The M4 Mac mini [middle] between an older Mac mini [below] and an Apple TV [above]
The M4 Mac mini's redesign could have been even smaller, Apple executives have admitted, but some compromises were required to produce the best version yet.
Apple's redesign of the Mac mini with the M4 and M4 Pro chip resulted in a significantly more compact design with some physical changes. Aside from the size, the ports have also been moved to the front, as has the bottom-mounted power button.
Talking about the redesign efforts Fast companyKate Bergeron, Apple's vice president of hardware engineering, and Sophie Le Guen of Mac Marketing explained that it's a balancing act.
“The Mac Mini has a special place in our hearts,” said Bergeron. “This product is an incredibly important part of the Mac lineup, and we didn't want to do it a disservice by not spending the time we needed to make it great.”
Bergeron compares it to a three-legged stool that needed changes in several areas at once to stay balanced, and says Apple Silicon's needs were the first consideration. The team started by asking what kind of Mac mini is needed that is optimized for Apple Silicon while balancing user performance and design expectations.
Not too small
Originally, the designers brought “something that's probably too small to get where we want it to go,” Bergeron explains, based on the expectation that the Mac mini would be both small and versatile. “But that’s their job – to challenge us in physical space.”
The inclusion of an M4 Pro variant required improved cooling to the design, which also took acoustic considerations into account. “We probably could have been more aggressive [with the smaller size of the Mac mini] if we decided to design only for M4,” admits Bergeron, adding that it is important to also design for professional customers.
The vice president continued: “We have to bring this all together.” [considerations] together and negotiate a lot with the design team to figure out where we're going to end up.
Port placement
As part of the negotiations, the possibility arose to change the port structure and to deviate from the usual port collection at the back. Le Guen cited two main reasons for the change.
The first was the Mac Studio, which was considered a design success while also being the first Mac desktop to use front-facing ports since the 2012 Mac Pro. The other was user feedback.
Some people would change the orientation of the device so that they can have easy access to each device [rear USB] Ports,” explains Le Guen. “That led to this [us saying]“Let’s listen to users and make sure we provide the convenience they are looking for.”
While users asked about the ability to upgrade storage, the modular version in the new Mac mini is actually for a different reason. The modular warehouse should help create “flexibility in manufacturing,” according to Bergeron.
The tight constraints inside the Mac mini mean that for larger memory configurations, “there isn't enough room on the motherboard to fit the memory directly on the board,” explains Bergeron.
As for the positioning of the power button on the bottom, this was also a design compromise. Bergeron defends the position, saying that the button is “pretty accessible” and that it is “very rare to use the power button” since users often put their Mac to sleep.
“The versatility of having all of that [new front-facing USB] We really were ports though [more] important.”
Environmental innovation
The model is the first climate-neutral Mac in Apple's history, which also uses many recycled metals. In addition to using 100% recycled zinc and recycled copper in the internal components and, for the first time, 80% recycled steel for the Apple logo, there was also a big change in the production of the case.
Like previous models, the housing is made of extruded aluminum that is cut to length. This was previously cut by a fabrication saw to a thickness of 3 millimeters, resulting in unusable chips of approximately the same thickness.
To minimize these chips, a new cutting system was developed that uses a diamond-coated nylon wire a fraction of a millimeter thick. The change allowed more material to be retained instead of being wasted as chips.
A long-term change?
When it comes to the future of the model, the two are not, as usual, willing to comment on the product roadmap. However, Bergeron is confident that the design, like the previous version, will stick around for quite a while.
“We wanted to ensure we continued to provide value to our customers for many years to come. And we’ll see where the vision takes us next time.”