Apple Mac mini (M6) review: The best compact desktop is no longer a great deal
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ThinkingNews Desk · how this was written
Apple’s new Mac Mini, powered by the M6 chip, delivers strong performance and faster storage than the previous M4 model while maintaining a compact footprint. However, the price increase has eroded its value proposition, making it less attractive compared to earlier, cheaper iterations.
Written from all 5 reports below, not from any single one.
How it was reported
- The Verge·The Mac Mini is still mighty, just not as cheap
- Wired·Apple Mac Mini (M6) Review: For the AI Curious
The 2026 Mac Mini keeps its port layout: two USB-C 3.0, a headphone jack, a power indicator, three Thunderbolt 4, HDMI 2.1, Ethernet, and a power adapter port. It supports two 5K 120 Hz or three 4K external displays. The power button is on the rear left corner, and there is no front-facing SD card slot. Inside, the new M6 chip uses a 2-nm process, contains 46 billion transistors, 12 CPU cores, and delivers 21% single-thread and 36% multi-thread performance gains over the M4, but is 10% slower in single-thread than the M5 Pro.
- Engadget·Apple Mac mini (M6) review: The best compact desktop is no longer a great deal
Apple’s new Mac mini starts at $899 and offers an M6 chip with 12 CPU/12 GPU cores or an M5 Pro with 18 CPU/20 GPU cores, supporting up to 32 GB or 64 GB of RAM and 170 GB/s or 307 GB/s bandwidth. The M6 delivers 13.5× faster LLM prompt processing and 2.3× faster Excel work than the M1, while the M5 Pro reaches 22.3× and 4.6× speeds. The compact 5 × 5 inch, 1.5-lb case includes Thunderbolt 4 (40 Gb/s) on the M6 and Thunderbolt 5 (120 Gb/s) on the M5 Pro, plus USB-C, HDMI, 2.5 Gbps Ethernet, and a rear power port.
- Ars Technica·Apple Mac mini review: The new M6 impresses, but the price hike is rough
- TechMeme·Mac mini (late 2026) review: strong M6 performance, faster storage over the M4, and small footprint, but pricey storage and memory erode its value proposition (Brandon Hill/Tom's Hardware)