The New M4 Mac Mini is a Revolutionary Compact PC

The New M4 Mac Mini is a Revolutionary Compact PC

As a seasoned gamer with years of experience under my belt, I must say that the new M4 Mac Mini has truly caught my attention. Coming from someone who juggles multiple high-end games, video editing software, and complex simulations all at once, the performance specs of this compact powerhouse are nothing short of impressive.


Apple, known for crafting powerful and premium devices that typically carry a high price, surprised everyone with the introduction of its new Mac Mini in October 2024. Unlike usual, this time Apple introduced its fourth generation Apple Silicon, the M4 chipset, at a surprisingly affordable starting price of $599 for the basic model. This marks Apple’s most budget-friendly portable computer yet, and considering its specs, it feels like an excellent value for money.

Before delving into the specifications, let’s pause for a moment to admire how Apple has managed to reduce the size of an already compact device, making it even more potent. The Apple Silicon chipset stands out as a leader in handling productivity tasks, frequently outperforming its main competitors, AMD and Intel. Due to the smaller dimensions, there are fewer input/output (I/O) ports available. However, this can be compensated by using USB Hubs.

The Good Side

The best specs can be found within the base variant, which packs a 10-core CPU, 10-core GPU, 16-core Neural Engine, and 16GB RAM. This is a major upgrade from the last generation’s base 8GB RAM. It also gets three rear Thunderbolt 4 ports for connecting displays and data transfer speeds of up to 40Gbps. The higher-end M4 Pro version gets 24GB RAM, 512GB internal storage, and three Thunderbolt 5 ports with astounding data transfer speeds of up to 120Gbps, all for $1399. Both the chips exceed expectations in synthetic benchmarks, where the base M4 beats the M2 Max and comes very close to the M3 Max in terms of GPU performance. The Mac Mini brings a perfect blend of price and performance for anyone who is into video editing and looking for an upgrade.

The Ugly Side

It is not all roses for the Mac Mini, as some hardware choices from Apple aren’t the wisest. Firstly, the base storage of 256GB is not enough for most users, and Apple has been called out by the tech community. Making it worse is Apple’s price-gauging tactics when it comes to even the slightest of upgrades. Imagine paying $200 extra to be bumped up to the 512GB variant! Thankfully, internal SSDs aren’t exorbitantly priced anymore, and a decent 2TB Gen 4 SSD will only set you back about $120, with the external SSD casing included. If you’re looking to be doing a lot of high-resolution, long-format video editing, 3D rendering, machine learning, scientific computation, or other heavy tasks, then the previous generation’s M3 Max chip is better value compared to the M4 Pro.

Final Thoughts

The M4 Mac Mini is undeniably a versatile and space-saving computer that suits most users well. By enhancing a few of its specifications, it can manage demanding and heavy multitasking tasks effortlessly without overheating. This makes it an advantageous option for power users who can easily carry this compact device in their bag, providing them with exceptional computing power both literally and metaphorically, right at their fingertips.

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2024-11-19 16:04