Who's buying the new Mac Mini this week?

[polyphenol]

Having difficulty deciding whether to shell out for 24GB and 512GB on a new M4 mini… It is a big extra cost. And I have found 16GB mostly OK on my M1 MBP. But I do find my Fusion VM is heavy on memory.

Currently, all options in my bag.

And £185 trade-in on old M1 mini would make it feel like less money.

I was vaguely thinking about picking up a new M4 mini. Not that there is any particular advantage but I actually fancy doing a few other things out and about. So I put my planned mini in my bag. Then…

Why does Apple act so dumb?
We have Apple Maps.
We have, and are getting more, Apple Intelligence.

I live in west Wales. Yet, when I go to the Apple Store online, it defaults to offering Birmingham as a pick up location even when I am logged in. It doesn’t use my genuine, validated and previously used account address.

I can understand using actual location, if allowed by me, but I have no idea why it defaults to Birmingham. At other times, it has seemingly randomly chosen Glasgow, London or other locations around the UK.

If I allow it to access my location, it does improve. It offers the genuine nearest - Cardiff. Followed by Exeter and Plymouth. Completely missing the second-nearest at Bristol. And it also prefers to offer Exeter and Plymouth over Birmingham which is actually nearer than either of them. I guess it uses crow-flight distances. Which, with the stonking great Severn Estuary and Bristol Channel in between, really is ridiculously wrong.

Distances in Apple Maps (and they seem to be pretty accurate driving mileages)
Birmingham 188
Cardiff 98
Bristol 138
Exeter 211
Plymouth 244

 

[bp1000]

Having difficulty deciding whether to shell out for 24GB and 512GB on a new M4 mini… It is a big extra cost. And I have found 16GB mostly OK on my M1 MBP. But I do find my Fusion VM is heavy on memory.

Currently, all options in my bag.

And £185 trade-in on old M1 mini would make it feel like less money.

I was vaguely thinking about picking up a new M4 mini. Not that there is any particular advantage but I actually fancy doing a few other things out and about. So I put my planned mini in my bag. Then…

Why does Apple act so dumb?
We have Apple Maps.
We have, and are getting more, Apple Intelligence.

I live in west Wales. Yet, when I go to the Apple Store online, it defaults to offering Birmingham as a pick up location even when I am logged in. It doesn’t use my genuine, validated and previously used account address.

I can understand using actual location, if allowed by me, but I have no idea why it defaults to Birmingham. At other times, it has seemingly randomly chosen Glasgow, London or other locations around the UK.

If I allow it to access my location, it does improve. It offers the genuine nearest - Cardiff. Followed by Exeter and Plymouth. Completely missing the second-nearest at Bristol. And it also prefers to offer Exeter and Plymouth over Birmingham which is actually nearer than either of them. I guess it uses crow-flight distances. Which, with the stonking great Severn Estuary and Bristol Channel in between, really is ridiculously wrong.

Distances in Apple Maps (and they seem to be pretty accurate driving mileages)
Birmingham 188
Cardiff 98
Bristol 138
Exeter 211
Plymouth 244

I use to go to Llangrannog regularly and it is pretty much the furthest point from everything. I would just get it shipped to you and simplify matters.

I would also upgrade to the 24 and 512. Essentially you are trying to justify £400. At the end of the day, it is impossible to survive these days on 256gb. So unless you have a drive and enclosure, that might be another 100-200 quid anyway, for good speeds. Don't let yourself down on a slow external drive.

So for another 200 quid you are getting more ram.

16gb is do-able. It is bare minimum really and if like me you plan to keep it long term, £200 is worth it, especially as I plan to keep mine up to 10 years! like my last Mac.

Whatever ram you think you need now, I would double it because if there's one thing I've learn't its as time advances and technology improved you need unthinkable amounts of power and ram 10 years down the line.

 

[polyphenol]

I use to go to Llangrannog regularly and it is pretty much the furthest point from everything. I would just get it shipped to you and simplify matters.

I would also upgrade to the 24 and 512. Essentially you are trying to justify £400. At the end of the day, it is impossible to survive these days on 256gb. So unless you have a drive and enclosure, that might be another 100-200 quid anyway, for good speeds. Don't let yourself down on a slow external drive.

So for another 200 quid you are getting more ram.

16gb is do-able. It is bare minimum really and if like me you plan to keep it long term, £200 is worth it, especially as I plan to keep mine up to 10 years! like my last Mac.

Whatever ram you think you need now, I would double it because if there's one thing I've learn't its as time advances and technology improved you need unthinkable amounts of power and ram 10 years down the line.

I'm SW of there!

I probably will get it shipped. But I like to have gone through the planning, the "wouldn't it be nice for an Apple salesperson to hand it to me", etc. And we do have reason to go that way sometime around the right time.

 

[gmanist1000]

Hmm, Apple canceled my order of one Mac Mini for this reason:

”One or more items in your recent online order exceeded the purchase quantity limits and has been canceled. Please check your Order Status page for more information.”

Called their support and said, essentially “wtf?” and they put in a request to reinstate the order.

I paid with my Apple Account balance, which covered the full cost, and I used the education store, so maybe something has happened there…? But I do work in education, so…. not sure.

 

[ivnj]

I am waiting for the black Friday or Christmas sale.

My M1 mini is only worth 230 dollars at Apple. Not much.

 

[waloshin]

Me! I originally thought a 2012 Mac Mini for video editing and general use in 2012 I got really busy doing video editing for clients that I switched to a high-end PC.
Finally with the M4 I feel like the Mac Mini is back with great performance I cannot wait to test it out next week!

 

[VitoBotta]

I ordered the M4 Pro mini 14 CPU cores version, 64 GB of RAM and 2 TB of storage. I don't know how I am gonna be able to wait for two weeks now

 

[TheRealAlex]

DO NOT BUY, it will be $200 off on Black Friday. Wait a few weeks.

 

[Che Castro]

DO NOT BUY, it will be $200 off on Black Friday. Wait a few weeks.

 

[GregoriousMan]

I'm getting it day one. Great upgrade.

 

[Foxglove9]

Going to wait to see what the new Studio looks like, that way I can compare to see what's best for me. As I spec up the Mini the prices are close to the older Mac Studio. Looking forward to benchmarks and reviews once owners get it in their hands.

 

[EugW]

DO NOT BUY, it will be $200 off on Black Friday. Wait a few weeks.

If you can, just buy from edu store. Here's my order:

Edu CA$1394 / US$969.69 - It's cheaper in Canada than in the US.

 

[TheRealAlex]

I bought the new M3 Pro MBP last year launch day. A few weeks later it was $300 less on Black Friday.

 

[Che Castro]

Going to wait to see what the new Studio looks like, that way I can compare to see what's best for me. As I spec up the Mini the prices are close to the older Mac Studio. Looking forward to benchmarks and reviews once owners get it in their hands.

You either on team Mac mini or not , pick a side

 

[KDNYC]

forgot what I paid for my 2017 27 iMac, but the discounted ASD I bought plus the new base mini will be less than $1900. I only use half of the 512 ssd in my iMac, with a ton of duplicate or old academic files I could delete or move to external. i think this product is a winner.

I rarely tote my mbp anywhere since I travel light, so might wait for an Air if I feel like I need a new macbook.

Last mini was a 2011 (I think) that I bought for my late mom And is in a drawer. Will prob recycle it.

 

[EugW]

I bought the new M3 Pro MBP last year launch day. A few weeks later it was $300 less on Black Friday.

Up here in Canada, we don't get those great Black Friday deals on Apple stuff usually. We do get gift card promos from Apple, but that doesn't apply to education purchases.

forgot what I paid for my 2017 27 iMac, but the discounted ASD I bought plus the new base mini will be less than $1900. I only use half of the 512 ssd in my iMac, with a ton of duplicate or old academic files I could delete or move to external. i think this product is a winner.

I rarely tote my mbp anywhere since I travel light, so might wait for an Air if I feel like I need a new macbook.

Last mini was a 2011 (I think) that I bought for my late mom And is in a drawer. Will prob recycle it.

Where did you get the discounted ASD? FWIW, for other people who might want to try it out, Asus this week just started selling their 5K monitor for $799, but the form factor is nowhere near as nice as ASD.

 

[DaveEcc]

Just ordered a 24/1TB M4 Mini and an INNOCN 27M2U-D display to replace a Late 2012 27" iMac.

 

[EugW]

Just ordered a 24/1TB M4 Mini and an INNOCN 27M2U-D display to replace a Late 2012 27" iMac.

That's one heluva big upgrade. Congrats!

 

[KDNYC]

Up here in Canada, we don't get those great Black Friday deals on Apple stuff usually. We do get gift card promos from Apple, but that doesn't apply to education purchases.


Where did you get the discounted ASD? FWIW, for other people who might want to try it out, Asus this week just started selling their 5K monitor for $799, but the form factor is nowhere near as nice as ASD.

The lowest price I’ve seen is $1300, average low is $1350-1399 in the US. It’s been out for a while, so sometimes retailers will move out stock with short term deals. It’s not a huge discount from edu price. I’ve used external monitors in the past with minis (I’ve owned two) and decided the build and the plug and play for a 7+ year monitor was worth the apple tax. My iMac has spoiled me. FYI I bought mine from amz.

 

[lyunmac]

I bought the new M3 Pro MBP last year launch day. A few weeks later it was $300 less on Black Friday.

From Apple or another vendor? I was thinking of trading in my 2019 iMac.

 

[DaveEcc]

That's one heluva big upgrade. Congrats!

Only about 6x faster. When your new single core speed is 50% faster than your old multicore speed, you know it's time to upgrade.

 

[Ephram]

Currently I have M1 MacBook Air which is connected to LG C2 42" most of the time. I know you can get 4K120hz out of it with special cable but I don't have it... So only 4K60 for me. It's perfectly usable, but I have wanted to free my MacBook to be out of charger and display cables. Besides, upgrade from M1 to M4 sound pretty big and of course I get 16gb ram over 8. And minis HDMI 2.1 gives hassle free 4K120hz.

 

[thosmatthews]

I immediately ordered the M4 16gb/512gb version out of intrigue to compare to my 2023 M2 Pro 16gb/512gb.

Performance wise they seem pretty like for like though, so I decided to cancel the order and wait to see what the reviews say.

It’s rare I want something because ‘it’s new’ but I’ve had a Mac mini on and off since 2005 and I love them! Is it the first Mac with 16gb in your pocket?

 

[scgf]

it is impossible to survive these days on 256gb.

I disagree. Current thinking is to have a very fast boot-up drive with enough storage for frequently used files, then use other storage like a connected SSD drive or NAS for larger, longer-term file storage. Opening the odd document from an SSD drive would make very little difference compared to the same file on the internal drive. Gone are the days when all your data was on the actual computer in front of you. A lot of us use cloud storage for photos and files - I run NextCloud on my NAS and use OpenOffice in a browser for creating and editing documents. I use Google Photos, My NAS runs CardDAV and CalDAV servers for contacts and calendars. I store very little on my internal drive.

 

[polyphenol]

DO NOT BUY, it will be $200 off on Black Friday. Wait a few weeks.

UK rarely gets huge black Friday discounts on new products. Also, some of the more likely discount sources might well not offer, say, the 24/512 option.

And experience is that all too many BF "offers" are actually cheaper after BF than on, or close to, BF itself. And I hate BF.

My current M1 mini was a refurb which saved a bit, but this time I'm not willing to wait for refurbs to appear.

Hence I have ordered. And waiting for Fri 8 Nov by Express Delivery.