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Apple's smallest-ever Mac mini drops the M4 chip into a 12.7 cm aluminum cube — 10-core CPU, 10-core GPU and a 16-core Neural Engine, with Thunderbolt 4, front-facing USB-C and Wi-Fi 6E. It starts at 16GB of unified memory and idles at around 5 watts.
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Quick Specs
A tiny, near-silent M4 desktop that delivers serious performance and value — the easiest Mac to recommend.
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| Form Factor | Compact desktop (mini) |
|---|---|
| Dimensions | 12.7 × 12.7 × 5.0 cm |
| Weight | 0.67 kg |
| Material | Aluminum unibody |
| Power Button | Underside (rear-bottom corner) |
| Color | Silver |
| Audio | Built-in speaker, 3.5 mm headphone jack |
| Chip | Apple M4 |
|---|---|
| Process | Second-generation 3 nm |
| CPU Cores | 10-core (4 performance + 6 efficiency) |
| Neural Engine | 16-core |
| Media Engine | Hardware H.264, HEVC, ProRes, ProRes RAW |
| Architecture | 64-bit ARM (Apple silicon) |
| GPU | 10-core Apple GPU |
|---|---|
| Ray Tracing | Hardware-accelerated (2nd gen) |
| Mesh Shading | Hardware-accelerated |
| Neural Engine | 16-core, up to 38 TOPS |
| Display Support | Up to 3 external displays |
| Unified Memory | 16GB (default) |
|---|---|
| Memory Options | 16GB / 24GB / 32GB |
| Memory Bandwidth | 120 GB/s |
| Storage (base) | 256GB SSD |
| Storage Options | 256GB / 512GB / 1TB / 2TB |
| Upgradable | No (memory and SSD soldered) |
| Front Ports | 2× USB-C (USB 3, 10 Gbps) |
|---|---|
| Headphone Jack | 3.5 mm (front) |
| Rear Ports | 3× Thunderbolt 4 (40 Gbps), HDMI |
| Ethernet | Gigabit (10 Gigabit option) |
| Wi-Fi | Wi-Fi 6E (802.11ax) |
| Bluetooth | 5.3 |
| HDMI | Up to 8K at 60Hz / 4K at 240Hz |
| Power Supply | Built-in (internal) |
|---|---|
| Idle Power | ≈ 5 W |
| Cooling | Active single-fan |
| Noise | Effectively silent at light load |
| Operating System | macOS Sequoia |
Configuration
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The 2024 Mac mini is the most complete small desktop Apple has made. The M4 chip handles browsing, code compiles, photo libraries and 4K video editing with ease, and the redesigned 12.7 cm chassis is genuinely pocket-of-the-desk small while staying near-silent. Moving the base configuration to 16GB of unified memory finally makes the entry price feel honest. The fixed trade-offs — soldered memory and storage, pricey Apple upgrade tiers and that awkward underside power button — are real, but for most people this is the easiest Mac to recommend and one of the best-value desktops on the market.
Tiny box, huge performance
Replaced an aging tower with this and it is faster at everything while taking up a fraction of the space. Xcode builds fly and it stays completely silent during normal work. The front USB-C ports are surprisingly handy for plugging in drives.
Excellent value, mind the base storage
16GB as standard makes the entry price genuinely good for a Mac. My only regret is sticking with 256GB — it filled up fast with a photo library and a couple of VMs. If I bought again I would pay for 512GB up front since you cannot upgrade later.
Perfect little home server
Running it headless as an always-on machine. It sips power at idle, the Thunderbolt 4 ports drive a fast external SSD array, and Gigabit Ethernet has been rock solid. The underside power button is a bit fiddly but you rarely touch it.
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The base model uses the Apple M4 with a 10-core CPU (4 performance + 6 efficiency cores), a 10-core GPU and a 16-core Neural Engine, built on a second-generation 3 nm process. A higher-end Mac mini with the M4 Pro chip is sold separately.
It starts at 16GB of unified memory, configurable to 24GB or 32GB, and 256GB of SSD storage, configurable up to 2TB. Both the memory and the SSD are soldered to the logic board, so you must choose the configuration you want at purchase.
No. The unified memory is part of the M4 package and the SSD is non-user-replaceable, so neither can be upgraded after purchase. Pick your memory and storage carefully when ordering.
The front carries two USB-C ports (USB 3, 10 Gbps) and a 3.5 mm headphone jack. The rear has three Thunderbolt 4 ports (40 Gbps), HDMI and Gigabit Ethernet, with a 10 Gigabit Ethernet option available as a build-to-order upgrade.
The chassis measures 12.7 × 12.7 × 5.0 cm and weighs about 0.67 kg — roughly half the footprint of the previous Mac mini. It idles near 5 watts and the fan stays effectively silent during light work, ramping up only modestly under sustained load.
No. Like every Mac mini, it ships as the computer only. You supply your own display (it drives up to three external displays), keyboard and mouse, connecting them over Thunderbolt, HDMI, USB-C or Bluetooth 5.3.
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