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Mac Mini Marvel: Unpacking Apple's Latest Innovations
Mar 11, 2025
Discover the groundbreaking features of Apple's new Mac Mini, powered by the M4 chip. From design to performance, we cover everything you need to know. #macmini #appleinnovation #techtalk More Apple news: http://www.cultofmac.com Follow us! Threads: https://www.threads.net/@cultofmac Mastodon: https://mastodon.social/@cultofmac Instagram: https://instagram.com/cultofmac/ X: https://x.com/cultofmac Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/cultofmac
View Video Transcript
0:00
Apple unveiled the radically redesigned
0:01
Mac Mini on Tuesday with versions
0:03
powered by the M4 chip and a new M4 Pro
0:06
chip this new design looks far more mini
0:09
than before it's only 5 in by 5 in the
0:13
entry-level model with M4 gains two CPU
0:16
cores and doubles the built-in memory
0:17
from 8 to 16 gigabytes according to
0:20
Apple PR compared to quote the
0:22
bestselling PC desktop in its price
0:24
range uh the Mac Mini is up to six times
0:28
faster and 12th the size uh I think that
0:32
six times faster figure comes from video
0:34
editing which is you know popular metric
0:36
for these machines it's you know usually
0:38
what what they're thrown in to do the M4
0:41
Pro now has an extra few CPU and GPU
0:43
cores uh 14 and 20 respectively the pro
0:46
GPU is twice as fast as the entry level
0:49
one you know the GPU you get much more
0:52
linear increase and like return on
0:54
speeds when you just double the number
0:55
of cores uh with the M3 generation it
0:59
seemed like Apple was like repositioning
1:01
the pro chip to be a little less Pro and
1:03
closer to the entry level model but I
1:05
think with the M4 generation it looks
1:07
like they've gone back this this new Pro
1:09
chip it looks incredible to me I'm
1:12
wondering what your thoughts are on that
1:13
that Earth fun because I know that you
1:15
know when the M3 lineup of MacBook Pros
1:17
came out last year like this was this is
1:19
a a common complaint yep yeah that it's
1:23
funny I was thinking about this
1:24
yesterday and I think we actually
1:26
predicted this was going to happen cuz
1:28
last year was the year of the Mach right
1:30
like the max chips were the ones that
1:31
were insane people were I think
1:34
completely justified in their
1:35
disappointment on the um the M3 Pro
1:40
chips because uh Apple I think took away
1:44
cores across the board they didn't
1:45
really seem that powerful in fact in
1:47
many respects they were less powerful
1:49
than the previous Pro chips and now this
1:52
year everyone's forgotten what Apple
1:54
took away they're giving something back
1:55
and this year I totally agree I think
1:57
it's the pro chips that are the best
1:59
upgrade
2:00
and the Mac chips or the max chips have
2:03
more meager upgrades right they toss in
2:05
a couple extra cores for the CPUs some
2:08
extra cores for the GPU you know the
2:10
performance increase is definitely good
2:12
across the board but I think the value
2:14
proposition this year definitely the pro
2:16
chips and for most people the max chips
2:19
have have gotten to be so Bonkers that
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this is like the first year that I think
2:23
I'm actually I'm looking at the best uh
2:27
M4 Max chip that's available and I'm
2:29
like I really actually don't think I
2:30
would ever need this much power for what
2:32
I do like it it would actually be a
2:34
waste of money I'm getting ahead of
2:36
myself I I already answered your
2:37
question and I'm already getting into
2:38
the um the MacBook Pro so I'll send back
2:40
just increase the number of pro chips
2:42
from the M3 they increase the number of
2:44
pro chips compared to the M2 so like
2:46
it's it's it's a big increase when
2:49
you're comparing like mac Min to Mac
2:50
Mini because the Mac Mini skip the M3
2:52
generation yep uh the neural engine is
2:54
three times faster than the M1 Pro I'm
2:57
pretty sure like they they have the same
2:58
exact neural engine across the entire
3:00
lineup so they kept throwing out this 3x
3:02
faster number like because it's the same
3:05
neural engine in all of them I don't
3:06
think I me I guess the max chip would
3:09
have oh no it would be the ultra chip
3:11
that would have double the neural engine
3:13
performance so that would be 6X but you
3:15
know it's not what we're talking about
3:16
today the M4 Ultra what is that that
3:18
doesn't exist um yeah it it doubles the
3:22
maximum amount of memory to 64 gabt
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compared to the M2 Pro uh and 75% faster
3:28
memory bandwidth
3:30
interestingly although both the Mac Mini
3:32
and the MacBook Pro have the M4 Pro chip
3:36
the Mac Mini has a higher Ram ceiling
3:38
than the MacBook Pro with the same chip
3:41
the Mac Mini gets up to 64 but the
3:43
MacBook Pro only goes up to 48 that's
3:46
interesting okay yeah uh the base model
3:50
drops usba but it has more ports overall
3:53
retaining ethernut and HDMI a lot of
3:55
people were wondering if they're gonna
3:57
have to drop those those larger ports
4:00
when they're when they're shrinking down
4:01
the size but uh they increased the
4:03
number of ports and now it has three
4:05
Thunderbolt four ports on the back and
4:07
two usb3 ports on the front uh the pro
4:10
model has Thunderbolt 5 on the back did
4:12
any of us think Thunderbolt 5 was going
4:14
to happen at all not on my um not on my
4:16
bingo card yeah so now it can power
4:19
three 6K displays at 60 htz transfer
4:23
data at 120 gbits per second twice the
4:26
speed of Thunderbolt 4 I think if you
4:28
also just do one display you can do an
4:29
8K display at 120 HZ which is just
4:34
insane uh here's a controversial
4:37
decision the headphone jack is moved
4:40
from the back to the front which does
4:42
make it easier for plugging in
4:44
headphones but a huge pain in the ass
4:46
for plugging in speakers personally with
4:48
my Mac Mini like I I've talked about
4:50
this before on the show I have a giant
4:52
speaker that sits beneath my desk so my
4:55
headphone cable like runs behind my desk
4:57
and just like you know plugs right into
4:58
the back of my Mac men
5:00
what am I supposed to do if I were to
5:02
get the new one like route the cable
5:04
around the front that would you're going
5:07
to hate my suggestion get a
5:10
do it's a it's a desktop computer it
5:13
shouldn't need a dock like may maybe I
5:14
mean maybe if you have like a a one of
5:16
those fancy displays that has like you
5:18
know audio routing through the display
5:21
you could plug it into the display get
5:22
get a uh get a USB earth like a a USBC
5:26
audio adapter see that maybe I mean look
5:30
you can buy the one they make for iPhone
5:32
headphone jack just empty on the front
5:34
just like but see here's the thing it's
5:36
for headphones right so yeah I to me I
5:40
was I didn't understand the controversy
5:42
I was like why would you not want the
5:43
headphone jack on the front it's for
5:45
headphones if you want to use
5:48
speakers I don't know how many people
5:49
use speakers with their Mac Mini uh and
5:53
especially doing it with an actual audio
5:56
jack that goes into a headphone um or an
5:59
audio cable that goes into a headphone
6:01
jack that seems like a rather rare use
6:05
case I could be totally wrong about that
6:06
but everybody should have something
6:08
plugged into their Mac Mini because the
6:09
speakers that come in it are truly
6:12
garbage I get better audio like from an
6:15
iPhone 7 sitting on my desk than the
6:17
than the speaker coming at the Mac Mini
6:20
maybe the new Mac Mini has a better
6:21
speaker but they didn't talk about it
6:22
like I don't know yeah I mean the fact
6:25
that even I didn't even know it had a
6:26
speaker at all so it actually has a
6:27
speaker in it it does yeah I mean pretty
6:30
good so so it's already usable I mean it
6:32
may not sound great but it's airon it's
6:36
barely usable if I mean I'm not saying
6:38
you're going to listen to Spotify on it
6:39
but like if you wanted to watch a
6:40
YouTube video or something or you want
6:42
to hear audio from your browser like you
6:45
can do that even that is a major upgrade
6:47
over most PCS because you know PCS don't
6:49
have speakers built in unless you have a
6:50
laptop or something so I don't know it
6:53
doesn't seem like it it's that
6:55
insurmountable of an obstacle it's like
6:56
you could literally spend 20 bucks and
6:58
buy the adapter they make for iPhone and
7:00
your problem will be solved do do you
7:02
have a
7:03
drill I do have a drill yeah welcome
7:06
back
7:08
desk uh I wouldn't I SP just thread it
7:10
right through there I spent a lot of
7:12
money on this desk I I wouldn't I
7:13
wouldn't tarnish this desk uh let's see
7:16
it's the first Mac that's carbon neutral
7:18
so they finally figured out how to make
7:20
something other than one model of Apple
7:22
watch carbon neutral that's nice uh the
7:24
base the price on the base model is
7:26
still 5.99 uh I think the pro version is
7:29
a little bit higher at
7:31
$33.99 but you know it's still a great
7:33
value for what you're getting especially
7:34
considering how awesome that Pro chip
7:36
is yeah man I wish I had a reason to
7:39
need this if I didn't need something
7:42
portable this is the Mac I would buy
7:44
especially because I had the studio
7:45
display this is kind of like the perfect
7:48
machine for video editing it's such a
7:50
great price it's such a tremendous value
7:53
I it's really all I need and I think for
7:55
most people that's probably true
7:56
although I think the iMac is a great
7:58
machine for those people that don't
7:59
already have screens but dude talk about
8:03
uh a great value it's
8:06
just I can't man I I I really do need
8:09
something portable and this is the
8:12
reason why I bought the Mac Studio and
8:13
then ended up selling it because I it
8:15
just sat on my desk and I don't want to
8:17
be tied to my office I wish I wish that
8:20
weren't the case for me but for those of
8:22
you that don't have that same need this
8:25
is really the best Mac that I think you
8:28
can get for the price and a order of
8:32
magnitude um an order of magnitude in
8:36
improvement over any other maon that
8:38
we've ever had like this is the best
8:39
that the Mac has ever been by an order
8:41
of magnitude maybe is a better way of
8:42
saying that like the the the amount of
8:44
improvements that you get here are just
8:47
really tremendous for the price that you
8:48
have to pay
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