Apple Mac mini (2024)

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There was a time, not long ago, that Apple’s Mac mini desktop computer was the cheapest way to gain entry into the world of MacOS, one that didn’t sacrifice power or the company’s iconic chic appeal. It also seemed that Apple, and its users, seemed to enjoy their secondary status as the platform for serious creators and artistic types, loyal enthusiasts content to create content as Windows users dominated the Wild West of unpredictable hardware.

But then the iPhone happened, and then the iPad, and if you wanted to develop for these new digital gold mines you needed to have a Mac. For millions of Windows developers there was no better deal to pick up an Apple computer than the Mac mini. For a while, anyway.

In reality, Windows machines weren’t just cheaper, they were often “faster”, using cutting-edge tech that outpaced considerably more expensive Apple hardware. Years of price increases (and years of uncompetitive hardware) meant the old argument that Apple computers “were just better” was becoming specious at best, and the ubiquity of popular software (Adobe, Pro Tools, etc.) meant Macs simply weren’t the value proposition they once were. Even earlier minis, once an economical way to access MacOS, began to look archaic next to speedier and more capable competitors.

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This is where the newly redesigned 2024 Mac mini comes in. Only the second redesign in the lineup’s history, it’s a smaller, more powerful option that promises to change the conversation about exactly who Macs are for. Those already entrenched into Apple’s MacOS ecosystem, due to workflow realities or personal preferences, won’t be the target audience here as upgrading to a newer, more powerful PC isn’t even a question. Those wanting another iterative upgrade, more powerful specs and tech, should find the new Mac mini exactly what they’re looking for.

As such, this review is going to focus solely on the least expensive entry-level 2024 Mac mini, the one retailing for $599. Yes, this is technically the “least impressive” hardware configuration of the bunch, but it’s also the most exciting because of what it does offer. Power users wanting (or needing) faster tech can opt for a version sporting a faster M4 Pro chip, more RAM, a bigger hard drive, faster Thunderbolt ports, faster Ethernet, more cores… you’ll be getting more but paying a lot more. Maybe this is you, and if that’s the case, everything in this review applies, only more so.

What this updated Mac mini does is give users an incredibly versatile desktop computer that is smaller yet more powerful, yet somehow cheaper. This isn’t the formula we expect from Apple, but then again this doesn’t feel like an upgrade for the Mac faithful but a new entry point for A.) Windows users looking to either switch from Microsoft’s platform or access Mac-only programs (i.e. Final Cut Pro) or B.) creatives (artists, musicians, devs, etc.) with pre-existing workstations wanting to add a powerful Mac desktop to their mix but don’t want to break the bank.

TLDR

The 2024 Mac mini isn’t just another small form-factor PC, but one that feels like the first real demonstration of what the future of desktop computers is going to look – and perform – like. In short, the 2024 Mac mini is the cheapest, most powerful, and best small form-factor PC you can currently buy. Well, if you want your “PC” to be a Mac, that is.

Design + Hardware: Excellence in Mini

There’s no getting around the fact that the 2024 Mac mini is a stunner. While previous models have always been “mini”, this update sheds both inches and ounces to create the smallest Mac ever. Measuring just 2″ x 5″ x 5″ it’s noticeably smaller (yet slightly taller) than its predecessors, but at just 1.5 lbs it’s a whole pound lighter than before. On the bottom is the familiar circular bump that allows the mini to circulate airflow efficiently (and quietly), so make sure you place yours in a properly ventilated area. Its uniform body is encased entirely in recycled aluminum, making this Apple’s first-ever carbon neutral Mac. While they share a similar design, the new Mac mini makes the “older” Mac Studio look obese in comparison.

And then there’s the mini’s size and standardized aesthetics, meaning there’s a world of mini-specific add-ons and accessories just waiting to be designed. It may not have garish RGB lighting, but is that really a bad thing? The possibilities seem endless. Clearly, the 2024 Mac mini was designed to sit on your desktop where it can be seen and admired.

This streamlining extends to its port selection, now present on both the back and front. On the back are three Thunderbolt 4 ports (both Thunderbolt and USB 4 up to 40Gb/s), single HDMI and Ethernet ports, as well as the power plug. On front are two USB-C ports (USB 3 support up to 10 10Gb/s) and a single 3.5 mm headphone jack. Noticeably absent are any USB-A ports, which feels necessary yet disappointing, and something I’ll get into more below. Speedy WiFi 6E (802.11ax) and Bluetooth 5.3 let you connect wirelessly to the internet and peripherals, both managing strong and lag-free connections during my testing.

Easily the most contentious design change to this Mac mini is the power button placement, now located on the underside of the upper left corner. Whether this will be beneficial or a hindrance is entirely subjective, but I do wish Apple had found a more practical placement for it. The only other hardware feature worth mentioning is Apple’s trademark built-in speaker, which is there if you need it.

A look under the hood reveals a mighty mini, indeed, as the 2024 Mac mini touts Apple’s latest silicon chip, the M4 processor, and it’s a doozy. This is a 10-core GPU (4 performance cores and 6 efficiency cores) built to handle everything from basic tasks to intensive processing duties, and it does so with flying colors. Elsewhere the mini comes with 16 GB RAM and 256 GB of internal memory running on a speedy SSD. Yes, this is a paltry amount of storage and won’t be enough for most users, so you’ll definitely want to add an external drive if you plan on being productive. The beefier, the better.

One major improvement the M4 boasts over previous Apple silicon is how it handles multiple monitor output, fixing an embarrassing oversight with support for up to three external displays. How many monitors and what resolutions / refresh rates they’ll run at, however, is the real question. This can seem confusing, but Apple posted an explanation page to help, so best to do your homework before getting too excited. But for most users the answer is simple: yes, the 2024 Mac mini is capable of running your multi-monitor setup again. Huzzah!

I’m not going to bother about listing benchmarks here (you can find much, much better efforts elsewhere) but in my real-world testing let me just say this: the base 2024 Mac mini is incredibly fast at everything I threw at it. Apps installed fast, opened fast, and performed even faster. Did I mention how fast this mini is? Web browsing, emailing, texting, managing photo galleries, video editing, and playing media were all lightning fast, and that’s just using Apple’s base apps.

Things get even better when switching to popular software because that’s probably where most users will spend their time, and where the mini excels. Memory-sucking web browsing (hello, Chrome), docs and spreadsheets, editing big files in Photoshop, managing audio projects with Audacity, recording podcasts…you name it, the mini does it well. The only outlier of the bunch was gaming, which I’ll get into much greater detail below.

It’s worth mentioning that only under the most intense workloads did the mini get warm to the touch, but never hot. Occasionally the fan would audibly whir, though never really loud, but only when really pushed to the max. Again, that such a small computer could process so much data so efficiently, and so quietly, is pretty remarkable.

Converting to Mac

This review isn’t going to focus on MacOS, the operating system powering the latest Macs, now labeled Sequoia. It’s a wonderful platform that’s easy to use, has great support, and is powerful enough for work and play. There’s a reason why Macs earned a reputation for being safer and more reliable than Windows, and that’s mostly true.

Those migrating from Windows needn’t worry; chances are very good that pretty much every program you love or need will be available, in one form or another, including Microsoft Office, Skype, Zoom, Spotify, Discord, Adobe Creative Suite, Chrome and Firefox browsers, Google Docs, Audacity, VLC, etc. The list is endless, so you’ll have no excuse for not getting any work done. Heck, you can even virtualize Windows on the Mac mini using software like Parallels, should you need to.

Even if you don’t own or subscribe to any additional software, minutes after booting up for the first time nets you pretty much everything you’ll need to get stuff done. Apple provides a great browser (Safari), great apps for mail, calendar, reminders, contacts, full support for iMessage, a decent office suite (iWork), FaceTime, iMovie, etc. You can even mirror your iPhone directly on screen with Sequoia, which was fantastically useful.

Those looking to transition from Windows to MacOS (or hoping to build the ideal workstation with the Mac mini) should be aware of a few caveats that can make the process stickier, but not impossible. Reports show an overwhelming majority (roughly 90 percent) of all Mac users opt for a laptop, meaning the vast majority of Mac computers (including the MacBook Air, MacBook Pro, and iMac) come with everything you need out of the box; displays, keyboards, webcams, speakers, trackpads, etc.

Everything else, including the Mac Studio, Mac Pro, and Mac mini, are all BYOA (bring your own accessories) computers, making desktop Macs a minority within a minority. The reality is most accessories and peripherals still use the popular USB-A connector, which the mini doesn’t have, so it’s likely your keyboards, mice, webcams, printers, external drives, etc. won’t plug in directly. For now, it’s best to accept that most computer peripherals have been designed with Windows users in mind, from branding to functionality, but most should work relatively fine.

Unless you plan on adding endless dongles, you’ll want to invest in a solid dock (Thunderbolt or USB-C), or at least a decent hub with USB-A ports to spare.

This discordance can sometimes extend to software, too, and this can severely affect how your Mac plays with hardware designed for Windows. For example: I have a nice display (a QLED MSI monitor) that uses MSI’s proprietary software (the horribly named Gaming Intelligence) to make changing settings, customization, and managing different profiles WORLDS easier than using a clicky button and endless tapping. It’s also necessary for updating the monitor’s firmware. Sadly, the software isn’t available for the Mac, nor is there any workaround.

More to this, MacOS handles smaller things like display scaling (which allows you to increase the size of text and elements without changing the resolution), which newer versions of the MacOS don’t readily support anymore. This can make UI elements like text and images look fuzzy when running on higher resolution displays. Unless you have an external monitor specifically built with the Mac’s internal resolution (300 DPI) in mind, you might have to lower your resolution or use software (like BetterDisplay) to “trick” your display into scaling elements without losing all that valuable real estate.

Decades of legacy Mac software out there means not everything has been updated to run on Apple’s newer silicon, and to get around this newer Macs use Rosetta, a small software package that converts software designed to run on Intel-age processors to run properly. Don’t worry, as it’s a tiny one-time installation and largely works in the background. As more developers take advantage of Apple’s new processors we’re going to see this become less an issue.

Apple Intelligence

At the time of this review Apple Intelligence wasn’t fully available yet, and still required signing onto a waiting list to join Apple’s AI-powered revolution. When fully deployed there will be a suite of writing, image, and search tools promising to change how we interact with our Apple machines. The 2024 Mac mini is fully capable of taking advantage, and I was able to try out a few functions for myself, namely with writing tools and images.

Writing tools is exactly what it sounds like, AI-powered writing tools that let you “fix” your words, summarize messages, or streamline whatever you’re writing. Honestly, I’m not sure how I feel about any of this, but the popularity of spellchecking and apps like Grammarly prove that I’m probably in the minority. Given how popular Macs are in college, though, this feature might be hell on English professors.

I wasn’t able to test Image Playground on Mac, though if it’s anything like its iPhone/iPad cousins users can look forward to a relatively straightforward, if unexciting, way to generate AI images using simple descriptions and light customization. I was able to use the new AI cleanup tools in Photos, however, and found the “magical” erasure tools hilarious and mostly useless. Maybe it will get better, or maybe we’ll all just start taking better pictures.

At this point Apple Intelligence feels incomplete, more a promise of things to come than something I’d ever rely on. Then again, you could say the same thing about any of the “competing” AI platforms out there. Regardless how we might feel, AI seems inevitable, so as long as we can keep it from turning our computers into unstoppable killing machines, it’s fine.

Gaming: Proof of Concept

Easily the most frustrating part of the MacOS experience, regardless of hardware, is how Apple prioritizes gaming. And by prioritizing I mean, not at all. With its compact size you’d figure the Mac mini would be an ideal platform for mini-PC and minimalists everywhere. Alas, this is only partly true. The hardware is more than capable, especially when powered by that blistering M4 chip, but the company’s notorious ambivalence towards making Macs a viable choice for gamers remains in place.

Also, despite having very capable Thunderbolt ports, Macs aren’t compatible with external hard drive enclosures, so don’t look to add a more powerful GPU to enhance graphical performance anytime soon. Let me be clear: you can game on the Mac mini, and when everything works you can have a good time. But getting everything to work (or finding something you want to play) is a whole other game. Pun intended.

Steam, the largest gaming storefront, is available (as is Epic Games) and easily installed (via Rosetta) and works much like its Windows counterpart. Those with large Steam libraries may be surprised to find some of their favorites available, but I stress the word surprised as most blockbuster games and modern titles won’t be.

I was excited to see one of my personal favorites, Streets of Rage 4, show up as available. After installing and booting up my enthusiasm went from ecstatic to exasperating; my controller (an Xbox Series X gamepad plugged in via USB) worked great elsewhere, and Steam reassured me it was fully compatible. Sadly, from the menu screen onwards I could only look on helplessly; the game ran fine, but I was unable to play as no inputs from the controller registered in the game itself.

After scouring forums I learned this was a known issue and the workarounds suggested simply wouldn’t work. Apple’s switch to their in-house processors was thought to be the culprit, but even years after this discovery no easy fix was available. Another heavy-hitter, Dying Light (the original), was available but after an easy install and booting to the title screen would only crash, with Steam warning the game was “optimized” only for AMD processors.

I came to the realization that A.) the MacOS userbase just isn’t big enough to merit any type of priority bug-squashing and B.) Apple users simply aren’t as loud (or vehement) about bugs and problems as their Windows counterparts. Honestly, at some point I just gave up.

Apple’s App Store is a mixed bag. Playing something like Capcom’s Resident Evil 4 remake is bittersweet, demonstrating the promise of Apple’s silicon (as well as their proprietary MetalFX upscaling) but remains an outlier of big-budget games available on the platform. The game looks and plays great on Mac, albeit on a graphical level similar to Sony’s PlayStation 4. While it can’t match beefier Windows machines on a purely technical level, the game proves the hardware is more than capable of delivering a blockbuster experience with few real compromises. Sadly, it feels more like proof of concept than signs of what’s to come.

The landscape isn’t completely barren, though, and some heavy-hitters are available on the various storefronts like Baldur’s Gate 3, Lies of P, Death Stranding, Valheim, Psychonauts 2, Metro Exodus, and others. But there’s no denying it’s just not a competitive place for those expecting the virtually unlimited options of Windows. Hits like the Resident Evil 2 remake and Cyberpunk 2077 are coming, but both are half a decade old at this point.

Even Apple’s own gaming subscription service, Apple Arcade, is a barren wasteland of almost nothing to justify its $6.99 monthly fee (up from $4.99 just months ago), at least if you’re using it solely for Mac gaming. You’re also able to play select iPhone and iPad games (and apps) built to run on Apple silicon, and there’s alway emulation using software like Retroarch and others if you need to scratch that retro-itch.

There’s another option to play more titles, though, and that’s cloud streaming. Macs support all major game streaming services including Microsoft’s Xbox Game Pass Ultimate, Sony’s PlayStation Plus Premium, Amazon’s Luna, Nvidia’s GeForce Now, and others. Once connected via Ethernet the experience isn’t terrible (though the quality hugely depends on the service and your ISP’s bandwidth), but as long as you don’t mind intermittent lag streaming can substantially broaden your gaming choices.

Let me reiterate once again: you should absolutely, positively not buy a Mac mini if gaming is a top priority for you. It doesn’t “work differently” than Windows, it often just doesn’t work at all. Gaming on Macs should be considered an afterthought; it’s doable, sometimes enjoyable, but just temper your expectations.

Who’s It For?

As mentioned above, just who this updated Mac mini is for is the real question. With its speedy M4 processor, 16GB RAM, and updated Thunderbolt and USB-C ports it’s a no-brainer upgrade for those still running Mac hardware several generations old. Those with recently upgraded M2 grade chips, however, may want to hold off (unless that small form factor is too irresistible).

Maybe you’re a student who graduated using Apple-only software but couldn’t afford to buy a current-gen Mac? Maybe you’re a developer looking to sell on Apple’s App store and want the most affordable, yet capable, entry level hardware? Maybe Microsoft’s increasing ambivalence towards privacy and software continuity has you contemplating a switch to a different OS? Or maybe you’ve just been Mac-curious for years and wanted to see what all the fuss was about?

Conclusion: A Mini Marvel

There’s an old anecdote about how a musical greeting card has more computing power than what was available to NASA when they first put a man on the Moon nearly 60 years ago, and in many ways the 2024 Mac mini looks and performs like a computer from the future, or from a future we’ve been promised for some time but haven’t gotten. That’s not just because it’s small or powerful (it’s both!), but mostly because Apple’s newest mini upends our expectations that bigger and more expensive is better. It might even be enough for those on the fence to finally make the leap to Mac. Just as long as gaming isn’t a priority, of course.