Just Right: Three Months with the M4 Mac mini

The Mac mini turned 20 this year. It’s a notable milestone for the diminutive, but powerful computer. The Mac mini, when released in 2005, was Apple’s attempt to introduce a new, affordable Mac into the line-up—the key word there being affordable as the success of the iPod had given Apple new life and the will to claw market share away from Windows PCs. The mini was a smash hit when it debuted.

Since that time, the Mac mini line has seen many ups and downs; the lowest point was undoubtedly the four year gap between 2014 and 2018, where the pint-sized Mac went with nary a single hardware update. That it has lasted for two decades as a product in Apple’s lineup is a testament to the Mac mini’s popularity—and the appeal of an affordable Mac.

I’m no stranger to the Mac mini, but I was a bit late to the game in owning one. My first Mac mini was the Intel i7 model, released in November 2018. It was purchased to replace an aging early 2008 model Mac Pro “cheese grater” tower. At the time, I spec’d my Mac mini with 32GB of RAM, 256GB storage, and 10Gb Ethernet. For extra graphics power, I relied on an external eGPU.

It served me well for several years, but then came the siren song of the new M-series processors. Though I was tempted to upgrade, I held out. I skipped the M1 and M2 versions, with the intent to upgrade to a new Mac mini when Apple released a new M-series processor.

So, when Apple surprised the public with a redesigned M4-series Mac mini in early November last year, I immediately ordered one. Though the entry level Mac mini with 16GB RAM and 256GB of storage is priced at a very tempting $599—cheaper than an iPad Pro!—I wanted a bit more headroom for my professional tasks. Below are the specs I ordered:

• M4 Processor with 10-core CPU, 10-core GPU
• 24GB RAM
• 512GB storage
• 10Gb Ethernet

Total price: $1099. That’s quite a bit of computer for under $1100.

This iteration of the Mac mini is notable due to its completely overhauled case design. Many comparisons have already been made between the M4 Mac mini and its big brother, the Mac Studio. Indeed, the mini does look like a shrunken down version of the Studio, and I happen to like the family resemblance.

Weighing in at only 1.5 pounds and occupying a footprint of only 5″ x 5″ x 2″, the mini instantly attracts those who either love minimalist workspaces or love tiny gadgets—or both. But others might look at the small size and base model processor at the heart of this machine and doubt its capability as a Mac for professional work. In my experience, this couldn’t be further from the truth.

Despite its even smaller footprint (when compared to its nearest ancestors), the M4 mini has a full compliment of ports.

On the back are three Thunderbolt 4 ports, one Ethernet port, one HDMI port and a power port. And, for the first time ever, the M4 mini includes two front-facing USB-C ports and a headphone jack. The front ports are a welcome addition – I use them regularly. (When you upgrade to a mini spec’ed out with an M4 Pro chip, Apple bumps up the Thunderbolt 4 ports in back to Thunderbolt 5 ports.)

When configuring my M4 Mac mini, I elected to upgrade from the stock 16GB to 24GB of RAM. Design applications are memory intensive, and more is always better.

Why not spec it up to 32GB, you ask? Part of my decision was dictated by a conscientious effort to stick to my self-imposed sub-$1,000 budget. The real nuts-and-bolts truth of the matter, however, is: Apple’s memory and storage upgrade pricing are a tad north of “exorbitant”.

Despite my initial concerns, I have no regrets in my decision to move down from 32GB on my Intel Mac mini to 24GB on the M4 Mac mini. Heavy, processor-intensive apps like Adobe Premiere and Photoshop practically fly on this machine, even when I’m juggling work between both apps. Rendering a 4K, 10 minute video in Adobe Premiere takes the M4 Mac mini 10 minutes. The same file, on my Intel Mac mini took upwards of 30 minutes.

The only spec upgrade that felt reasonably priced, in my view, was the $100 bump for the faster 10Gb Ethernet port. I transfer large files between the computers in my home on a regular basis; electing the faster network connectivity option for the Mac mini was a no-brainer.

This begs another question: Why not go for the M4 Pro?

While the M4 Pro version base model includes 24GB RAM / 512GB of storage and three Thunderbolt 5 ports, it also starts at $1,400. The extra speed of Thunderbolt 5 is certainly tempting, but here is where I’ll re-state that I had a sub-$1,000 budget to work with. However, pulling the trigger on the M4 Pro Mac mini will provide a fair bit of future proofing your workstation and the OWC Thunderbolt 5 Hub and Envoy Ultra serve as a couple of extra reasons why you might want to make the extra investment.

I opted for 512GB of internal storage to store my applications and macOS, knowing that 256GB was just too small for the applications I’m currently using. All of my computer’s data resides on external drives, connected via Thunderbolt 3 to an OWC ThunderBay 4. File transfer is more than fast enough. All in all, it’s a rock-solid setup.

As a power user, my computing experience requires more ports than the M4 Mac mini provides. Thankfully, adding a Thunderbolt hub is easy.

The M4 Mac mini runs cool to the touch, even when under load; I have yet to hear its fans spin up, even when rendering footage via Adobe Premiere. The same cannot be said for the Intel Mac mini, which runs so hot you can boil an egg on it. (Not recommended, of course.)

My M4 Mac mini drives three displays, thanks in part to the built-in Thunderbolt 4 ports and my Thunderbolt 4 hub. They are:

• a Dell 27″ 4K display
• a Wacom Cintiq 27QHD tablet monitor
• a 10″ Pimaroni display (which sits inside a Mac SE/30 case)

Video performance is excellent, thanks to the M4 processor’s built-in GPU cores. As one would expect, it’s an “orders of magnitude” improvement over the paltry U630 Intel graphics chipset in the 2018 Mac mini.

Much ado has been made concerning the location of the M4 Mac mini’s power button. Unlike earlier models, the M4 Mac mini’s power button is on its underside, positioned in the rear, left-facing corner. Personally, placement of the power button is a non-issue. The mini sits on my desk; it’s easy enough to access the power button, if need be. I’ll go one step further and state that the power button placement makes a lot of sense, if you plan to VESA mount the computer to a display.

Don’t get me wrong: I really like the M4 Mac mini, but it’s not perfect. While I do appreciate the inclusion of a front 3.5mm audio jack, I really wish Apple had also included a rear-facing audio jack. I use external speakers with my machine; I’m not wild about the audio cable poking out from the Mac mini’s front. (An external hub can address this issue, as many of them include 3.5mm audio jacks in their compliment of ports, but still…)

Over the past three months, I have been using my M4 Mac mini diligently for my creative work, which includes a mix of writing, design, illustration and video editing. In that time, I have had zero issues with the machine. The M4 Mac mini has been both stable and performative, belying its small form-factor. The time and energy I am saving with the M4 Mac mini leaves no doubt that upgrading from the Intel Mac mini was the right decision.