This is the Mac Mini’s big moment

When the Mac Mini was archetypal introduced successful aboriginal 2005, it was pitched arsenic a compact, “stripped down” desktop — and the astir affordable Mac successful Apple’s lineup. Steve Jobs referred to it arsenic a “BYODKM” system: you’d bring your ain display, keyboard, and mouse, and the Mini would supply a dependable computing acquisition with each the benefits of macOS.

The Mac Mini has carried connected ever since. There person been periods wherever the Mini has been sidelined and ignored by Apple for agelong stretches of time. But the debut of Apple Silicon gave it a caller lease connected life. Even if the wide plan didn’t alteration overmuch successful the modulation from Intel to Apple’s in-house chips, the Mini’s imaginable soared.

But present that plan is astir to change. And if the rumors beryllium accurate, it’s going to beryllium a extremist makeover. Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman has reported that the M4-powered Mac Mini volition shrink down successful size truthful importantly that its footprint volition lucifer that of an Apple TV. The caller Mac Mini volition beryllium thing but a stripped down Mac.

Instead, it’ll apt beryllium the astir visually awesome illustration yet of what Apple is susceptible of successful this caller era, wherever the unthinkable ratio of its chips allows for each sorts of hardware designs that were technically unfeasible a fistful of years ago. I haven’t been this excited astir a caller Mac since the phenomenal M1 Pro and M1 Max MacBook Pros were released successful 2021.

Gurman has said the 2024 Mac Mini — astatine slightest the M4 Pro variant — volition see a full of 5 USB-C ports, with 2 connected the beforehand of the machine. I see that frontside I/O to beryllium a godsend aft years of having to crook the Mini astir to plug thing successful — oregon conscionable guessing astatine it. It’ll inactive person an HDMI larboard for those of you who’ve integrated Apple’s smallest Mac into their location theatre setup. USB-A is said to beryllium a goner, but... it’s time.

Within the Mac family, the Mini inactive holds an important spot. The iMac is the visual stunner; the MacBook Pro delivers tremendous powerfulness connected the go; and the Mac Pro and Mac Studio are some geared astatine professionals and creatives. But the Mini remains the line’s unassuming over-performer astatine a compelling terms for anyone who wants a Mac that “just works.”

No substance its size, the Mini’s BYODKM is remains 1 of its champion attributes. Apple mightiness not be readying a 27-inch iMac, but we’re astir to person an astonishingly-compact desktop that tin beryllium paired with immoderate surface you want. And the bundle outlook is besides excellent: the revamped Mini arrives soon aft macOS Sequoia, which added utile features similar iPhone Mirroring and (long overdue) model tiling.

It’ll instrumentality immoderate benignant of colossal, unforeseen dealbreaker for maine not to contiguous preorder the M4 Mac Mini arsenic my caller at-home machine. If I’ve got 1 concern, it’s that Apple volition find immoderate mode of artificially holding the Mini backmost truthful arsenic not to bargain excessively overmuch thunder from the Mac Studio. But I don’t deliberation that’ll beryllium the lawsuit — astatine slightest not to an egregious degree, anyway. As of now, the Studio easy wins retired successful CPU and GPU performance, and it has different bonuses similar an SD paper slot and faster ethernet. I’d expect those advantages to stay existent whenever the M4 exemplary arrives.

Apple’s Mac portfolio has ne'er been connected a amended path. And for those who’ve stuck with the company’s products for decades, that tin still beryllium hard to judge — adjacent this heavy into the property of Apple Silicon. We’ve been done immoderate acheronian days. But with a caller Mac Mini that looks adjacent parts streaming container and miniature PC, Apple seems poised for different M-series marvel and feather successful its cap.