Nobody here is suggesting they make it the size of an Apple TV and constrain it. We are simply saying they can make it smaller and likely still keep the same ports and thermal capacity.
We ALL want a powerful Mac with ports.
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The new Mac mini is almost certainly coming
- Thread starter GabrieleR
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We ALL want a powerful Mac with ports.
We do not need a smaller mini. I really do not get that at all. A better mini? Yup, sure, give it to me!
The obsession with thinness stems from the era of Jobs and Ive. Both are now gone, so I think that past data gives only limited hints to the design principles Apple will pursue in the future. Take for example the current MBP - who would have thought before its release that it could become optically more massive again?
The question is whether it’s indeed only the housing that’s causing the problems or whether there is a more basic problem with RF interference between Bluetooth and USB3 (and perhaps also 2.4GHz WiFi). After all not all users seem to have issues.
Instead it could be that the problems occur when e.g. certain USB3 devices are connected and/or cables are not properly shielded. The aluminum case may be amplifying the problems, but it’s not necessarily the sole root cause.
The MacBook Pro is the same thickness as before. They just rounded the corners instead of tapered. But in the same year they also released the iMac as well with a super thin design.
That being said, the Mac mini is marketed as being mini. That’s the whole point of the Mac mini. And over time Apple has shrunk the design of the mini more and more.
To be clear: I personally could care less what it looks like. I am just saying what I think Apple is going to do. And all rumors thus far have also pointed to a redesign mini as well.
No clue…but an iMac, an MBA, multiple MBPs and several PCs have all been in essentially the same spot where I put computers in this setup…and only the Mac Minis have ever had wireless issues for me.
The Bluetooth issues are a problem that have been there for 10 years.
I don’t know if that’s true. If the high spec (above the pro/max) chips end up in the mini at some point, then maybe. Otherwise, the mini enclosure is more than adequate.
We don’t have sales data to confirm that. I suspect it might be right, but it doesn’t matter as Apple don’t design with them in mind or it would be more closely aligned to the rack form factor
What if they just reduce the depth and leave the height and width mostly unchanged? That would free up desk space, likely easy to retrofit into existing racks, and we could keep all the ports while reducing materials.
The difference nowadays however is that Apple will finally set their desktop line up as it should be from then on [along with the rest] and that eventually will make things easier to predict and harder to speculate
Sure they could do that, and that could actually make sense for some users. However, I just don't think Apple feels bound by such restrictions from the old design.
And as others have said, they didn't design it for racks before, so why start now? Instead, the rack mounters will just design new racks (or at least adapters temporarily) to fit the new Mac mini form factor.
IMO, the best choice for Apple, which is what I think they will do, is to make the best Mac mini design they can... and then keep that design for at least 5 years. If that necessitates a significant departure from the previous design, then so be it. Technology marches on.
That‘s why I wrote “optically”. Ive and Jobs would probably never have approved a bulkier design like this on a successor product. The visuals have been very important in the past, so they e.g. introduced the tapered design with the first MBA, despite higher effort for things like terraced batteries or the ports behind a latch on the original MBA. Nowadays looks seems not to be the major deciding factor anymore.
True. Though I’m not sure if it’s really that much thinner overall. They got rid of the tapered design and perhaps even won some room inside. But I never bothered to examine in detail, as I’m not target group for an AIO.
In general Apple seems to invest significantly more resources into the iMac than the mini, probably based on sales figures. Which imho is one point against a redesign of the mini (though not necessarily a decisive one).
They did? The first minis had a smaller footprint, but a higher silhouette, so they arguably rather increased the design, depending on how you weigh height vs footprint. The 2010 model introduced the current chassis, with the only changes since then being the removal of the optical drive slot in 2011 and the color change to space grey in 2018. What did they shrink there?
Not sure I’d want a computer on my desk that looks like a Router or TB dock with its rectangular footprint coupled with low height. No rationale there, just a gut feeling.
Everyone always makes this declaration, as if they somehow have an intimate understanding of the inner workings of Ives' and Jobs' minds.
BTW, the new MacBook Pros definitely remind me of my old TiBook.
No need to have insider knowledge. Ive was head of design and Jobs was head of it all. That’s publicly known. All of Apple’s products needed their approval. And the products clearly showed the increasing obsession for thinness (“function follows form”) during their era at Apple. The heated discussions about this did not take place for nothing.
In the beginning I was very positive about their attempts to push the boundaries: Passively cooled Cube, very thin MBA, even thinner 12”MB … Only over time it got stale and felt more and more like “thinness for thinness sake”, especially as functionality was increasingly hampered by design decisions.
Recent products seem to get back to “form follows function”, but with the fuzzy impression that the pendulum is now swinging to the other side, with Apple losing vision and the bravery to try something new, even at the risk of failure.
I'd expect a better cooling solution than the M1 one, for the M1 Max...
I'd expect at least 2 fans, similarly to how it's handled on the macbook Pros
I suspect we will see something very close to the MacBook Pro motherboard layout, but without the cutouts allowing it to be more square. I wouldn’t be surprised to see very similar fans as well. The efficiency of those fans is likely to improve with a larger volume of air above them.
Acoustically, two fans allows for lower noise levels. They can do clever things by mismatching the speeds to avoid sympathetic whines/hums etc
I cannot wait for this next mac mini!
As a macintosh fan I jumped into the Apple Silicon bandwagon with my current M1 Mac Mini, but I need more power/ram for my job and the M1 Max is the sweet spot for me.
More power would be nice, but not strictly needed.
I tried the macbook pro in late 2021, however (as lovely as it was) I found it way too expensive and unpractical for my needs...
Consider I don't travel much...
In the end I did the smart thing and I sent it back, waiting for the M1 Max Mac Mini.
I really hope it'll be released at the March the 8th event and, to be fair, it wouldn't make sense any other way.
Apple has to release all the M1 derived chips before the M2s will arrive in Autumn, so (considering the almost confirmed delay of the new iMacs) releasing the high end mac mini in early march would be perfect.
Whoever wants it will purchase it then, and there'll still be plenty of people willing to get the imac, in summer.
It's perfect.
The high end mac mini would also make the first 2022 Apple event juicer, as it doesn't have any groundbreaking products planned so far.
The iPhone SE is rumoured to be the same design as the 2020 one, the new iPad Air will be quite similar to the previous one...a redesigned mac mini would be the perfect cherry on top.
According to a recent rumor, Apple could introduce an entry-level M2 MacBook Pro during the March event. Originating from DigiTimes, reliability may be a bit more questionable. DigiTimes is not always wrong, though.
We think that they would at least announce the top end M-series chips in a Mac Pro in June.
They could release the low end M2 before that top end M1 Max x2/x4 chip. The M2 would be based on the A15 processor core and would be around 10-15% faster than the M1. It might have the same number of high performance cores as the M1. In that case the current M1 Pro would still be more than twice as fast as the M2 for multi-core tasks. Anyone who is considering the M1 Pro/Max would understand that the M2 is not a competitor to those Pro/Max chips.
think of them as car engines
M1/2 = 4-cylinder engine
M1 Pro = 6-cyLinder engine
M1 Max = 8-cylinder engine
A hypothetical M1 Max Duo or Quadro would be like a 12-cylinder engine.
While many of us here understand this, you overestimate the knowledge consumers have on products. Especially since there hasn’t been much precedent set. After a few years of M1, M2, M3, and corresponding Pro/Max chips, consumers may understand better, but until then I know several people who have said “I’m just going to wait for M2 instead of getting the Max chip” because they thought it would be better.
For now though it’s just easier marketing to release them in numerical order. Of course the pandemic/supply issues may force them into an alternate schedule, but my bet is that they will announce all M1-related macs by WWDC this June. This completes the 2 year transition and there’s no confusion. Then come fall they will talk about the next generation of M-chips.
MacRumors seems pretty convinced the Mac mini is going to see a design revamp:
www.macrumors.com
"Apple is going to overhaul the design of the Mac mini, but we don't yet know just what it will look like."
As for timing, MacRumors quotes Gurman and Ross Young again:
"Bloomberg's Mark Gurman has repeatedly said that at least one new Mac with an Apple silicon chip is coming at the spring event, and other Macs are not expected to be refreshed until later in the year. It's possible the updated Mac could be an iMac, but display analyst Ross Young recently said an new iMac wouldn't be ready to launch until summer.
With the iMac held until summer and planned Mac Pro and MacBook Air refreshes coming in the fall, the Mac mini seems to be the likely candidate for an early 2022 release."
However, even if the M1 Pro Mac mini with new form factor does arrive next month, as mentioned before I may just wait until summer anyway, to take advantage of the education promotion.
Apple's Next Mac Mini Refresh: Everything We Know
Apple is working on updated versions of the Mac mini, and at least one of the Mac mini machines in the works is likely to replace the Intel version...
www.macrumors.com
"Apple is going to overhaul the design of the Mac mini, but we don't yet know just what it will look like."
As for timing, MacRumors quotes Gurman and Ross Young again:
"Bloomberg's Mark Gurman has repeatedly said that at least one new Mac with an Apple silicon chip is coming at the spring event, and other Macs are not expected to be refreshed until later in the year. It's possible the updated Mac could be an iMac, but display analyst Ross Young recently said an new iMac wouldn't be ready to launch until summer.
With the iMac held until summer and planned Mac Pro and MacBook Air refreshes coming in the fall, the Mac mini seems to be the likely candidate for an early 2022 release."
However, even if the M1 Pro Mac mini with new form factor does arrive next month, as mentioned before I may just wait until summer anyway, to take advantage of the education promotion.
It’s funny- I haven’t looked at my Mac mini in a cognizant sort of way for at least 4 years. It’s just something I never notice.
With all this talk about potentially downsizing the Mini, I actually looked at mine (for the first time) in a critical way.
Believe it or not, but I was a bit taken aback at how BIG it actually is. It really isn’t a “mini” computer at all by today’s standards. There’s tons of room inside that case.
With all this talk about potentially downsizing the Mini, I actually looked at mine (for the first time) in a critical way.
Believe it or not, but I was a bit taken aback at how BIG it actually is. It really isn’t a “mini” computer at all by today’s standards. There’s tons of room inside that case.
Yeah, it’s not really mini like the M1 MacBook Pro isn’t pro. I kind of wish they’d change the naming strategy. MacBook, MacBook pro, Mac *mini, Mac pro, iMac, iMac pro would feel a lot cleaner to me. It was dinky when it came out though, but it’s a beast compared to a raspberry pi or nuc.
I also would love a larger screened non pro laptop, as so much of my work is virtual machines so the screen real estate is more important than the power. I don’t know if that’s a niche opinion, but apple certainly don’t seem interested.
*mini missed in original posting
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Um ok on your opinion there.
Fact yes box for iPhone 12 series and later are smaller due to charging block being removed.
Fact: smaller iPhone boxes take up less volume than same boxes with charger inside which takes up more volume. Less volume means more units can ship. Simple math.
Apple is renowned for being THE best at product logistics from agile manufacturing to parts sourcing and price competition for per units in bulk to shipping and timelines that probably is better than Amazon (beyond just international shipping). I’d say ONLY Tesla is better at parts manufacturing abs shipping than Apple is in the USA but close on global scale when it comes to sourcing parts.
Do you REALLY think Apple didn’t figure out less volume means more products per freight being shipped can lead to faster sales revenue $$? Really?!
Why do people keep suggesting they call it the Mac. That’s the name of the entire category of Apple personal computers. Think about the next event: Tim Cook on stage “we have some exciting updates coming to the mac” ….. wait, what mac? THE Mac? Or the category of mac computers? Is macOS just for THE Mac? Or for Mac?
Apple will never call a single device just “Mac”