The next Mac mini is said to have the most significant redesign of the M4 Mac lineup.
Apple’s week of announcements will start with two versions: the 24-inch M4 iMac and a redesigned Mac mini, according to a new report. M4-powered versions of the 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pros will also be announced.
Apple has been announcing new Mac or Mac-related products all week, and now bloomberg According to Microsoft, the company plans to standardize its entire Mac lineup on the M4 family of chips by late 2024 or early 2025. This is the first time this has happened since the company started using its own Apple Silicon processors.
The reason is that Apple wants to be able to run Apple Intelligence technology on all modern devices. This is also the reason behind the RAM increase to 16 GB, which could become the new base standard for all future models.
These improvements provide many benefits to users beyond Apple Intelligence. The two anticipated Mac mini models powered by M4 or M4 Pro chips will be able to handle ray tracing for the first time, significantly boosting graphics performance.
All-new M4 Mac mini
Previous rumors suggested that while the Mac mini and other Macs would gain significant power and graphics upgrades with the M4 chipset, only the Mac mini would receive a significant redesign. This is the first time since January 2023.
According to current reports and speculation, the Mac mini will be significantly smaller than the current model. This could be achieved by making the current design thinner or by adopting a “round black box” design similar to the Apple TV hardware box.
The USB-A port is likely to be dropped completely, making room for up to five USB-C ports alongside inputs like Ethernet and HDMI. Recent rumors suggest a smaller Mac Studio-like design, with two of the USB-C ports on the front of the device and the rest on the back.
The new Mac mini offers a much more powerful Neural Engine despite its smaller size. The M2 used in the current Mac mini was rated for up to 15.8 trillion operations per second (TOPS), but the M4 more than doubles that to 38 TOPS.
Benefits of all new Mac models
This advancement means a significant increase in processing power across all Mac models. In comparison, the M3 chip reached 18 TOPS.
Apple hopes that the significant increases in RAM and processing power will motivate customers still using the latest Intel-powered Macs, as well as early M1 and M2 adopters, to migrate to M4-class machines. Masu.
The 24-inch iMac will still have the base M4 chip, while the MacBook Pro lineup will have a higher-end M4 chip option. MacBook Air with M4 is expected to arrive in early 2025, and Mac Studio will be upgraded around spring 2025.
As for the Mac Pro, Apple will likely announce the next version at its WWDC conference in June, but it’s unlikely to ship before fall 2025.
