The iPhone 16 reveal event, Glowtime, might be tomorrow, but a new report has suggested we won't have to wait long for another Apple event.

Bloomberg's Mark Gurman is reporting that the company will reveal M4 versions of its Mac lineup as early as October, including the MacBook Pro, Mac Mini, and iMac.

While we've known for a while Mac models with M4 were coming, including a redesigned Mac Mini, it seems we'll hear more about them next month - but that's not all.

Posting on X (formerly Twitter), Gurman notes "there are also new iPads in the works, including an upgraded mini."

Mac and iPad event leaked for October

Last year, Apple's "Scary Fast" event revealed the M3, M3 Pro, and M3 Max chips, as well as new versions of the iMac and MacBook Pro.

It's a little different this year as the iPad Pro debuted the M4 chip earlier this year, meaning we'll be getting variants of those chips but not a whole new generation being revealed.

The promise of an iPad Mini is an interesting one, however. The iPad Mini sold today is the 2022 model, meaning it's getting a little long in the tooth. If it was to gain the M4 chip (or any M-series chip), it could go some way to becoming the ultimate ultra-portable computer I've been hoping it would in the past.

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Over the last few months, we've been hearing about a major redesign of the Mac Mini, with the diminutive desktop expected to be much smaller than its current iteration when the M4 Mac Mini arrives.

Aside from hearing the possibility that the company may finally make 16GB of RAM the baseline for its new Mac models, it appears the I/O will see a shift, too.

Bloomberg's Mark Gurman is reporting in his Power On newsletter that the Mac Mini will finally ditch USB-A ports - and the Mac Pro and Mac Studio could share the same fate next year.

Apple's Mac Mini to see port shakeup

According to Gurman, the M4 Pro version will offer five USB-C ports, with three on the back and two on the front.

It'll also include the Ethernet and HDMI connector found on current models, and a headphone jack.

The current Mac Mini lineup has two or four Thunderbolt 4 USB-C ports on the back, but also maintains a pair of USB-A ports. That's the same as the Mac Studio, but the more expensive desktop also has two additional USB-C or Thunderbolt 4 ports depending on which model you opt for.

Apple has upset customers in the past with its willingness to adopt USB-C at the cost of USB-A, but the former is much more prevalent in 2024 - meaning the older connection could be on borrowed time.

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While it seems like an open secret that Apple is working on its M4 Mac lineup, a new report suggests it'll include the MacBook Pro, Mac Mini, and iMac.

That's perhaps not all that exciting on its own, but Apple may finally be ready to cut loose the 8GB RAM starting configurations of models like the Mac Mini.

According to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman, the company is ramping up testing of base-level M4 chips of varying specs, while also offering 16GB or 32GB of Unified Memory. Considering one of the biggest gripes around Apple hardware these days is a lack of RAM at the low end, that feels like it's been a long time coming.

This could just be for testing purposes, though, but here's hoping the 8GB RAM option is no more.

The mystery M4 variant

That's not all, though. Gurman notes that four Macs are being tested with base M4 chips, and while three have the 10-core CPU and 10-core GPU we've seen before, a fourth has eight of each instead. That's a new configuration for the M4.

Keep in mind these are all just the base-level chips, so there's no word on the Pro or Max versions as yet. Still, it's interesting Apple would essentially test a chip with fewer cores alongside additional RAM.

Maybe the rumored September 10 event will shed some light, but it's a good chance we'll be waiting until a little later in the year for our first look at M4 Macs.

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When the iPad Pro launched earlier this year, it came with a massive surprise – instead of the expected M3 chip on the inside, it released the brand new M4 chip instead. Thanks to Mark Gurman and his ‘Power On’ newsletter, we’ve got some idea of when we might see that chip enter the Mac line of computers. And a more recent update reveals that the new Mac mini will be a big deal.

According to a newer report from Mark Gurman, the Mac mini is getting a serious makeover. We’re talking a design overhaul that will make the desktop computer Apple's smallest ever, along with the shiny new M4 and M4 Pro chips.

The redesigned Mac mini is due to strut into the limelight later this year, shedding its 2010-era attire for something sleeker and significantly more compact. Gurman describes it as something similar to an Apple TV 4K, but slightly taller. For context, the current model stands at 1.4 inches high, so the new one will still be quite the petite computer. And reportedly, it’s sticking with its aluminium shell.

Inside this tiny Mac, we’ll find Apple’s latest silicon chipsets. The base model will pack the M4 chip, akin to the iPad Pro’s brains, while the higher spec will offer the M4 Pro chip. Gurman says that Apple’s been playing around with at least three USB-C ports, a power cable slot, and an HDMI port. So, connectivity won’t be an issue when you’re hooking up your myriad of devices – you can expect I/O similar to the Mac Studio.

When to expect Apple's redesigned M4 Mac mini

The base model is apparently shipping out from the suppliers this month, with a release planned for later this year. However, the high-end model with the M4 Pro will only appear slightly later until October. I suspect you'll have to hold out until October for both models, however. It's unlikely Apple would split availability, or debut a Mac at September's iPhone event. More likely, we'll see another October event dedicated to Macs.

Also interesting, the M4 generation marks a historic moment for Apple silicon. For the first time, they’re slapping the same chip generation across all their Macs. The MacBook Air, MacBook Pro, iMac, Mac Studio, and Mac Pro are all getting the M4 treatment over the next year. You should expect some of these to arrive at this year's October event, while some will only arrive in early 2025.

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Apple's transition to its own Apple Silicon means we're likely to get a pretty regular cadence of M4 updates in the coming months, and one device that certainly feels like it needs an update is the Mac Mini.

Apple's adorable little computer is still on M2 hardware, but reports have suggested it'll get the M4 chip that's currently only found in the latest iPad Pro that debuted earlier this year.

So, while the Mac Mini skipped the M3 chip, it could be about to get a huge performance boost to make it a powerhouse for your desk - so long as you have accessories and a monitor to pair with it.

Here's everything we know about the Mac Mini M4, including when you might be able to buy one.

M4 Mac Mini: Release date rumors

It's hard to believe the M2 Mac Mini debuted back in January of 2023, making it closer to two years old than one year old as we approach the next generation.

In April, Bloomberg's Mark Gurman suggested we'll see a new M4 Mac model every few months, with an M4 Mac Mini expected in late 2024 or early 2025.

That would sandwich it between the low-end MacBook Pro and M4 iMac, as well as the high-end MacBook Pros and a new MacBook Air with M4.

M4 Mac Mini: Models

We're not expecting a big change in form factor for the Mac Mini, meaning it'll likely remain a rounded square, likely still only in Silver, but the M2 version may have set the precedent when it comes to which chips to expect.

The M2 Mac Mini can be configured with a base M2 chip or an M2 Pro for greater performance, without needing to spring for the Mac Studio.

That could mean the M4 and M4 Pro could be options for the Mac Mini whenever it arrives.

M4 Mac Mini: M4 chip

Apple's latest chip is already in the iPad Pro, so we know already just how capable it is when it comes to just about any task.

It offers 10 CPU and 10 GPU cores and runs about 1.5x faster than the current M2 chip found in the model available now. Then there's the connectivity improvements, with M4 allowing for additional port options (more on that later), potentially even letting you run more monitors with your Mac Mini.

That'll all be the same for the M4 Pro if it arrives with the M4 Mini, too, but you can naturally expect even more power - and likely a more capable base spec for the price you'll need to pay for it.

That should make working within macOS Sequoia and running potentially demanding Apple Intelligence tasks a breeze.

M4 Mac Mini: Memory and Storage

The Mac Mini is relatively affordable by Apple standards, but for $599 you'll only get 8GB of Unified RAM and 256GB of storage.

While the latter is arguably less important since you can hook up plenty of devices, the former will cost you $200 to double.

On the other hand, the M2 Pro version will set you back essentially double the price at $1,299, but does include double the storage and RAM, along with two more CPU cores and six more GPU cores.

That means Apple has plenty of space to work within in terms of the price of an M4 Mac Mini, but here's hoping we can get improved base specs.

M4 Mac Mini: Connectivity

The current M2 model of Mac Mini packs two Thunderbolt ports, an HDMI port, two USB-A ports and ethernet, as well as a 3.5mm jack at the back.

The M2 Pro model adds another pair of Thunderbolt ports, but given the M4 can work with even more, there's every chance Apple adds even more ports (maybe even to the front!).

Still, with so much packed into a small space, there's also a good chance the company sticks to what it has in terms of I/O.

M4 Mac Mini: Price

As mentioned above, the Mac Mini M2 will set you back just $599, provided you're happy to provide your own display and accessories.

It would be great to see Apple start the M4 version at the same price, but given the benchmarks suggesting an extra boost of around 1.5x the power, that could come at a price.

We'll know more soon, but the company could even nudge the M2 into the more affordable price bracket while positioning the M4 version as the premium one. It's done similarly with the M2/M3 MacBook Air, and it might help bridge the gap until the rumored M4 Mac Studio.

It's all well and good recommending that you buy yourself a Mac mini instead of a MacBook Air or another laptop, but it's very easy to remember that while the Mac mini is cheaper (by a long shot), it doesn't come with anything bar a power chord. Now, if you've got all the accessories you need — chiefly, a monitor, a keyboard, and a mouse — then you're going to be fine. But what if you don't?

Sales like Memorial Day are the perfect time to grab everything that you need to get a desktop setup without breaking the bank — you'll often find the price of your Mac mini creep over $100 the moment you start buying a decent monitor and other accessories. We made sure to keep our setup relatively affordable here, with a top limit of $900 —  and we think we managed to create a very tasty Mac mini setup for less than the price of an M2 MacBook Air.

The Mac

Why the Mac mini?

If you're looking for a Mac setup that won't break the bank, then there's little better than the Mac mini. This lil' computer has all the power you'll ever really need, and thanks to its small size, it will nestle comfortably almost anywhere you could think to put it. If you're planning on doing more demanding work with the machine, then you might want to think about the M2 Pro chip and some more RAM, but for most people, the base model is going to be just fine. It's easily one of the best Macs that money can buy.

The display

Why the ViewFinity?

Samsung makes some great monitors, and at the moment you can pick them up for some great prices in the Memorial Day sales. This ultrawide panel is going to act like having two screens next to each other, taking up less space than the traditional two-monitor setup that most people have — and it also means that you only need one display cable plugged into the back. It's also an excellent price, getting you plenty of screen space without spending too much money.

The keyboard

Why the Logitech POP Keys?

Sometimes, you want to have some fun on your desk — be that through playing some games, or by popping a super fun accessory down. The Logitech POP Keys mechanical keyboard manages to be not only an excellent keyboard, but also a fun addition to your desk thanks to its funky color scheme and rounded keycaps. Are there cheaper keyboards within the best keyboards for Mac? Yes, but sometimes it's worth pushing the board out for something that will make you smile.

The mouse

Why the Logitech MX Master 3S?

So I'm actually using this very mouse right now (only in the very fetching and quickly grubby-ing white colorway), and it's perhaps one of the greatest pointing devices ever put on a desk. It's a comfortable, functional mouse, with loads of buttons and a very smooth scroll wheel. That scroll wheel, in fact, will click open to loosen itself so that it can scroll endlessly — no more impenetrably long web pages, you can get to the bottom in a simple swipe of your wheel.

Anything else?

Want to push the boat out and get some devices that will truly complete the ultimate desk setup? We have some ideas, and they take the form of some PC speakers and a pair of headphones. They'll bring you over that $900 mark, but they'll really round out your new Mac mini M2.

Microsoft just unveiled its first Arm-powered laptop based on the Snapdragon X architecture to rival the M3 MacBook Air. Now, Qualcomm has released a Snapdragon Dev Kit that's powered by the same Snapdragon X Elite chipset, and looks set to rival the Mac mini.

It's an 8-inch Windows PC machine aimed at developers with a price tag of $900. After several weeks of rumblings about the power of the Snapdragon X processor line-up, we've finally seen just how powerful the chipsets are. The Dev Kit isn't available for purchase yet, but you can fill out this form with Qualcomm to pre-register.

A Windows Mac mini alternative

Nestled inside this compact black box, roughly the size of Apple’s Mac mini, is Qualcomm’s top-of-the-line Snapdragon X Elite chip. We're talking a beastly 4.6 TFLOP GPU, 32GB of LPDDR5x RAM, and a generous 512GB of NVMe storage. It’s like cramming a sports car engine into a hatchback.

If you were hoping for something as slick as the metal design of Apple's tiny desktop, you’ll be disappointed. The actual unit is a rather unassuming black brick, with sharper edges than Apple’s smooth operator. At around 900g and measuring 8x7x1.3 inches, it’s not winning any beauty contests, but it's what’s inside that counts, right?

Connectivity is the name of the game here. This Dev Kit comes loaded with Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 5.4, and it can handle up to three 4K monitors at once. Take that, MacBook Air! You’ve got a trio of USB-C ports, a duo of USB-A ports, Ethernet, 3.5mm audio, and HDMI. It’s powered by an external 180W AC adapter, which means you’re going to have to deal with another power brick cluttering up your desk.

So, how does it stack up against the competition? Well, it’s a tad cheaper than Microsoft’s new Copilot Plus PC laptops, which start at $1000 and come with built-in screens. But it's a lot more expensive than the Mac mini, which starts at $599/£649. It's a first-look at what could be a future Windows-based alternative.

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The Mac mini M2 is, without a doubt, our favorite Mac in the lineup. It’s perfectly sized to fit on even the smallest of desks, powerful enough for the kind of work most people do, and comes in at a great, affordable price.

Now, that price has just become even more affordable with a $100 discount at Amazon. That’s only $20 away from its previous lowest, and we tend to only see savings like that around sales events like Black Friday or Prime Day.

Massive Mac mini savings

• MacBook deals: Amazon | B&H Photo | Best Buy

The Mac mini comes with the M2 at its core, powering the computer with the same chip as the MacBook Air with M2. The mini will cool that chip better, of course, given it has got actual fans to keep everything from getting too toasty, so you’ll get more power out of the Mac mini than you would out of the MacBook — and it's half the price.

You do, of course, need to add a screen and peripherals with the Mac mini. You’ll want one of the best keyboards for Mac, as well as one of the best monitors for Mac. Thankfully, both of these can also be picked up fairly cheaply, so you won’t need to spend too much on completing your Mac mini setup.

If you’ve already got a mouse, keyboard, and monitor, then this deal is really a no-brainer. Upgrade from your old desktop to one that’s fresh and new, and save $100 while you’re at it. A neat saving on a very neat machine.

If you're holding off buying a new Mac mini or Mac Pro until new M3 versions are announced, you're likely to be left waiting after a new report suggested that Apple is expecting to skip them entirely in favor of newer M4 versions.

Apple is expected to start launching M4-powered Macs later this year and that means that some models will simply skip the M3 family of chips entirely. It wouldn't be the first time such a thing has happened, but it might be the last — Apple is expected to refresh its entire lineup with M4 Macs in 2024 and 2025.

This latest news means that anyone who wants to buy a new Mac mini or Mac Pro has a decision to make. Should they buy the M2 Mac mini or M2 Mac Pro now, or wait for their replacements?

No M3 for you

That's a decision that might not have an easy answer, although we would suggest anyone who needs a Mac now should probably just buy one. Writing in the paywalled version of the Power On newsletter for Bloomberg, Mark Gurman says that Apple is unlikely to launch any new M3 Mac mini or Mac Pro devices.

As for when the M4 chips will debut in those devices, the M4 and M4 Pro Mac minis are expected to arrive either at the end of 2024 or in the early part of 2025. The Mac Pro won't see a refresh until the end of 2025, leaving potential buyers with a long wait.

As for what those chips will offer, Apple is expected to bring some AI improvements to its entire silicon lineup this year as it readies new features for iOS 18 and macOS 15.

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The Mac mini is, undisputably, one of the best small-form-factor PCs that money can buy. Its cheapest model is within reach of pretty much everyone, and the M2 chips at its heart are some incredibly potent CPU options. But what if you don’t want a Mac? What if you want something that runs Windows, and you don’t want to haul yourself through the process of installing Microsoft’s OS on Apple’s hardware?

There are some great mini PC options out there after a kind of reinvigoration of the format in recent years, and there have been some unexpected companies at the forefront. One of them is Geekom, a relative newcomer to the PC space which makes some very compelling mini PC options. This is the Geekom A7, a mini PC that packs in some very powerful hardware for the price and form factor — It looks like a tiny Mac mini, has loads of storage and RAM, and comes in around the same price as the base model Mac minis. But is it one of the best Mac mini alternatives?

Geekom A7: Price and availability

There are two different versions of the Geekom A7. The model we have for review contains an AMD Ryzen R-7940HS, with 32GB of DDR5 RAM, a 2TB SSD, and built-in AMD Radeon 780M graphics. It costs $849 and comes with Windows 11 Pro pre-installed. That’s about the same price as the Mac mini with M2, 8GB RAM, and a 512GB SSD — so at the moment, the Geekom seems like a bit of a bargain.

The second option is $699, only $50 more than the base Mac mini, and it comes with the same 32GB of RAM as the more expensive model but downgrades the processor and the storage. With this option, you get a Ryzen R7-7840HS and 1TB SSD. For the amount of RAM and Storage you get here, that’s a pretty epic price.

Availability is solid. You can find it first and foremost on the Geekom website, but you can also head over to Amazon where you’ll find both options for the same price. Shipping is worldwide as well, so it doesn’t matter where you are in the world.

Geekom A7: Build and looks

Ok, so the moment I pulled it out of the box, one thing was clear — it’s a tiny Mac mini. It’s got the same cold touch of aluminum as Apple’s premium mini PC, as well as a similar look with its crisp lines and curved corners. It’s a handsome machine, thanks if nothing else to its design proximity to the Apple camp, although you’ll likely not care too much how it looks given how easy it is to hide away on your desk.

It measures only 37mm tall, and 112mm square across the top. That, for reference, is only just bigger than an Apple TV, which itself is a lovely compact oblong unit. It makes putting it somewhere on your desk and forgetting about it super easy, with the option of mounting it to the back of your monitor as a kind of defacto all-in-one PC possible with brackets included in the box.

Build quality is good too, with that aluminum shell doing a lot of the heavy lifting. The ports are all well toleranced, with no need to shove or yank your cables in and out of the machine. The bottom of the PC is made out of a matte black plastic (again, much like the Mac mini), and it makes for a solid and firm base for the computer to sit. You will find, just thanks to the size and weight of the A7, that you’ll have to hold the top of the unit when you’re plugging peripherals in — it does move about while using the USB ports.

Geekom A7: Performance

Let’s start with what you can plug in. On the front of the A7 are two USB-A 3.2 Gen 2 ports, and next to the power button there’s a headphone jack. Swing around to the left-hand side of the computer and you’ll find an SD card slot, useful for the photographer in your life. Around the back, there are a few more slots. There’s a pair of USB-C ports, one USB 4 Gen3, and the other 3.2 Gen 2. There’s another pair of USB-A ports, one 3.2 Gen 2 and the other 2.0. There are also two HDMI 2.0 ports, as well as an ethernet port. Without taking up too much space or ruining the look of the PC, there’s not much more room for any more ports. An extra USB-C port on the front would have been nice, but that could well be asking for too much from the PCB inside.

If you buy the 1TB model then you can upgrade later on down the line to a 2TB SSD, but users of the 2TB factory model will find that they can’t upgrade to any more storage than that. The RAM, however, is upgradeable to 64GB, but you’ll have to use laptop-sized DDR5 modules for them to fit. While slightly restricted, the fact that you can upgrade the storage and the RAM is a massive bonus over the Mac mini, which remains sealed and un upgradeable. So those are the stats — but how does the little PC perform in the real world?

First off, some benchmarks — we’re going to be using the slightly older Unigine Heaven graphics benchmark, Geekbench, Cinebench 2024, and R20, and finally, the 3DMark Time Spy Graphics and CPU benchmark. These will all give us a decent picture of the performance of the machine, and more crucially, Cinebench and Geekbench will allow us to compare it to a Mac mini.

Let's start with Uniengine heaven. I ran the benchmark at DX 11, with high quality, normal tesselation, and x2 anti-aliasing. That’s in windowed mode and has a 2560x1440 resolution as well. I got a decent-ish average of 29fps and a final score of 734. That could be better, but considering it’s a built-in GPU rather than a discrete model, it’s reasonable performance.

Secondly, we’ve got Geekbench which will give us a clear picture of the performance of the little computer. We got a single-core CPU score of 2,624, and a multi-core score of 13,385 putting its single-core performance as more impressive than the 1,952 of an M2 Pro Mac mini, only lagging by a couple of thousand points in the multi-core tests. Impressive.

Our Cinebench benchmarks are a great indicator of the rendering performance of the CPU in the A7, giving us an idea of how well the PC is going to perform when you give it some image and video tasks. We can also stack it up against the M2 versions of the Mac mini. First up is Cinebench R23, which will let us test the multicore and single-core rendering performance of the A7. The final multi-core number for the A7 was 14,675 while the single core was 1,806. Compared to the M2 Mac mini’s 8761 and 1621 respectively, that’s a trouncing from the R9 inside the A7. In fact, the numbers we got were closer to those we saw from the M2 Pro Mac mini, only just being pipped to the post by Apple’s $1,499 model — not bad Geekom, not bad.

Cinebench 2024 was next, and it pumped out a tasty CPU number for us. That’s 889 multicore for the A7 and 107 single core. In multicore at least, that puts it above the M1 Max chips. The little R9 chip in the A7 really wows in all the CPU benchmarks we can throw at it, impressing particularly in multi-core performance.

3DMark’s Time Spy is the final benchmark, and it will let us test the mobile Radeon 780M graphics chip with modern graphical bits and bobs. After the benchmark ran its course, we got a not-unrespectable 3207 — a graphics score of 2857, and a CPU score of 10542. While it’s going to be solid for rendering tasks and potentially for DAWs and music workstations, it’s not going to be quite as good for games — although with some settings fiddling and mucking about you’ll be able to get some decent frame rates.

Geekom A7: Competition

The most obvious competitor is the Mac mini, and this little guy manages to make a very compelling case for itself over Apple's mini PC. It’s powerful, very well-priced, and absolutely tiny. Of course, if you want to stick with macOS (and who could blame you), then the Mac mini is the way to go — but if you’re thinking about giving Windows a go, this could be perfect.

Geekom A7: Should you buy it?

Geekom A7: Verdict

The Geekom A7 is a wonderful little computer that might get a little loud under load but provides loads of power from a tiny box. It looks great, works incredibly well, and has a surprising number of ports considering its diminutive stature.

If you want macOS, then you should obviously stick with Apple’s ecosystem. If you’re looking to give Windows a go, however, then the A7 is a spectacular little option. Just don’t expect to play the most recent games with blistering frame rates and you’ll be fine.

If you’ve been looking for a new Mac, then this deal might just be what you’ve been waiting for — you can currently save $100 off one of the best Macs around, the M2 Mac mini.

That’s not quite its lowest price, but it brings the machine to a sub-$500 price point for one of the best desktop Mac deals of the year so far. 

Mac mini $100 off

• MacBook deals: Amazon | B&H Photo | Best Buy

The Mac mini was one of our favorite computers that Apple launched last year, bringing the powerful M2 processor to an affordable desktop form factor. It’s compact, powerful, and very well-priced — perfect for the family computer, or for a student who needs a desktop to do some work on.

It’s no slouch, either. The M2 at its core is a powerful chip, able to run video editing software, image manipulation tools, and even do some light gaming. It’s a very solid machine for almost everyone, and easily one of the best Macs that money can buy.

If you want something more potent, then there’s always the M2 Pro Mac mini. That has more RAM and a larger SSD, although you’ll have to pay extra for the privilege. They aren’t reduced on Amazon either, although you can head over to B&H Photo for another $100 discount.

No matter the Mac mini you buy, you’ll get a powerful, compact computer — and now you’ll pay less to get it.

As with every year, stalking the floor at CES 2024 lets you spot some very cool products indeed — and in our case, we’re always looking for the best Mac alternatives and accessories that we can show you. This year there has been some very cool stuff, but none quite as cool as some of these mini-PCs that companies like ASUS have shown off.

These are looking to draw your attention away from the Mac Mini — and with some seriously attractive specs, they might just succeed.

The CES Mini PC Haul

The first Mini PC is perhaps the most exciting — the ASUS NUC. NUC stands for next unit of computing, and now that Intel has stopped making the systems, they’ve become even more gamery than before with RGB lights all over the place and some insane specs.

There’s an Intel processor on the inside, either an Intel Core Ultra 7 or an Intel Core Ultra 9, two empty RAM slots for as much RAM as you could ever need (or at least up to 64GB), and either a discrete NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 or a GeForce RTX 4070. Great gobbets of power on tap, although the price is yet to be announced. It’s not going to be cheap, however, so buckle up if you’ve got your eye on one.

Second off, (noticed by ETA Prime on Youtube) is the Geekom APro8Max, and it’s another gamer-oriented system. It looks pretty cool and is also packed with some impressive specs.

There’s an AMD Ryzen 9 8940HS at its heart, as well as a Radeon 7600M XT to keep those frames coming in-game. There are two M.2 slots for storage, and it runs on 5600MHz DDR5. Geekoms are priced very well, so even though this little PC is extremely powerful, it’s likely to come in at a much lower price than the Mac mini.

Finally, the EliteMini UM780 from Minisforum. This one is a little less in your face than the other two models, although it’s still rammed full with extremely powerful componentry. Running the machine and providing solid graphics performance is the AMD Ryzen 7 7840HS, and there’s space inside for up to 64GB of RAM. You can opt for a barebones model of this one, letting you choose your SSD and RAM, or you can for a pre-specced model with either 32GB or 64GB of RAM and a 1TB SSD.

The mini PC category that the Mac mini occupies is always a super fun way of seeing how different manufacturers are packing power into small places, and this selection of new machines is shaping up to be a great start for 2024.

AyaNeo is best known for making high-end PC gaming handhelds, premium devices to tempt gamers away from their Steam Decks. Taking what it’s learned from its handheld range, AyaNeo is now turning its attention to the burgeoning market for mini PCs. 

The company is taking a different approach this time around, though — not only is its new AyaNeo Retro Mini PC AM01 a more budget-conscious offering compared to its handheld stablemates, but its design is directed squarely at Apple lovers. It’s like a Muppet Babies Macintosh for the modern age — and it’s a hell of a lot of fun.

AyaNeo Retro Mini PC AM01: Price and availability

Pricing is a little complex, what with the varying tiers at Early Bird pricing, the IndieGoGo retail price, and then the general retail price — and that’s before factoring in the many configuration options, so I’ll refer you to the pricing sheet below:

Taking the barebones machine 5700U model (set to have a final retail price of $259) and weaker Ryzen 3 3200U options (starting at $199) off the table, let’s look at the Ryzen 7 5700U 8GB RAM / 256GB storage option as the ‘entry’ level option most people should be considering. If you’re able to get it at the $269 Early Bird pricing option — or even the $319 full retail cost — that’s a great price for the spec, port selection, and cool novelty of the case design, even with that APU being an aging variant.

For the purposes of this review, we’re looking at the AMD Ryzen 7 5700U variant with 32GB RAM and 1TB storage, which will have a final retail price of $459.

AyaNeo Retro Mini PC AM01: Design

Let’s be real here — the true reason we’re talking today about a Windows PC on an Apple-oriented website is the design of the AyaNeo Retro Mini PC AM01. It’s a delightful homage to the original 1984 Apple Macintosh, complete with cream-colored casing, faux screen, and faux floppy disk slot. It’s a tiny little thing, measuring just 132 x 132 x 60.5mm (64.5mm with the bottom-mounted feet) and weighing a mere 486g. 

There are playful touches throughout — where you’d expect to find an Apple logo is a magnetically interchangeable tab for all manner of badges (some provided in the box), while that dummy floppy drive button actually works as a power button instead. It’s a nostalgic design that carries over to the desktop, too, with AyaNeo showing attention to detail with a rainbow ‘Hello’ wallpaper that further references the old-school Mac aesthetic. 

Powered by either an AMD Ryzen 7 5700U or Ryzen 3 3200U, there’s a solid port selection squeezed into the little frame. Around the front is a single USB-C 3.2 Gen1 port and a 3.5mm headphone jack. Below a sizeable exhaust vent on the rear, you'll find 3x full-size USB 3.2 Gen2 ports, a full-size USB 2.0 port, an HDMI 2.0 port, DisplayPort 1.4 (both video outputs good for 4K / 60Hz), and an Ethernet jack. I’d have liked a rear USB-C port, but it’s otherwise a great selection. Wireless connectivity is provided by speedy Wi-Fi 6 and Bluetooth 5.2 connections — though note that the 3200U chipset versions only have Wi-Fi 5 and Bluetooth 4.2. AyaNeo ships the computer with storage configurations of 256GB, 512GB, or 2TB, and DDR4 RAM in 8GB, 16GB, or 32GB amounts.

If you fancy a tinker inside, that’s possible too, with the included manual talking you through how to easily and safely open up the machine. Release a few simple screws on the underside of the case, and you’ve access to RAM and M.2 2280 PCIe 3.0 and 2.5-inch SATA hard drive bays, letting you upgrade beyond what’s offered off the shelf by AyaNeo — something I wish I could say was possible in the equivalent Mac mini models sold today.

It’s a slight shame that there’s no safe way to vertically stand the AM01, which would let you see its Mac-like features most clearly. Though marketing materials would suggest otherwise, what appears to be the front of the computer is actually the top, with the AM01 designed to be laid prone. While there’s no fan vent preventing you from standing it upright, you’d lose access to the front USB-C port and headphone jack, and top-mounted ports would make the whole thing unstable. But it’s a minor criticism in an otherwise joyful design. 

AyaNeo Retro Mini PC AM01: Performance

Running Windows 11 Home Edition out of the box, the AMD Ryzen 7 5700U model I tested, backed by 32GB of RAM, was a delight to use. With expectations kept in check (this is not a high-end workstation, nor AAA gaming machine), I had a blast — Microsoft’s Office applications ran breezily, Photoshop work didn’t tax the chip, and I threw dozens of Chrome tabs and simultaneous 4K streams at the device without a stutter. You could totally get some video editing done here, even if I suspect it’s really been designed with a spot under your TV as its intended place.

With a sizeable fan under the hood, there were no overheating issues, and I didn’t notice any egregious chip-throttling. Temperatures remained safe, hovering around the 80-degree mark when pushed at its top 35W TDP whilst benchmarking, but I could hear the fan whirring under load.

AyaNeo is primarily a gaming brand, and as its name suggests, this PC is primarily aimed at retro-enthusiast gamers. For those who want to marry their classic gaming tastes with a retro design, the AM01 is perfect — that processor will chew through any emulated consoles right up to even some PlayStation 3 titles, and it’s not a bad option for less strenuous PC gaming workouts, too. 2D titles like Hades and Hollow Knight ran comfortably above the 60fps mark at 1080p with v-sync switched off, though remember you’re limited to that 60Hz cap with your video output options here. A more taxing game like GTA V can hit a near-constant 60fps at 1080p with Low graphical settings, but the age of that game and the concessions made to visual fidelity should give you an indication of where your gaming experiences are going to max out. Still — it’s admirable performance for the form factor and price range all the same.

AyaNeo leaves the Windows build relatively bloat-free, but does include the AyaSpace software that ships with its handheld devices. It’s a nice interface, but a bit moot here — with no battery concerns to worry about and a confident cooling solution in its large-scale fan and heatsink, AyaSpace’s usual go-to tools of power draw and fan settings aren’t particularly useful. There are even legacy sections for controllers and gyroscopes left over from the AyaNeo handheld models. Push the TDP to its max here and then forget about it. But it does also double up as a game launcher, so it’s there if you want a custom, cross-store launcher to house all your titles under one roof.

AyaNeo Retro Mini PC AM01: Competition

It’s an apples and oranges comparison to put the AyaNeo Retro Mini PC AM01 against this year's M2 Mac mini — they’re aimed at surprisingly different audiences. But in this form factor, an Apple fan without access to macOS looking at the AyaNeo option here should really be considering the M2 Mac mini range instead, which starts at $599.

It’s more expensive, but it’s one of the best bang-for-buck computers on the market and will naturally tie in better with the Apple devices I’m going to assume the iMore readership is already in love with. The AyaNeo holds its own, especially at the lower price points, but using a Windows machine versus a Mac is a very different experience.

If you’re looking for a solid alternative to a Mac Mini, the AyaNeo Retro Mini PC AM01 ranks up there with the best of the bunch at this price point. The AceMagician AMR5 has its own fun and unique form factor at a similar price but with a weaker chipset. If you’re after more power and are willing to pay the extra for it, consider the MinisForum UM790 Pro with its Ryzen 9 7940HS — enough power to tear through general computing tasks and higher-level PC gaming, too, but at a $699 price point.

Should You Buy the AyaNeo Retro Mini PC AM01?

Buy the AyaNeo Retro Mini PC AM01 if…

• You’re a sucker for that retro Mac look
• You need an affordable, capable Windows alternative to a modern Mac
• You don’t need the power of a dedicated GPU

Don’t buy the AyaNeo Retro Mini PC AM01 if…

• You’re wedded to using macOS only
• You’re looking to do AAA PC gaming
• You want the flexibility a larger-sized PC case affords you for upgrades

AyaNeo Retro Mini PC AM01: Verdict

A great mini desktop PC with a cute, nostalgia-tinged design, AyaNeo’s first roll of the mini PC dice is great. With a solid (if slightly older) chipset, a great port selection, upgradable innards, and a sensible pricing structure, it’s as well suited to a gaming-focussed media center as a Windows desktop backup to accompany the genuine Mac in your life.

I bought a new Mac at the start of this year, and every day, I'm impressed with its capabilities for such a low price. Over Black Friday, an amazing deal made my go-to Mac even cheaper, but I didn't expect it to last. Now, over a week since the end of the year's biggest shopping event, my favorite Mac is back on sale at B&H Photo.

The Mac in question is the base model M2 Mac mini, an absolute powerhouse of a computer that manages to tackle every single task I throw at it. From working on iMore to playing games on Apple Arcade, this cheap Mac is one of the best purchases I’ve ever made, and you can pick it up today for $499 instead of $599.

An incredible Mac for $499

Laptop deals: Dell | Best Buy | Walmart | Lenovo | HP | Newegg | Amazon

8GB of RAM and 256GB of SSD? Yep, that’s my little M2 Mac mini and a purchase I’ve never regretted despite the lack of impressive specs. My reason for opting for the base model mini was because I felt like the years of use I would get from it with affordable specs far outweighed purchasing an upgraded model that would maybe lead to one or two more years of use. Apple’s M2 chip is insane, and this machine has no problems dealing with the ridiculous amounts of Chrome tabs I throw at it daily.

My day at iMore is filled with spreadsheets, documents, planning tools, and Content Management System management, all from within Google Chrome, and this magical little box manages to handle it all without breaking the bank. Obviously, the Mac mini is just a computer, so you must own or purchase a monitor, a mouse, and a keyboard to use the machine. That said, I love the flexibility of picking the peripherals that match my needs; it’s a far more enjoyable experience than opting for whatever Apple sells in the Apple Store.

For under $500, I don’t think there’s a better value computer on the market. You get everything that is so great about the Mac while spending significantly less for equal performance compared to the other M2 models out there. For any home office, the Mac mini is a steal, and I honestly wouldn’t swap my machine for any other Mac in Apple’s lineup.

Thus far in the Black Friday sales we've seen a Mac Mini for under $500, and a deal on the MacBook Air M2 - but this one is special because it's for an Apple laptop that launched less than three weeks ago.

That's right, if you've been holding out for the MacBook Pro with an M3-series chip (the M3 Pro, to be exact), you'll be glad to have held off.

Amazon has cut $200 off of the MSRP for the brand new laptop, bringing the 14-inch version, in the new Space Black colorway, no less, down to $1799.

Where to find the best Mac Black Friday deals

• Amazon — Savings on laptops and desktops
• Best Buy — Great deals on Mac Mini
• Walmart — Classic Mac models on sale

That saving can get you a nice case for your new purchase, although with the Space Black exterior, I'd probably want to show it off.

The M3 Pro MacBook Pro maintains the same ports found on the last couple of models, too, meaning you'll have HDMI, Thunderbolt, and an SD card reader - making it an ideal all-in-one setup for anyone hooking their laptop up to extra displays and accessories.

Apple's newest MacBook reduced already

•   MacBook deals: Amazon | B&H Photo | Best Buy 

You can find the M3 base version of the MacBook Pro cheaper, and that'll likely do the job for most, but having the power of an M3 Pro chip makes this an ideal desktop replacement that still offers excellent battery life.

18GB of RAM is also likely to be plenty for all but the power users, and 512GB of storage is decent - although demanding macOS apps may require a bit more space.

If you're working from home, the idea of a big, bulky desktop computer may not appeal - whether you're looking for Windows or Mac.

Thankfully, Apple's smallest desktop PC, the Mac Mini saw a sizeable update early this year that added the M2 chip to the lineup - and it earned a five-star rating in our glowing review.

It's a great little machine, and if you're keen on picking one up, it'll make a great introductory point to macOS. Better yet, it's $100 as part of Black Friday.

That means that Best Buy is offering a Mac Mini for $499, making it by far the cheapest Mac out there.

Where to find the best Mac Black Friday deals

• Amazon — Savings on laptops and desktops
• Best Buy — Great deals on M3 Pro models already
• Walmart — Classic Mac models on sale

You can put that saving toward a nice keyboard and mouse combo, or a monitor. While there aren't any front-facing ports, you'll find ethernet, USB-C, USB-A, and HDMI on the back - but a USB hub, like this UGREEN one we saw on sale earlier, can add plenty more.

Despite being tiny, the Mac Mini's M2 chip makes it surprisingly capable for video and audio edits - the sort of thing you used to need a more expensive Mac for.

Get a Mac for under $500

•   MacBook deals: Amazon | B&H Photo | Best Buy 

The Mac Mini M2 is a fantastic machine, but this version does ship with 256GB of SSD storage which may not be enough if you're expecting multiple users and plenty of files.

With that in mind, I'd recommend grabbing a cheap storage drive to add to it, since you can't upgrade the device after purchasing.

Black Friday is the best time to pick up a deal on a Mac. With huge savings and the best offers you'll see all year, there is plenty to get excited about when choosing your next desktop Mac.

We've gone through hundreds of deals and picked out the best desktop Mac offerings for Black Friday, and the best bit is you don't have to wait until November 24th to pick one up.

The best Mac desktop deals available right now

Laptop deals: Dell | Best Buy | Walmart | Lenovo | HP | Newegg | Amazon

While studying journalism at university, I worked in the Apple Store as a technician and saw thousands of customers purchase Macs, iPhones, iPads, and Apple Watches over the festive period. Whether that was someone buying a laptop to replace their broken one or a gift for a loved one, I’ve seen so many different use cases for Apple products, and I no longer get swayed by the fancy marketing spiel. After all, Black Friday is the best time of year to pick up tech, so I wasn’t surprised to see this fantastic deal at Best Buy for the Mac I use every single day.

The Mac in question is the base model M2 Mac mini, an absolute powerhouse of a computer that manages to tackle every single task I throw at it. From working on iMore to playing games on Apple Arcade, this cheap Mac is one of the best purchases I’ve ever made, and you can pick it up today for $479 instead of $599.

An incredible Mac for $479

Laptop deals: Dell | Best Buy | Walmart | Lenovo | HP | Newegg | Amazon

8GB of RAM and 256GB of SSD? Yep, that’s my little M2 Mac mini and a purchase I’ve never regretted despite the lack of impressive specs. My reason for opting for the base model mini was because I felt like the years of use I would get from it with affordable specs far outweighed purchasing an upgraded model that would maybe lead to one or two more years of use. Apple’s M2 chip is insane, and this machine has no problems dealing with the ridiculous amounts of Chrome tabs I throw at it daily.

My day at iMore is filled with spreadsheets, documents, planning tools, and CMS management, all from within Google Chrome, and this magical little box manages to handle it all without breaking the bank. Obviously, the Mac mini is just a computer, so you must own or purchase a monitor, a mouse, and a keyboard to use the machine. That said, I love the flexibility of picking the peripherals that match my needs; it’s a far more enjoyable experience than opting for whatever Apple sells in the Apple Store.

For under $500, I don’t think there’s a better value computer on the market. You get everything that is so great about the Mac while spending significantly less for equal performance compared to the other M2 models out there. For any home office, the Mac mini is a steal, and I honestly wouldn’t swap my machine for any other Mac in Apple’s lineup.

Some other options...

If you're a student preparing to go back to school, you may be looking for one of the best Macs to help with your studies.

The choice can range from Apple's laptops such as MacBook Pro or the MacBook Air to its Desktop variants such as the iMac. However, the Mac mini should be the one to strongly consider buying for your dorm or bedroom setup.

Apple's smallest Mac packs a lot of impressive power in its compact design. Rumors suggest that the next Mac mini will be even smaller and more powerful, thanks to a redesign and an M4 chip. Nevertheless, the current model's modularity and powerful performance already make this Mac a great choice for students.

With this in mind, we've created this short guide to help you decide that the Mac mini is the best choice to help with your studies.

Benefits of the Mac mini

One of the main benefits of the Mac mini is immediately apparent: its compact size. It takes up a much smaller slice of your desk than even a MacBook Air, which is perfect for cramped dorm rooms where space comes at a premium.

Speaking of premium, there’s another key benefit of the Mac mini: its combination of premium power with a distinctly affordable price. Ever since Apple switched away from Intel processors to its own chips, its Macs have gained a ton of power without seeing an equivalent jump in price.

Case in point: the M2 chip inside the current Mac mini is one of the best chips on the market at marrying power with sublime efficiency. It’s able to keep perfectly cool while under load, meaning the fans barely ever spin up – great for helping you concentrate on coursework.

You can pair the Mac mini with a used monitor, which can be cheap and easy to find for a dream budget setup. Not only will your bank account benefit from saving on an affordable display, but your back will too. Sitting in front of a monitor raised to a proper height is far better for your posture than hunching over a laptop. Don't want someone else's used goods? One of the best monitors for Mac mini is always a good option as well.

Is the Mac mini good for students?

As we alluded to earlier, the Mac mini gives you a great combination of price and performance. That means you no longer need to settle for a device that doesn’t perform to your expectations just to save some cash. Conversely, it means you also don’t have to break the bank for something that offers as much output as you need for your studies. That’s very important for students, where cash may not always be as readily available as it is for other people.

As well as that, you get Apple’s well-known build quality with every Mac mini. There’s no plastic shell here – the device is housed in a solid aluminum case that can take a battering, which is ideal if you need to move around with your Mac or take it back home. That means your money goes even further.

There is one potential drawback of the Mac mini for students. Since it is a desktop machine that requires an external monitor, it’s not ideally suited for attending lectures and taking notes from your professor. If you need to do a lot of that, a laptop might be a better idea. But if you spend more time working from your dorm, it could be the perfect student machine.

Is the M1 chip good for students?

Apple has moved on to the M2 architecture, with the latest Mac mini being outfitted with either an M2 or an M2 Pro chip, depending on your choice. That raises an interesting question: is the M1 chip inside the previous-generation Mac mini still good for students?

The answer is a solid yes. The M1 still holds up well today, offering the same combination of impressive performance and low temperatures that we’ve come to expect from Apple silicon. Sure, the M2 and M2 Pro are more powerful, but the gap is not huge (especially between the M1 and M2), and for most students' work, the M1 will be more than capable.

That’s great news because you can score some excellent bargains on the M1 Mac mini now, especially if you can get a used one in good condition. Despite the cheaper price of the M1 Mac mini, it’ll still make you proud when it comes to handling your assignments, making it a great choice for students.

Are Mac minis worth it?

Given the more affordable price of the Mac mini compared to practically every other Mac that Apple offers, the price side of the “is it worth it” equation is fairly straightforward. If you want to get a Mac and don’t have a ton of cash floating around, the Mac mini is a really strong contender.

As for the other considerations, we feel the Mac mini is a worthwhile purchase for students as long as you’re not looking for something you can bring along to every lecture. You get plenty of power packed into a small device that won’t hog your desk, plus the famous build quality Apple devices always promise. Starting at $599 (£649) for an M2 model (or less when you buy it used), it’s something that offers fantastic value for money.

What are the disadvantages of a Mac mini?

Of course, we’d be remiss not to mention the drawbacks of the Mac mini, because it’s not an absolutely perfect machine for students. Once you know its weaknesses, you’ll be in a better place to assess if it’s the right Mac for you and your studies.

The first thing to note is that, despite being very portable, the Mac mini is arguably not quite as portable as a MacBook. While it has a very compact footprint and is not particularly heavy, the Mac mini is thicker and so might be a bit trickier to cram into a backpack – especially one that only has space for a few books.

As well as that, the main issue with the Mac mini’s portability is its dependence on peripherals. Sure, the machine itself is not very large, but the monitor you need to attach it to probably is. Add in the keyboard and mouse that you’ll need to bring with it, and suddenly lugging it around with you seems a lot more complicated. It can be done, but you don’t want to be carrying all that hardware around with you to lectures every day.

That said, you could keep your Mac mini in your dorm and take a cheap iPad with an external keyboard to your lectures. If you can find some deals or second-hand models, you potentially can get that combination for less than you’d pay for a MacBook (depending on the model and spec, of course). That could let you gain all the benefits of the Mac mini while still having something you can bring to campus.

Should a student buy a Mac mini?

The Mac mini is an excellent computer for students. Not only is it very affordable compared to many other devices on the market, but you get a tremendous amount of power for your cash, meaning it’s incredibly good value for money. It’s no wonder it’s the top budget pick in our guide to all the best Macs.

As well as that, it’ll last ages thanks to its top-notch build quality, and it won’t dominate your desk because it’s all squeezed into a neat little package. Plus, it offers many more ports than you’ll find on the MacBook Air, MacBook Pro or iMac.

You’ll have to provide your own monitor, keyboard and mouse, but all of these can be bought cheaply. Perhaps more concerning is that it isn’t suitable for taking to lectures, but if you mostly work from your dorm – or have a laptop or tablet you can take to lectures instead – that won’t be as much of a problem.

Overall, then, the Mac mini is a superb device for students. It won’t be right for everyone, but as long as you know what you need it for, it could be a fantastic choice.

The Mac mini with M2 is one of the best Macs that we've ever tested – it's small, super powerful, and extremely well-priced. Well, now it's even better priced with a massive $70 discount over at B&H Photo.

This price may not match its all-time lowest, but we haven't seen that price for a little while now. It's also one of the only places, apart from Apple, where you can get one at the moment, with it currently being out of stock at Amazon.

Mac mini price reduction

• MacBook deals: Amazon | B&H Photo | Best Buy

The M2 Mac mini brought the Mac mini kicking and screaming into the space year 2023, with gobs more power on tap, and some extra RAM options. equipped with the same super-powered chips that you'll find in the M2 MacBook Air and the M2 MacBook Pro 14 and 16-inch models, the Mac mini is a tiny powerhouse for pretty much anyone.

At the moment, it is out of stock at Amazon, so this B&H Photo deal is currently the best price on the web. With a $70 saving and more if you want to spec your machine up, it's a great opportunity to add one to your desk.

Of course, with Prime Day around the corner, you may be hesitant – and if you're after the base model, you've good reason to be. If you want a specced-up version, however, then this deal is truly unmissable – Amazon won't let you add to your new Mac, even if it is in the Prime Day sale. Hopefully, however, we'll still see some great Prime Day MacBook and Mac deals.

The Mac mini with M2 Apple silicon was one of the biggest surprises of the year, and it was only announced back in January. It has more processing beef to go in its small chassis and a great price, it's easily taken the prize as the best Mac in our eyes.

It's also now available on Apple's Refurbished Store, and there are some pretty good savings; with one notable exception.

If you want an upgraded Mac mini and don't mind if it's refurbished, then the entries into the Apple refurb program are going to save you some money – if you're looking for a base model, however, it looks like you're better off shopping around.

Go for the new one

The Mac mini base model with M2, 8GB of Ram and a 256GB SSD is currently $509 when you buy it refurbished. That's a $90 saving on the full price – an excellent saving on any other day. It's also, however, available to buy brand new from Amazon for $499, a grand $100 saving – and you get a brand new computer.

There are some benefits to the Apple refurbished program, however, which might make it worth heading over there. All the machines sold in the program are completely reconditioned by Apple, all by Apple engineers using genuine Apple parts. Essentially, you're getting an 'as new' machine with a great saving, which is always good.

It also means that if you're looking for one of the upgraded models, say with more RAM, or with more storage, the Apple refurb route may be a really good option that helps you save money.

You can't even get the 16GB RAM version of the Mac mini from Amazon, but a 16GB model will save you $130 at the Apple refurbished store.

This all highlights the need to shop around – don't just jump on what seems to be a deal the first time you spot it, as it might not be as cheap as it looks.

Remember to sign up for the iMore forums to chat with our community – they know of some great deals.

Apple’s Mac mini and Mac Studio are two of the best small form factor computers you can buy right now, let alone the best Macs, but while on the outside they look similar, they are actually very different – and this means that choosing the right one for your needs is incredibly important.

The Mac Studio, as the name suggests, is a powerful product that excels at heavy-duty creative workloads. This means it's fitted with some of the most powerful hardware Apple has ever made, including the M1 Ultra in some configurations, which is essentially two already very powerful M1 Max chips connected together to make one giant all-powerful chip.

As a workstation aimed at creative professionals, it comes with a price tag to match – you’re looking at a $1,999 starting price for the M1 Max version, with the M1 Ultra model costing a huge $3,999.

The Mac mini, meanwhile, continues to be the best value way to get into Apple’s ecosystem, and the latest model comes at a much more affordable starting price of $599. While it doesn’t offer the same level of performance as the Mac Studio, it boasts some of Apple’s latest hardware, including the new M2 and M2 Pro chips, and that ultra-low price makes it a supremely tempting purchase.

Because of the huge gap in both performance and price, you’ll want to make sure you pick the right one. After all, you don’t want to spend a small fortune on a Mac Studio if the Mac mini would suffice, but nor should you buy a Mac mini if you need a huge amount of horsepower. So, let’s compare the two and help you pick the best one for your needs and budget.

Mac mini vs Mac Studio: Specs comparison

Before we really dig into the two devices, let’s have a look at the specs, which will give you a good overview of what each device is capable of.

Mac mini vs Mac Studio: the models compared

Mac mini (M2, 2023)

A few years ago, you may have felt that Apple had all-but forgotten about the Mac mini. Unlike the best iPhones and iPads which got yearly upgrades, the Mac mini bobbed along, making do with a few spec bumps here and there over the years.

However, recently it seems like Apple hasn’t just remembered the Mac mini, but it’s fallen back in love with the tiny PC. The latest version came out at the beginning of this year and comes with Apple’s latest M2 chip. Even better, it also came with a new lower price, and now starts at just $599 / £649. Better performance and a lower price?! Apple, you really are spoiling us.

Another nice surprise was that for the first time, Apple also released a variant of the Mac mini with the more powerful M2 Pro chip. This further boosts the capabilities of the Mac mini, making it a viable workstation Mac for content creators, and puts it on the same kind of performance level as the lower specced MacBook Pro 14-inch.

Both models keep that same streamlined and compact design that we’ve come to love about the Mac mini. This is a small form factor PC that can be tucked behind a monitor or under a desk, but more than punches above its weight. The entry-level model is also the most affordable way to get into the macOS ecosystem.

• Read our full Mac mini (M2, 2023) review

Mac Studio

So far, there’s only been one release of the Mac Studio, which was released in 2022. Taking obvious design cues from the iconic Mac mini, the Mac Studio was taller, yet still impressively compact. Best of all, it also came with what was, at the time, some of the most powerful hardware Apple has ever made.

The base model came with the mighty M1 Max chip, but it could also be equipped with the M1 Ultra – which was essentially two M1 Max chips combined for around twice the performance. At the time of writing, the Mac Studio is the only product from Apple that can be equipped with the M1 Ultra. This means for people using powerful Macs like the Mac Pro and iMac Pro, but want to switch from the aging Intel hardware to Apple silicon, then the Mac Studio is your only choice.

While the M1 Max has now been superseded by the M2 Max, there’s currently no sign of an M2 Ultra, but we wouldn’t be totally surprised if a new Mac Studio appeared in the next 12 months with M2 internals.

With a price range of between $1,999 and $7,999, however, the Mac Studio won’t be for everyone – this is the kind of investment that creative professionals with serious computing workloads should make. When thinking about laying down that kind of cash, it may be wise to hang on and see if Apple is indeed planning on releasing a new model soon.

• Read our full Mac Studio review

Mac mini vs Mac Studio: which configuration should you choose?

As with most Macs, Apple offers a wide range of configuration options for both the Mac mini and Mac Studio, so we’ve narrowed down the list to pick the two best options that we recommend for different use cases, with one for most people, and the other for professional creatives who crave power and performance. You can use these recommendations as a basis and configure them with extra memory, storage space and more to best suit your needs.

The best configuration for most people:

While it’s not the most powerful Apple device out there, it’s still an excellent performer, coming with the same M2 chip as the much more expensive MacBook Air. While the 256GB SSD is a bit on the small size, you can always plug in an external hard drive for a quick expansion. Of course, you can also configure it with more storage and memory when you buy from Apple, which ups the price of course, and if you want to do some creative work without spending a huge amount, then upgrading the Mac mini to the M2 Pro is a great move.

The best configuration for professionals:

While the cheaper Mac mini may be a salivating offer, the M2 model may start to lag when you really push it, while the Mac Studio’s older, but more powerful M1 Max won’t break a sweat – and the larger body of the Mac Studio means it can keep cool even when working hard, yet it’s still small compared to other workstation PCs. We actually recommend the M1 Max model for most professionals, as it really performs incredibly well. Meanwhile, the M1 Ultra offers even more power, and while that might be tempting, you should really consider if you need the kind of performance, as the price jumps up quite dramatically.

Apple cut its teeth making powerful desktop computers. Machines with enough power for complex, demanding tasks that use the extra space of your desk to pack themselves full of the kind of options that creators and developers demand. The current Mac range are some of the most powerful computers that Apple has ever released, with a plethora of potent options to consider.

It can, however, be tricky to work out which Mac will suit your needs. Do you need the incredible power of the most expensive models, or can you make do with something slightly cheaper? How much RAM do you need? How much space do you have for the Mac to fit under your monitor?

With most of the options here you'll have to add in one of the best Mac monitors so that you can actually see what you do, and while there's the option to add a keyboard to them in the Apple Store, you should check out the best keyboards for Mac so that you get the perfect board for you. We'll be looking at the whole Mac range here, from the Mac mini to the Mac Studio and beyond. We've compared every model — so let's get started.

Quick list

Best Mac desktop

The newest machine on the list, the Mac mini, is a tiny powerhouse. Well, maybe it's not the smallest computer out there; there are smaller Mac mini alternatives after all, but it’s still a compact computer with plenty of power on top for a great price.

Starting at $599, the Mac mini is one of the best-value Macs. That price can raise as you start adding in more RAM, a bigger hard drive, and a more powerful processor, but it’s never going to become quite as unaffordable as some of the other options in the Mac lineup.

It runs on the M2 chip, and you can upgrade to the M2 Pro if you want something with a little more poke. The base model chip comes with a 10-core GPU as well, so it’s actually a fairly competent little gaming box if you can find games that run on Apple silicon. It’s also more than the chip that comes in the base model MacBook Air M2, so you’re getting extra power for a cheaper price. You don’t get a keyboard or screen, however; as with most, but not all, of the machines here.

This is our favorite Mac for its incredible value. It got the highest honors in our review, five stars, and it ranked very highly in our list of the best Macs. There are plenty of ports on the back for your peripherals, and it keeps up surprisingly well with other, more powerful machines in the lineup. If you’re looking for the best Mac at a great price, this is the Mac to go for.

iMore’s best Config:

Best Mac desktop for professionals

If you want the most powerful Mac you can lay your hands on without spending the megabucks required for the Mac Pro, then the Mac Studio is exactly what you're after. It's still not cheap by any stretch of the imagination, but for the amount of power on offer, it's surprisingly well-priced.

Powered by the M2 Ultra and the M2 Max chips, the Studio is one of the most powerful Macs that you can buy today. They'll make their way through even the toughest of tasks with relative ease, perfect for creators and developers with intensive workloads. Match them with some of the massive RAM options (up to 192GB) and you've got a recipe for a monster.

We think it's a pretty good-looking machine as well, with an understated and professional-looking design and a small footprint. There are loads of different ports as well, from the pair of USB-C ports on the front flanked by an SD card slot to the rear with four thunderbolt ports, an ethernet jack, two type A connectors and an HDMI port.

This is the freshest version of the Mac Studio, and it will be unlikely that we see a new one anytime soon. When we do, it's likely that you'll be looking at one containing new versions of the M3 chips, with Max and Ultra options available.

Best looking Mac Desktop: 24-inch iMac

The iMac is one of Apple's most recognizable machines, and the most recent versions harken back to the computer's past with their myriad colors available. It's all-in-one, which means that the computer is housed in the same chassis as a monitor, so you don't need to add anything extra to get working. We absolutely love the way this thing looks, from its unbelievably thin chassis to its stunning color options and beyond. Those color options do depend on the chip that you choose, unfortunately, as some of the colors are only available if you choose one of the more powerful higher-end models.

Recently updated with the new M3 chips, the iMac is again a powerful option if you don't need the beef of the M3 Pro or Max chips. It's an 8-core CPU with a powerful GPU on board, ready to almost anything that you could throw at it. More than powerful enough even for some photo and video work as well, and an excellent option for a student who needs a space-saving computer.

It’s well-priced too, although you’ll want to upgrade the RAM in the base model. There’s only 8GB, and if you want to make sure that your new iMac lasts longer then you’ll want to spend the extra $200 on the 16GB RAM option. With it, you’ll be able to multitask better and even have more headroom for graphics performance. The base model costs $1299/£1399, but we’d recommend spending the $1699/£1799 version with a slightly more powerful processor as well.

We need to talk about that screen as well — it's 24-inches, so it's not massive, but its 4.5K resolution is higher than even the best 4K mac monitors. It's bright, colorful, and responsive — just what you need from a Mac display.

This is the most recently refreshed model of the iMac, and we're confident there's not going to be a new version any time soon. You can't go wrong with the M3 version of the iMac, with its stunning design and powerful internals.

iMore’s Best configuration:

The Mac desktop that didn't make the cut

Mac Pro

The Mac Pro remains the most powerful Mac, but it’s also the most expensive, by a country mile. In the best Macs list, we said that the “only people who should be buying it are companies that need ridiculous amounts of power or people with more than sense”, and we’ll stick with that here. It drastically needs an upgrade, and don’t even mention the wheels and feet that cost as much as a Mac mini. At least it looks like there might be another one on the way.

Q&A

There are likely loads of questions that you have as to which Mac is the best Mac for you, what Apple Silicon even is, and where the best place to buy a Mac desktop is. We’ve answered all your questions below so that you can make the most informed decision as to which Mac to buy.

If you want a compact computer, then the Mac mini is one of the best options that you can find. For a Mac, it's very, very well-priced, and comes with some super powerful chip options, along with a very small desk footprint. But what if you don’t want the glorious aluminum slab, what if you want to shop around and see if you can find anything better?

We’ve had a play with a few other options to see what kind of competition the Mac mini is up against. We’ve got a compact, Intel gaming monster that munches anything that gets close, an AMD-powered mini PC that's got a knob on the front, and a little box running an unconventional operating system. 

How do these machines stack up against the Mac mini, and should you go for something a little different that might not be powered by macOS? Or should you stick with one of Apple’s best Macs, and forget that there were ever any other micro PCs at all?

Quick List

Best for macOS

Before we look at the contenders, we should probably remind ourselves of what the Mac mini has to offer besides, you know. Being a Mac. There’s the obvious latest version of macOS on board, with all the bells and whistles that come with it, powered by your choice of M2 or M2 Pro chip. That latter one is pretty powerful, but you’ll have to pay a hefty chunk to get it.

In fact, while the base model starts at a great price of $599, once you start popping upgrades on, you’ll soon see that price burgeon beyond reasonable affordability. It’s never an expensive machine, but it does move beyond cheap pretty quickly. RAM upgrades are around $200 for every extra step you take, and larger SSDs are even more. If you want the M2 Pro option that we talked about before then you’ll be paying north of a grand – which is a lot of money.

The base model, however, if taken as a standalone option, remains an excellent investment if you’re looking for a powerful desktop companion. Its numbers are even super impressive:

Those stack up well against even more expensive hardware – especially when you consider that we benchmarked the base model with M2 and 8GB RAM. So we've jogged our memories now – let's see the competition.

Best size

The Geekom A7 looks just like a tiny Mac mini, all the way down to its aluminum finish and rubberized black base. Beyond that, however, you'll find some big pluses that might make you want to move over from macOS to the little Windows machine. For one, it's got a very powerful little processor at the core,  in the form of either the latest AMD Ryzen R9 or R7. They are mobile processors, on account of wanting to keep the PC as small as possible, but as you'll find out, they offer some excellent performance when compared to a Mac mini.

It's a really small computer too, taking up a great deal less space than Apple's mini PC. Despite its size, however, it packs in some delicious specs beyond the potent AMD Ryzen processors — they both come with 32GB RAM from the factory (upgradeable to 64GB) and either a 1TB or 2TB SSD. It's easy to upgrade as well: just unscrew the bottom, and slot your new RAM and storage in. Simple.

There is only one thing that might be missing to some — a discrete graphics chip. That leaves some gaming and graphics performance to be desired, as its only got the 780M Radeon built into the Ryzen chip to handle graphical bits and bobs for games. beyond that, however, it absolutely smashes the CPU benchmarks, in some cases getting closer to the M2 Pro Mac mini than you might expect.

It comes with a version of Windows 11 Pro in the box as well, so you don't to pay extra for your OS installation. If you'd rather not use Microsofts OS, of course, there are a multitude of different Linux distros you can install instead — although be aware that finding drivers for mini PCs like this one can be a bit of a pain. Expect WiFi teeting issues.

You'll be paying a great price for all this power as well — to the tune of $899. That's more expensive than the base model Mac mini, but it manages to find the sweet spot of price and performance between the base mini, and the M2 Pro version. 

Best for gamers

This weird-looking little obelisk is the AceMagician AMR5, and it's a very interesting little computer. It’s powered by an AMD Ryzen 5 5600U, a pretty snazzy little processor. It’s what's called an APU, or an AMD Accelerated Processing Unit – this has a CPU and graphics processor all in one little chip, meaning that a powerful computer can be made in a much smaller package. In fact, that makes it more similar than anything else on this list to Apple Silicon, which also have both CPU cores and GPU cores in one chip.

Obviously, the AMR5 is smaller than a Mac mini, with its upright stance and tiny footprint. It’s also a fairly potent computer, packing in that AMD APU, as well as a 512GB SSD, and 16GB of RAM. Even better is that it is super easy to upgrade, with a magnetically attached side panel that allows you to access an extra PCIE drive slot as well as the memory modules. For something so small, it’s very impressive.

One of my favorite features of the AMR5 is the power button – a knob that turns around, clicking into place in three intervals. Those intervals let you choose a power mode, from Eco, Auto, and Performance. Eco makes sure that the AMR5 is running as efficiently as possible so that it's not using as much power. Want to play some games? Turn the knob to the performance setting and enjoy all the juice you’ll need to play some games.

Don’t expect those games to run like you’re using a custom-built gaming PC, or like a PS5 or Xbox Series X, and you’ll find the experience completely acceptable. Framerates are good if you crank down the details, and for such a tiny little box, it's impressive the graphics it can pump out.

We should mention that for the Windows machines, we’ve used 3dMark as well to get an idea of the graphics performance of the machines. It also allows you to compare them with each other. The AMR5 here puts up some strong numbers, and while they might not be quite as good as those on the Mac Mini, they are plenty to get some light gaming done.

It runs on Windows 11, which does have some improvements over previous versions of the OS. If you’re looking for MacOS, however, it’s not going to scratch that Apple-shaped itch, but for those willing to tinker a little it's super easy to get Linux installed if you want to try something a little different.

How much does this potent little package cost? $499. That’s a fair sum less than the Mac mini, and it comes with (on paper) greater specs than the base model Mac – double the RAM, and double the SSD storage.

All in all, the AMR5 is a lovely little gaming mini PC that boasts lots of power, a funky-looking design (replete with RGB lighting for gamers), and a great price.

Best for power users

This monster is for those looking at the more readily equipped Mac mini. An Intel NUC, or ‘Next Unit of Computing’, is what Intel uses to show off all of its finest hardware. That could be fitting a super efficient PC in a tiny form factor, or an absolute monster of a gaming PC in a smaller, desk-friendly footprint. This one is particularly potent and comes loaded with some serious hardware.

The core of the NUC 12 Enthusiast that we have here contains an Intel i7-12700H, with 14 cores, 20 threads, and a new Intel Arc A770M Graphics card inside it. It also has everything else you might need from a mini PC, including WiFi 6 and Bluetooth 5.3. It is built from the ground up for one thing, and the glowing skull on the side gives you a good idea of what that is – gaming.

It’s also pretty upgradeable – you can pop new RAM modules in there so that you can do more multitasking and you can add more M.2 storage drives to really up the capacity of your NUC. This, as with some of the other options on the list, is something that the Mac mini absolutely cannot do. Upgradeability simply isn’t something that modern Macs are capable of.

When you buy your NUC, it interestingly doesn’t come with an OS, and you have to choose one for yourself. Alas, one of the options isn’t MacOS, but you can go for any of the Windows options or a Linux system. For gamers, however, Windows will be the way to go.

It’s not cheap. This one costs $1899 instead of the $1400 of the M2 Pro Mac mini, but for that money, you get something that's the same size but that will smash through some of the latest games with ease. No, it’s not going to match a similarly priced custom gaming PC, but it is going to get remarkably close. We played some games, and got these numbers:

We also ran some benchmarks to get an idea of the potency of the machine, compared to the Mac mini:

These are the highest numbers you’ll find on the list, and it means that the Intel will buzz through anything you throw at it with ease.

This PC proves that small form factor does not mean cheap, or pokey – instead showing that if you spend the money on something a little more impressive, you get something that will blow you away. For gamers, this is going to be your best bet.

Equally, this machine isn’t just for gamers. All that processing and graphics grunt makes it perfect for those looking for a wickedly powerful small form factor desktop for workloads like video editing, photo editing, or programming – that puts it a little further into the ballpark of the Mac mini. It is an interesting alternative for sure, and one that should have your attention. It does stretch the definition of mini PC, however – this thing is big. Bigger than a Mac Mini, that’s for sure. 

Best for kids

This Mini PC is a ChromeBox, so called because it doesn’t run Windows or MacOS – it runs Chrome OS. ChromeOS is Google’s lightweight operating system that started out as effectively a dedicated web browser that you could use on low-power machines that remained super speedy and responsive. Since then things have moved into a Chromium-based, Linux-esque desktop environment that users of both Windows and MacOS can quickly become accustomed to.

The ChromeBox in question is the Acer CX14, and it’s actually one of the more powerful options that comes with ChomeOS on board. Traditionally, you’d find it on laptops or ‘Chromebooks’, but ChromeBoxes allow for more powerful hardware without the need to add a screen and keyboard.

The Acer has an Intel Core i5 10210U processor, a lot more powerful than the normal Celeron options, and paired with 8GB of RAM it’s going to smash its way through ChromeOS. During my time with the ChromeBox, I noticed no slowdown at all even when running multiple Chrome tabs. Is the power overkill for a low-power operating system like ChromeOS?

Perhaps slightly, but it means that the little box is capable of playing Android games without issue, opening plenty of Chrome tabs, and even doing some other slightly heavier workloads.

If you’re looking for something that's a little cheaper than this one for a younger kid, then something like the ChromeBox with a Celeron processor would be perfect. For a teenager that needs something to do more than just a little work on, however, or for a family computer, this is perfect.

In fact, the idea that this computer should be for kids seems baked in from the start. Setting the computer up you’ll spot a kids' setup mode so that you can decide on security and safety settings to make sure that it's safe for kids to use. It will even play the Android version of PubG, or Minecraft – and do it pretty well too. Getting homework done on the machine will be no problem at all either unless they need to be doing complex video rendering tasks. Which is unlikely.

It comes in the box with a full-size keyboard and mouse so that it’s ready to go, and all you’ll need to hook up is a monitor – something none of the other entries on this list feature. Unfortunately, there’s no way to run benchmarks here, so we can’t get an idea of the numbers, but the ChromeBox more than makes up for it with the performance. It’s not the cheapest on the list, but it’s a very good option for kids and even the elderly.

Best media server

Another from AceMagician, this time the CK10. The CK10 is a more professional-looking machine, with a more workload-oriented setup. While its chassis isn’t quite as exciting as the AMR5, it's still a nicely shaped little box, with a cool pattern on the top that the fan blows cold air on the Intel i7-10810U inside. That’s a top-shelf laptop processor, with its own Intel graphics on board.

Inside the relatively non-descript enclosure, you’ll find more of the same kind of internals as the AMR5. There’s 16GB RAM inside, along with a 512GB SSD. As with the AMR5, you can add another SSD, or plug in a SATA drive up to 2TB to give it plenty of storage space. Unfortunately, the RAM is soldered onto the board so no upgrading there – much like the Mac mini in question.

As a more conventionally shaped mini PC, CK10 can be attached to the back of a monitor with a Vesa mount, so that you can keep it hidden away from view, and make your desk look a little tidier. It even comes with a bracket in the box, so you don’t have to buy one separately. Very nice.

Again, like the AMR5, the CK10 runs Windows 11, so you’re not going to get macOS. You can of course replace it with Linux if you’re looking for something to tinker with a little more, so that could be quite fun. If you want it to be reliable, however, make sure that you stick with Windows 11 Pro.

This machine is mostly going to be used for light workloads, so we’ve looked a little at how it compares to the Mac mini in that regard.

As we can see, the little machine is not quite as powerful as the Mac mini, but it still holds up for the price.

It also costs less than the Mac mini, at $499 from the AceMagician website. For that, you get more RAM, an Intel chip, and a Vesa mount, and while numbers don’t mean everything, it’s still a compelling option to have to choose from. This could be the perfect little movie or music server to tuck away behind a shelf for example.

Closing thoughts

There are some great options out there that take the fight to the Mac mini, but the littlest Mac puts up an incredible defense. That M2 chip is potent, and for the price is an excellently powerful option.

Of course, if you want something with Windows on, then there are some great options. Our favorite is the AMR5 from AceMagic in terms of price to performance, and its fun form factor helps as well.

Looking for something super powerful to go up against the Mac Mini with M2 Pro? Then the Intel NUC Enthusiast is going to be an epic option. It’s super powerful and smashes its way through loads of different workloads and tasks. It does cost lots though. As in lots.

Finally, the ChromeBox proves that there are options beyond the Windows and macOS ecosystems. It’s not quite as powerful as the Mac mini, but the ChromeOS on board means that will be slick and useable for a long time and for loads of different generations of users.

In the end, if you’re looking for a small form factor machine with macOS on it, then you’re basically stuck with the Mac mini. If you’re looking to branch out, however, there are some other fantastic options.

The M1 Mac mini has now been replaced but remains a good piece of microcomputing hardware. Its M1 silicon may not be the newest in the stable, but it's still plenty powerful. Its small chassis, while unchanged from the previous version, remains a very attractive package to stick under your monitor. Now, you can get it for an all-time low of $479 at B&H Photo for not only the best price we've ever seen on the little computer but a genuinely stunning saving of $220.

Don't delay, this offer is only going to last until the end of the day today – at the time of writing, that's less than nineteen hours!

Best ever price for the next few hours

• MacBook deals: Amazon | B&H Photo | Best Buy

If you're looking for an excellent first Mac, the Mac mini with M1 is an excellent option. This deal also makes it super affordable, with a $220 saving on full price – that makes it $130 less than the M2 variant, so you're saving big. The M1 chip is still a potent piece of hardware, and the latest version of the Mac mini is one of the best Macs we've ever used. B&H Photo has also put a timer on this deal – and once it stops counting, it's unlikely we'll ever see another price like this one, even on the older model. You'll need one of the best Mac monitors with this one as well, and while you get a keyboard in the box, we recommend grabbing one of the best mechanical keyboards for Mac.

Apple's new M2 Mac mini is one of the most potent and value-friendly Macs Apple has ever made. Sporting the hot new M2 chip inside a tiny desktop package, the new Mac mini is perfect for reasonably heavy workloads and anyone who wants a desktop Mac computer, easily scoring five stars in our M2 Mac mini (2023) review. 

The new Mac mini is only a few days old, so you can imagine our surprise when we found that Amazon UK is selling the 512GB storage model for just £764 instead of its usual price tag of £849.

For that price, you get the base model 8-core CPU with 10 GPU cores, 8GB of Unified Memory, and the slightly upgraded 512GB storage. 

M2 Mac mini deals in 2023

So what exactly makes the Mac mini so special? And why should you buy one? It has a tiny desktop footprint and an extremely low profile, making it perfect for hiding under a monitor or on a shelf somewhere. It has great connectivity for Ethernet, Thunderbolt, and more. 

It also benefits from Apple Silicon, Apple's own in-house chips that replace Intel as the brains behind the operation. These chips are super-efficient and very snappy. This means you'll be able to open programs incredibly quickly, run lots of different windows at the same time, and do fairly strenuous stuff like photo and video editing without too much fuss. Beware though, these aren't really "Pro" machines for full-time professional creatives, you'll want a Mac Studio for that. 

The new Mac mini also comes with an upgraded M2 Pro option that is definitely more powerful and a potent option for creatives, however, at iMore we think the value of the Mac mini lies in the base-model M2 on sale here thanks to its low starting price and the pound-for-pound processing power you're rewarded with. 

Launched alongside the new MacBook Pros, the M2 Pro, and M2 Max, the new Mac mini is little more than an internal upgrade to the M1 model. However, that chip upgrade will bring some exciting features to the table, such as what Apple calls ‘console quality gaming.’

Apple does not say which console, so that could be performance from, I don’t know, the GameCube or something. Taken in context, however, and when weighing up the price of the base model Mac mini and the current gen consoles, it starts to make sense what Apple might be going for.

All it needs is some games.

What even does console quality games mean?

Apple loves vaguery. Noncomital statements that hint at something really cool without putting any emphasis on what it actually does. The idea that the Mac mini will be capable of console-quality gaming is just one. We’re never told which console the Mac mini will match up with, and there’s no mention of what kind of gaming experience you might have. It’s nothing new, nothing we haven’t heard before, but it’s still a sentence worth looking at.

Apple has never shied away from the gaming space. Since the ill-fated Pippin in 1996, the company has had its beady eyes on the ever-burgeoning industry, glaring jealously at those able to succeed. It’s arguably the final step in Apple’s domination of the computer space. iPhone and iPad have become synonymous with mobile gaming, and the Apple TV has been an arcade gaming machine of reasonable competence for some time. You can, after all, buy a Steel Series controller designed for Mac from the Apple Website.

So when Apple talks about console-quality gaming, it feels vaguely worded for a reason. While the Mac mini is first and foremost still a computer you can use for standard, computery things, it is being slotted into a new sector, with a new price bracket and the credentials to match.

The big plan

The M2 chip within the new base model Mac mini has already been shown to be a competent chip. It won’t go up against the best gaming chips and won’t hold a candle to the performance you can get out of a dedicated gaming machine, but it has the juice to fight squarely with the current generation consoles. At least, that’s what Apple seems to want to tell us.

It’s that wording that’s critical. Apple isn’t going after the PC market - there’s no point. Those users are long since buried in their multi-thousand dollar custom-built machines, counting all the teraflops of processing meat on their monster graphics card and liquid nitrogen cooled CPU called something like the ‘compute muncher.’ Instead, Apple has chosen a different battleground - the console market.

For the longest time, the market has been dominated by three big companies. Microsoft, Sony, and Nintendo have been vying for the spot in your TV center for 20 years at this point, and there’s been little room for anyone else to join in with the fun. However, that hasn’t stopped some eager companies from giving it a go. Google and Google Stadia wanted to bring game streaming to the masses with the console market squarely in its sights, and look how that went. Apple has tried a little before with the Apple TV – a box that plays games and sits under your TV. The Android boxes from years ago turned out to be mostly nonsense and a couple of retro upstarts that have only managed to gain small niche footings with enthusiasts. There has never been something that goes up against the Xbox, Playstation, or Nintendo families of consoles – but maybe Apple now wants to change that.

How it’s going to work

So Apple has a market in mind, but it doesn't want to throw its entire lot in the ring quite yet. So instead, release a small PC that people will buy as a PC with a small word in the press release about console-quality gaming. Sow the seed in consumers' minds, but don't do much. Instead, announce a couple of natively supported games that people like, and then work away at it in the background until you've got Mac minis in people's homes. 

You can see how an approach like this might work, eventually building up a good enough library of games so that you can launch it as a gaming machine a little later. The Mac mini, after all, is the perfect size and shape to become an under TV device. It even has more features than the average console. You could browse the web in a proper browser with it, get some words typed out on your TV with pages, and do other computer-centric tasks. For only $100 more than a PS5, you’ll be able to play games and do some work and connect to a remote server to watch movies. It’ll even add to an existing Apple ecosystem, easily connecting phones and other devices. It’s obvious why Apple might want to aim the Mac mini at this audience, even if it has the job of the century.

What’s not going to work

See, console gamers are a strange lot. We like a games system to be just that - games systems. We have other computers to use to do work and the like. If we wanted a PC that played games, we’d buy a gaming PC. There’s also an element of loyalty to a system that Apple seems to have forgotten about, even though it pretty much started the ‘I’m a Mac user, get lost Windows’ mindset.

That’s not the only part that makes me wonder about Apple’s long-term commitment to so-called ‘console-quality gaming.’ That’s right; we’re back to the vagueries again. In recent years, Apple has been announcing a couple of titles available to play natively on Mac Silicon in macOS. Resident Evil Village is out now and costs $34.99. No-Mans Sky has been coming for the last year, and there are several indie titles like Gris. There’s one massive thing with these games that will only irritate gamers, however. They’re all at least a year old.

Console launches live and die by their games libraries, and if it wants the Mac mini to make any impact on the console market, then Apple will have to get more games ready to go. Two big older titles aren’t enough, and as we’ve seen from the Apple TV and other systems that play mobile games on the TV, neither are a couple of indie darlings. So no, to get the Mac mini to become something gamers want to stuff under their televisions, you’re going to need to get that game library much bigger. After all, there’s more to console quality performance than the frame rate and processing oomf. You can be good at playing games all you like, but if there are no games to play? You’ve got a problem.

What about Steam?

Steam has run on Mac for quite some time now, with supported games running ok for just as long. The biggest issue with these games is that they don’t run natively on Apple hardware. They’re technically running in a compatibility layer so that you won’t get the best experience possible. Even then, some of the biggest Steam games aren’t available on Mac, like Final Fantasy XIV online or God of War.

The best way to look at a reasonably sized game library is to look at game streaming platforms like Nvidia Geforce now. That's a service you can use straight out of a browser and get graphics performance up to a GTX 4080, Which I'm told is a lot of gaming horsepower. There are 1500 games available (or so Nvidia says - and I'm sure not going to count), and it works with macOS. The problem with this approach is that it requires an impeccable Internet connection to work correctly. So, if you've ever seen the buffering wheel on a Netflix show, you're going to be out of luck on the 'console quality gaming' front, let alone the ‘4080 quality gaming' front.

Apple Arcade is perhaps the most reliable source of games, and there are loads of brilliant titles to be had. It works like Xbox Game Pass, albeit with, you guessed it, fewer big titles. It's a significant first step for the Mac mini to become more like a console, but it's just not enough to make the Mac mini any more than an 'oh. That's cool' when you look at it for gaming.

It might not replace your console - yet

The launch of the Mac mini was one of the highlights of January. It came out of nowhere with a new price and a super cool new chip. Unfortunately, it also left me with unanswered questions even after its retail release. Why does Apple want to look at the console market? Where on earth is No-Mans Sky? And why would I want to replace my PS5 with it? Apple itself hasn’t done much to let me ruminate on these questions, but ruminate I have – and I think I’m starting to get it.

As I said before, Apple is playing the long game. Seed the interest. Get people like me to ask these questions about the machines and their gaming credentials. I wonder if I’ll ever have a Mac under my TV for all my computing needs. Perhaps there’s something to be said about a remote desktop. A Mac that stays centralized in one place while you use it at various stations around the house. A Mac that sits under my TV, ready to play some games when I’m done with work elsewhere. Games that, as yet, aren’t out yet.

The Mac mini will be great for playing games – now it just needs some to play.

Emulation on the Mac has always been a difficult topic to discuss, mainly due to the grey area of playing games that you don't own. For preservation purposes, however, it's an interesting avenue to go down as to how certain games run on today's Macs, such as the M2 Pro Mac mini.

Since owning an M1 Pro MacBook Pro since 2021, running games from Sony and Nintendo's consoles, such as the PlayStation 2, Gamecube, and Wii U are a dream. I can easily play Zelda: Wind Waker HD, Tekken 5, and Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater in 4K with no issues.

However, with the M2 Pro chip debuting in the Mac mini and MacBook Pro lines back in January 2023, even more consoles could be made to work on macOS in even higher resolutions with cleaner textures. Even more exciting, however, is that it also makes me wonder how Apple's rumored VR headset could benefit as well.

Metal Gear...?

I've always been a believer in the preservation of games. Look at efforts by Sony and Nintendo in retro gaming, such as the PS Plus Premium subscription on PlayStation 5, which only offers around five games from the PlayStation 1 era. There's also Nintendo's Switch Online Service and its inaccurate emulation efforts such as enemies clipping through walls in GoldenEye. The efforts haven't been the greatest, so it's inevitable that users such as myself will look to alternative ways to run those favorite games again. Emulators are a fantastic example.

There's also the fact that these companies have shuttered online stores in the past, such as Nintendo ending its eShop service for the Wii, and Sony ending access to its PS3 and Vita stores in 2022, before a backlash made them reverse that decision.

These emulators, created by people in their spare time, are brilliant for preserving old games. It uses software to recreate the experience of these old systems, letting you play old games without the need for a cartridge or a disc. There are the aforementioned game ownership issues, but emulators are, for the most part, a net good for making sure that old games don't die out.

They're also like pressurized nostalgia. They can reawaken memories of times sitting in front of the TV, your nose inches from Street Fighter Turbo. There's an important emotional element to these retro games, and sometimes that could even be remembering a family member who's since passed on.

I'm subscribed to ETA PRIME on YouTube, who tries out a series of emulators on handhelds, PCs, iPads, and Macs. His recent video showcased the M2 Pro Mac mini running a bunch of emulators, from the PlayStation 2 to the Nintendo Switch.

The results were impressive, testing games such as God of War and F-Zero GX on the Mac with no issues. If he wanted to put it up to 8K, it was possible, and there'd be no slowdown, and this was just with the M2 Pro chip.

When you consider Apple Silicon to almost contain a whole system on a chip, barring storage and battery, this is nothing short of incredible as to how far the chips have already come. It makes me wonder how games such as Resident Evil Village and soon, No Mans Sky will fare with the M2 Pro and M2 Ultra.

Especially when you pair a controller such as an 8BitDo Pro 2 you're in for a good weekend, as I was with Metal Gear Solid 2. If you're thinking of upgrading to an M2 Mac to play these games alongside everything else on macOS, you're going to have a great time, and the updated Mac mini going to let you run these games with next to no issues.

More and more emulators are gaining macOS support as well, with even more demanding programs coming to the platform. One recently added to the roster was RPCS3, a PlayStation 3 emulator. This means that soon, with any luck, we'll be playing Metal Gear Solid 4 and Motorstorm at full speed, with higher resolutions than the original hardware even thought possible.

The road to VR

However, there's also the VR-wearing elephant in the room. The rumored Apple VR headset will allegedly work on its own, but it wouldn't be a stretch to imagine that it could connect to certain Macs when you're sat down to supercharge it for certain apps, such as games.

There are apps available today for the Oculus Quest and HTC Vive such as Emu VR. It lets you sit in a virtual bedroom from the nineties and relive those moments of putting a disk into a PlayStation console once again. It even has digital CRT TVs so that you can get the whole experience.

With the M2 Pro and M2 Ultra however, I wouldn't be surprised to see the rumored headset enable you to use these apps in macOS thanks to an improved Universal Control or Sidecar feature. That could let you extend your Mac display to another device, so you could be playing Onimusha 2 on a far larger display in VR than you can in reality.

As it stands for now though, the M2 Pro Mac mini can be the ideal machine to play those classic games, as long as you own them. It makes me excited to think about what other emulators could debut in the future, ones that Apple Silicon could run with no issues.

The introduction of Apple silicon did more for the Mac mini lineup than any other corner of Apple’s computing range. Sure, the efficiency of Apple silicon not only improved performance in Apple’s MacBooks but brought big gains to their battery life, too. But for the Mac mini, it was a completely new lease on life — Apple’s diminutive desktop machine had been left out in the dark in the Intel era, missing key upgrade cycles, becoming underpowered and overpriced.

The M1 Mac mini reset the balance, making the mini an attractive desktop option for those looking for an entry-level device with a little more flexibility than the screen-packing iMac offered.

Jump to 2023 and, after a slightly protracted wait, we’ve got the M2 Mac mini range, and it's truly coming into its own. Not only does the entry-level model get more powerful, but it’s actually cheaper than its M1 counterpart. And for those who want a bit more oomph, the Mac mini can now be bumped up to include the prosumer M2 Pro chipset, bringing performance close to the mega M1 Max Mac Studio.

For the first time in years, there’s an entry-level desktop Mac that’s (relatively) affordable, and doesn’t feel like a compromise in cost versus performance, one that easily takes its place among the best Mac computers Apple offers.

Mac mini (M2, M2 Pro, 2023): Price and availability

Despite the fact that Apple’s new M2 Mac Mini comes with a major M2 power boost, the new entry-level device is actually cheaper at its starting price than the old M1 model, making it an absolute bargain in terms of its power-to-price ratio.

The new M2 Mac starts at $599 / £649 for the base-model M2 chip — that’s a gratefully received $100 discount over the starting price of the M1 Mac Mini, a rare step down in price for advancing Apple hardware. For that price, you get the 8-core M2 with 10 GPU cores, 8GB of RAM, and 256GB of storage. There’s also a preset $799 / £849 M2 option which comes with 512GB of storage.

There are plenty of upgrade options for the M2 Mac mini that will add some costs, of course, depending on what you choose.

You can upgrade to 16GB or 24GB of unified memory for $200 / $400, respectively, as well as upgrading to 512GB, 1TB, or 2TB of storage ($200, $400 and $800 respectively).

Another option you might want to consider is the 10 Gigabit Ethernet port, which adds an additional  $100.

New to the Mac mini this year is the M2 Pro model option, which gets you a far heftier processor and more GPU cores at a higher price point. That’s the unit I'm reviewing here, and it starts at $1,299 / £1,399. For that price you get the 10-core M2 Pro CPU with 16 GPU cores and 16GB of unified memory, as well as 512GB of SSD storage as standard. The Pro model also comes with two more Thunderbolt 4 ports for a total of four, worth considering if connectivity is high on your priority list. Its HDMI port is at the 2.1 standard too, while the M2 Mini only gets a HDMI 2.0 port.

When it comes to the M2 Pro upgrade list, the options are largely the same with a couple of key differences. $300 gets you the spicier 12-core CPU M2 Pro with 19 GPU cores — this is the machine I’ve been using. Unified memory can be upgraded to 32GB ($400). There are also larger storage options of 4TB and 8TB costing $1,200 and $2,400 respectively.

In the box, you get a Mac mini and a power cord, so remember you’ll need all the requisite peripherals including a display to get started. Factor that into the cost if you’re on a budget.

If you’re wondering where to order the new Mac mini with M2 and M2 Pro, you’ve got a few options. Of course, there’s Apple, either online or in-store. There’s also Best Buy, B&H Photo, Amazon, and other retailers.

While there are plenty of great upgrade options, given its lower price point of $599 ($499 with education discount), the base-model Mac mini is a great pick. If you need more storage, you can always go with an external hard drive or a similar option. But remember; if you plan on living with your purchase for several years, think as much about your future needs as well as what you’re planning on using it for today. These are closed designs, with no opportunity for future internal upgrades post-purchase. I’d encourage, for instance, stumping up for 16GB of RAM, which should really be the bare minimum today, especially considering the memory swap RAM-to-SSD features employed these days when RAM is topping out.

The M2 Mac mini is a fairly-priced, superb option at the entry level then, and the M2 Pro Mac mini particularly enticing for those looking at the Pro-chip MacBook Pro range, but without the need for portability and ready to make a saving as a result. It gets trickier at the top end of the M2 Pro Mac mini configurations, where the cost-to-performance ratio of the top-end M2 Pro Mac Mini and entry level Mac Studio, with its higher RAM and GPU core count, starts to come into play. If GPU-intensive tasks are the order of your day-to-day, I’d still say look to the Studio, rather than souping up the M2 Pro Mac mini.

Mac mini (M2, M2 Pro, 2023): Hardware and design

At a quick glance, not much has changed externally with the M2-generation of Mac mini hardware. It’s still a compact, low-profile aluminum enclosure, measuring 3.58cm x 19.70cm x 19.70cm (HxWxD), box-like but with rounded corners, and a prominent black Apple logo on the top. It’s a lovely looking thing, and its small size will make it easy to accommodate on almost any desk.

Port selection is found on the rear, as is the power button. Here you’ll find Thunderbolt 4 ports (2x in the entry level model, 4x in the M2 Pro version), two USB-A 3.1 ports, a HDMI port, a 3.5mm headphone jack and that upgradeable Ethernet port. It’s a solid I/O array, particularly on the M2 Pro model, though I’d still have liked some front-facing ports for easy access. It’s a small and light enough machine (1.18kg for M2, 1.28kg for M2 Pro) to lift around and pop dongles and accessories into the back, but the convenience of, for instance, the Mac Studio’s front-facing ports, is missed.

There’s also the power port, and a ventilation opening for keeping things cool when running under load. The Mac mini, for all but the most intensive benchmarking tasks I put it through, ran near-silently, thanks to the thermal efficiency of Apple’s silicon. And when its fans did whir up, they never did so at a volume that was disturbing. 

Wireless connectivity is handled by Bluetooth 5.3, and super speedy Wi-Fi 6E. Paired with those Ethernet options, you’ll get blazing-fast web speeds here.

One of the advantages of the Mac mini line is the ability to pair it with whichever monitor you choose, and the M2 range gives you more options than the previous generation. The entry level model offers support for two displays simultaneously (one display at up to 6K resolution  / 60Hz over Thunderbolt and one display at up to 5K resolution / 60Hz over Thunderbolt or 4K resolution at 60Hz over HDMI). The M2 Pro pushes that up to three displays — two screens up to 6K resolution at 60Hz over Thunderbolt and one display with up to 4K resolution at 60Hz over HDMI. The M2 Pro offers a few other refresh rates in between too, supporting 4K resolution at  240Hz, or even an 8K monitor at 60Hz — a first for Mac.

Though you’re likely to pair the Mac mini with a pair of speakers, there is a small, very tinny speaker in the computer itself. It doesn’t sound good, but it’s handy for those occasions when your external speakers are out of action.

Remember that the Mac mini only comes with a power cord in the box, so you’re going to have to supply your own keyboard and mouse here. If you’re not going to be picking up Apple’s Magic Keyboard and Magic Mouse, it can be a frustrating set-up process for other wireless accessories — the Mac mini won’t let you connect any other Bluetooth devices until after the initial set-up is complete, meaning you’re going to have to dig out wired accessories (or the wires for your wireless gear) before you’ll be able to get up and running. A couple of recent Logitech wireless keyboards I have lying around don’t even support a wired connectivity mode, so make sure you’re all set with compatible gear before you get home with your new Mac mini — it won’t be much good without it.

Mac mini (M2, M2 Pro, 2023): Software and performance

With the advances the M2 chip generation has made, particularly on the M2 Pro side, the M2 Mac mini lineup feels a world apart from its M1 predecessors, and will be a transformative difference for anyone upgrading from an Intel-based Mac mini.

For review, I was provided with an M2 Pro Mac Mini, with the 12-core CPU and 19-core GPU upgrade option, 16GB of RAM and a 1TB SSD, a configuration that’ll run you $1.799 / £1,899 — so very much the high-end of Mac mini’s potential performance. Keep that in mind when reading our performance notes below. 

For insight into what to expect from the M2 chip performance of the base-level Mac mini, I’ll point you to our 13-inch MacBook Pro 2022 review, which offers similar sustained performance thanks to its active cooling fans. 

But Apple itself claims the M2 Mac Mini represents significant gains over its outgoing Core i7 Mac mini devices, with 5.5x better performance in Safari and 1.8x improvements in productivity tasks like Excel. While the same stats show only marginal gains over the M1, it’s a more pronounced difference when it comes to GPU oriented performance — you can expect about a 20% performance jump over M1 for image scaling in Pixelmator Pro, and more than twice the ProRes transcode performance in Final Cut Pro. 

And Apple’s own performance metrics for M2 Pro vs M2 are more pronounced still — by Apple’s estimations you can expect a third faster project build performance in Xcode, about a 25% jump in filter application in Photoshop, close to twice the timeline render performance in Final Cut Pro, and about double the gaming performance, too.

With the caveat of our review configuration out of the way, it’s easy to be impressed with the benchmarks I saw on the M2 Pro Mac mini I’ve been using.

Looking first at Geekbench benchmarking runs, our top-end M2 Pro Mac mini hit single core performance scores of 1952 — not a giant leap over the M2 MacBook Pro’s 1920 score. But in multicore tests the results saw a significant jump up to 15006, compared to the MacBook Pro’s 8869. When it comes to multi-core performance then, the M2 Pro Mac mini is blisteringly fast, just short of doubling the performance.

It’s close to double the performance again when looking at the GFXBench Metal test for 3D graphics performance. Looking at our baseline test of the 1440p Aztec Ruins / High tier offscreen benchmark, the Mac Mini with M2 Pro put its 19-core GPU to work to push a superb 211.225 fps average, and an impressive 92.5 fps average when pushing that benchmark to its 4K resolution setting. That’s a big leap compared to the M2 MacBook Pros 110 fps / 48fps scores.

For all but the most demanding of 3D rendering jobs, the M2 Pro Mac mini will not disappoint then, and will make mincemeat of everyday productivity tasks and content creation. I could imagine this being a great centerpiece of a home audio recording studio, or design workstation — certainly ‘prosumer’ video editing, audio production and image editing tasks won’t make the M2 Pro Mac mini break a sweat. With Apple’s silicon now well established, I didn’t run into any applications that wouldn’t run well on the Mac mini either, whether with a native application or (increasingly rarely) using the Rosetta compatibility layer.

How does it stand up on the gaming front? If you’re looking to hit any of the best Apple Arcade games, you’ll have no problem. Even the more demanding titles like NBA 2K23, Gear.Club Stradale and Horizon Chase 2 ran flawlessly.

When it comes to games native to a console or PC performance was solid, but not transformative. The Tomb Raider reboot is a bit long in the tooth, but has a good pedigree for benchmarking Mac gaming capabilities, so I went back to that with the M2 Pro Mac mini. 

At 4K resolution at the Ultimate settings preset, the Mac managed just a lowly 13.4fps per second — but this seemed primarily to be a caused by a conflict with the TressFX hair rendering feature. Switching that off (the equivalent of the Ultra setting) saw a far more respectable 45fps reached. That’s very playable, but a comparably-priced gaming PC would make mincemeat of the 10 year old game’s benchmark tool. Dropping the resolution to 1440p returned a 98fps average.

I had fun playing the Mac version of Borderlands 3 too — though its benchmarking tool didn’t appear to work correctly (I could see the image was far smoother than its lowly frame count suggested), you’d be able to confidently play it at high settings at resolutions as high as 4K, which is a good sign.

It’s just a shame we don’t see more native Mac gaming ports put together — there’s still few taking advantage of Apple’s Metal API which would be where we’d expect to see the biggest gains. It’s one of the few areas where it’s still difficult to wholeheartedly recommend Mac — gamers remain better served by Windows PCs.

It’s worth remembering that, like the M2 MacBook Air and M2 13-inch MacBook Pro before it, that entry level 256GB SSD, according to reports, again suffers from slower SSD speeds than their last-gen counterparts, using a single 256GB NAND flash chip where previous generations used two 128GB chips for parallel speed benefits. It’s unlikely to bother most users — the SSD speeds won’t come into the equation for day-to-day tasks. But for those with more demanding workloads transferring large files regularly, it’s another reason to consider stumping the cash for the larger storage capacities. By contrast, our 1TB model worked in line with expectations. Using the Blackmagic Disk Speed Test benchmarking tool, I saw read and write speeds north of 4700MB/s, if not higher.

Mac mini (M2, M2 Pro, 2023): Competition

With two notably different configurations, you’ve got two notably different Apple options to consider when looking at the Mac mini.

If you’re looking at the entry-level M2 Mac mini, you could also consider the gorgeous 2022 M2 MacBook Air. It’s a fantastic re-imagining of Apple’s slimline laptop, with improved port selection, internals, function keys and webcam. It’s a delight, but it’s expensive, doesn’t have quite the same port selection as the M2 Mac mini, and is quick to throttle its chip’s speeds and power due to the limitations of its passive cooling set up.

If you’re thinking about the more expensive M2 Mac mini with an M2 Pro chip, and are looking to push its configuration into the high end, you may want to look at the Mac Studio with M1 Max chip. It comes with 32GB of unified memory by default, has higher memory bandwidth, and is better at GPU intensive tasks thanks to its higher GPU core — even if it is technically ‘last-gen’ silicon. But that’s only if compared to Mac mini builds hovering around the $2,000 mark where the Mac Studio becomes a viable (even preferable) alternative, and those looking to max out the M2 Pro Mac Mini spec to that extent are likely to be few and far between.

But what if you’re looking for a similar form factor, but are happy to make the jump to a Windows machine instead? The Intel NUC 11 Extreme can be found in configurations that match (or best) the M2 Pro Mac Mini at a similar price point, in a chassis that’s more like a mini desktop tower. It’s not a like-for-like device, but performance can be configured similarly depending on your budget, and there’s better scope for gaming and upgradability there, too.

Mac mini (M2, M2 Pro, 2023): Should you buy it?

Buy the Mac mini (M2, M2 Pro, 2023) if…

You want power, on a budget.
Whether you go for the base-level M2 option or push for the M2 Pro, the price-to-performance ratio of the 2023 Mac mini is excellent.

You have accessories that you’re happy with.
The Mac mini can be paired with whatever monitor, mouse or keyboard you choose, so you’re not forced to pay extra for devices you don’t need or want.

You work solely at a desk.
Lots of the savings to be made with the Mac mini are due to its deskbound nature — perfect if you don’t need to take your computing tasks on the go with you.

Don't buy the Mac mini (M2, M2 Pro, 2023) if…

You need portability.
Though it’s small enough to move around easily, the Mac mini isn’t strictly portable like a MacBook. Consider that if you want to get work done away from a desk space.

You want future upgrade options.
With components soldered to the board, and no in-store post-purchase upgrade options available from Apple, what you buy on day one with a Mac mini is what you’re left with for the rest of its life.

You want all you need in one box.
For better or worse, this is a BYODKM device, as Steve Jobs used to put it — bring your own display, keyboard, and mouse, which needs to be factored into the overall price if you don’t currently have them. And you may run into headaches if you don’t opt for Apple’s (pricey) first-party options during the initial set-up. For those people, a MacBook or iMac may still be a better option.

Mac mini (M2, M2 Pro, 2023): Verdict

The 2023 Mac mini range is a real win for Apple. The different pricing and configuration options plug the gaps in Apple’s computing range effectively, putting access to macOS in a suitably-powered new machine at an accessible price point, while also offering sensible upselling options to those with more to spend in need or more ‘oomph’.

With a bit of a RAM boost, the M2 Mac mini is easy to recommend, but it’s the M2 Pro Mac mini that, unsurprisingly, is the most exciting introduction here. So long as you don’t need to take your computing sessions on the go, the M2 Pro Mac mini puts serious power at your disposal, in a beautiful form factor at a price that feels fair. It’s a stretch to say that anything a premium manufacturer like Apple makes is ‘a bargain’, but in the case of the M2 Mac Mini and the M2 Pro option, calling it a bargain might just about be justified.

Earlier this week Apple unveiled a new Mac Mini, just as we’d been expecting it to. That Mac Mini came with a brand new M2 chip, as predicted. But it also came with a surprise. A chip beyond. An M2 Pro.

Previously, Apple reserved the M1 Pro for its MacBook Pro which meant that the Mac Mini had to make do with the standard M1. The same went for the 24-inch iMac and the 27-inch model, as well. The less said about that the better at this point. Will it come back? Who knows? I certainly wouldn’t want to put any money on it at this point.

The only other desktop Mac (if we ignore the Intel-only Mac Pro) is the Mac Studio — a machine that sits at the high end with M1 Max and M1 Ultra chips inside. The result? The only way to get an M1 Pro was to go MacBook Pro. And that sucked.

A tweak short of a fixed problem

Apple has now fixed that conundrum by putting its second-rung chip into something that you don’t have to move around to get the best out of. An M2 Pro Mac Mini makes a ton of sense.

Or at least, it does until you get to the price. At $1,299 before you add options, it’s an expensive proposition. Despite the fact that the M2 Pro chip has proven to be quite the performance monster.

It’s great that the M2 Pro exists in something that you put on a desk and leave there and there might even be an argument for making it an option for Mac Studio buyers, with its many ports and even better cooling system. But there’s a case for putting it somewhere else that I think makes even more sense.

The kind of sense that could sell a ton of Macs to people who need something powerful but don’t want something they can take with them but do want something with a screen built into to it.

Introducing the M2 Pro iMac

Apple should put the M2 Pro into the iMac. There, that’s the article. You can probably skip the rest. But hang around for a moment and let me explain.

To expand slightly, it just makes so much sense, for two main reasons.

The iMac is in dire need of something a little more capable. The iMac Pro seems to be dead, at least for now, and the M1 24-inch iMac is cool and all, but nobody would accuse it of being a powerhouse. The M2 chip won’t change that when it eventually lands in a refreshed model, probably with some even less lovable colors. What the iMac needs is a little more oomph for people who want the iMac look but need to get a little more done.

The M2 Pro would definitely achieve that and it would do it, again, with extra space for cooling. The silent iMac would remain, but with more capability and support for up to 32GB of RAM. It’s the kind of Mac that just makes sense in lieu of an iMac Pro busting at the seams with an M2 Ultra. Who knows, maybe that’s just around the corner.

The second reason an M2 Pro iMac makes sense is purely a financial one.

The Mac Mini has historically been the entry-level Mac. The cheaper option for people who just want a box to put on their desk that runs macOS. Apple’s $100 price reduction on the base model of the M2 Mac Mini helps ensure that factor remains. But more than doubling the price with the M2 Pro changes that dynamic. It almost feels like it’s encroaching on Mac Studio territory, and that’s no good.

But the iMac. That’s a different thing entirely and it’s much more able to carry the price bump of an M2 Pro chip that will offer the power some iMac owners crave — and then some. And because it’s got a 24-inch display attached, the higher price just feels more reasonable. Maybe Apple could even eat some of that M2 Pro price because it’s in a more profitable Mac, or one that likely sells more at least.

M2 Pro and beyond

All of this is to say that the M2 Pro Mac Mini should have had a display installed and called the new iMac. It’d be nice if that display got a little bigger, perhaps, but we can’t have everything with Apple. For now, I’ll just take the current 24-inch iMac with the new Mac Mini inside. Isn’t that what the iMac has been all along anyway?

Now imagine a 27-inch iMac with an M2 Max or M2 Ultra inside. That would truly be the best Mac for a whole load of people. And Apple surely remembers how popular the 27-inch 5K iMac used to be.

Apple finally got around to announcing new MacBook Pro and Mac mini hardware this week after months and months of rumors. But it turns out they were much later than you might think.

We’d originally been told to expect Apple to announce the M2 Pro and M2 Max MacBook Pro notebooks toward the end of 2022, but that obviously didn’t happen.

Now, we have what looks like the best proof yet that Apple had planned to ship these Macs last year — and that proof is Apple’s own video.

Done by the date

Apple released its new products via a press release earlier this week but also shared a new video on its website that effectively offered a mini-event format announcement. But as some eagle-eyed viewers saw, that video was uploaded to Apple’s servers in 2022.

Case closed.

It still isn’t clear why Apple chose not to announce these new Macs in 2022 as was initially planned, but it’s possible that some development hurdles needed to be overcome in terms of those new M2 Pro and M2 Max chips. Apple also still has to iron out the M2 Ultra, while it’s said to have canned plans for an M2 Extreme chip.

Whatever the reason, the new Macs are here now. Or at least they will be once they ship to the public next week. We’re still expecting a new Mac Pro to join them within the next few months, finally refreshing Apple’s best Mac with its custom silicon.

Apple also released new HomePod hardware today. The updated $299 speaker will go on sale next month and features new temperature and humidity sensors. Apple will also enable those same sensors in the HomePod mini via a software update set to arrive next week.

The new MacBook Pro and Mac mini are quite boring for anyone who wanted anything flashy today, and that's exactly what we should be happy about.

Earlier today, Apple announced the next generation of the 14-inch MacBook Pro, 16-inch MacBook Pro, and Mac mini. For anyone who was expecting a redesign, new displays, or a touchscreen Mac, they all left disappointed. Both the MacBook Pro and Mac mini retained the same design as their M1 predecessors and all of the upgrades to both members of the Mac lineup were underneath the hood.

For the new 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pro, the laptop was upgraded with the new M2 Pro and M2 Max processors, up to 96GB of unified memory, up to 22 hours of battery life, Wi-Fi 6E, and support for 8K displays. The 2023 Mac mini was also updated with the M2 and new M2 Pro processor, support for up to three external displays, 32GB of unified memory, support for an 8K display, and Wi-Fi 6E.

While some left today disappointed, especially if they have been waiting for a major update for a while, incremental upgrades are something that the Mac community deserves.

Incremental Mac upgrades are a good thing

While today's updates don't involve anything flashy that you can see, it's important that Apple release incremental upgrades to the Mac lineup on a regular basis. Many Mac users remember the days of Intel Macs skipping years of chip generations before receiving an update. Professionals would languish with old Macs, waiting much too long for an update to ever grace their particular machine of choice.

The eventual update would, of course, be more exciting when it actually rolled around. However, the flashy new Mac would be seen as a missed opportunity for anyone who just bought the outdated one before its launch.

With the 2023 MacBook Pro and Mac mini models, Apple has established a two-year product cycle. I'm really hoping that Apple makes this the regular cycle for the entire Mac lineup. With the M-Series of Apple silicon, the company has the ability to control getting new processor generations into its Macs more quickly.

In addition, smaller upgrades like the ability to support more memory, new connectivity options, and incremental upgrades to battery life are all quality-of-life improvements that, while small with each generation, add up to huge advancements over time.

Apple has been launching incremental upgrades across its other product lines for years, most notably the iPhone and Apple Watch. We have yet to go a year without a new generation of either and such a frequency of launch has kept both product lines in line with or ahead of the competition. The Mac is deserving of the same treatment and we all stand to benefit from the company realizing that.

The new MacBook Pro and Mac mini might be boring, but they're exactly the kind of half-step upgrade Apple should keep doing for the Mac. We deserve it!

If you were disappointed by the lack of a design change with the 2023 Mac mini, it sounds like you're going to be just as disappointed with next year's model.

Earlier today, Apple unveiled the latest generation of the Mac mini. The new model includes the company's M2 and brand-new M2 Pro processor, support of up to three external displays, and a new starting price of $599. The new Mac mini does not, however, include any sort of design change whatsoever.

While some surely hoped that maybe next year would feature the mythical form factor change we all want for the tiniest Mac, supply chain analyst Ming-Chi Kuo is seemingly pouring some very cold water on those hopes.

In a tweet, Kuo said that "my new prediction for next new Mac mini is similar to the one I made about ten months ago. I think the new Mac mini in 2024 will likely remain the similar form factor design."

The 2023 Mac mini will have to do

Since it sounds like we'll have to wait until at least 2025 for a redesign to the Mac mini, it sounds even less possible that Apple will even bother with one. The company has already redesigned the iMac, MacBook Air, and MacBook Pro as it brought Apple silicon across its Mac lineup, but the Mac mini has remained the same. It seems that the company may have decided there just isn't much to do with a form factor that is already beloved.

So, the 2023 Mac mini will just have to do. The new generation brings the M2 Pro processor to the Mac mini for the first time, unlocking support for three external displays, 32GB of memory, support for an 8K display, Wi-Fi 6E, and a 40% boost to the Neural Engine's processing. 

Greg Joswiak, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Marketing, said that “with incredible capabilities and a wide array of connectivity in its compact design, Mac mini is used in so many places, in so many different ways. Today, we’re excited to take it even further with M2 and M2 Pro. Bringing even more performance and a lower starting price, Mac mini with M2 is a tremendous value. And for users who need powerful pro performance, Mac mini with M2 Pro is unlike any other desktop in its class.”

The 2023 Mac mini is available to preorder now and will launch worldwide on Tuesday, January 24.

Apple this week unveiled its brand new M2-powered Macs for 2023. First up, there's a new M2 MacBook Pro featuring the M2 Pro and M2 Max chips. But perhaps a more exciting update comes in the form of the new Mac mini, which also gets the M2 chip and a fantastic new low price point of $599. 

The M2 Mac mini comes in two configurations, M2 and M2 Pro. The former features an 8-core CPU and 10-core GPU, as well as up to 24GB of unified memory. 

The M2 Pro meanwhile comes with up to a 12-core CPU, a 19-core GPU, and up to 32GB of memory. It's this latter model where things start to get interesting, and confusing when it comes to Apple's Mac lineup. 

That's because Apple already offers a highly-capable (and pricey) desktop in the form of the Mac Studio. With a spicy new M2 Pro processor, up to 8TB of SSD storage, and a 10 Gigabit Ethernet option, the Mac mini fully spec'd out cost you an eye-watering $4,499. Yet for less money, you could get a Mac Studio with a beefier GPU and considerably more interface options, including an SDXC card and more Thunderbolt ports, for just $4,399.

Mac Studio competition

As This is Tech Today's Brandon Lee notes, the Mac mini at $2,899 gets you an M2 Pro, 32GB of RAM, and 4TB of storage. Yet you can get the M1 Max version of the Mac Studio for just $3,199, which is more, but not much more. 

While the M2 Pro might be more advanced in terms of its core internals, the M1 Max probably takes it in terms of raw processing power, and as mentioned the Mac Studio's chassis gets you more connectivity. 

All of this is to say that if you're looking at the Mac mini, you should definitely consider your use case and how much power and performance you need. If you're a true power user looking to edit video, photos, and more, then the Mac Studio might make more sense by the time you've upgraded an M2 Mac mini to your desired spec. 

If you feel like the Mac Studio is the way to go, it's probably worth waiting a bit in case Apple decides to upgrade the Mac Studio to the M2, and whether it brings a new M2 Ultra chip with even more performance. 

Make no mistake, the new Mac mini is a tremendous machine, especially at its base-model spec and price of just $599 ($499 if you're a student), arguably one of the best Macs now on the market. However, as you start to add more performance, the power-to-cost ratio starts to make less and less sense, especially in the shadow cast by its big brother, the Mac Studio. 

The brand new Mac mini with M2 is here, and you can order one today. You can get it in both M2 and M2 Pro forms, although the latter is slightly more expensive. These were the launches we weren't expecting in the Apple press release a few weeks ago, but they are welcome additions to the Mac lineup. These new Mac minis look to be excellent all-rounders at great prices if you're looking to get a new Mac on your desk.

The new Mac mini starts at $599 for the base M2 model, but you can spec it up to $1299 if you choose to go with more powerful specs. That could be as much as 32GB RAM or even an 8TB SSD. This, without any shadow of a doubt, is one of the most impressive Mac minis we've ever seen - if only it looked a little different too.

The question remains, however - from where should you buy one?

Another pair of Macs were released during the press release, and we know where to buy the MacBook Pro with M2 Pro and M2 Max.

Where to order the Mac Mini 2023

• Back to the top^

Apple's stunning new Mac mini is here. While it may look the same as its old M1 predecessor, the new Mac mini sports powerful M2 Apple silicon, and an even spicier M2 Pro option under the hood. 

The new M2 Mac mini can now be decked out with a massive amount of memory and storage to turn it into a desktop powerhouse. Yet thanks to the option of a standard M2 chip, it's also got a $599 budget option that blows the competition out of the water. In iMore's review of the new M2 Mac mini, Editor in chief Gerald Lynch called it "a genuine option not just for those on a tight budget, but anyone looking for a powerful and capable macOS machine." Here's everything you need to know about the new M2 Mac mini. 

• Apple M2 Pro and M2 Max chips: all the details on Apple's latest silicon

M2 Mac mini: Specs

M2 Mac mini: Design

The new M2 Mac mini comes in the same housing as the previous M1 version. As such, it measures 7.75 inches by 7.75 inches, keeping the same low-profile. It's also very short at just 1.41 inches tall. The machine is a little over 2.5 pounds, although that shouldn't matter too much given this isn't a portable machine. Like the old M1 version, the M2 Mac mini has a very small footprint. It also comes with the same cooling as the M1 version. This boasted a reasonable advantage over the MacBook models sporting M1 thanks to improved thermals which is again replicated here. 

M2 Mac mini: Connectivity

It’s only around the back where you’ll find the M2 Mac Mini’s ports and air intake cooling vent. The M2 model features two Thunderbolt 4 ports, an HDMI port and two USB-A ports, alongside a Gigabit Ethernet port (with optional 10GB support), a headphone jack capable of driving high-impedance headphones (much like what was seen with the Mac Studio), as well as a power socket and power button.

The M2 Mac Mini can support streams to two separate displays at once, while also packing in speedy Wi-Fi 6E (twice as fast as previous generations) and Bluetooth 5.3.

M2 Mac mini: Processor

It's the M2 chip inside that’s the real upgrade though. Building on the success of the M1 line-up, it’s not a transformational leap in power over the older model, but a worthy one. The Mac Mini with M2 features an 8-core CPU (four high performance, four efficiency) and a 10-core GPU allowing up to 24GB of unified memory and 100GB/s of bandwidth. By Apple’s reckoning, it’s up to 50 percent faster than the M1 chip in certain scenarios, and ‘5x faster’ than the best-selling Windows alternative, which it pits as a machine with Intel Core i5-CPU and Intel UHD Graphics 730. Compared to the M1, Apple says you can expect:

• Up to 2.4x faster ProRes transcode in Final Cut Pro.
• Up to 50 percent faster filter and function performance in Adobe Photoshop.
• Up to 35 percent faster gameplay in Resident Evil Village.

However, this year the new Mac mini also comes with a spicy M2 Pro option. 

Alongside the new 14 and 16-inch MacBook Pros for 2023, this variant of the Mac Mini marks the debut of the M2 Pro chip. It’s a 12-core CPU (eight high performance, four high efficiency) alongside a 16-core GPU (or an optional killer 19-core GPU), with support for up to 32GB of memory and 200GB/s of memory bandwidth. That’s potentially twice as much as you’d get from the standard M2 chip, and an overall jump of 14x faster processing power than Apple’s last Intel Mac Mini, according to the company’s press release. That’s good for five streams of 8K ProRes 422 video at 30 fps, or up to 23 streams of 4K ProRes 422 video at 30 fps, playing simultaneously.

Compared with the M1 Mac Mini, the M2 Pro offers:

• Up to 2.5x faster graphics performance in Affinity Photo.
• Up to 4.2x faster ProRes transcode in Final Cut Pro.
• Up to 2.8x faster gameplay in Resident Evil Village.

That gaming stat is an interesting one – Apple claims that you’re getting 15x faster gaming performance than compared with its old Intel Mac Mini, leveraging the Metal API and Apple silicon’s efficient performance when working in harmony.

M2 Mac mini: Configuration options, RAM, SSD storage, more

As for configuration options, the M2 Mac Mini starts at $599 for 8GB of RAM and 256GB of SSD storage. Add another $200 dollars for 16GB of RAM, or $400 for 24GB of RAM. 

For more storage, you’re looking at an additional $200 to upgrade to 512GB of storage, $400 for 1TB, and $800 for 2TB. 

It’s another $100 to jump to 10 Gigabit Ethernet too, making the grand total for a fully-specced M2 Mac Mini $1,899. 

We’d imagine however the sweet spot will be a 16GB / 1TB option, which will set you back $1,199. Keep in mind you may need to factor in the price of a mouse, keyboard, and monitor, too.

That entry model however represents a tidy price cut compared to the M1 Mac Mini, which started at $699. So it's a sizeable $100 saving jumping into this generation.

The M2 Pro Mac Mini starts at $1,299 – that’s for a 10-core CPU / 16-core GPU / 16GB memory / 512GB SSD storage / Gigabit Ethernet configuration. If you want to upgrade to the 19-core GPU, factor in an additional $300. If you want 32GB of RAM that’ll be another $400. Storage jumps will cost $200 for 1TB, $600 for 2TB, $1,200 for 4TB, and a crazy $2,400 for 8TB. Add in 10 Gigabit Ethernet as an option and that’s another $100 on top too. So, a fully spec’d M2 Pro Mac Mini would set you back a giant $4,499.

M2 Mac mini: Release date and price

Following a pre-order period (of course), the new Mac mini is officially on sale and can be bought in-store as of its release date, January 24. 

Prices start at $599 for the M2, and $1,299 for the M2 Pro. 

Apple has just unveiled a stunning new Mac mini with all-powerful new M2 and M2 Pro chips, and a new $599 price tag. 

The new Mac mini is the same chassis as the old one, now sporting the all-new M2 Pro chip and the M2. 

"Compared to the previous-generation Mac mini, M2 and M2 Pro bring a faster next-generation CPU and GPU, much higher memory bandwidth, and a more powerful media engine to Mac mini, delivering extraordinary performance and industry-leading power efficiency. Both models feature an advanced thermal system for exceptional sustained performance," the company stated.

The latter makes the device more affordable than ever, starting at just $599. It features an 8-core CPU and up to 24GB of unified memory. It also features 100GB/s bandwidth for memory, and ProRes acceleration for faster video editing in articles like Final Cut Pro. 

The M2 Pro chip has a 19-core GPU, 12-core CPU, and up to 32GB of unified memory. 

The M2 Mac mini also features two Thunderbolt 4 ports, with support for up to one 8K display on the M2 Pro model now available. It also features an upgraded headphone jack and Wi-Fi 6E. 

Oh it's fast

Apple says machine learning on the new Mac mini is 22x faster than on the i7 version of the previous Mac mini in Pixelmator Pro and up to 5x faster than the bestselling Windows desktop, which reportedly runs an Intel i5 chip, Intel UHD Graphics 730, and Windows 11. 

The new Mac mini is available to order from January 17 and will arrive in store on January 24. The Pro version starts at $1,299. With education pricing, you can get the M2 Mac mini for just $499, which is an absolutely phenomenal deal on a desktop Mac with the M2 chip. 

Apple also unveiled a new MacBook Pro with M2 Pro and M2 Max chips options, starting at $1,999. 

Apple's Self Service Repair program already gave people the tools and know-how to fix their portable Macs and iPhones, but now it's also been expanded to include other devices.

After initially focusing on iPhones, the Self Service Repair program branched out to the M1 MacBook Air and all three M1-based MacBook Pro laptops. The entire program recently also went live in some European countries for the first time.

But this latest change adds more options for those who want to be able to repair their products, with the M1 iMac, M1 Mac mini, and Mac Studio added to the list. Those who wish to take their own Apple Studio Display apart can also do that. However, as Six Colors notes, the new additions are only available to those in the United States.

Self service

The Self Service Repair program lets people hire the tools required to complete basic device repairs at home while also giving them official Apple-licensed parts with which to complete them.

The program has come under fire over how huge repair accessories are shipped and the costs associated with that. But for those who want to get their hands dirty with the safety net of genuine Apple repair guides and genuine parts, it's an option that wasn't there all that long ago.

Of course, those who would still prefer to have a professional repair their iPhones and Macs can do that. But, for most people, having the repair by an Apple Store or authorized repair center is probably the best course of action.

People who want to fix their devices can now gain access to Apple parts, tools, and manuals via the Self-Service Repair Store.

Have you ever looked at your M1 Mac mini and wished that it looked more like a Nintendo Wii? No, probably not. But you will after watching this video.

YouTuber Luke Miani definitely thought a Wii crossed with a Mac mini was the way to go, so he set about taking Apple's miniature Mac apart and then squeezing it into the even smaller Nintendo Wii's case. It, as you'd expect, took some work. But the results speak for themselves.

Game-changing

"The other day I was looking at an old Wii and I thought HMM, that looks like about the same size [as the Mac mini] to me," said Miani. "What if I put a Mac mini in there?" So he did.

The M1 Mac mini is already pretty small and powerful, but it doesn't look exciting. Putting it into a Wii's case fixes that, but it also requires some custom fittings as well. Miani had to go about getting a smaller fan and a custom power supply unit to get everything into that case, but the result is a Mac like no other.

As if being able to get your work done on a Wii wasn't enough, Miani also says that the machine plays Wii games, not to mention PS2 and GameCube games thanks to the installed Dolphin emulator. That means this machine is equally at home plugged into a Studio Display in the office as it is a big-screen TV in your living room.

With Apple expected to refresh the Mac mini within months, likely adding M2 chips along the way, we can only hope that we get a case redesign that's half as cool as this one. The Mac mini is already one of the best Macs for a ton of people. Now it's the best Nintendo Wii, too.

Apple recently refreshed its iPhone lineup, followed by its iPad lineup. That leaves out the Mac lineup, which has multiple models due for refresh. Sure, we got the MacBook Air refresh earlier this year, but the MacBook Pro, Mac mini, and Mac Pro are yet to get an upgrade to the next-gen Apple Silicon.

Mark Gurman has now given us a bit of an update about when we could see these new Mac machines. In his latest Power On newsletter, Gurman said that we can expect the MacBook Pro and Mac Mini in the coming months and that the development on the Apple Silicon Mac Pro has ramped up.

Apple Silicon Mac Pro likely to finally arrive in 2023

Gurman gave a bit of insight into what we can expect from the Mac refreshes, too. To begin with, Gurman says that the work on the Apple Silicon Mac Pro is ongoing. He said it won't debut until 2023, but the testing has ramped up. Gurman doesn't have an exact launch timeline for this model, but it will complete the Apple Silicon transition which began in November 2020 and was expected to take two years.

He says the Mac Pro will feature Apple Silicon that is two to four times as powerful as the M2 Max. He sees the Mac Pro getting options of 24 and 48 CPU cores and 76 and 152 graphics cores, and up to 256 gigabytes of memory. Apple is currently testing one with 24 CPU cores (16 performance and 8 efficiency cores), 76 graphics cores, and 192 GB memory, running macOS Ventura 13.3.

Gurman also detailed what we can expect from the new MacBook Pro models. He says, "I’m told that these laptops will come in M2 Pro and M2 Max configurations. The M2 Max will have 12 CPU cores—made up of 8 performance cores and 4 efficiency cores—and 38 graphics cores. It will also continue to come with up to 64 gigabytes of memory. Those options will be available across both screen sizes."

Lastly, is the Mac mini. Gurman says we can expect an M2 Mac mini to get the same version of the chip as the MacBook Air. Apple is also looking at a Mac mini with the M2 Pro chip and has tested the same. All these updates to the best Macs are expected to arrive in the coming months, with November, January, and spring 2023 being the likely release times.

Apple's rumored October 2022 event might not be an event at all, according to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman. Instead, we might have to make do with new products being announced via press release if comments in a recent newsletter turn out to be accurate.

Writing in the weekly Power On newsletter, Gurman says that Apple might choose to go the press release route this year because "none of these new products is a major departure for Apple."

Updates all around

According to Gurman, Apple is ready to announce a number of new products featuring new versions of the M2 chip that were announced alongside the current MacBook Air earlier this year.

• M2 and M2 Pro Mac minis
• M2 Pro and M2 Max 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pros
• M2 11-inch and 12.9-inch iPad Pros

However, Gurman believes that these machines are all about the updated internals and that we shouldn't expect big new announcements. As such, Gurman has been wondering "does Apple really have enough here to make it worth pulling together another highly polished launch event?"

Apparently not. "It seems unlikely. Apple may ultimately end up feeling differently, but I think the company (as of now) is more likely to release its remaining 2022 products via press releases, updates to its website and briefings with select members of the press—rather than via a major iPhone-style keynote."

If Gurman is correct, we may see a series of press releases that announce the updated products next month — possibly with a new update every day throughout the week. We've seen such a cadence before, and it could well happen again.

Gurman has already pointed to 2023 as being the year when Apple finally announces the rumored mixed reality headset. Such a product would require an event, but without it the press release approach could wind up being the way to go — unless there is a design change to the products that we don't yet know about, of course.

Have you bought a new Mac mini to serve as a network appliance? Perhaps it's to store files to your network, or it's going to run a Plex media server and share printers. In doing so, there's no need for a permanent monitor or keyboard/mouse combo. Whatever the purpose of the new Mac, here are the basics of running it without a monitor.l 

Make certain the new Mac mini is properly configured

To set up the new Mac mini for use without a monitor and keyboard/mouse, you'll need to have it connected to, you guessed it, a monitor and keyboard/mouse. You can follow our new Mac setup guide if you need help getting things started. 

In short, have your new Mac mini set up like a regular desktop, ready to go so we can configure some things locally before disconnecting peripherals like the monitor and keyboard.

Screen sharing vs. remote management

Apple offers two methods of remotely connecting to your new Mac mini, screen sharing, and remote management. Screen sharing allows you to connect to the Mac mini and start a session whereby a view of the Mac mini's desktop becomes visible and accessible as if you are sitting right in front of a locally-connected display. Under this scenario, the connection is established via virtual network computing (VNC), so you'll have a direct link to your new Mac mini's desktop. Here you'll be able to install software, reboot, and run updates just like you usually would from a directly connected monitor setup.

Remote management offers the same accessibility as screen sharing and finer-tuned accessibility to the remote Mac. For example, it provides methods for installing, rebooting, and updating remotely connected Macs without direct desktop access and gives remotely accessible system alerts. System administrators typically use remote management in larger companies that want to administer a multitude of hardware from a single location.

In the following example, the focus is on screen sharing.

Turning on Screen Sharing

You must activate screen sharing to use it. Once you've set up this service, you'll be able to remotely connect and install or configure whatever you like without needing a monitor connected to the Mac mini or any of the best Macs.

1. Start System Settings on macOS 13 Ventura (or System Preferences in earlier macOS versions.)
2. Click General.

3. Select Sharing. 
4. Toggle on Screen Sharing. 

5. If you want to connect from a non-macOS computer, click the information icon to the right of the Screen Sharing toggle. 
6. Click the Computing Settings button.

7. Check VNC viewers may control screen with password then set a password for those machines to access the Mac mini.
8. Click OK.
9. If you need to specify certain users to have permission to connect to the Mac mini remotely, click Allow access for and add and remove users as needed.
10. Click Done.

Your Mac mini is now ready to have the monitor and keyboard/mouse detached. Optionally, you can test your connection from a remote Mac before you do so.

Connect to your new Mac mini remotely

On a separate Mac, you'll be able to access Screen Sharing through the Finder.

1. Choose Go > Network from the Finder menu bar.
2. Double-click the Computer Name from step 3 in the "Turn on Screen Sharing" section above.
3. Click Share Screen.
4. Enter your User Name and Password when prompted.
5. Click Sign In.

You'll now see your new Mac mini desktop ready at your command!

Final steps

You can now use the Mac mini's screen-sharing capabilities to continue to make changes and install software. Apple's built-in services like file sharing, printer sharing, and content caching are readily enabled by simply checking the appropriate box under the Share preference panel in System Settings. Once you're done, simply exit the screen-sharing application.

Keep in mind that screen sharing and remote management are an either/or option. If you feel the need to be able to remotely manage your Mac mini with the more advanced toolset under remote management, simply un-check screen sharing and check remote management under the Share panel in System Settings. 

Additionally, ensure that you set the VNC password if you have non-macOS machines to connect to your new Mac mini. Happy connecting. 

A new report from Mark Gurman has hit the headlines, telling Apple fans that they should expect an M2 Mac mini later this year. Per the report, it’ll come with both M2 and M2 Pro options available. Gurman suggests the introduction of this new Mac mini could kill any chances of a future Mac Studio refresh; the death of Mac Studio, if you will. But we aren’t certain that is the case; here’s why.

Let’s look slightly ahead. According to the rumors, we’ve got the new M2 and M2 Pro Mac mini, an updated Mac Studio, and finally a Mac Pro with Apple silicon. Note, that this is unlikely to happen, the Mac Studio probably won’t get a refresh until M3 at the earliest. But we can imagine whatever we want.

There are five chips in this scenario: M2, M2 Pro, M2 Max, M2 Ultra, and M2 Extreme (assuming Apple follows suit and the rumors), and three devices to offer these to each level of consumer. The Mac mini fits your everyday consumer for general computing and lighter workloads (yes, it can handle more, but that’s never been who the Mac mini is for). The Mac Studio remains focused on creatives, and those whose workloads require a little extra oomph, especially in the graphics department. And then the Mac Pro for the pros, those that need the most power Apple can muster up into a device.

That’s exactly what Apple has done and is doing with MacBooks, too. Cast your mind back a few years to the MacBook Air, MacBook, and MacBook Pro line-up. Low, middle high; budget, medium, premium; consumer, advanced, professional. The old-design 13-inch MacBook Pros are plugging this middle gap for now, and reports of the return of the 12-inch MacBook point towards Apple returning to this format. It’s a tried and tested way of marketing a machine to a broad range of consumers, exactly what Apple needs to do.

 Apple’s not turning its back on the Mac Studio 

But why would Apple do this now? Well, we’ve already got the precedent for it. You can order a MacBook with any Apple silicon chip you want. On certain devices, you can still order the previous year’s configuration options. Cynics will say this is Apple using up leftover stock, and perhaps they’re right. But it shows Apple giving customers as many options as possible when it comes to Mac, something that we assume will continue. With an option for every possible use case, there’s no reason not to upgrade or move to a Mac.

Not only do those three categories of people make sense, but it also falls rather naturally. You’ll always have a split of consumers needing different levels of power, and the potential new Mac line-up will cater to this.

Let’s consider price, too. The difference between $699 for the base Mac mini and the current $5999 for the base Mac Pro is quite the jump for most consumers. Nestled right there in-between is once again the Mac Studio, starting at $1999. It fills a potential hole in the Mac line-up, where a $5000 price increase would be too much for most. We go back once again to the idea of budget, medium, premium; or consumer, advanced, professional.

If anything, this is the Mac line-up we want. Gone are the days of limited power options in Mac computers. You’d be able to pick out your Mac’s power like you pick out your spice level at Nando’s. The line-up gives consumers options and allows Apple to show its full range of computing power.

Think of the M2 Mac mini as a step towards the next Mac Studio. It’s starting to bump up the chipset, it will likely add some more I/O, and it will shape any updates to the Mac Studio. Assuming Apple sticks with the current trend, future Mac Studios would continue to offer more functionality, extra I/O, and that all-important extra power. Everything you need in that middle ground, but the everyday consumer might not.

So, no. An M2 Mac mini won’t kill the Mac Studio. Rather, it’ll slot in nicely beside it. Like the new child in a family. We can’t see the Mac range without the Mac Studio, to be honest, and that’s because the device makes sense. Don’t say goodbye to the Mac Studio just yet, we’ve got a feeling you’ll be seeing it again.

A new report says Apple's Mac mini lineup could get a major upgrade this year, but one source reckons that might spell the end of the Mac Studio

In his latest Power On newsletter, Bloomberg's Mark Gurman offered some words about the Mac mini and Mac Studio. However, his comments about the latter are perhaps much more interesting if proven to be correct. 

Gurman expects Apple to introduce two new versions of the Mac mini this fall. These will include M2 and M2 Pro versions of the boxy Mac that was first introduced in 2005. The current Mac mini, one of the best Macs on the market, and Mac Pro are the final two Mac products with Intel inside, although Apple also offers an M1 version. These will be replaced by M2 and M2 Pro versions, respectively.

Previous rumors suggested Apple would eventually reveal an M1 Pro version of the Mac mini. However, with the official introduction of the first M2 chips in June, that's no longer the case.  According to Gurman, no design change for the Mac mini is expected. The current M1 and Intel-based Mac mini are available in silver and space gray, respectively.

The first and only Mac Studio?

About the Mac Studio, Gurman suggests the first-gen 2022 model will be the only version of the premium Mac ever produced. He explains, "The bigger question for me is if the Mac Studio will ever get updated. It gives the impression—and this is just a gut feeling—of being a short-lived Mac because of its price and niche market. I don't see the purpose of having both a Mac Studio and Mac Pro."

The well-received Mac Studio served two purposes when it was released earlier this year. First, combined with the 27-inch Studio Display, it replaced the larger iMac. Second, the introduction gave Cupertino more time to work on an Apple silicon version of the Mac Pro. That version is expected to be announced in the coming months. 

Gurman expects Apple to hold two fall events this year. In September, Apple's likely to reveal the new iPhone 14 series and Apple Watch Series 8. Then, in October, new iPads and Macs should make their debut. 

It's now the second day of Prime Day, which means you've got less than 24 hours to get yourself one of the best Prime Day MacBook deals! We've already seen some great prices on MacBooks over the course of the sale, and they've all stuck around for the second day of the event — including some lowest-ever prices for some very desirable laptops.

Take the MacBook Air models for example, where you'll find some of the lowest prices ever on the likes of the M2 and M3 MacBook Airs. There are some great prices on desktops too, like the M2 Mac mini, and the M3 iMac. This is one of the best times we've seen this year to grab yourself a new Mac, thanks to those low Prime Day prices.

We'll be tracking all the deals as they go live, and then putting them here so that you can find them more easily.

• MacBook deals: Amazon | B&H Photo | Best Buy

Prime Day Mac and MacBook deals live right now

• $200 off MacBook Air M2 13-inch | $999 $799 at Amazon
• $201 off MacBook Air M3 13-inch | $1,099 $898 at Amazon
• $200 off MacBook Air M3 15-inch | $1,299 $1,099 at Amazon
• $200 off MacBook Pro M3 14-inch | $1599 $1,399 at Amazon
• $300 off MacBook Pro M3 Pro 14-inch | $1999 $1,699 at Amazon 
• $400 off MacBook Pro M3 Pro 16-inch | $2499 $1,999 at Amazon
• $120 off Mac mini M2 | $599 $479 at Amazon
• $85 off Mac mini M2 Pro | $1,299 $1,149 at Amazon
• $150 off M3 iMac | $1,299 $1,149 at Amazon
• $100 off Apple Studio Display | $1,599 $1,299 at Amazon

Best Prime Day MacBook Air deals

Best Prime Day MacBook Pro deals 2024

Best Mac mini Prime Day deals 2024

Best iMac Prime Day deals

Best Prime Day Mac accessories

What you need to know

• Reports indicate Apple has a new Mac mini in the works.
• A reference to the unreleased device has been spotted in Apple's Studio Display firmware.
• It could be a more high-end M1 Mac mini, or a new Mac mini with all-new M2 Apple silicon.

A new unreleased Mac mini has been spotted referenced in the firmware of Apple's Studio Display.

As noted by developer Steve Troughton-Smith:

The reference to 'Macmini10,1' seems likely to be an unannounced Mac mini, but as Troughton-Smith notes, it really isn't clear what Apple might be planning.

9to5Mac has previously reported that Apple is planning a new M2 Mac mini with an 8-core CPU and 10-core GPU. From that report:

Ming-Chi Kuo, however, says that Apple's new more powerful Mac mini isn't coming until 2023, having previously predicted it would launch this year before stating it was delayed.

If the latter is true, a new Mac mini could feature the more powerful M1 Pro chip and other new features, rather than a new generation of Apple silicon. However, more power would push the Mac mini into the territory of the new Mac Studio, Apple's most-recent powerful desktop computer.

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.

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.

What you need to know

• A new report claims Apple will release versions of the Mac mini powered by the M2 chip.
• The company will release versions powered by the M2 and M2 Pro processor.
• Apple is rumored to unveil the first M2 processor as soon as this year.

While the Mac mini didn't get any airtime at Apple's "Peek Performance" event, it appears Apple still has big plans for its tiny desktop.

According to a report from 9to5Mac, Apple is planning to release new versions of the Mac mini packed with the unreleased M2 and M2 Pro processor. The M2 chip is reportedly based on the A15 Bionic chip and will include an 8-core CPU and 10-core GPU.

The report also claims that Apple will release a version powered by the M2 Pro chip which will feature a 12-core CPU.

The report says that development of the M2 Mac mini is nearly complete and that the company could announce the new version as soon as this year.

While we have to wait to see what happens with the Mac mini but, in the meantime, we can enjoy the Mac Studio, Apple's brand new desktop computer that the company announced alongside the new Studio Display.

What you need to know

• Apple is rumored to be working on a new Mac Studio machine.
• The Mac Studio is thought to be similar to Mac mini but with more powerful internals.
• No timescale has been given for the product's release.

Apple is reportedly working on a new type of Mac that would sit between the Mac mini and Mac Pro in its desktop lineup. The machine, dubbed Mac Studio, is expected to look similar to a Mac mini but with more powerful internals.

While the Mac Studio name could change, a new 9to5Mac report says that it will upgrade the Apple silicon to one of two possibilities — an M1 Max similar to the MacBook Pro or a new chip that's even more capable. Both are reportedly being tested.

The new machine is said to carry the designation J375 inside Apple and is likely to be aimed squarely at people who want a professional machine but would rather not go the MacBook Pro route.

Bloomberg's Mark Gurman reported in August of last year that Apple was working on a 'smaller Mac Pro' that would be launched in 2022. That could well be this machine being reported on today. If true, we could see as many as 40 cores being offered in what would likely be the upgraded M1 Max chip mentioned earlier in this report.

If all of this comes to fruition we can expect the standard Mac mini to hang around with the new Mac Studio replacing the current Intel i7 Mac mini that Apple continues to sell. No timescales for any of this have been shared, although Apple does have an event planned for next week that is expected to see at least one new Mac announced.

If this machine does ship we can expect it to be the best Mac for a whole ton of professionals that find themselves tethered to a desk.

What you need to know

• The M1 Mac mini is small, but YouTuber Quinn Nelson wanted to make it smaller still.
• Nelson 3D printed parts and created a miniature Mac mini.
• The 16-minute video is well worth a watch from start to finish.

The M1 Mac mini is already pretty small but given the lack of power needed by the Apple silicon inside, not to mention how cool it runs, couldn't Apple have made the whole thing ... smaller?

That's exactly what YouTuber Quinn Nelson wanted to find out so they spent months doing just that — they made the M1 Mac mini a whopping 78% smaller by ripping the Apple silicon out and putting it into a custom 3D-printed mount and then into a custom 3D-printed chassis. And it all works surprisingly well.

The fact that any of this works probably shouldn't be all that surprising given the fact the current M1 MacBook Air doesn't have a fan and is about as thick as a piece of paper sliced in half. But to see it done is still mightily impressive — not least because the whole thing is powered by a Microsoft Surface power adapter and an old MagSafe charger. Yep, you read that right!

I won't spoil any more of the fun — just watch the video to see perhaps the best Mac video you've ever seen. Oh, and the whole thing has those eye-breaking cheese grater-like holes from the Mac Pro and Pro Display XDR, too!

Absolutely amazing, I'm sure you'll agree!