Apple Has Updated the Mac mini and Mac Studio. Here's Who They're For
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Apple updated two Macs yesterday, quietly, with a press release rather than an event. The Mac mini gets a brand new chip called M6, and the Mac Studio moves to M5 Max and M5 Ultra. Both are available to pre-order now and arrive in stores on Tuesday 22 September.
Most of what Apple said was aimed at professionals and people running AI models on their desks. But there's a version of this news that matters to everyday Mac owners, so let me pull that out.
Mac mini with M6, from £899
M6 is the headline. It's Apple's first chip built on a 2 nanometre process, and Apple is calling its main CPU core the fastest in the world. In plain terms, it's a noticeably quicker chip than the M4 in the previous Mac mini, with Apple claiming around 40 per cent faster CPU performance and up to twice the graphics speed.
The rest of the spec is sensible rather than exotic:
12-core CPU and 12-core GPU
16GB of memory as standard, up to 32GB
Three Thunderbolt 4 ports, HDMI and Ethernet on the back
Two USB-C ports and a headphone jack on the front
Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 6
It starts at £899, or £799 with education pricing. That's a step up from where the Mac mini used to sit, and it's part of a wider shift in Apple's UK pricing this year. But it's still the cheapest Mac desktop Apple makes.
Mac mini with M5 Pro, from £1,699
The bigger brother gets M5 Pro, with up to an 18-core CPU, a 20-core GPU, up to 64GB of memory and Thunderbolt 5. This is for people editing video, working with large photo libraries at speed, or running serious software all day. If you have to ask whether you need it, you probably don't.
Mac Studio, from £2,499
Mac Studio now comes with M5 Max (£2,499, up to 128GB of memory) or M5 Ultra (£5,499, up to 512GB). The Ultra is Apple's most powerful chip ever, made from four dies joined together. It's for studios, developers and researchers. Not for most of us, and that's fine.
Who should actually care
If you have an Intel Mac. This is the group I'd talk to first. macOS 27 doesn't support Intel Macs, so if yours is a 2019 iMac or a 2018 MacBook Pro, you're now on the last version of macOS it will ever run. A Mac mini with M6 at £899 is the most affordable way onto a current Mac, provided you already have a screen, keyboard and mouse or are happy to buy them. Almost any monitor with HDMI will do.
If you want a desktop and portability isn't the point. The Mac mini is small enough to hide behind a monitor and quiet enough to forget about. For photos, email, browsing, Office and the odd bit of video, the base model is more than enough.
If you'd rather have a laptop. The MacBook Neo starts at £699 and would be my suggestion for most people who don't need a desk setup. I wrote about it earlier this year.
If you already have an M1, M2 or M3 Mac. Stay put. Your Mac gets macOS 27 and all the Apple Intelligence features. The M6 is faster, but you won't feel the difference for everyday use.
What's next
Apple usually holds its iPhone event in the second week of September, and this update clears the Mac out of the way beforehand. Expect iPhones, watches and AirPods next month, not Macs.
If you're weighing up a Mac mini against something else, or wondering whether your Intel Mac has more life in it, book a session and we'll work it out together. I'd rather save you money than sell you a computer.