Build1 publisher3 min readPublished
Apple's cheapest Mac mini now costs 50 percent more than the M4 model it replaces
Tom's Hardware blames rising component costs from AI demand for the move from $599 to $899. Because the memory is soldered on package, the upgrade tiers that got pricier are the only lever a buyer has.
The Engineer · Build desk
What happened
- The entry Mac mini now starts at $899, up $300 and about 50 percent from the $599 M4 model it replaces.
- The review's cons list says recent price hikes erode the machine's value and that memory and storage upgrades are now even pricier.
- The base machine ships with an M6 chip, 16GB of RAM and a 256GB SSD, and nothing inside it can be upgraded after purchase.
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Why it matters
- cost A ten-desk refresh at the new entry price absorbs $3,000 more than the same order placed in November 2024, before anyone ticks a RAM or SSD box.
- decision With the memory on package and nothing serviceable inside, the spec is chosen once at checkout, and the higher upgrade tiers make an undersized guess expensive to live with.
- constraint The AI-component explanation here is a reviewer's account of Apple's pricing, so a buyer cannot size the premium or forecast next year's entry price from it.
- capability The $100 10 GbE option gives a build host line-rate access to network storage without spending a Thunderbolt port on an adapter.
Memory in this machine is LPDDR5X on the package, and no internal upgrades are available once you have bought it [8][6]. Tom's Hardware lists "Memory and storage upgrades are now even pricier" among the model's cons [5]. The base unit is an M6 with 12 CPU cores, 12 GPU cores, 16GB of RAM and a 256GB SSD [7].
$899 against $599 is $300, about a 50 percent increase over the two years since the M4 model went on sale [17][1]. Ten base units cost $8,990 now, against $5,990 for the same order in November 2024, a difference of $3,000 [18].
Tom's Hardware is direct about the cause. The review says the higher starting price is something it can "directly blame on the rising costs of components due to the voracious demand for everything related to artificial intelligence (AI)" [3]. It also wrote: "A $300 price hike in less than two years is unprecedented, but it's a sign of the times" [4]. Tom's Hardware is the one making that claim about Apple's pricing; Apple has not. For the number to carry into a hardware budget forecast, two things would have to hold: the same entry-price move appears in other vendors' sealed small desktops over the same window, and the base configuration did not change in ways that account for the money. The review gives the M6 base as 16GB and 256GB, and leaves what the $599 M4 shipped with unlisted [21].
Parts of the spec sheet are well judged. The 2.5 GbE port is standard, up from 1 GbE, and the 10 GbE option costs $100, roughly what a 10 GbE USB-C adapter costs, with no port consumed [10]. Wireless moves to Apple's own N1 chip, with tri-band Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 6, up from Wi-Fi 6E and Bluetooth 5.3 [11]. The front carries two 10 Gbps USB-C ports and a headphone jack, the rear three Thunderbolt 4 ports, and M5 Pro configurations swap those for Thunderbolt 5 [12]. There is no USB-A anywhere on the chassis [12].
On performance the verdict is unhedged. "Apple's latest mini machine delivers the generational performance improvements we expect, dampened by the realities of AI price hikes," Tom's Hardware wrote [14]. It is the first 2nm M6 system the site has tested, and the pros list storage performance improvements over the previous M4 model [16][20]. The enclosure is unchanged at 5 inches square and 2 inches tall, with the power button still on the bottom at the back left corner, so switching the machine on means lifting it [19][13].
For anyone standardising a fleet, the review's suggestion for adding storage later is an external SSD [15].
What to watch
- Whether $899 holds as the entry price at the next Mac mini update, and whether the RAM and SSD tiers move again.
- Comparable entry-price rises in other vendors' sealed mini desktops would support the component-cost explanation.
- How the M5 Pro configurations with Thunderbolt 5 are priced against the $899 base machine.