Apple Mac mini: Small in stature, big on power

Photo: Apple

Apple's taking the mini in the Mac mini's name quite seriously. As part of its week of Mac launches, the Apple Mac mini gets a refresh, featuring an even smaller form factor that packs in some serious guts.

The Mac mini now runs on the latest Apple M4 silicon, with options for either the regular M4 chip or the M4 Pro. This desktop PC is now smaller, measuring five inches long and wide. Apple says the M4's efficiency and the machine's "innovative thermal architecture" allow it to run smoothly and coolly.

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Is the Mac mini getting a second wind?

Photo: Apple

Apple is giving the Mac mini a major overhaul with a compact, Apple TV-sized design. As Bloomberg's Mark Gurman hinted in his Power On newsletter, at least one M4-powered Mac would receive significant updates beyond a mere performance boost. Now, we know that's the Mac mini.

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Apple Mac mini gets M2, M2 Pro options

Source: Apple

The Apple MacBook Pro isn't the only Apple device to get the M2 upgrade. The Apple Mac mini now comes with either an M2 or M2 Pro chip, promising a big bump in graphics processing and AI speeds. That allows it to be useful for everything from content creation to music, gaming, and more. 

The M2 model gets up to 24GB of unified memory and 100GB/s of bandwidth. According to Apple, it can "simultaneously play up to two streams of 8K ProRes 422 video at 30 fps, or up to 12 streams of 4K ProRes 422 video at 30 fps." Photoshop users can expect image editing speeds to get a boost of up to 50 percent.

If you need something faster, the M2 Pro version supports up to 32GB of unified memory and 200GB/s of memory bandwidth. You can expect up to 2.5x faster graphics performance in Affinity Photo, 4.2 faster ProRes transcode in Final Cut Pro, and 2.8x faster gameplay in Resident Evil Village, Apple claims.

The new Mac mini will be available beginning January 24 at a starting price of $799.

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Don't expect new Mac releases for the remainder of 2022

Apple might be done releasing new Macs this year. Bloomberg's Mark Gurman reported in his weekly newsletter that Apple is done releasing new Macs for the year. So rumoured updates for the MacBook Pro, Mac mini, and Mac Pro are expected in the first quarter of 2023. 

"I'm told that Apple is aiming to introduce the upgraded models—including M2-based versions of the 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pros—in the first quarter of calendar 2023," Gurman wrote. In Apple's latest earnings call, Apple CEO Tim Cook said its "product lineup is set" ahead of the holidays, suggesting there will no longer be new product launches for the rest of the year.

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