Apple announced the redesigned Mac mini with M4 chip last October. It’s by no means a new product at this point, and it’s nearly a year old. However, I think it may be one of Apple’s greatest gifts to up and coming creators, developers, and all sorts of creative professionals.
Compute has gotten cheaper
It’s no secret that Apple Silicon has enabled Apple to ship far more performant chipsets in lower end machines. Before the transition to Apple Silicon, a MacBook Air being able to edit 4K video sufficiently was nothing but a dream. Wanted to compile an Xcode project on your lap with an Intel MacBook Air? Good luck.
Apple Silicon, in a way, made Macs much more affordable. You no longer needed a 16″ MacBook Pro, for example, to get a high-end chipset in a laptop. On top of that, certain Macs straight up became less expensive. The 2018 Mac mini used to start at $799, and it lowered to just $699 with the M1 model. With the M2 model, it became $599.
I know a lot of people who used to buy high end 15″ and 16″ MacBook Pros in the Intel days, who were now able to get away with a MacBook Air with a couple RAM and SSD upgrades. It’s a great thing.
The new Mac mini takes high end performance at an affordable price-point to a new extreme. It equips 16GB of RAM by standard, which was previously a $200 upgrade. The M4 chip is also incredibly performant – and all of this is available in a package that you can purchase for just $479 with early Black Friday deals.
Wrap up
In short, this computer is an incredible gift to any aspiring developers or creative professionals. Back when I bought my first Mac in 2019, if you wanted something for ~$500, you wouldn’t get more than a dual core processor, and you certainly wouldn’t be getting it brand new.
The barrier-to-entry to get into the Mac ecosystem is as low as it’s ever been. That’s something worth appreciating.
M4 Mac mini is currently on sale for $479 on Amazon in the 256GB/16GB configuration, $669 for 512GB/16GB, $869 for 512GB/24GB, and $1199 for an M4 Pro with 512GB/24GB. These are the lowest prices seen to date.
One last cool thing about the M4 Mac mini is the fact that it has removable SSDs. This allows you to upgrade your storage without paying Apple’s high upgrade prices, if you’re willing to open up your computer. Some third party SSDs are already on the market, and you can watch us install one of them on our YouTube channel.
Check out exclusive free trials for Apple services:
Follow Michael: X/Twitter, Bluesky, Instagram
FTC: We use income earning auto affiliate links. More.
