Apple’s press release week continues, with Monday’s announcement of a new M4 iMac followed by Tuesday’s. new Mac mini M4. This caught the Macworld team slightly off guard, as we thought the company would turn to the M4 MacBook Pro first and leave the mini for last. For what? Because this year’s mini got a major overhaul and Apple usually likes to end on a high note. Maybe the schedule was rearranged at the last minute after this unfortunate Amazon leak.

The redesigns are important. Not only because they allow customers to show off that they own the latest model, although you can be sure that Apple knows the value of that– and not just for aesthetic reasons. (If we cared about these, we’d complain about the lack of a Space Black color finish…which we’re totally not crazy about, honestly.) The 2024 Mac mini certainly looks great, but the design is fine more than just aesthetics. ; in this case, the benefits of the redesign are functional, with the device finally cashing the check written by this brand all those years ago. It is actually a mini Mac in the true and pragmatic sense.

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The Mac mini started at 6.5 inches square, which was incredibly small by 2005 standards. But as computers got smaller, the mini didn’t change. In fact, its desktop footprint has become larger, with an increase to 7.7 inches in 2010. (For visualization purposes, in case you don’t own one, the 2022 mini’s footprint is about the same as four Apple TV 4K units arranged in a square (which may not be an entirely fair comparison, but the point is that it’s not exactly discrete.)

The depth has certainly decreased, but I’m not yet convinced that it matters that much. And the weight has remained largely constant. It became more of a Mac skinny than a Mac mini.

Why is this important? Because the entire Mac mini reason for being it’s about being small. Its goal is to take up as little space as possible on a modern minimalist desk, to be easily transported from room to room, to fit easily into a remote worker’s backpack when traveling between home and office. Having a small footprint is all that matters, baby.

The tech upgrades for the M4 Mac mini are really cool. I like the increase in CPU over two generations and the increase in CPU and GPU cores; I like the switch from rear USB-A ports to front USB-C ports; I like having the option to get up to 64GB of RAM and support for three displays even if I don’t opt ​​for the Pro model. These are all worthwhile and enjoyable upgrades.

But let’s be honest: we don’t like the Mac mini for its specs but for its form factor. The 2024 mini is a nice 5-inch square and has lost over a pound in weight, making it a true marvel of Apple engineering. It looks like a small Mac Studio and in the photos it’s almost too small to believe. It’s not only significantly smaller than its predecessor: as Apple said in its announcement video, it’s 1/20th the size of the best-selling desktop PC in its price range and is more than six times faster. The Mac mini has always been deceptively powerful, but it doesn’t quite live up to its descriptive last name.

Until now. With the 2024 redesign, the Mac mini form factor finally delivers the goods.