Mac mini M4 is the best value computer…. I think even Apple cannibalised their M4 MacBooks and older M3,M2,M1 product MacBooks with this

[Mistletoe66]

At just $499 with student discount , the Mac mini m4 base is truly a beast that is almost equivalent to a m2 pro or M1 Max (excluding the GPUS) at this pricing it is truly stupid to upgrade the ram or storage or even move to m4 pro in my opinion .

Let’s bid farewell to second hand market for the price of m1 and m2 Mac minis, I reckon their selling price should be < 50% of the m4 mini 🤣

As well as 8gb MacBook Air m1,m2,m3s, the second hand price definitely took a great hit.

Well, Mac mini m4 is truly the best device in the world at least for now

 

[ignatius345]

As well as 8gb MacBook Air m1,m2,m3s, the second hand price definitely took a great hit.

Apples and oranges. If you need a laptop you need a laptop.

All computers depreciate pretty rapidly as they're superceded by newer and more capable ones. Nothing new here. The M4 Mini will be no exception over the long run.

 

[coffeemilktea]

It's amazing until you need portability... though I guess you can always just carry one of those tiny portable monitors around, and a cheap bluetooth mouse + keyboard. Then you can use your Mac Mini at coffee shops too. 😆

 

[decafjava]

It's amazing until you need portability... though I guess you can always just carry one of those tiny portable monitors around, and a cheap bluetooth mouse + keyboard. Then you can use your Mac Mini at coffee shops too. 😆

True though I have a work laptop (mind you a Lenovo Thinkpad on Win 11 though it's a nice computer) and am looking to replace my iMac.

 

[Mistletoe66]

True though I have a work laptop (mind you a Lenovo Thinkpad on Win 11 though it's a nice computer) and am looking to replace my iMac.

Sometimes I wonder why are people still getting windows laptop when apple chips are superior in every way…. Of course unless they’re getting a laptop gaming rig with gtx 4080 gpu etc.

 

[decafjava]

Sometimes I wonder why are people still getting windows laptop when apple chips are superior in every way…. Of course unless they’re getting a laptop gaming rig with gtx 4080 gpu etc.

Well I didn't have a choice as my work provided it and an equivalent Macbook would have been more expensive.

 

[eltoslightfoot]

Sometimes I wonder why are people still getting windows laptop when apple chips are superior in every way…. Of course unless they’re getting a laptop gaming rig with gtx 4080 gpu etc.

I just get both. Have an M1 13” MBP now, but that’s going to my daughter when I get an M4 16” Mac Mini 512GB. I pair that with an i7-13700hx rtx-4060 Acer Predator Helios Neo 16” for gaming and some professional stuff. The pair of them is less than $2k.

 

[dmr727]

Sometimes I wonder why are people still getting windows laptop when apple chips are superior in every way…. Of course unless they’re getting a laptop gaming rig with gtx 4080 gpu etc.

I look over the fence at premium (Surface, Lenovo, etc) Windows laptops quite a bit. Sometimes I get pissy about Apple's greedy RAM and storage pricing, or sometimes I decide it'd be cool to replace my desktop and MBA with a single laptop/eGPU combo. Sometimes I get pissy at everyone and decide I need to finally migrate everything to Linux, pairing it with something like a 13" Framework.

But usually I come back to looking at Apple's laptops because they're just so performant for 95% of what I do, especially in the <3lb range. I travel a lot, and for a thin and light laptop, Apple really does have the hardware figured out.

 

[ignatius345]

Sometimes I wonder why are people still getting windows laptop when apple chips are superior in every way….

Some uses just require Windows, and some people prefer it or have a lot invested in that ecosystem.

At the small design company I work for, for instance, we're all on Macs for our Illustrator and InDesign work, but we have two PCs in the office specifically to run some CAD software we need that is not available on macOS. There are tons of examples like that across other industries as well.

I guess we could run it on Parallels, but I think it's just easier for them to plop a couple of PCs down.

 

[Mistletoe66]

I just get both. Have an M1 13” MBP now, but that’s going to my daughter when I get an M4 16” Mac Mini 512GB. I pair that with an i7-13700hx rtx-4060 Acer Predator Helios Neo 16” for gaming and some professional stuff. The pair of them is less than $2k.

I’m getting a ps5 pro with my Mac mini m4 base. Still cheaper than a ps4. Nice acer set up u got, it’ll tackle cyberpunk at ultra max setting but only downside is your laptop will be as loud as a jet engine which is stopping me from purchasing a gaming laptop.

 

[0423MAC]

I don't think so, but if you travel often and like to do some work at home there is a case to be made to grab an M4 Mac mini and then an MBA as opposed to a single 14" MBP.

Being able to keep your MacBook in your travel bag and hop on the Mac mini in your home office without having to worry about connecting/disconnecting is very convenient.

You would have to rely on more cloud services to keep things synced, but those are pretty reliable these days.

 

[eltoslightfoot]

I’m getting a ps5 pro with my Mac mini m4 base. Still cheaper than a ps4. Nice acer set up u got, it’ll tackle cyberpunk at ultra max setting but only downside is your laptop will be as loud as a jet engine which is stopping me from purchasing a gaming laptop.

Eh, it isn’t super quiet. But that is why I got the Acer. If I put it in balanced mode, it has some room for the fans not to need to be super loud. In fact, my wife’s PC I built her is far louder.

But there is no way it is as quiet as a console.

 

[JPack]

I don't think so, but if you travel often and like to do some work at home there is a case to be made to grab an M4 Mac mini and then an MBA as opposed to a single 14" MBP.

Being able to keep your MacBook in your travel bag and hop on the Mac mini in your home office without having to worry about connecting/disconnecting is very convenient.

You would have to rely on more cloud services to keep things synced, but those are pretty reliable these days.

It’s literally a single USB-C cable you’d have to connect/disconnect though, which hardly affects convenience. You’d be connecting that cable to keep the MacBook charged anyway.

 

[Unregistered 4U]

Sometimes I wonder why are people still getting windows laptop when apple chips are superior in every way…. Of course unless they’re getting a laptop gaming rig with gtx 4080 gpu etc.

Last I checked, most gaming was still being done at 1080p and the top selling/money making games were Minecraft and GTA. While some enthusiasts may relish the experience of tweaking and jumping through hoops to get basic Windows apps to function, most folks that need Windows are better served just getting a cheap Windows box.

 

[0423MAC]

It’s literally a single USB-C cable you’d have to connect/disconnect though, which hardly affects convenience. You’d be connecting that cable to keep the MacBook charged anyway.

It’s more convenient to not have to do any of that at home.

Is it lazy? Maybe, but it feels damn good 😌

 

[Siliconguy]

Let’s bid farewell to second hand market for the price of m1 and m2 Mac minis, I reckon their selling price should be < 50% of the m4 mini

I second the motion! I'm facing the question of whether to replace the 2014 Mini in the stereo cabinet with an M1 Mini or convert it to Linux, given that Monterey is no longer supported. I have a few videos from the old iTunes Store that I would have to abandon or break the encryption on if I converted to Linux, but the current price of an M1 is still too high.

I'll wait until after Christmas and see what happens to prices then.

On a related topic, the 2018 Minis are still going for surprisingly high prices presumably because they also can run Linux or Windows with no compromises.

 

[ILoveCalvinCool]

The Mini is pretty portable. Obviously not laptop level, but when I go to the beach for a week, I have no problem bringing a computer that I can practically put in my pocket.

 

[Lift Bar]

Apples and oranges. If you need a laptop you need a laptop.

All computers depreciate pretty rapidly as they're superceded by newer and more capable ones. Nothing new here. The M4 Mini will be no exception over the long run.

Well, the most it can go down in price is 499 dollars so yes it is exceptional

 

[ignatius345]

I don't think so, but if you travel often and like to do some work at home there is a case to be made to grab an M4 Mac mini and then an MBA as opposed to a single 14" MBP.

Being able to keep your MacBook in your travel bag and hop on the Mac mini in your home office without having to worry about connecting/disconnecting is very convenient.

You would have to rely on more cloud services to keep things synced, but those are pretty reliable these days.

Very much agree. I did the "docked laptop" thing for a few years and really grew to hate it because I was always ejecting and mounting my backup and media drives. I really like having one big desktop sitting there always on and ready, while my lightweight MacBook Air is sitting in my backpack or ready to use on the couch or another room.

 

[Realityck]

At just $499 with student discount , the Mac mini m4 base is truly a beast that is almost equivalent to a m2 pro or M1 Max (excluding the GPUS) at this pricing it is truly stupid to upgrade the ram or storage or even move to m4 pro in my opinion .

Let’s bid farewell to second hand market for the price of m1 and m2 Mac minis, I reckon their selling price should be < 50% of the m4 mini 🤣

As well as 8gb MacBook Air m1,m2,m3s, the second hand price definitely took a great hit.

Well, Mac mini m4 is truly the best device in the world at least for now

Even if the M4 Mini has great performance, this doesn't cancel out the usefulness of even the older M1 Mac desktops/laptops. For people that need the processing improvements as well as RAM, storage to run multiple creative applications that really requires a config beyond the base M4 model. Remember the hidden costs associated a Mac mini, it only comes with a power cord nothing else. So All the accessories and display are needed to use it.

 

[Parowdy]

Apples and oranges. If you need a laptop you need a laptop.

All computers depreciate pretty rapidly as they're superceded by newer and more capable ones. Nothing new here. The M4 Mini will be no exception over the long run.

I don’t know if you’ve ever looked at the used Mac market, but people seemingly don’t care about the actual value dropping, prices for used Macs are still really high and I don’t see people be like “Oh Apple released this new thing now my old thing has to be cheaper” when there are still many intel macs priced well above 1k just because they don’t care about loosing on money just cause there is something new out.
They should be more affordable, but I won’t bet on it.

 

[ApplesAreSweet&Sour]

At just $499 with student discount , the Mac mini m4 base is truly a beast that is almost equivalent to a m2 pro or M1 Max (excluding the GPUS) at this pricing it is truly stupid to upgrade the ram or storage or even move to m4 pro in my opinion .

Let’s bid farewell to second hand market for the price of m1 and m2 Mac minis, I reckon their selling price should be < 50% of the m4 mini 🤣

As well as 8gb MacBook Air m1,m2,m3s, the second hand price definitely took a great hit.

Well, Mac mini m4 is truly the best device in the world at least for now

You greatly underestimate the ever increasing and currently much higher demand for mobile computers and devices at large (iPhones, iPads, MacBooks).

-Without a built-in battery and display, the average consumer isn’t touching a computer these days, Mac or otherwise.

Yes, M4 mini is the best value/$, sure. But it’s not a laptop replacement to any extent, unless you don’t need a laptop at all, and therefore won’t make a dent in MacBook sales.

You get the best of Mac mini and MacBook Air in a MacBook Pro and that’s what most would want. Not the best value/$, but the most use cases.

Apple knows what they’re doing.

And for what the average person actually does on their Mac, there’s not much gained from or any immediate need to upgrade to any newer 16GB RAM Mac, M4 or otherwise.

The media truly has everyone hyping these new Macs like Apple is a new company and MacOS launched yesterday.

M4 is an amazing value. But stop acting like it’s a new product or worth getting for all Intel and Apple Silicon Mac owners.

It’s much more powerful and greater value. But it’s not an entirely new experience, not at all.

 

[0423MAC]

Very much agree. I did the "docked laptop" thing for a few years and really grew to hate it because I was always ejecting and mounting my backup and media drives. I really like having one big desktop sitting there always on and ready, while my lightweight MacBook Air is sitting in my backpack or ready to use on the couch or another room.

This is the way!

 

[Rychiar]

it really is the best. I got it to tide me over til the studio comes out... now I'm not sure I need the studio at all. this thing processes raw photos and runs complex photoshop documents like a beast.. seems smoother than my M2 Max 64 at work

 

[geez66]

I replaced my very good mac mini m1 with the new m4 pro. I have a macbook pro m3 pro 14 already. I did consider just docking the MacBook pro on my desk - especially as I don’t run any external drives usually - but managed to persuade myself that I wanted a dedicated desktop and a dedicated laptop - even though they sync docs and desktop etc over iCloud so they are basically identical. It helped that uk corporation tax rules favour IT investments…