fast as internal) … good job

If you need an SSD that fast, they are available. If the machine isn’t for you, move on. News flash - not everything is about you.

 

[Matz]

Switching from a 2018 i7 Mini, I'm more than pleased with my new M4MM. I chose to pay for an upgrade to 512GB internal storage, and am using an OWC 2TB external Thunderbolt SSD.

Even so, the internal drive is filling up, and has maybe 70 GB of free space left. I already store my Photos library on the external SSD, but it appears that I have to move more files onto it.

So now I'm going through the process of figuring out which data can live on the external SSD, and which needs to live on the internal drive. Fortunately, YouTube has a number of videos on the subject.

 

[smaffei]

It really is an amazing value for the money. This thing is already starting to light up in some of my gamer geek circles for an under-the-tv emulator.

Oh, that's totally what I use it for.