Apple Mac Mini M4 review - Smaller, faster and louder

Apple has given its Mac Mini a completely new case that now fits its name better. Despite its much more compact dimensions, its connectivity has gotten better and there are finally ports on the front. However, the placement of the power button on the underside of the case is a clear design mistake. Furthermore, there still aren't any maintenance/upgrade options for end users, for example in the shape of a compact M.2 2242 SSD.

Inside the base version, the new M4 SoC has been combined with 16 GB RAM, which should be completely sufficient for the vast majority of everyday applications. In doing so, the M4 boasts extremely high single-core performance and the Mac Mini is often completely silent during everyday use. The fans only have to work a lot harder under very high load and in this case, the new Mac Mini M4 gets noticeably louder than its predecessor. The included software suite is a lot more extensive than on Windows PCs.

Aside from the missing upgrade options, Apple's prices for RAM and SSD upgrades continue to be massive disadvantages. Moreover, 256 GB of SSD storage isn't very up-to-date anymore and the surcharge for the 512-GB model ($200) is simply ridiculous.

You can configure and purchase the new Mac Mini M4 directly via Apple's website. Alternatively, you can find the base model on Amazon for $574.

After the last Mac Mini wasn't available with the M3 processors, Apple has now launched an extensive redesign with its new M4 SoCs. Above all, the new Mac Mini has become significantly more compact and lightweight. You can choose between the two new Apple SoCs named M4 and M4 Pro (both variants). We have tested the new base model featuring the M4 SoC, 16 GB RAM and a 256 GB SSD for an MRSP of $599. The Mac Mini with the M4 Pro (24 GB RAM, 512 GB SSD) costs at least $1,399. The maximum you can spend is up to $4,699 (M4 Pro with 14 CPU cores, 64 GB RAM, 8 TB storage, 10 Gbit/s Ethernet).

The Mac Mini 2024 still has rounded corners, but its footprint of 12.7 x 12.7 cm is much more compact than its predecessor (20 x 20 cm). It is now effectively a small version of the Mac Studio. That will make a massive difference on your desk, and the new Mac Mini reminds us more of an Apple TV than the old model in terms of its size. However, at 5 cm, the new Mac Mini is also slightly taller than before (3.6 cm). As usual with Apple, its build quality and finish are excellent, and the power supply unit is already integrated into the device despite its low weight of 648 grams (for our entry-level configuration).

The power button must have been thought of late in the development process, as it is located on the underside in the back left corner. This means you can't press the button without lifting the Mac Mini. Although lots of Apple users rarely actually switch off their devices, this placement is still pretty unfortunate. You can open the case via the bottom using appropriate tools and after removing the large fan, the SSD module becomes visible. The module is proprietary, but could theoretically be replaced and upgrade kits will definitely be available in the future. However, the RAM cannot be upgraded.

Apple takes the issue of sustainability seriously and an environmental report for the Mac Mini is available on its product page. In addition to the manufacturer using a high level of recycled materials for the Mac Mini and its packaging, its use of environmentally friendly energy results in a CO₂ footprint of 32 kg for the base model, which Apple offsets with CO₂ certificates. The production of the Mac Mini is therefore climate-neutral.

The Mac Mini with the M4 SoC doesn't feature any energy profiles—only the familiar power-saving mode.

We are already familiar with the M4 SoC from the current iPad Pro but in this case, only variants with the 10-core CPU are used (6 E-cores, 4 P-cores). The core configuration therefore differs significantly from the M4 Pro/Max models, which only have four efficiency cores. The new M4's P-cores reach a maximum of 4.464 GHz (and thus ~50 MHz less than the M4 Pro) or 3.93 GHz when all cores are loaded. The E-cores operate at a maximum of 2.89 GHz.

In the single-core tests, the processor consumed around 5.2 watts, which was even slightly less than the M3 SoC. Its single-core performance has nevertheless been significantly increased and the new M4 chips are the fastest single-core CPUs currently on the market. During the native benchmarks Cinebench 2024/R23 and Geekbench, the new M4 turned out to be vastly superior to the competition.

In the multi-core tests, the new M4 consumed a maximum of 21.5 watts, which the Mac Mini could easily maintain even under continuous load. In the Cinebench 2024 test, the new M4 was only just beaten by the Core Ultra 9 185H (65 watts) and the Ryzen 7 8700G (65 watts) inside direct competitor models. The M4 even had an advantage in the Geekbench test, but fell behind the competition from AMD/Intel in the older Cinebench R23 test. All-in-all, however, this is still an outstanding performance and its advantage over the old Mac Mini with the M2 SoC was more than 50% in most cases.

The M4 SoC's integrated GPU features 10 cores and consumes a maximum of 18 watts compared to the old M3 SoC's 20-21 watts. Nevertheless, its GPU performance has been increased by around 15-20% and its advantage over the old Mac Mini with the M2 SoC has become even greater. It clearly beat the direct mini PC competition with the Radeon 780M or Arc Graphics 8-Core, but for better classification, we have also included the two fastest variants of the Radeon 890M and Arc Graphics 140V in the comparison. Both during the Steel Nomad Light and GFX-Bench tests, the two latest iGPUs from AMD/Intel also proved to be inferior—only the OpenCL performance of the Radeon 890M was slightly better. The fastest Qualcomm Snapdragon GPU, the Adreno X1-85 (with 4.6 TFLOPS), was also significantly slower.

The tables turned somewhat in the gaming benchmarks—but it should be noted that only Baldur's Gate 3 runs natively on the Mac Mini. In this scenario, the M4 SoC came just ahead of the two fastest variants of the Radeon 890M and the Arc Graphics 140V. However, all other games had to be emulated, which came at the cost of some performance. This also brings us to another problem, because the selection of available native games (apart from iPhone/iPad games) is simply limited compared to Windows.

The Mac Mini uses a large fan at the bottom of its case, both in models with the M4 and the M4 Pro. Even so, the latter is equipped with a slightly larger heat sink. The fan always runs at 1,000 rpm, even when idling, but this can only be read out; it cannot be heard or measured. Only from ~1,200 rpm do you start to hear a slight noise in a quiet room. When gaming (~1,250 rpm), the Mac is therefore barely audible (24.9 dB(A). Under maximum CPU load (~1,800 rpm, 30.3 dB(A)) and above all during our stress test, we were able to push the Mac Mini harder, which was met with a maximum fan speed of 2,950 rpm—or a clearly audible 45.1 dB(A). However, there is still a lot of room for improvement in this respect, as the fan can reach a maximum of 4,900 rpm (59.4 dB(A)), which we could only trigger manually. Overall, the new Mac Mini M4 is noticeably louder under high load than the Mac Mini M2 and the configurations with the M4 Pro are likely to be even louder. There were no other electronic noises coming from our test device.

Surface temperatures are of course of secondary importance for a desktop PC, but even during the stress test, the Mac Mini M4 remained super cool with a maximum of ~30 °C on the top. We measured a peak of 39 °C at the fan outlet (at the rear of the underside). It got significantly hotter inside, at least during the stress test. In this case, the M4 SoC quickly reached 102 °C and remained constant at this level. The fan would technically still have a lot of room to maneuver, but as usual with Apple, these high temperatures are tolerated well. In the stress test with combined CPU/GPU load, the M4 briefly consumed up to 37.5 watts and then stabilized at ~34/35 watts during the further course, thus remaining almost constant.

The Mac Mini still comes equipped with one speaker and Apple has significantly improved its quality compared to the old model. Its sound is loud and quite usable if you are only watching some background music or YouTube videos, for example.

When idling, the new Mac Mini M4 consumes between 2.6-2.7 watts and is therefore very frugal compared to the competition. Its values for standby mode and when switched off also gave no cause for criticism. We measured around 40 watts when gaming and a maximum of 62.5 watts at the beginning of the stress test, which then leveled off at 57-58 watts later on. Its combination of high performance and low consumption additionally becomes clearly noticeable when it comes to its CPU efficiency, although we can only use data from the older Cinebench R23 within the comparison group. In the newer Cinebench 2024, the M4's lead would be even greater.

All-in-all, the new Mac Mini M4 is a good mini PC. Thanks to its new M4 processor, its CPU performance is very good and the device remains mostly silent during simple everyday tasks despite its significantly more compact case. The small Mac only becomes significantly louder than its predecessor under very high load. The ports on the front are super handy, but the placement of the power button is not. The base model for $599 is very interesting in terms of its price, but as usual, Apple makes upgrades very expensive indeed.