Apple just leaked the new Mac mini with details of an important upgrade

Apple's Mac mini may be getting smaller, but newly spotted code says it's getting more high-speed connections

Apple Mac Mini M2
(Image credit: Apple)
Carrie Marshall
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Quick Summary

The new M4 Mac mini, expected to launch in October 2024, will have up to five USB-C connectors. 

The current M2 Pro only has four and the standard M2 has two.

The M4 Mac mini is going to be a big deal in a little device. The redesigned mini, which is expected to look more like a slightly oversized Apple TV 4K, will be "an iPad Pro in a small box". 

We're expecting to see it launch next month in October 2024, and whenever there's a looming launch the leaks are sure to follow. But the leaker this time around isn't a well-connected analyst or a social media leaker. It's Apple.

We can thank MacRumors contributor Aaron Perris for this one. Perris was poking around inside Apple's software and spotted a code change that reveals a key part of the Mac mini (M4) specification. According to the code, the little Mac will have a lot of expandability thanks to five USB-C ports.

What to expect from the M4 Mac mini

We don't yet know the spec of those ports – USB-C connectors can be used not just for USB connections of various kinds but for super-speedy Thunderbolt 4 ports too. For example, the M2 Mac mini has two USB-Cs that are also Thunderbolt 4; the M2 Pro has four.

What may be different this time around is that the current Mac mini also has USB-A ports for backwards compatibility. Previous reports have suggested that those will disappear this time around because there simply isn't space for them any more.

We're expecting to see two versions of the tiny Mac, one with an M4 and one with M4 Pro. The Pro is a shoo-in for five USB-C ports but we don't yet know if the non-Pro version will also come with the same number of connectors or if Apple will continue to offer two slightly different backs on the mini Macs.

The new M4 Mac mini and M4 Pro Mac mini are expected to launch in October alongside other M4 Macs – a new iMac and new MacBook Pros – and possibly a new entry-level iPad too.

Carrie Marshall
Carrie Marshall

Writer, musician and broadcaster Carrie Marshall has been covering technology since 1998 and is particularly interested in how tech can help us live our best lives. Her CV is a who’s who of magazines, newspapers, websites and radio programmes ranging from T3, Techradar and MacFormat to the BBC, Sunday Post and People’s Friend. Carrie has written more than a dozen books, ghost-wrote two more and co-wrote seven more books and a Radio 2 documentary series; her memoir, Carrie Kills A Man, was shortlisted for the British Book Awards. When she’s not scribbling, Carrie is the singer in Glaswegian rock band Unquiet Mind (unquietmindmusic).

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