I Used The M4 Mac Mini for 60 Days: Here's My HONEST Thoughts

Thanks for this video my man! Very well done!

omg, this is 8 minutes if you just saying the samehting over and over ? it's small, look how small it is, it's small ?

I was looking at getting a M4 Mac Mini but wanted to have at least 512GB of storage and 24 GB of memory. At that point does it make more sense to pay a little more and get the M4 Pro Mac Mini instead? I have a tendency to open lots of windows and have multiple use ids going plus lots of heavy analytics running and my M1 Macbook Pro with 16 GB of memory can slow to a crawl at times.

Got one for Christmas last year and paid a little more for more storage. Still a great value for the money. And my daughter uses crossover to play some of her games. With no issues reported. Very happy with it.

The Mac Mini doesn't have RAM so calling it RAM is misleading. From a PC standpoint, it has 16GB of secondary cache and zero RAM.

My m1 is still good enough. Maybe next year.

The power button location is not an issue. I keep mine on it's side and use the power button every day as part of shutting down the night before. I puchased the 10-Core GPU/CPU and 512GB of storage, and it rocks. I do a lot of audio/DAW work and this configuration is the bee's knees. As a former PC user for over 25 years, the muscle memory and workflow were challenging to relearn on MacOS. This was offset by the experience and memory of just being able to plug the MM in and install updates and the DAW and Office software then connect to the printer was wonderful. All of my audio devices were picked up perfectly and having 3 TB4's on the back and two USB-Cs on the front works well. I think they miss-stepped by omitting a USB 3.0 Type A port instead of two USSB-C's in the front. I use a ACASIS Mac Mini dock.

I'm planning to buy this mac, but how do you turn it on without pressing the power button?

Blaa blaa blaa............WHAT CAN I DO WITH IT!? Real life tests (3D rendering, complex photo editing....anything!

I already ordered the m4 mac mini I used to use the 2012 mac mini several years back and it was good for the time. I can't wait to use the new mac though. I also got one of those m.2 enclosures since I already own a 1tb ssd for it.

I am considering exactly the scenario you’re describing, I really appreciate this hands-on review. I also appreciate the down to earth, common sense references you make. I’m a photographer, but I think this would do just fine. I’m replacing my 2013 iMac, so I suppose anything I buy will be dramatically better. Thank you!

I'm editing on m1 with 16GB RAM, it really struggles for long form edit (mulitple 44mins episodic) feel it is a RAM problem and not a CORE problem most of the time, with apple silicon coming out every year, i feel not necessary to get the pro which will drop in value within a year, Thinking of getting the mini with Full 32GB ram and 256GB SSD and then 3rd party it to 2TB later this month. FCP X loves Prores though.

A great video Jimmy! I agree!

I dont think there is any comparison between the Mac Mini M4 and Mac Studio .........that's like comparing oranges to "Apples" .

Watching this video on my Mac mini M4! It is literally the best Mac of all time-no joke!

Another great video, thanks!

You know what is crazy? If you have a great monitor at home , getting a Mac mini is a no brainer since literally every other Apple product with the same exact specs costs A LOT more than a Mac mini.

great video. Still confused whether to go base with external SSD, or get 512 with some external or get base and use one of the 2GB upgrade kits. My main use is Logic Pro

Hmmm... think I'd have to go with the internal storage upgrade myself... Currently, my base model MacBook Pro (2020)--that's all that was available locally and I needed it immediately,--has 250g internal SSD and it's already at half capacity. Half the storage is taken by OS, OS files, apps, and something else that's 31.88g but only ever says "calculating..." in the HD break down list. Using iMovie can consume the rest of that storage if left unchecked. So yeah, pushing a base model machine to its limits is not gonna work...

Also, some of the post on here about reviewing other, everyday use task/operations...lol. Apple machines are built for video/music editing, graphics design, content creation, etc. Apple's major target audience is filmmakers, content creators, musicians, and artists. Apple's machines are designed with those professions in mind, designed for those industries. So, yeah it's going to be a major concern and a point of interest. ...To answer @driver288's concern: "...talk about all the other step people do! surfing, budgets, watching media, play games, emails, or writing a book/resumé/recepie/schedule/travel plan or whatnot." Web surfing: good. Budgets: no problems there. Watching media: that's what it's built for. All the other stuff you mentioned: also good. Now! On to important stuff! Video editing, sound design, animation--you know, the stuff one would spend 500+ dollars on a computer for. 😆

I am guessing the reason the power button was moved was that it was cheaper to mold the bottom plastic piece with a hole in it than it is to cut the aluminum...probably just a cost saving measure that helped hit their price point.

At age 66, I just do way too much of my computing in bed to even consider a desktop machine. Upon retirement, I lost all desire to sit at a desk while doing "work" on my computer. Therefore, I found the Microsoft Surface Pro 11 to be a better fit. The virtual on-screen keyboard is fine for everyday input, and the magnetic detachable keyboard is just fine when I need to get out of bed and do some really extensive typing. It also came with 16GB of RAM and a full terabyte of easily upgradable SSD storage (albeit at a higher price than the Mac Mini). Its also a Windows machine which I just inherently prefer.

I had upgrade the ram and storage to 512GB for my M4 mac mini

Actually, the Good Fast and Heat Dissipating Silent ecnlosure for those "Cheap" NVMe cost just like the NVMe itself if not more (say OWC 1m2), so, it worth noting that as well...

Satechi is releasing a hub which has an SSD slot. The cool thing is that cost of the hub + the SSD will come out to around half the price as hard drive upgrade on the Apple site. I had the Satechi hub on my M1. Great breakdown here, and I've been happy with my M4 since release. Even the base model is good enough for editing RAW stills. I've had no problems with delays or disconnects using Lacie hard drives connected to the front ports.

Cheers!

The base model is attractively priced, but it is NOT intended for power users. For power users, the Pro model is fairly expensive.

I'm buying the M4 Mac mini later this week. I will upgrade to 512GB SSD because 256GB is too restrictive for a system drive, a lesson I learned years ago.

And, no, you can't put some of your system stuff on an external drive because that prevents the drive from being portable or removeable (just in case).

I will, nevertheless, add a 2TB external drive to the Mac mini giving me a total of 2.5GB of storage.

would it wor good as audio daw?

People don’t realize, everyone gets student discount from Apple. $499 for this Mac mini, that’s a good deal

What of audio production like logic pro 11..?

Why do people say those Creative pebble speakers are decent? They are pretty trash. I wouldn't waste the $20 on them, just spend a little more and get some real speakers.

Thank for sharing my window laptop coming to an end I was looking at this device as all my other devices are apple. I was looking at £999 model what do you think.

I can understand why a lot of the girly men complain about having the lift the mini to turn it off, but you look like a big guy!😂

So mini or m3 laptop ? Btw if i buy the laptop cam i link it up to a monitor ??

I bought the M4 Mac mini with the 512 ssd and 24 gb ram. I think that is the sweet spot for this machine. I wanted to have a bigger internal storage and just use an external SSD for anything else that I don’t want to keep on the mini. Went with the 24 gb ram to give a little more room to play with. I have gone into the 18-20 gb range when doing some editing and uploading of videos and I am glad I upgraded as it takes some pressure off the machine.

i wanted more ram so i choose the 24gb, just because i do video editing

I had an M1 Mac mini with 16GB memory and 512GB storage. The storage was clearly not enough, just over 200GB free space. I chose the M4 mini with 1TB of storage and 24GB memory, my reasoning for the latter was Apple released Apple Intelligence at the same time as removing the anaemic 8GB memory option, suggesting that future iterations of Apple Intelligence might need more memory resources. While I have no current use for anything more than Gigabit Ethernet that may change in future so I also specified 10 Gigabit Ethernet.
I have a VESA Apple Studio Display with Insta360 Link 4k webcam and a USB condenser microphone on a boom. The M1 Mac mini used a Satechi dock/hub with extra USB-A ports and SD/micro SD card readers plus an audio port and a 1TB M.2 SATA SSD.
This didn't fit the M4 Mac mini so I added a RayCue device with similar but greater connectivity. The SSD from the Satechi works fine in the RayCue device. This new thing has two 5Gbps USB-A ports, one 10Gbps USB-A port, one 10Gbps USB-C port, an HDMI 2.1 port, SD/Micro SD slots and an audio port in addition to the SSD slot which can take M.2 SATA or NVME SSD modules. There are two USB-C ports on the back: one is the host 9USB-C) connected to a Thunderbolt port, the other is for external power (5V/3A) to avoid overloading the host connection.
With the Studio Display, mic, webcam and the RayCue dock connected, I have one free Thunderbolt 4 port plus four 10Gbps USB-C ports and three USB-A ports available.

Upgraded to 24GB RAM but with 256GB Storage, good value!

Given that Apple often goes several years between updates to the Mac Mini I bought an M2 Mini late last year about a month before the M4 came out. I upgraded the RAM to 16GB and even with the Black Friday deals I paid about the same as what I did for the 16GB M4 I just received. I also ordered a 2TB storage upgrade so kind of holding off swapping out the M2 until the storage arrives. The M2 was compelling but the new M4 is unbeatable for the price especially when finally you can get away from Apple's storage upgrade prices. PS the M4 is my fifth Mac Mini so you might say I'm more than a bit of a fan of these

big hands and big nails 😅

I Just bought two 256gb. Was blown away at how fast it was. two days later I purchased the 2TB internal SSD $299 upgrade chip from another vendor. I will install when it arrives. Just have to open it up to install then, reboot in DFU mode to update the firmware.

Hahaha video editing is a “power user move”

i have issue on my mac mini m2 , delay on launching apps.. is it already fixed in this mac mini m4?

I love the design, but I don't have the budget. So I bought the kislux bag. From now on I never want to buy any luxury goods.

Hi bro what configuration should to buy for 3d architecture & rendering task. ? Please suggest

I bought a fake bag for kislux . I would not spend that money on a real bag. I would rather put the money in the bank. I really appreciate this video. Thanks!

more comfortable, and itâ s also not a big deal, which makes me feel relieved. I love a good kislux because it helps me decide if I want to buy the real thing. Thatâ s the part. Thatâ s it. I feel like people discriminate against knockoffs, but for me, I pause when I buy trendy stuff in bulk or when I feel the over-consumption frenzy is coming for me. (This is something I struggle with, haha! I can be easily convinced to buy things I donâ t wear or use. They literally have tags on them and Iâ ll forget I even bought something and Iâ ll still have 2 or 3 of those in my closet.) Love this video!

It’s the best streaming machine on the planet!

I use my kislux as a work bag and have had no issues at all. Itâ s a comfortable bag, fits a good amount and hadnâ t lost its shape. With that being said, I also take care of all my bags and donâ t carry a water bottle, pens, keys or anything that can damage the interio

I tried one of those Samsung external ssds. It wouldn't format to APFS, so sent it back. I do wonder about audio (I use Logic Pro) with some fairly heavy 3rd party sample instruments. Probably a Pro, I guess. I currently have a M1 mini, 1tb storage, 16 gb ram (maxxed out, iirc). It is an amazing little machine, but I haven't tried doing any heavy lifting with it, yet (symphonic stuff).