Apple’s Mac Mini might finally come with a new design, but there could be some design trade-offs, according to Mark Gurman of Bloomberg in his “Power On” newsletter. He suggests that the upcoming M4 Mac Mini may drop the USB-A ports in favour of a much smaller chassis design.
If recent rumours about the M4 Mac Mini are true, multiple variants of this compact desktop PC are expected, with the M4 Pro variant likely being the most premium. According to Gurman, this model could hit the market as early as October. While the USB-A ports might be removed, it is expected to come with five USB-C ports, an Ethernet port, an HDMI port, and a headphone jack.
This would be a great feature set for a device that might resemble the Apple TV in size, and you wouldn’t need to carry a separate power brick, as Gurman notes that it will come with its own internal power supply.
With the iPhone 16 unveiling, Gurman mentioned that the M4 and M4 Pro Mac Minis won’t be announced at the 9th September “It’s Glowtime” Apple event but are expected to be revealed at least a month later—so we might not know anything for sure until October.
A Worthy Sacrifice? It’s been a long time since the Mac Mini saw any significant design changes—both our 2012 Apple Mac Mini and 2023 Apple Mac Mini reviews show devices that look nearly identical. According to Gurman, the last true Mac Mini design refresh was nearly 15 years ago.
While some users may not want to part with the USB-A ports, we think it might be worth it. If the M4 Mac Mini is indeed the size of an Apple TV, it would be about half the size of the 2023 model—for context, the dimensions of the Apple TV are 93 x 93 x 31 mm (3.66 x 3.66 x 1.2 inches) compared to the M2 Mac Mini’s 197 x 197 x 35.8 mm (7.75 x 7.75 x 1.41 inches).
Additionally, USB-C is now quite common across devices, and docks and hubs are readily available, so there should be no issue if you still want to use your USB-A keyboard or mouse. As the world moves away from older USB ports, we wouldn’t be surprised if Apple drops them from the 2025 Mac Pro and Mac Studio as well.
