Apple has released a new Mac Mini – just half the size of its predecessor, already by far its smallest computer.
The new Mac is just five by five inches, Apple said. And it has the company’s recently released M4 chip, as well as the newly announced M4 Pro.
John Ternus, Apple’s hardware boss, said the computer “delivers gigantic performance in an unbelievably small design thanks to the power efficiency of Apple silicon and an innovative new thermal architecture”.
The new Mac Mini is also Apple’s first entirely carbon neutral computer, the company said. That had required an 80 per cent reduction in the emissions across not only its manufacture but also shipping and use by customers.
Apple first released the Mac Mini in 2005. Then, it was pitched as a way to lure people away from PCs by offering an Apple computer that would be used with an external display, keyboard and mouse.
Since then, it has gradually become smaller. But it has also at times been neglected, ahead of Apple’s more prominent computers such as its MacBooks.
In 2020, along with much of the rest of Apple’s line-up, the Mac Mini moved from the old Intel chips to Apple’s new custom processors, with the M1. It was updated last year for the M2, and now has received the latest generation M4.
As with all of the Macs with Apple Silicon, the new Mac Mini can run Apple Intelligence. A MacOS update this week brought the first of those AI tools – including writing tools to redraft text – and more features are coming in December and then in the months that will follow.
Apple says the Mac Mini is aimed at “a wide range of users, from students to aspiring creatives and small business owners”, and it has also proven more popular in niche uses, such as home theatres and server farms.