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Mac mini
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Mac mini
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| Official Mac mini site — Apple |
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The Mac mini is the Mac as a bare ingredient: no screen, no keyboard, just the computer — pitched in 2005 as "BYODKM" (bring your own display, keyboard, and mouse) at $499 to convert Windows switchers. Twenty years on it is the lineup's quiet utility player: desktop, home server, render node, and the cheapest desktop door into macOS.
1 History✎
The mini spent the Intel years alternately beloved and neglected — the 2010 unibody was a classic, the 2014 refresh a regression, the 2018 space-gray model a pro-leaning comeback. Apple silicon made it matter again: the M1 mini (2020) was the transition's best bargain, and the M4 generation (2024) rebuilt it entirely — a five-by-five-inch box, Apple's first carbon-neutral Mac, with the M4 Pro option bringing Thunderbolt 5 and genuine workstation nerve in something smaller than a sandwich.
2 Current models✎
| Model | Chip | Role |
|---|---|---|
| Mac mini | M4 (2024) | The affordable desktop |
| Mac mini | M4 Pro (2024) | Small-box performance, Thunderbolt 5 |
3 Position✎
The mini is the ecosystem's infrastructure Mac — behind TVs, in server racks, under monitors in studios — and the desktop counterpart to the MacBook Neo's pitch: maximum macOS per dollar. Between it and the Mac Studio above, the tower-free desktop lineup that replaced the Mac Pro takes its shape.
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