The week of announcements promised by Apple does not contain any big surprises for the moment. After the presentation of its new and colorful iMac with M4 chip, it is the Mac mini’s turn to enter the scene this Tuesday. A new computer that, under its powerful and latest chip, gains in possibilities, but that offers many more new features.
Although it was rumored, it is now official. The Mac mini 2024 has never lived up to its name more. It drastically reduces its size to get closer to the format of an Apple TV. This goes from a square with a side of 19.7 cm to 12.7 cm, a little more than the TV box (9.3 x 9.3 cm).
Even more power and flexibility
This computer case is now made from 50% recycled materials and is proudly presented by Apple as its “first carbon-neutral Mac.” Also review your connections to increase the possibilities, like what Mac Studio offers, but on your own scale. There are two USB-C ports on the front with a jack to plug in your headphones. On the back, the Mac mini definitely no longer has a USB-A socket and opts for three USB-C ports, an HDMI socket and an Ethernet port with a speed that can increase up to 10 Gbs.
Its small format does not prevent the Mac mini from having a fan to prevent overheating. And that will be necessary to support the power of the M4 chip that now equips it to replace the M2 chip. Apple promises a performance gain for photo processing, video editing or resource-intensive applications (development, 3D, music, etc.), even video games.
It must be said that the Mac mini, like the rest of the new range, must also support the future functions of Apple Intelligence, now available almost everywhere and in France, but in English for the moment. A compact device, also easy to transport or configure with 6K screens for greater comfort at work and that will also ascend to the high-end segment.
Because Apple even enhances its Mac mini with the possibility of offering it equipped with the M4 Pro chip that appears for the occasion. This opens up other perspectives for the minicomputer. The model with the M4 Pro chip inherits more CPU cores (12 vs. 10) or GPU cores (16 vs. 10), with 16 cores so the Neural Engine can handle even more simultaneous operations, particularly with AI, and unified memory which goes up to 24 GB. Its USB-C ports on the back switch to Thunderbolt 5 (up to 120Gb/s for transfer speeds) and the Mac mini can support up to 3 displays.
Compared to the previous model with the M2 Pro chip, the Mac mini promises to be twice as fast. It is offered at 699 euros with 256 GB of storage and 16 GB of RAM in M4 to reserve from today and will be available on November 8 (from 1,649 euros for the Mac mini M4 Pro).
Source: BFM TV
