Along with the new M2 MacBook Pros, Apple is releasing the 2023 Mac mini with the M2 and M2 Pro chips. The addition of these two chips provides unparalleled performance.
This beginning of the week was particularly busy for Apple. After the announcement of the new MacBook Pro M2 , the announcement of the release of a new HomePod , the Cupertino company has lifted the veil on a new generation of Mac mini M2. Here’s everything you need to know about this new version of the Mac Mini.
An unchanged design
From a design point of view, the new Mac mini M2 does not change and concerns the shape of the M1 model. The machine has a wide range of input/output ports. There are two Thunderbolt 4 ports, two USB-A ports, an HDMI port, a Gigabit Ethernet jack and a headphone jack output. The base M2 model is offered at $599 while the M2 Pro model is offered at $1,299.
Mini in size, big in performance
The arrival of the M2 and M2 Pro chip gives a big boost to this Mac mini. Here is a chip-by-chip description of this new generation of Mac Mini.
Mac Mini M2
The new M2 chip brings pro-level performance to the Mac mini for the first time, allowing users to run high-performance workflows that were previously unthinkable in such a compact design.
The arrival of the M2 chip and the M2 Pro gives this little box a pretty impressive performance boost. Indeed, everyday tasks are impressively fast, whether it’s launching, multitasking between apps, or browsing the web. For users performing more intensive tasks, the Mac mini M2 is also capable of handling even more demanding workloads.
With better unified memory (up to 24 GB) and better bandwidth (100 GB/s), activities like image editing in Adobe Photoshop are up to 50% faster than the previous generation. The M2 model also adds ProRes support to the Mac mini. This means tasks like video editing in Final Cut Pro are more than twice as fast. The M2 model can also simultaneously play up to two streams of 8K ProRes 422 video at 30 FPS, or up to 12 streams of 4K ProRes 422 video at 30 FPS.
With all this performance, Apple assures that its new Mac mini is up to 5 times faster than the famous Windows desktop computer, which represents an undeniable added value for new computer buyers, people wishing to upgrade level and people wishing to change PC.
Mac Mini M2 Pro
The M2 Pro variant, it brings even better performance. Equipped with a 12-core processor, including eight high-performance and four high-efficiency, and a 19-core GPU, the M2 Pro has a memory bandwidth of 200 GB/s, twice that of of the M2 version, and supports up to 32 GB of memory.
The next-generation neural engine is 40% faster than the M1, which speeds up machine learning tasks like video analysis and image processing. Designed to dramatically speed up video playback and encoding while consuming very little power, the Mac mini M2 Pro features a powerful media engine, which accelerates the most popular video codecs and can simultaneously play up to five streams of ProRes 422 8K video at 30 FPS, or up to 23 streams of ProRes 422 4K video at 30 FPS.
The model equipped with the M2 Pro chip is 14 times faster than the Mac Mini Intel (with the highest configuration). With the M2 Pro chip, Mac mini users can run high-performance workflows that were previously unimaginable in such a compact package.
Pre- orders are currently possible on Apple’s website and the first Mac mini will be available from Tuesday, January 24.