Apple’s Mac Mini desktop computers have had a rocky decade. The tiny desktop computers have had a bit of a cult following, but Apple went four years without updating the Mac Mini before releasing a new model in 2014.
Now the company is giving the Mac Mini a refresh that’s at least as significant.
The new 2020 Mac Mini is the first desktop computer powered by an Apple M1 SoC, and the company says that means you can expect a major performance boost — but the new model is also cheaper, with a new starting price of $699.
The new Mac Mini is available for purchase starting today, and begins shipping November 17, 2020.
Among other things, Apple says the move from Intel to Apple chips means that you can expect:
- Up to 3X faster CPU performance
- Up to 6X faster graphics performance
- Up to 15X faster machine learning
The new model also features two Thunderbolt 3/USB 4 ports with support for 40Gb/s data transfer speeds as well as an HDMI 2.0 port. That means you can connect a 6K display and a 4K display and drive them both at the same time.
Other features include two USB 3.1 Gen 2 Type-A ports, a headphone jack, Gigabit Ethernet port, and support for WiFi 6 and Bluetooth.
The MacBook Mini measures 7.7″ x 7.7″ x 1.4″ and weighs about 2.6 pounds. It is not fanless, and instead features an active cooling system that you’ll probably be glad it has if you plan to use the computer for gaming, graphics editing, or other tasks that require sustained performance.
Sad to see the 16GB RAM limit, I upgraded my 2018 Mini to 32 (which was an extremely delicate operation, about 3X as hard as any laptop upgrade I can think of). I guess we can hope that the M1 will run cooler at least.
I like that they have gone back to the Silver color and the price is back to much lower like these used to cost!
Wow great update. I noticed on the Apple website photo that they have removed the Display Port (which my current Mac Mini does have). Is DP EOL?
Jeez I’m wrong, I just checked and my Mac Mini has 4 thunderbolt ports, no Display Port. LOL
No, DisplayPort is done through the Thunderbolt 3/USB-C ports according to the tech specs on Apple’s website.
StarTech makes USB-C-to-DisplayPort cables, like the CDP2DPMM6B, but you might check Apple’s site in case they offer one.
Looks very cool, I wonder how well this will benchmark against a Ryzen 4700u SFF system. I expect this will be over $1k when a 1TB SSD and 16GB of ram are selected. It’s great to see a new SFF box.