Apple Evidently Plans to Update the M4 Mac Mini Which is Truly a Mini

Apple hasn’t updated its Mac mini desktop lineup beginning from the start of 2023, when it added M2 and M2 Pro chips and halted the rest of the Intel models. Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman reports that the updated drought will end later this year when the little will avoid right from the M2 to the M4, something he initially detailed back in April.

However, the mini is said to include more than just new chips: It will also get a new, smaller design that, according to Gurman, will be closer to the size of an Apple TV box (specifically, he says it might be a little taller, but it will have a much smaller footprint). “At least three USB-C ports,” in addition to a power connector and an HDMI port, may be present in the forthcoming mini.

This would be Apple’s first update of the Mac mini’s design since the first aluminum unibody version was released back in June of 2010. The M2 Mac mini has the same basic design and footprint as the Core 2 Duo Mac mini, which was introduced over a decade ago. However, Apple removed the slot for a built-in SuperDrive DVD burner from later models as optical drives became less necessary.

Since Intel’s (discontinued, then handed over) NUC desktops, other PC manufacturers and Intel have been releasing smaller computers than the Mac mini. Frequently, these frameworks would save space by including an external power brick, while the mini has consistently utilized an integrated power supply. However, the Apple TV, which also has an internal power supply and is powered by Apple Silicon chips, suggested that a physically smaller system could be designed without making that particular design compromise.

However the design is changing, and Apple’s general way of dealing with the Mac mini remains equivalent to what it is presently. There will be a base model with a regular Apple M4 processor in it, and a redesigned model with the yet-to-be-released M4 Ace in it to assist with overcoming any issues between the low-end mini and the more impressive Mac Studio. Assuming the new little has decisively fewer ports than current models, that would likewise be a place of separation, however ideally it would keep on including sufficient USB-C ports to help different external monitors alongside different accessories.

Gurman doesn’t know whether Apple will change the pricing of the Mac mini expected to go with the new design, however, he figures the new mini “may be cheaper to make.”

The M4 Pro models may be announced or released later than the standard M4 models, but the new Mac minis are said to be available later in the year. Gurman says that new iMac and MacBook Expert models with M4-series chips could deliver “as soon as this year,” while M4 MacBook Airs would hang tight for the spring of 2025, and Mac Studio and Mac Pro desktops wouldn’t be updated until “the middle of next year.”

This year’s iPad Pro refresh featured the M4 chip, which debuted just a few months after the M3 chip; this was the first time one of Apple’s M-series processors appeared in something besides a Mac.