New Mac Mini To Feature Significant Redesign
Apple Inc. is planning a new version of the Mac mini that will be its smallest desktop computer yet, part of a broader overhaul of the Mac line with AI-focused chips.
The new model — due later this year — will mark the first major design change to the mini since it was revamped under Steve Jobs in 2010, according to people with knowledge of the matter. The device will be far smaller than its predecessor, approaching the size of an Apple TV set-top box, according to the people, who asked not to be identified because the work is secret.
The Mac mini gets about as much of Apple’s attention as it deserves, given its niche appeal and proportionally low sales. The redesign cadence seems to be on the order of once a decade. But when its time comes, it is nevertheless an exciting moment.
The original Mac mini had to accommodate the size of the slot-loading optical disc drive that featured on its front. The drive went away with the 2011 revision, and the chassis got thinner as a result, but its width stayed the same. In the absence of any other design change in the intervening fifteen years, we fast forward to the present day and the size of the Mac mini is still fundamentally defined by the diameter of a physical storage medium that has been long since abandoned.
The anachronistic nature of the design is further exacerbated in the era of Apple silicon. At least with the Intel models, the internal space was mostly filled with a big motherboard, heatsinks and fans. But with M1 and later, the actual computer innards only take up about 40% of the machine’s volume. There’s a lot of wasted, empty space inside.
With the M4-generation redesign, it is finally time for the Mac mini’s physical appearance to catch up to the state of the art of the technology inside it.