Apple is rumored to announce a range of Mac devices this week (the company has hinted as much) and while I don’t know what the company has in store, it’s likely we’ll be seeing new MacBook Pros and an iMac 2024, all powered by the M4 chip that launched with the iPad Pro earlier this year.
Update: Yep, Apple has just announced the M4 iMac 2024!
While those are no doubt exciting products, one rumor has me really keen to see what Apple announces – an M4-powered Mac mini.
Yep, for all the promises of new MacBooks and iMacs, I really believe that an M4 Mac mini will be the most exciting launch (if it does happen).
I ❤️ the Mac mini
Why? Well, in a rather scary bit of Monday-morning calculation, I’ve figured out I’ve been reviewing and writing about laptops and PCs for almost 20 years. And over the (many) years I’ve been doing this I’ve got a sense for when new releases are iterative updates, and when they are truly exciting.
If the rumors are true, the new MacBooks and iMacs fall into the former category: iterative updates. There will likely be no new designs (both have had major redesigns in the past few years), with the biggest changes being the addition of the M4 chip.
I have nothing against the M4 chip. Since I reviewed the iPad Pro earlier this year, I’ve been desperate to see what it’s capable of in a Mac device where it can run much more ambitious software. But Apple’s rapid release schedule for its M-Class chips (there have been four major releases since the M1’s launch four years ago) means that generational leaps rarely make a huge difference.
If you’ve got an M3-powered MacBook Pro or iMac, you’ll won’t see a big enough performance boost to make upgrading to an M4 version worthwhile. Heck, I use a 16-inch MacBook Pro with the M2 Pro chip for music production and video editing, and if Apple announces an identical-looking M4 Pro model, I’m just not going to be interested in upgrading, as the M2 Pro remains so good (and is only two years old), that it still does everything I need it to do.
So, why is the Mac mini different? After all, there’s an excellent Mac mini M2 model (which got a rare five stars from me in my review), and it’s also likely (despite some rumors suggesting otherwise) that it’ll come with the same design.
Well, for a start, I genuinely think the Mac mini M2 is one of the best devices Apple has ever made. This tiny, discrete PC can be placed almost anywhere, and thanks to a choice of either the M2 or M2 Pro chip, you’re getting an impressively powerful bit of kit in an almost silent small form factor PC.
Whereas the MacBook Pro and iMac have Windows 11 competitors, there’s simply no small form factor Windows PC that comes even close to the Mac mini.
And, unlike those other two products, there hasn’t been an M3 version, which means the leap between an M2 Mac mini and an M4 Mac mini will be much more noticeable.
The idea that you can hide a Mac mini behind a monitor or TV is incredibly exciting, especially considering the gaming improvements on the M4 chip. This upcoming Mac mini, if it does exist, could be the closest we’ll ever get to an Apple console.
Then there’s the price. The current Mac mini starts at $599 / £649 / AU$999, making it by far the cheapest way to get into the Mac ecosystem. If a Mac mini is announced alongside MacBook Pros and a new iMac, it’ll offer the same level of performance as the other devices using an M4 chip – but at a fraction of the price.
It also means the idea of upgrading isn’t quite as intimidating. If you spent $1,000+ on a MacBook or iMac, unless you’re rich, you’ll likely need something really special to get you to consider upgrading. If you’ve spent $599, the threshold for an upgrade that makes financial sense is considerablylower.
That’s assuming that Apple will keep the price similar, which might be too big of an assumption these days. But even the idea of a compact PC that costs around $600 and offers enough power to be able to play modern games like Resident Evil 4 Remaster, is incredibly exciting – and it’s why in a week that promises a lot of announcements from Apple, it’s the new Mac mini I’ll really be happy to see announced. So, the waiting game begins…