Apple’s Entry-Level Mac Is Almost Perfect. It’s Only Missing One Thing

Apple’s $599 M4 Mac Mini is a super tiny powerhouse.

Published November 7, 2024

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Updated November 7, 2024

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Admittedly, I have a soft spot for the Mac Mini. Not only has it been Apple’s smallest and most affordable computer for a long time — the first Mac Mini dates back nearly 20 years — but it makes an excellent base for a remote workstation, which I have.

Pair it with a monitor, mouse and keyboard … and you’re ready to go.

The newest Mac Mini — configurable with either of Apple’s M4 or M4 Pro chips — follows that same tried-and-true formula as its predecessors. But you can make the argument that it’s the most exciting (and enticing) of any of Apple’s new Macs.

Not only does the new Mac Mini have Apple’s latest silicone, but it also boasts the most significant redesign of any new Mac. It’s truly mini.

Apple M4 Mac Mini

Living up to its miniature name

The M4 Mac Mini is the most visual representation of what Apple’s latest silicon can do — its gains in performance and efficiency have allowed Apple to shrink the Mac Mini so that it’s significantly smaller than its M2 predecessor, which was released less than two years ago.

In terms of size, the M4 Mac Mini is closer to an Apple TV than it is to the M2 Mac Mini. It’s five inches by five inches and stands two inches tall — it’s very small and can easily fit beneath desk stand or in a cubby.

The other big design change with the M4 Mac Mini is that Apple moved a few ports and a 3.5mm headphone jack to the front panel. It’s not as clean of a look, but it is more convenient. (Although all the faster USB-C ports are located in the rear.)

Unlike the previous M2 Mac Mini, the new M4 model has no USB-A ports, meaning you cannot use your older cables. It’s a USB-C future.

M2 Mac Mini 2023 — For reference, this is the previous M2 Mac Mini. It’s flatter but has twice the footprint of the M4 model.

Zippy, yet whisper quiet

The M4 Mac Mini has a built-in fan, but I can tell you that I’ve seldom heard it — I haven’t been able to push the computer to work that hard.

I’m far from a power user, admittedly. The most intensive workflow I put the Mac Mini through was simple photo editing in Photoshop. The vast majority of my time is spent working on the web, mostly in Safari, while streaming soccer games and movies in my free time. And this little computer never lagged or missed a beat.

Apple’s silicon has been impressive for years now — I own an M2 MacBook Air and it still runs great — so the fact that the M4 chip handles my (pretty mundane) workflow is impressive but not surprising.

Apple claims the M4 chip is the fastest CPU core ever made. As previously stated, I’m not the one to push it to its limits, but you can check out reviews by The Verge or Ars Technica for more benchmarking data.

$599 is superb value

The M4 Mac Mini has the same starting price as the M2 Mac Mini released two years ago. It starts at $599.

However, Apple has given the M4 base model a pretty neat upgrade — it now starts with 16GB of RAM (instead of 8GB). So, while in the past we’d probably recommend spending the dough on extra memory, it’s probably unnecessary. 16GB is perfect for browsing and general computer use.

The review unit that Apple sent me to test is almost the base model. The only difference is that it features 512GB of storage instead of 256GB, which drives the price up to $799. But if your workflow is similar to mine (relatively light), 256GB is probably all you need.

If you want to upgrade from the base model, that’s when things get expensive. If you upgrade to the next-best memory (+$200) and storage (+$200), you can almost double the price of the M4 Mac Mini quickly.

The one thing missing

There are several things I could nitpick about the M4 Mac Mini. The location of the power button is a little weird. It lacks any USB-A ports, meaning your old cables aren’t compatible. And as convenient its front ports and headphone jack are, part of me prefers the clean look of the previous Mac Mini which had all the ports located in the back.

But none of those things really affect my daily workflow.

If there’s one thing I could change about the M4 Mac Mini, I’d give it an SD card slot — it’s the one missing port. It means that I have to use an adapter whenever I want to upload photos from my camera. It’s just, well, an inconvenience.

Given that the previous Mac Mini also needed an SD card reader, it’s not surprising that it’s missing here, too. But it makes me a little frustrated — this was so close to being the perfect entry-level Mac.