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The new Mac mini is almost certainly coming

sublunar said:
Looks like with the release of the base 14” MacBook Pro that we have our answer. It stays with thunderbolt 4 probably for product differentiation.
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Product differentiation yes, but at the level of the SoC, since the Thunderbolt controller is built right into the SoC.

sublunar said:
Doesn’t bode well for uk price of Mac mini going forward. Best case scenario appears to be price parity while EU folks might get a price cut depending on currency hedging when m5 mini gets released (probably next summer now with latest rumours)
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I’m not yet 100% convinced there will be a Mac mini with M5 anything. I think there should be, but I wouldn’t be completely shocked if they skipped the entire generation and waited for M6.
 
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EugW said:
I’m not yet 100% convinced there will be a Mac mini with M5 anything. I think there should be, but I wouldn’t be completely shocked if they skipped the entire generation and waited for M6.
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M5 Mac mini by the time of wwdc 26 is severely late for sure but way too early for m6 I’d have thought.

iMac will surely be due m5 soon and the m5 pro will be key as the MacBook Pro needs both pro and max skus of the m5.

If they do skip m5 for the mini it doesn’t necessarily mean they do that for the iMac.
 
I hope they're going to just wait for the M6 to refresh the Mac Mini, sometime next summer or autumn. Now that I'm getting an I.T. job again that pays better than my previous one did, I can get ready to purchase my first Apple Silicon Mac Mini! I'm looking to get the M4 Pro model with 48 GB of RAM and a 1 TB SSD.
 
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I posted this in the Mac Accessories thread but I thought it would be appropriate here too. With my M4 Mac mini, I am now using an LG UltraFine 6K monitor with built-in Thunderbolt 5 hub. I have a USB 4 / Thunderbolt SSD hooked up through the monitor and it works fine, but because the M4 is Thunderbolt 4 only, I don’t get the full write speeds since it’s sharing bandwidth with the monitor. This is not the SSD I’m using there right now, but I did do some testing with the same AS Media 2464PD enclosure using a Samsung 990 Pro SSD.

Directly connected to Mac. Drive shows as USB 4 in the macOS System Report.

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Connected through TB 4 / USB 4 hub. Drive shows as Thunderbolt.

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Connected thru LG 6K monitor with built-in TB 5 hub, but sharing (TB 4) bandwidth with monitor. Drives shows as USB 4.

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While it would have been nice to have a TB 5 Mac mini to be able to get faster TB 4 SSD write speeds when sharing that TB connection with the monitor, the TB 4 Mac mini has been fine overall. Since the drive I’m currently using is only a Time Machine drive with small incremental updates, I don’t notice the difference at all with the slower writes. It’d make a difference with a new drive when it’s transferring everything over the first time, but in regular active use it is not noticeable.

However, I’ve now even downgraded the connection to a USB 3 cable for the time being just because I didn’t have a long enough Thunderbolt cable so the speeds would be even slower, but it still works fine and the bonus is it stays cooler since it uses less power.

Power usage and heat generation from SSD: USB 4 > TB > USB 3. That follows the speed differences.

BTW, TB 4 only supports DisplayPort 1.4 but that works fine with this LG monitor and with the Asus 6K at full 6K 10-bit HDR with 4:4:4 chroma, since they can use visually lossless DSC compression. TB 5 with DisplayPort 2.1 would support that without DSC but it’s not needed here. However, I know with some Chinese 6K monitors and the Dell 6K, there is a bug preventing DSC from working consistently, so DisplayPort 2.1 would be advantageous to have with those.

maxoakland said:
What’s the memory chip upgrade loophole?
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? SSD NAND third party upgrade ?
 
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DesertSurfer said:
256 MB would indeed be cramped, but I know you meant 256GB. I'm guessing Apple will "give" us 512 when 512 is about as not enough as 256 is now. But I should probably learn to tamp down my cynicism.
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No matter what way one slices this, 256GB is a slap in the face. It would cost apple close to nothing to make the base 512GB.
 
Cape Dave said:
No matter what way one slices this, 256GB is a slap in the face.
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I think this is just an issue with what Apple charges for SSD's and not necessarily a problem with the base model Mini. In other words, if you want 512gb you can have it, but it will cost you $200 more. I am definitely not going to defend Apple's pricing - that's a huge premium for an extra 256gb - but "it is what it is".

OTOH, what does the "average user" need in terms of storage today? I got my m4 Mini on Black Friday last year and use it as a media server for my two AppleTV's. It's also connected to my home stereo system with speakers in different rooms and I use the Music app plus streaming Sirius/XM frequently. All of my own media is stored on a 4tb external SSD. It runs 24/7 and after a full year, this is the internal SSD. I doubt that it will ever grow much beyond this.

Screen Shot 2025-11-20 at 8.43.22 AM.png


So, in my case, I'm glad they gave the base model a small SSD to keep the price down. OK, I know that most people don't use a Mini like this, but how about users like my daughter's family? She and my son in law are in their 40's and my granddaughter is in high school. They use iCloud and streaming for everything and store virtually nothing on their Mac(s). A few years ago they had a crash that corrupted the disk on the old Mini I had given them. In fixing it, I was concerned about losing some of their files. They just laughed, there were no files to lose!

Now, that's completely different from how I use a computer (my primary Mac has a 2tb SSD and 18tb of external SSD's connected all the time - even so, I stuggle to keep any free space). But I wonder how many others out there are more like my daughter's family? Guessing there might be a lot and a lower price would be more attractive for them than a bigger disk.

In the end, of course I would like to see bigger/cheaper internal disks. I remember when I bought my 2011 MacBook Air - my first SSD-based Mac! The base model had a 64gb SSD. I went with the maximum 256gb version which was a big increase in cost.
 
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Corefile said:
Apple knows their users will either take that slap or pony up 200 bucks for the luxury of not getting the slap.
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LOL, it's not a slap, it's like a loss leader (look at the pricing history of the mini and $599 seems artificially low for a new design in 2024) or an enticing entry point into Mac for basic needs users, or a treat for old Mac fans on fixed incomes who realized they don't really need a Mac anymore and figured they'd just use their iPad/iPhone when the old Mac died.
 
Boyd01 said:
OTOH, what does the "average user" need in terms of storage today? I got my m4 Mini on Black Friday last year and use it as a media server for my two AppleTV's. It's also connected to my home stereo system with speakers in different rooms and I use the Music app plus streaming Sirius/XM frequently. All of my own media is stored on a 4tb external SSD. It runs 24/7 and after a full year, this is the internal SSD. I doubt that it will ever grow much beyond this.
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Computing has always been about having headroom for growth which 256GB doesn't really offer today. When the BOM parts for 256GB to 512GB cost buttons of a difference then it's petty and vindictive of Apple to offer the lowest sized one as the default. Price gouging is what they call it elsewhere.
 
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Corefile said:
Computing has always been about having headroom for growth which 256GB doesn't really offer today. When the BOM parts for 256GB to 512GB cost buttons of a difference then it's petty and vindictive of Apple to offer the lowest sized one as the default. Price gouging is what they call it elsewhere.
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Based on all the minis in your signature line (which I just now noticed), I'm guessing you're going to continue to buy them.
 
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Corefile said:
When the BOM parts for 256GB to 512GB cost buttons of a difference then it's petty and vindictive of Apple to offer the lowest sized one as the default. Price gouging is what they call it elsewhere.
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That's just how the system is set up. A publicly traded company must maximise profit.
 
Basic75 said:
If Apple is lucky the users will first take the slap and then also pay the bucks: they will buy the base model, run out of storage, and then buy a higher spec model.
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95% probably will not run out of storage. For them the mini is not a compute workhorse but a desktop office and media consumption device when they want something bigger than an iPad.
 
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GabrieleR said:
Hi,

i work in an Apple Reseller and like many of you i'm waiting for the mini 2013 refresh.

From monday the two major Apple suppliers in Italy are suddenly and completely out of stock of minis. I know that this happen from time to time, but the timing is no coincidence.

Trust me, a new mini is coming next week, or at least we have solid evidence to believe it.
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A new Mini is coming next week? Where is the announcement?
 
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CharlesShaw said:
Hehe, they did the same thing on Oct 3, so maybe trying to get the OP (who only has 12 posts in 12 years) to reply?

After the thread's 11th anniversary I bought my M4 so this thread gives me holidays vibes now.
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It's the thread that keeps on giving. Do we know that maximum number of pages possible for a thread on here yet?
 
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saulinpa said:
95% probably will not run out of storage. For them the mini is not a compute workhorse but a desktop office and media consumption device when they want something bigger than an iPad.
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On top of that, while upgrading is clearly a money maker for Apple, I believe they have a framework of using the Mini (and the iMac) as a terminal, where the bare minimum is stored on the machine and the rest is stored in iCloud. In that case it makes sense to have a much smaller drive since it’s essentially just for the operating system and some programs, not data.
 
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