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Apple has just ditched its fastest chip yet – the M4 Pro – and put it in its smallest Mac yet. The new Mac mini is actually even smaller than previous generations, getting its first redesign in over 10 years, and now has both USB-C ports and a headphone jack on the front.

The latest version of the Mac mini is only 12.7 cm x 12.7 cm x 5 cm (5x5x2 inches), which is about 7 cm (2.75 inches) in length and width than the 2023 version. It is slightly taller , but it will fit perfectly under the monitor.

The new M4 chip offers a significant speed boost over previous models, with a 10-core processor and 10-core GPU as standard. The lower spec 8-core version offered in the new iMac M4 not available here.

For serious performance, the Mac mini also comes with the option of the M4 Pro chip, which comes in two forms. The standard model has a 12-core CPU and a 16-core GPU, while the top-of-the-line version has a 14-core CPU and a 20-core GPU. They can support up to 64 GB of memory and allow the use of Thunderbolt 5, which doubles the speed of Thunderbolt 4 to provide up to 120 Gb/s.

It will be interesting to see how the new small and powerful Mac mini compares to the Mac Studio models with the M2 Max and M2 Ultra chips. I suspect we’ll see updates to the Studio and Mac Pro machines when the M4 Max and Ultra chips are revealed.

Base Mac mini M4 machines have 16GB or 24GB of RAM and 256GB or 512GB of storage. However, all are configurable for more RAM and storage, with a maximum of 32GB / 2TB on the M4 models and a maximum of 64GB / 8TB on the M4 Pro model.

This powerful new chip also means excellent display support, with up to three displays at the same time. The M4 Pro can also support three screens, but with higher resolutions.

The Mac mini M4 starts at £599 / $599, while the M4 Pro starts at £1,399 / $1,399.