The M4 Mac mini: Tricks and treats

Just in time for Halloween, Apple has delivered a new version of its smallest Mac, which you could probably even fit into one of those plastic pumpkins.

As a current Mac mini user (and someone who’s owned three or four of them over the years), I eyed today’s announcement with interest and, if we’re being painfully honest, no small amount of envy. This M2 Pro Mac mini sitting on my desk? It’s fine. Well, truthfully, it’s better than fine: it’s great. I use it every day and it never bats an eye at any task I throw in its direction. It’s just a year and a half old, and as we know with Apple Silicon Macs, these things last. (Just ask my M1 MacBook Air.)

But the siren song of the new and shiny is always alluring, and I’d be lying if I said I hadn’t already priced out a new M4 model within a few minutes of its announcement. But in true Halloween fashion, there are some spoooooky factors to consider that make a swap not quite straightforward as you might think.

Treat: The mini-est Mac ever

It’s jut so wee. At 5 inches square, the M4 Mac mini is more than a third smaller in both width and depth than its 7.75-inch predecessor—in fact, it’s closer in footprint to the 3.66 inches of the Apple TV 4K. (Although at 2 inches, it’s a bit taller than both the M2 mini and the Apple TV.) I won’t say my desk space is at a premium—all you have to do is look at the junk strewn across it—but the idea of freeing up some room is pleasing, as is the fact that the M4 models weigh about a pound less than the M2 models—aluminum may be light, but it’s still metal.

Trick: Memory games

My current M2 Pro Mac mini has 32GB of RAM; the M4 Pro Mac mini ships standard with 24GB of RAM, but the upgrade options are 48GB for an extra $400 or 64GB for an extra $600. That’s not an insignificant cost to meet (and, to be fair, beat) my current specs. Would I choose to pay the money or downgrade? Now that’s a dilemma.

Treat: USB-C what I did there?

I’ve been calling for this ever since Apple proved it could put ports on the front of its desktop Macs with the Mac Studio, and I’m pleased as punch it delivered. No more maneuvering behind my mini or Studio Display when I want to plug in a thumb drive or security key. I could even plug in the audio interface on my desk with a shorter cord if I needed to. Convenience! Function over form! Who would have thunk it!

Treat/Trick: Audio port affront

…Wait, there’s an audio jack in the front too? Look, having just extolled the virtues of front-mounted USB-C ports, I feel that I would be a cad to ding the design for putting the headphone jack there too. After all, if you’re plugging in headphones, you don’t want to root around in back of the mini every time.

Except I use my audio port to keep a pair of desktop speakers plugged in, which is a little awkward from a cable management perspective. Sure, I could use a dongle, I guess, but then I’m eating up a valuable Thunderbolt 5 port for speakers. Maybe it’s time to—*gasp*—finally ditch those desktop monitors in favor of the Studio Display’s built-in ones.

Trick: Trade-in shun

Yes, I did go ahead and price out exactly how much Apple would give me for my pristine Mac mini with a 10 core CPU/16 core GPU M2 Pro, 32GB of RAM, and a 1TB SSD. It’s practically brand new, well, from April 2023. And the result was…$445.

Look, I’m not saying that’s nothing compared to the cost of a brand new computer, but it is on the sobering side. They say your computer loses half the value when you drive it off the Apple Store lot, but that’s more like two-thirds! I’d probably fare better selling it elsewhere.

Ultimately, I think an M4 Pro Mac mini is unfortunately not in my future, even though I keep getting misty-eyed when I look at the pictures. But good news: given the last design of the Mac mini lasted effectively fourteen years, this one’s not going anywhere soon. So I guess there’s always the M5.

[Dan Moren is the East Coast Bureau Chief of Six Colors. You can find him on Mastodon at @dmoren@zeppelin.flights or reach him by email at dan@sixcolors.com. His latest novel, the supernatural detective story All Souls Lost, is out now.]

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