Apple Mac mini M4

Half the size of its predecessor yet packing far more power, this is the biggest Mac upgrade of the year

- MATT HANSON

The Mac mini has always been compact and affordable, but the 2024 model raises the stakes in both regards. It's smaller than ever, thanks to the first major redesign in 14 years, and while the £599 starting price is the same as the previous M2 version (see issue 343, p60), you now get much more computing power for the money.

That's impressive, because the M2 Mac mini was already excellent value.

Even today you'd struggle to find a sub-£600 Windows 11 PC to match its performance. Now the new mini gets the same 10-core M4 processor as found in Apple's flagship iPad Pro and MacBook Pro devices (see p50).

Obviously the fact that the mini doesn't have a built-in screen helps reduce the cost, but still, getting that sort of power for around half the price is an insane deal.

The M4 chip isn't the only major upgrade. The entry-level model now comes with a baseline 16GB of unified memory, doubling the standard amount of the M2 version. This makes the new mini better at multitasking and AI workloads out of the box, and it should be more future-proof, too.

For those who need more, the M4 Mac mini can be upgraded to 24GB or 32GB, although this must be done at the point of purchase and adds considerably to the price. It's a similar story with storage: you can upgrade all the way up to 2TB, but doing so doubles the cost of the base mini. For the most demanding roles, Apple also offers variants that use the enhanced M4 Pro processor, with more cores, up to 64GB of RAM and a maximum of 8TB of onboard storage - with the fully loaded spec coming in at a cool £4,599.

Truly mini at last

Apple calls the redesigned mini its "smallest computer ever", and in terms of the macOS platform that's undeniably true. It measures only 127 x 127 x 50mm, easily fitting in the palm of your hand: put it on the desk next to the last-generation model and it makes the latter look positively bulky.