Extend / Apple’s M2 Professional Mac mini. Andrew Cunningham Apple hasn’t up to date its Mac mini desktop lineup since early 2023, when it added the M2 and M2 Professional chips and dropped the most recent Intel fashions. Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman says the drought will finish later this yr, when the mini will leap from the M2 to the M4, which he reported again in April. However the mini will include greater than new chips: it’ll additionally get a brand new, smaller design, which Gurman says will probably be nearer to the Apple TV field (in reality, he says it is usually a little taller, however have a way smaller footprint). The brand new Mini can have “3 USB-C ports,” in addition to an influence connector and an HDMI port. That is Apple’s first redesign of the Mac mini design because the authentic aluminum unibody fashion used to be launched in June 2010. This fashion additionally incorporated a SuperDrive DVD burner, one thing Apple neglected of later fashions when optical drives turned into to be had. needless, however the M2 Mac mini has the similar design because the Core 2 Duo Mac mini that used to be presented ten years in the past. Intel and different PC producers were liberating computer systems smaller than the Mac mini for years, beginning with Intel’s (discontinued, then discontinued) NUC desktops and multiplying from there. Usually, those methods can save house via incorporating an exterior energy brick, whilst the mini has been the usage of built-in energy. However Apple TV, which could also be powered via Apple Silicon chips and has an inner energy provide, mentioned it’s imaginable to make a smaller machine with out compromising its design. Even supposing the design is converting, Apple’s way to the Mac mini stays the similar. There will probably be a base fashion with the Apple M4 processor constructed into it, and an upgraded fashion with the M4 Professional because of be launched to lend a hand bridge the space between the low-end mini and the high-powered Mac Studio. If the brand new mini has much less ports in comparison to the present fashions, it is usually a differentiator, even if we imagine it’ll proceed to incorporate sufficient USB-C ports to beef up more than one exterior screens at the side of different units. Gurman does not know if Apple will alternate the pricing of the Mac mini to head with the brand new design, although he thinks the brand new mini “could be inexpensive to make.” The brand new Mac minis are mentioned to be to be had via the tip of the yr, even if the M4 Professional fashions could also be introduced or launched later than the preferred M4 fashions. Gurman says new iMac and MacBook Professional fashions with M4 chips might be launched “as early as this yr,” whilst M4 MacBook Airs will wait till overdue 2025, and Mac Studio and Mac Professional desktops may not get replaced till “the center of subsequent yr.” The M4 chip used to be presented on this yr’s iPad Professional refresh, simply months after the release of the M3; this used to be the primary time that Apple’s M-series processors had been used for the rest as opposed to the Mac.
