M4 Mac mini ... How is it going?

I begin to see the day when I will replace my M1 MacBook Air and am wondering if any new owners of the M4 Mac mini would like to weigh in on their experience so far? Some of you may even have the M4 Pro Mac mini …

The M4 Mac mini is super smooth—noticeable speed improvements over my old M1, especially for heavier tasks.

2 Likes

That’s good to hear.

Any less than optimal interactions with peripherals or networking? Monitors, keyboard, mouse, trackpad, external storage drives, wi-fi, Bluetooth? (Sorry, I’m use to laptops where hardware and software are closely integrated, so separate components are a possible concern. :slightly_smiling_face:)

1 Like

This is a good point.

I have an M1 mini that experiences a lot of dropoutrs between Bluetooth and my peripherals. It occurs with both the keyboard and the mouse, however the Audio is worse. I regularlary have to resort to a wired headset. I would love to know if it has been fixed.

1 Like

I recently replaced my 2017 iMac with M4 Mac mini.
Everything is going great so far. No issues with bluetooth of peripheral connections either. I am using Magic Keyboard and Magic Mouse, which I had ordered along with Mac mini.

If I have to criticise then it would be speaker quality. Compared to iMac these speakers are… weak. If you listen to a lot of music (or audio) on computer, then I would recommend getting headphones or external speakers

4 Likes

You likely already know this, but some USB hubs can interfere with Blutooth connectivity. Moving the hub farther away from the Mac can sometimes help.

I had a hub which was causing issues with my M1 Studio, and replacing it resolved the problem.

In any case, good luck getting it sorted.

2 Likes

I got myself a M4 pro Mac mini and it is awesome. I love the form factor, it is quiet. It is fast, it does not consume much energy. And yes, I am not happy with the power button’s position. My Mac is not running 24/7. I am using Schedule your Mac to turn on or off in Terminal - Apple Support to start it automatically in the morning and to shut it down in the evening. There had been rare occasions, when I started the Mac manually, which means that I had to lift it up a bit in order to press the power button. Apple for sure is thinking that Macs should run 24/7 and I get why, but that is not exactly where I am at yet with my desktop Mac.

I have not experienced any issues using it daily for almost 3 months now.

It is the best desktop Mac I have ever owned. I love it. :slight_smile:

5 Likes

I bought one yesterday, so perhaps not the longest trial! It’s the first new Apple hardware I’ve bought in many years - I usually buy refurbished - but the cost was so relatively low compared to the anticipated performance that I had to go for it.

So far - zero issues. My data transferred smoothly from my MacBook Air 2017 using Time Machine, and all my external devices are working fine. The biggest issue has been that my peripherals are USB-A, and so I need a USB-C->USB-A hub. Obviously not an issue if you’re buying new.

It’s as smooth as butter… zero lag. I’m even considering switching to Pages from Google Docs so I can use AI.

Sound quality is fine for me - background music while I work - but it’s not its best feature.

1 Like

If Apple released a TVOS update to the old Front Row App and make the Mac Mini a true blue media server it is an immediate buy for me.

I replaced an M1 MacBook Air with an M4 mini just a couple of weeks ago. (Well, maybe not replaced, but that MacBook has now been relegated to a secondary role.) So far, so good. It doesn’t seem to be the performance increase of going from an Intel-based Mac to an M1, but it does feel like it’s running snappier/more smoothly than the M1, and it doesn’t give any hint of performance demands no matter how many apps I am running. I’m using it with a couple monitors and a few bluetooth devices, but no issues with connectivity either. My first impressions are very positive!

1 Like

Thank you for the thought. I do not have a powered USB hub, but a couple of dongle-style ones. In the past, I have tried running the computer clean, with nothing connected, but that made no difference.

I think I have sort of got used to it now. I have a MX Mini keyboard, and I quickly flick off the on/off switch or use the Bluetooth switch key (not sure what they are actually called!) and that fixes the keyboard. The mouse is a jiggle or sometimes I switch on or off. They have just become part of my routine, But, the headphones just drive me insane!!!

EDIT: I should add that I think it is a terrific machine. Apart from the BT issues, I have no complaints. I got the larger 500MB drive and 16GB of RAM, and everything I do runs so well on it, including Parallels

2 Likes

Love it. Does just what I need and does it quietly and quickly. No bluetooth issues, or any others as yet. I can see this being my machine for many years. I doubt I’d ever need more.

2 Likes