The Apple Mac mini M2 is here with the surprise announcement by Apple on January 17, 2023, and we have all the specs and details on this exciting new Apple device.
The Mac mini M2 is a follow up to the popular Mac mini M1, which launched late in 2020 as one of the first of three devices to sport Apple's new silicon, along with the Apple MacBook Air (M1) and Apple MacBook Pro 13-inch (M1).
It was conspicuously absent when we saw the newly redesigned MacBook Air (M2) last year, but now is better than never, and the new Mac mini is definitely going to be getting a lot of attention thanks to a lower starting price than its predecessor and more powerful hardware under the hood.
So what do we know about the Mac mini M2? Let's dive in and take a look.
Apple Mac mini M2: Cut to the chase
- What is it? Apple's newest mini form factor PC
- How much does it cost? Starting at $599 / £649 / AU$999
- When can I get it? It is available for preorder now, with delivery starting on January 24, 2023.
Apple Mac mini M2: Price & availability
You can order the new Mac mini M2 or Mac mini M2 Pro right now on Apple's website, with delivery starting on January 24, 2023, with Australia getting deliveries starting on February 3.
The M2 Mac mini will start at $599 £649 / AU$999, and it will come with 8GB unified memory and 256GB SSD storage. This is $100 / £100 / AU$150 less than what the original Mac mini M1 debuted at just two years ago, which is definitely an encouraging sign given that the 2022 MacBook Air saw its starting price increase a good bit over the M1 MacBook Air.
Moving on to the configurations, you will be able to upgrade the amount of memory up to 24GB for an additional $400 / £400 / AU$600, and you can get up to 2TB storage, which will cost you an additional $800 / £800 / $1,200.
The Mac mini with M2 Pro chip, meanwhile, will start at $1,299 / £1,399 / AU$1,999, and this will get you an Apple M2 Pro chip with 10-core CPU and 16-core GPU, along with 16GB memory and 512GB SSD storage.
For an additional $300 / £300 / AU$450, you can get a more powerful M2 Pro chip with 12-core CPU and 19-core GPU. Upgrading to 32GB memory will cost you $400 / £400 / AU$600, and is the only memory upgrade option.
You can also upgrade to as much as 8TB SSD storage, which will set you back a whopping $2,400 / £2,400 / AU$3,600, though 1TB, 2TB, and 4TB options aren't nearly as much as that, costing an additional $200 / £200 / AU$300; $600 / £600 / AU$ 900; and $1,200 / £1,200 / AU$1,800, respectively.
You also have the option of getting a 10 Gigabit Ethernet adapter instead of the standard Gigabit port for an extra $100 / £100 / AU$150.
Apple Mac mini M2: Design
Much like the new MacBook Pro models announced alongside it, the Apple Mac mini with M2 looks more-or-less identical to the last Mac mini, so anyone hoping for a radical redesign will be disappointed (so, no; no purple Mac mini this year, we're afraid).
Where the design shifts a bit is owing to the new M2 Pro chip, which provides a total of four Thunderbolt 4 ports, as opposed to the two Thunderbolt 4 ports on the M2 Mac mini, and the two Thunderbolt 3 ports on the M1 Mac mini.
Apple Mac mini M2: Specs
Now with the announcement of the M2 Mac mini, we've also finally gotten a look at the specs of the highly-anticipated Apple M2 Pro chip, which will ship with the top-end Mac mini configuration.
Starting off, the Apple Mac mini with M2 will feature the same 8-core CPU/10-core GPU silicon that we saw in the new MacBook Air and MacBook Pro 13-inch in 2022, but the M2 Pro chip is entirely new for the Mac mini and the new MacBook Pro 14-inch and MacBook Pro 16-inch announced alongside the Mac mini.
The M2 Pro chip comes in two variants, the 10-core CPU/16-core GPU version (with six performance and four efficiency cores) and a 12-core CPU/19-core GPU version (with eight performance cores/four efficiency cores).
The new M2 Pro supports up to 32GB unified memory, and is claimed (by Apple) to have 1.9 times better CPU performance than the M1 chip, which the 2020 Mac mini came with, as well as 2.6 times better GPU performance. Of course, these claims haven't been tested yet, but once we get our hands on one of these chips in one form or another, you can bet we'll be putting those claims to the test.
