The M4 Mac Mini is Incredible!

The M4 iMac that recently got refreshed is basically the exact same computer, but just in an upright desktop with a non-replaceable display. This starts at $1,299, and it's actually a good deal considering you can use the $700 difference to get whatever screen you want. However, if you're someone who thinks Apple's known for building a price ladder, they're trying to get you to climb as high as possible with their products. The base Mac mini has 256 gigs of storage, which is fine for many people, but if you plan on working with a lot of media or video, you'll find that the upgrades to the storage and networking will cost a significant amount of money.

For example, upgrading from the base model to get 1 terabyte of storage costs $400 more. And if you want to do some wired networking, bumping it up to 10 gig ethernet costs an additional $100. For the price of just those upgrades, you could almost get another entire Mac mini. This is why I'm specifically saying that the base model is such a good deal. In fact, if you're lucky enough to have a .edu email address right now, the student discount drops it down to $499, which is sick. However, once you know you're going to need to upgrade to get more memory or other features after purchasing, it becomes a normal deal.

The third and final crazy thing about this Mac Mini is that the maxed-out version has a case for the best portable workstation Mac. This doesn't apply to everybody, as I'm coming from someone who used to drag an iMac Pro in a Pelican case through the airport to events because it was the fastest editing machine that I could reasonably travel with, and it actually made sense for me at the time. Coming from that perspective, this new Mac mini is sick. The Mac Studios, on the other hand, are not upgraded to M4 yet, they've all got the M2 generation, which also applies to the iMac, which is still on the M2 generation but without the Pro chips.

In contrast, the maxed-out Mac Mini has an M4 Pro chip, which is the most powerful single core CPU that any desktop Mac has ever seen. The Mac Pro and all of them top Geekbench's all-time list, though it's way more GPU stuff that actually bumps up when you go from base to Pro to Max to Ultra. When you look at GPU benchmarks, the most powerful Mac Mini with the M4 Pro is putting up M1 Max numbers, which shows how much these generations over time have been improving and stacking on top of each other.

I've been editing videos on an M1 Max laptop for three years now on the MacBook Pro, so this Mac mini feels like one of those impossibly small computers that Apple's always kind of wanted to make. It's not just a minor upgrade from the previous model; it's actually a major step forward in terms of power and portability.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: en(box clunks)(tape tearing)(chilled lo-fi music)(wrap rustling)(upbeat electronic music)- So usually, one crazy thingabout a new piece of techis enough to get my attention,just something out ofthe ordinary about it.But this new Mac minihas three things about it that are insane.So instead of having an event this year,Apple decided to do a bunchof press releases in a rowfor the last week of Octoberto update their whole Mac lineup to M4.And one of them was for this new Mac mini.Now, a lot of us might not givetoo much thought to the Mac mini,like, yeah, maybe itholds an important placeas the most affordable Mac,but if you're not buying one,you're not really thinkingabout it too much.But the number one most insanething about this refresh is,well, I mean look at it, it's tiny.It is absolutely tiny.Apple's gone through and redesignedbasically all of their computers nowthat have gotten the Mac silicon update.Well, except this one,this is the same design as a while ago,but the Mac mini was kind of technicallyoverdue for a redesign.And the new one, it actuallykinda looks a little bit morelike a shrunken Mac Studiothan a shrunken old Mac mini.But it's now a five inchby five inch footprintand two inches tall.I'll say that again, a five byfive by two desktop computer.Now I like small desktops,and yes, you could get atiny desktop computer before,there's plenty of amazingmini ITX build videosall over the internet thatI've watched for years.They're sick.But there's levels to this,there's small computers andthen there's tiny computers.And this Mac mini is smallerthan my R5 with a lens on it.It's smaller than a new roll of duct tape.It's smaller than thefootprint of the new iPhoneand barely bigger than theabsolutely tiny Apple TV.Apple's seemingly had this obsessionwith making certain computersas small as possible,even before Apple silicon came along.So this has just kind ofunlocked another level for themto push it even further than ever before.Yeah, there are fans in here,but there are also ports on the back.Gigabit ethernet by default,full size HDMI is still here.And then three Thunderboltports on the backand then there's twoUSB-C 3 ports on the frontplus the headphone jack.So still no SD card reader.And there's obviously now no more USB-A.If you tried to buildor buy another computerto match this thing,you will either end up building a computerthat's just as small butnowhere near as capable,or a computer that's just as capable,but nowhere near as small.It is just a hilariouslyunnecessarily tiny computer.It's great.I would also like to starta new conspiracy theory.I would like to use this videoto start a conspiracy theory.I think that there is someonewhose job it is at Apple,someone whose sole purpose(sinister mysterious music)is to come up with one obnoxiousthing to complain aboutfor every new Apple product redesign.Like this is the person thatput the notch on the iPhone.This is the person thatput the charge portat the bottom of the Magic Mouse.And this person's best work is right hereon this new Mac mini,putting the power buttonon the bottom of it.Like, why?There are so many betterplaces to put a power button,like at the front or the side,or literally anywhere on the back,like all the other small Mac desktops.Or at the top. Thatwould've been fine too.But no, they chose behind the back corner,which is (sighs) just...I mean, I don't usethat button very often.I don't really turn the Mac onand off with a button almost ever.I might sleep it and wake it back up,and maybe every couple of weeks,I'll have to remember thatthe button's back there.But yeah, it's just dumbenough to get memed onand complained about withoutactually being an issue.Well played, guy.But yeah, you know, thetypical consequencesof a computer getting smallerare battery, speakers, and thermals.There's just less roominside for those things.Battery of course doesn't make a hugedifference on a desktop, who cares?Speakers, kind of thesame thing, who cares?And thermals have been redesigned in a waythat seem to be working just fine.This thing hardly gets over a peep.If you do heavy stuff,the single fan spins upand you can hear it, butit's always been quiet,sitting on the desk,you can hardly hear it.So then the number two insanething about the new Mac miniis that the base model is kindof an incredible deal now.No, like I don't think you understand it.I think it's actually oneof the best deals in tech.It's certainly the best out of anyof Apple's new productofferings right now.And I mean, I'm kind ofnot used to saying it,but it is a really good deal.So this base M4 Mac mini costs 599, right?So for that, you get the basecomputer with the M4 chip,which has quietly doubledto 16 gigs of unified memoryinstead of eight from before.So the 10 core CPU and the 10 core GPU.Now we're four generationsinto Apple siliconand the gains areactually kind of startingto stack up versus M1.We already know it was a huge differencefrom the Intel chips, but Iactually wanna get a little bitmore into that in the MacBook Pro reviewbecause I've been usingan M1 Max MacBook Profor three years since it came out.And the M4 Max is the first onethat's actually tempted me to upgradebetween generations of Apple silicon.It's really interesting.So get subscribed andstay tuned for that videowhen it comes out.But the main thing you need to know isthis base M4 chip is great,it's super solid and power efficientat everyday normalactivities like web browsingand music streaming andmultitasking like crazy.And it can handle whatI think I would callmedium-grade activities very easily.Not heavy stuff likegraphically-intensive gamingor a heavy video editing,but pretty much anything short of that.This could be a codingand developing machine,this could be a photo editing machine.Pixelmator runs like a dream.And fun fact, Apple just boughtPixelmator, interestingly.But yeah, just havinga ton of Arc tabs open,stuff like that, like justrunning around, multitasking,it runs like a dream, it's great.It's as good as you'd expectthe world's fastest singlecore performer to do.So yeah, Mac mini, you know,four years, like I said,it has been the most affordable Mac,the sort of entry point foranyone to get into Mac OS.But this year with thedoubling of the base memory,it just feels like aparticularly good deal.Think of it this way,the M4 iMac that also just got refreshedis basically the exact same computer,but just in an upright desktopwith a non replaceable display.That starts at $1,299.So you can use that $700 differenceto kind of get whatever screen you want.Now, you can obviously alsoupgrade from the base Mac mini,but I don't think youshould, and I'll explain why.See, Apple is known for buildingwhat I've called a price ladder,and they're just trying to get youto climb as high as possible.They do this across all their products,but there's basically alwaysa really tempting upgradesitting right above the base model.And then when you spend that money,you're kind of right underneathanother tempting upgrade,and then they kind of walk you up,trying to get you to spendas much money as possible.It's really smart, they do it with iPhonesand with iPads and with everything else.This base Mac mini, I'mtelling you is a good deal,but it only has 256 gigs of storage.And many people are fine with thatand they can live with that, that's great.But if you know you're gonnabe working with a lot of media,a lot of video,then you start looking atupgrades to the storage,and that's where you'llfind that walking it upto a terabyte costs 400 more dollars.Or if you plan to dosome wired networking,bumping it up to 10 gig ethernet costs100 more dollars on top of that.for the price of just those upgrades,you could almost get anentire nother MAC mini.It's crazy.Like basically, across the board,Apple's upgrade pricing ispretty crazy with this computer,which is why I'm specifically sayingthe base model is such a good deal.And actually if you're lucky enoughto have a .edu email address right now,the student discount drops itdown to 499, which is sick.But once you know you'regonna be doing upgradesto the pre-purchase spec,which you have to know before buying it,'cause you can't upgradeit after the fact,all the memory, everything is built in,then it becomes more of a normal deal.I do wanna say this though.So the third and final crazything about this Mac Miniis that the maxed out version has a casefor the best portable workstation Mac.Now this doesn't apply to everybody.This is coming from me,someone who used to drag aniMac Pro in a Pelican casethrough the airport to eventsbecause it was the fastest editing machinethat I could reasonably travel with,and it actually made sense for me.So coming from that perspective,this new Mac mini is sick.So looking at the Mac Studios,those aren't upgraded to M4 yet,they've all got the M2 generation.And it's also not gonna be the Mac Pro,which is also still on the M2 generationand obviously not portable.The iMac is on M4,but there's no Pro chips, soit's just the base M4 chip.So this Mac mini is the easiest wayto pack an M4 Pro chip with youand just throw it in atravel bag super easily.An equivalent spec'dMacBook Pro with M4 Prostarts at $2,000,which is actually anotherdecently good dealas far as performance.But if you don't need a laptopor if you just wanna plugand play into monitors wherever you go,1399 gets you the M4 Pro Mac mini.And that upgrade also getsyou the back Thunderbolt portsbeing Thunderbolt 5instead of Thunderbolt 4.So it can support three 6Kdisplays instead of two.So I've had and beentesting the M4 Pro herewith 48 gigs of memory,and fun fact, if you run throughsome synthetic benchmarks,this runs up the highest CPUscore of any desktop Mac ever.That includes the Mac Proand the Mac Studios and all of them.This is by far the mostpowerful single corewe've ever seen by a lot.And then Multi-Core just barelytops Geekbench's all time Mac list,though as we know, CPU doesn'treally bump up all that muchwhen you go from baseto Pro to Max to Ultra,it's way more GPU stuff.And so when you look at GPU benchmarks,the most powerful Macmini here with the M4 Pro,it was putting up M1 Max numbers,which again, shows how muchthese generations over timehave been improving andstacking on top of each other.I've been editing videoson an M1 Max laptopfor three years now on the MacBook Pro.So this Mac mini feels likeone of those impossibly small computersApple's like alwayskind of wanted to make,even before Apple silicon.Like you probably remembersome of their earlier attempts,like the \"Trashcan\" MAC Pro,no doubt, they wanted do something crazy.They wanted to put aworkstation-class computer on the deskcooled by a single fan.We saw how that went withthe Intel chip inside,or even some of thoserazor thin i9 MacBook Prosthat started having overheating issues.But now that Apple siliconhas gotten this goodand this efficient over time,they're actually able tomake tiny, powerful computerslike the Mac Studioand now like this littleMac mini over here.Nobody was asking for theMac mini to be even smaller,except for those peoplein the Spaceship Campussomewhere in California.Well played.Well played.Thanks for watching.Catch you guys in the next one. Peace.(chilled electronic music)\n"