My M1 Mac mini has been one of the best purchases I’ve made in recent years. It’s performed incredibly well since I bought it and has served me well over the years despite having nothing more assuming than an entry-level chip. Throw in the fact that it only cost me $699, and it’s left me one happy bunny.
Now, AppleInsider says it’s been told by sources inside Apple that the company is testing an M5 Mac mini. This follows up on the outlet’s report earlier this year that an M5 Pro Mac mini was in the works and suggests we could be getting close to seeing the next generation of Apple’s tiny desktop computer.
As well as my M1 Mac mini has performed, I’m sorely tempted to upgrade to an M5 model. By all indications, it’ll come at the right time and with the right features to make the outlay worth it.
An upgrade that’s built to last
The Mac mini is already the best mini PC you can buy, and it’s not even close. Its powerful, efficient chips deliver significantly more performance than you would expect from a computer this small. And it really is small, leaving a tiny footprint on your desk, even by the standards of these small-scale devices. It’s made from high-quality materials with a solid aluminum chassis, yet its $599 price tag – $100 less than I paid for the M1 model – means it offers tremendous value.
That’s all with the M4 chip, but with an M5 on the way, we can expect things to get even better. The M5 chip is rumored to bring a performance increase of 15-25% over the M4, as well as Thunderbolt 5 in the entry-level models and Wi-Fi 7 connectivity. It’ll be a modest but meaningful upgrade.
There won’t be a new design for the Mac mini, but that really doesn’t bother me. Considering the current look is less than a year old – and still looks fantastic – there’s no need to change it. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.
All this talk of a new Mac mini comes at the ideal time for me to upgrade. My M1 Mac mini is five years old and can’t always keep up with more heavy-duty tasks. My MacBook Pro with M1 Pro chip, meanwhile, is doing OK, but I’m increasingly having to turn down the settings in more demanding games like Cyberpunk 2077. In both instances, my Macs are starting to show their age.
A Mac mini with an M5 or M5 Pro chip would be perfect for my more performance-intensive work (such as reviewing high-end games), allowing my MacBook Pro to focus on less-demanding work on the go. Given how much I’ve managed to eke out of my M1 Mac mini, an upgraded model could last me well into the future.
Pro possibilities
I recently took the macOS version of Cyberpunk 2077 for a spin on two different Macs: my MacBook Pro with M1 Pro chip, and an iMac with M4 chip. And thanks to its extra graphics cores, the M1 Pro actually outperformed the M4, despite being several generations out of date.
That makes me excited to think about what might be possible with an M5 Pro Mac mini and the extra graphical oomph granted by its increased core count. Throw in frame generation – Apple has its own MetalFX implementation of this in the works – and the next Mac mini could achieve frame rates I never thought possible from a Mac. And that’s all for $599, which makes the Mac mini a pretty spectacular bargain.
For now, we don’t yet know when the M5 Mac mini is going to launch. AppleInsider previously suggested that it would arrive in 2025, but early 2026 is also a possibility.
Either way, it’s going to come at a potentially expensive time for me. I’m eyeing up the MacBook Pro with M6 Pro chip, as its expected combination of high-grade performance and OLED display could make it a gaming dream machine. At the same time, I also want to upgrade my desktop PC from 2021, which isn’t quite able to hit the levels I want with its RTX 3070 graphics card.
But given what could be coming to the Mac mini, it’s going to be hard to resist prioritizing Apple’s dinky desktop Mac. All in all, it feels like a great time to be an unashamed computer nerd.