Apple Mac Mini M4 review: a tiny wonder

Why wouldn’t you want the new Mac Mini? Over the last several days of testing Apple’s redesigned desktop Mac, I’ve been impressed by all the power and potential crammed into this very compact machine. For a starting price of $599 and with 16GB of RAM now standard, the M4 Mac Mini has immediately become the best value in Apple’s entire Mac lineup. It’s more than capable for most computing tasks today, and if my M1 MacBook Air is anything to go by, the Mini won’t feel slow (or anything close to it) for at least the next four or five years.

Apple provided me with two very different Mac Mini units. This first review is focused on the standard M4 model, which includes a 10-core CPU, 10-core GPU, and the default 16GB of memory. My machine has 512GB of storage, which bumps its price to $799, but everyday performance should be identical to that of the base 256GB configuration. I’ve also got a kitted-out M4 Pro model, which raises the price to a stratospheric $2,199. For that money, I’d damn well expect the M4 Pro Mini to be a powerhouse.

But most people won’t need to spend anywhere near that amount. The regular M4 edition offers a lot in its own right and would be my recommendation for anyone who wants a dependable desktop Mac — especially if you’ve already settled on a monitor and / or keyboard that you love.

As always with the Mac Mini, Apple provides the computer; you bring your own display, keyboard, and mouse. Apple is more than happy to sell you its own Studio Display and peripherals, but with the Mini now able to run up to three displays at once (up from two on the M2 model), you’ve got a ton of runway for creative, versatile desk setups. If you’ve perfected your work-from-home office, you can just add the Mini to whatever’s already there without having to rearrange everything. 

And the machine itself will barely take up any of that space. Measuring 5 inches wide, 5 inches deep, and 2 inches tall, the 2024 Mac Mini’s footprint is less than half that of the previous enclosure, which was designed around the Intel platform. (Just look at how much unused space there was after the Apple Silicon transition.) It’s not quite as tiny as an Apple TV 4K, but to me, it’s the most striking example yet of what Apple can achieve with hardware that’s purpose-built for its M-series chips. Another welcome change is that the new Mini puts some ports right on the front, whereas its predecessors made me blindly plug everything into the back — or turn the whole thing around so I could actually see what I was doing. 

Now you’ve got a pair of 10Gbps USB-C ports (USB 3) and a headphone jack up front. Around back are three Thunderbolt 4 (USB 4) ports, HDMI, and a gigabit ethernet jack that’s upgradable to 10-gigabit speeds. I do miss the SD card slot you’d find on a Mac Studio or MacBook Pro, but I haven’t once felt disappointed about the lack of USB-A. Everyone has a different accessory situation, so its absence might sting more for you, but it’s easy to just plug in a dongle if necessary. The M4 Pro Mac Mini has even faster, brand-new Thunderbolt 5 connectivity, with theoretical data transfer speeds of up to 120Gb/s (three times faster than Thunderbolt 4). But that’s mostly targeted at creative professionals and intensive video work. Despite its dramatically reduced dimensions, the Mini still retains an internal power supply, so there’s no cumbersome brick to worry about.

Notice that I haven’t mentioned a power button yet. That’s because Apple made the curious decision to move it to the bottom of the machine near the rear left corner. Do I wish the button were someplace else? Sure. Pressing it requires reaching over the Mini and lifting the unit up slightly. It’s silly but hasn’t negatively affected my experience in any material way. If you’ve got an Apple Magic Keyboard with Touch ID, you’ll be reminded of its awkward location right during setup, when you’ve got to double-press the power button to make a secure link between the fingerprint sensor and Mac. The Mini is used in a wide mix of environments including home theater systems and live event production. I could see the button’s position becoming a hassle in some of those scenarios, but if you’re using it on a desk, it’s more of a strange quirk than an annoyance. And there are always workarounds.

Apple’s revamped thermal system for the Mini keeps the M4 model running quietly. Even when I’m deep in a Lightroom photo editing session, I don’t hear the fan. I’m certain the M4 Pro’s extra GPU cores would make those RAW edits even faster, but the regular M4 is up to the task for most photo work. Elsewhere, the machine has rarely missed a step, no matter what I throw at it. I’m no videographer, so I can’t speak to whether serious editing work would expose the M4’s limits. If there’s one use case that warrants stepping up to the M4 Pro, it’s likely that.

Everywhere else, the M4 Mini just hums along. As you can see in our benchmarks, it’s right in keeping with the M4 iMac and MacBook Pro. I’ve barely sampled any of the Apple Intelligence features in macOS Sequoia — I don’t find them particularly compelling — but I’m already a big fan of iPhone Mirroring and the built-in window tiling that has allowed me to finally bid farewell to Moom. MacOS feels like it’s in a great place these days.

With the Mini now being so charmingly small, it’s easy to dream up all sorts of hardware and software possibilities. Why not give people a choice of colors like the iMac? As for software, this thing looks more like an Apple TV than ever before, so what if it sometimes behaved like one too? Imagine a TV-optimized entertainment interface — yes, like a modern Front Row — that would kick in whenever a TV screen is connected over HDMI. The M4 is more than capable enough to juggle both macOS and a tvOS-like experience.

As I said earlier, the $599 Mini is the best value around if you haven’t yet joined the Mac side of Apple’s ecosystem. Even the $799 configuration I tested, with 16GB of memory and a 512GB SSD, seems reasonable. But once you go beyond that in RAM or storage, Apple’s pricing smacks of greed and padding the company’s bottom line. That’s true across the line, but it’s felt more acutely on a machine that starts at only $599. Stepping up to 1TB of storage and 32GB of RAM brings the price to $1,399. Yikes.

For most, the Mini will be a stationary computer, and the presence of three Thunderbolt ports means you can attach a speedy external SSD without caving to Apple’s farcical rates. Given that, the other $799 config, with 24GB of RAM and 256GB of storage, could be more worthwhile. Neither can be upgraded later, so it’s important to get the specs right when buying.

Every time I glance over at the new Mac Mini on my desk, it feels like the Mini’s ideal form. The redesigned enclosure makes the most of Apple Silicon’s small footprint, and with Apple’s M4 chip and an ample selection of ports, the 2024 Mini should remain a zippy, reliable computer for years to come. It’s never been more mighty. Well, except for the much pricier M4 Pro version. Stay tuned for more on that soon.

Photography by Chris Welch / The Verge
Shot with the Nikon Z6 III and 70-200mm f/2.8 lens.