Don't expect a new Mac mini redesign in 2023, says Ming-Chi Kuo

M1 Mac Mini Macbook Air Macbook Pro Bench Hero
M1 Mac Mini Macbook Air Macbook Pro Bench Hero (Image credit: Rene Ritchie)

What you need to know

  • Analyst Ming-Chi Kuo says that we shouldn't expect a new design when Apple next updates the Mac mini.
  • The current Mac mini design has remained largely unchanged for 12 years.
  • Apple is rumored to have a new Mac mini with improved Apple silicon coming next year.

Apple's rumored 2023 Mac mini refresh won't come with a new look according to analyst Ming-Chi Kuo.

The rumored Mac mini refresh won't happen until 2023 according to a report by the same analyst last week. That machine has been rumored to have new Apple silicon in the form of an M2 or M2 Pro chip, although that could change between now and launch. For now, though, Kuo says that the outsides won't be anywhere near as interesting as the changes going on internally.

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Kuo's short and sweet post to Twitter instead says that we should expect the 2023 Mac mini to "remain the same form factor design" as the previous models. That form factor has largely remained unchanged for 12 years at this point, despite rumors that things would change. However, it's possible that the rumored Mac mini redesign was in fact the chassis eventually used for the newly announced Mac Studio.

The new Mac Studio has the same footprint of the Mac mini but is notably thicker, potentially causing some confusion among leakers and analysts.

The current M1 Mac mini has proven popular but has been blown out of the water by Mac Studio, something that is to be expected given the higher price and more powerful M1 Max and M1 Ultra internals.

Kuo recently began tweeting after creating the account 11 years ago and despite initial doubts it has since been confirmed that the account does indeed belong to the TF International Securities analyst.

Oliver Haslam
Contributor

Oliver Haslam has written about Apple and the wider technology business for more than a decade with bylines on How-To Geek, PC Mag, iDownloadBlog, and many more. He has also been published in print for Macworld, including cover stories. At iMore, Oliver is involved in daily news coverage and, not being short of opinions, has been known to 'explain' those thoughts in more detail, too.

Having grown up using PCs and spending far too much money on graphics card and flashy RAM, Oliver switched to the Mac with a G5 iMac and hasn't looked back. Since then he's seen the growth of the smartphone world, backed by iPhone, and new product categories come and go. Current expertise includes iOS, macOS, streaming services, and pretty much anything that has a battery or plugs into a wall. Oliver also covers mobile gaming for iMore, with Apple Arcade a particular focus. He's been gaming since the Atari 2600 days and still struggles to comprehend the fact he can play console quality titles on his pocket computer.