Apple will hold its first conference on March 8th. The company is likely to unveil the third generation of the iPhone SE, the new iPad Air with Center Stage support, and some new Macs. One of them could be the more powerful Mac mini. Read on as we gather everything we know about this upcoming product.
Roughly a year ago, YouTuber Jon Prosser claimed that the upcoming, more powerful Mac mini will bring a new generation of industrial design to Apple’s standalone Macs. Expected to replace the higher gray Intel Mac mini in the lineup, this product will feature a new exterior chassis with a plexiglass-like reflective surface on top.
Although the M1 Mac mini features fewer ports due to the limitations of the first generation Apple Silicon design, this new product will provide a full suite of ports including four USB4 / Thunderbolt 3 ports, two USB-A ports, Ethernet, and an HDMI port.
Additionally, this Mac mini will have the same magnetic power connector style that Apple debuted on the M1 iMac. Prosser predicts that the glass-like top surface could mean Apple will release a range of two-tone color options for the Mac mini, similar to the iMac’s color-coded lineup.
Processor and Storage
In May of 2021, Bloomberg’s Mark Gorman said the new Mac mini would feature “the next generation of Apple’s Silicon chip with 8 high-performance cores and 2 efficiency cores”. Not only that, but it will also support up to 64GB of RAM.
In this case, the next-generation Apple Silicon chip could be the already announced M1 Pro and M1 Max processors, or the upcoming M2 chip.
An exclusive report by Filipe Espósito of 9to5Mac shows that Apple is preparing a so-called Mac Studio computer. This product may be the most powerful Mac mini that people have been expecting for nearly a year now.
Based on information seen by 9to5Mac, Apple is developing two different versions of this computer. One features the M1 Max chip and the other is a replacement for the Apple Silicon chip and is even more powerful than the current M1 Max.
As of now, Apple will likely launch this powerful Mac mini first as it just announced the M1 Max chip, and its next top-of-the-line version is expected to be revealed in about a year from now. Bloomberg’s Mark Gorman thinks the company could use the M1 Pro chip on this new Mac mini.
When will this more powerful Mac mini be announced?
Apple will hold a special conference on March 8 to announce new Macs. The latest model from the company M1 Max.
If that turns out to be incorrect, Bloomberg’s Mark Gorman says that Apple is “also preparing for another round of Mac releases in May or June”.
For this year, the company can release as many as new devices.
How much will this Mac mini cost?
The high-end Intel Mac mini starts at $1,099. Whether Apple introduces a new design with more powerful processor options, RAM, and storage, this could also be a great place for the company to start selling its more powerful Mac mini.
Apple can also lower the price of the current M1 Mac mini slightly, which starts at $699 with 8GB of RAM, 256GB SSD storage, and Gigabit Ethernet compatibility.