The New Mac mini
Julie Broms, Apple’s Senior Manager of Hardware Engineering, took the stage to unveil the dark horse in the race to Apple Silicon, the Mac mini.
While Apple sent out Developer Transition Kits using Macs mini earlier this year, those packed in the A12Z chip of Apple’s 2020 iPad Pro, and were never intended to be final versions. In fact, developers are effectively renting them, and will likely be returning them to Apple now that the first actual M1-equipped Macs are available.
In the case of Apple’s new Mac mini, however, Apple has not only packed in all of the power of its latest M1 chip but it’s actually dropped the entry-level price to make its ultra-compact desktop Mac even more affordable.
The end result is that compared to the quad-core Intel-based Mac mini, the new M1 version gets three times faster CPU performance and a six times increase in graphics performance. As Broms notes, it’s a tenth of the size of the top-selling desktop PC in its range, and yet it’s five times faster
That’s not even counting the machine learning improvements, either, which offer a boost of up to 15 times for ML-based workloads, thanks to the M1’s Neural Engine.
Unlike the MacBook Air, however, it looks like the Mac mini will still pack in a fan, although Apple notes that the advanced thermal design and the M1’s lower power requirements will mean that it kicks in far less often than it did in the Intel version.
The new Mac mini also offers a pair of USB-C ports that support Thunderbolt and USB 4, along with an HDMI 2.0 output, Gigabit Ethernet, and Wi-Fi 6 support, and it can drive Apple’s Pro Display XDR at full 6K resolution.
The new Mac mini starts at $699 — $100 less than the previous Intel version — although it looks like you’ll only be able to get the Apple Silicon one in silver; Apple is still continuing to sell the Intel Mac mini in Space Grey.
You can preorder the new Mac mini starting today, and it’s expected to arrive in stores next week.