Charles Martin
The forthcoming M4 Mac mini redesign is expected to follow iMac's lead and ditch USB-A ports, in favor of an array of USB-C ports.
A new report from Bloomberg follows up on earlier claims of a major redesign of the Mac mini, taking cues from the larger Mac Studio but in a notably smaller form factor. The M4 and M4 Pro-based form factor will allegedly be not much larger than the current Apple TV hardware, but taller.
The unit will feature three of the USB-C ports on the back, with two USB-C ports accessible on the front of the machine, as with the Mac Studio. The redesign will also offer HDMI and Ethernet ports, along with a headphone jack.
The M4 version of the Mac mini will likely be available ahead of the M4 Pro version, and could be arriving as early as October. Rumors have suggested that Apple could also update its MacBook Pro and iMac lineup before the end of 2024, with refreshes of the MacBook Air, Mac Studio and Mac Pro arriving in 2025.
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35 Comments
I'm happy to see they are ditching USB-A. I avoid USB-A ports and only buy USB-C / Thunderbolt devices and I use UBC-C / Thunderbolt to connect directly to HMDI, DisplayPort, etc, since no hub or adapter is needed. A transition I started back in 2019.
I still use USB-A. I have a couple of devices that are still using the old port. Yes USB-C is the future and anything I buy going forward will be using C. But I’ve got backup drives, a mic, camera, and the adaptor for my Logitech mouse that need the old port. I’m not going to throw them away until I have to.
Really really unfortunate if they remove <any> of the ports the mini currently has. There are still a bunch of items out there that are USB-A only (keyboard/controller dongles and various others, now you will need an ugly USB-C dongle to use them). The pro mini currently has 6 USB ports in the back, 4 USB-C/TB and 2 USB-A, the loss of even a single one of these is really really unfortunate. If they move to having only 3 USB-C ports in the back and 2 in front, this is barely better than just using a laptop. A MAJORITY of the POINT of the mini is to have significantly better connectivity than a laptop and a cleaner look with all the ports in the rear and not coming out of multiple sides of the device as you have with a laptop. Plus the change of form factor which almost nobody has asked for in order to help Apple have cheaper cargo shipping and the inconvenience of changing any mounts and brackets some users make use of.