Apple Mac Mini M4 on Sale for $649, but With a Catch
The base model of Apple's Mac Mini M4 desktop is on sale for $649, which is $150 below its list price. The price is still higher than when the machine launched in 2024.
The base version of Apple's compact Mac Mini M4 desktop computer is available for $649, according to technology outlet Wired. That is $150 under the manufacturer's suggested retail price and $250 cheaper than the new Mac Mini M6, which starts at $899. The base configuration has 256 GB of storage and 16 GB of unified memory.
The Mac Mini M4 became popular as a small but powerful desktop for running agentic AI tools locally around the clock. Demand left it out of stock for months. With the arrival of the M6 model, the older M4 is no longer as scarce. There was no M5 version of the Mac Mini.
The catch
When the M4 launched in 2024, it started at $599. This year Apple raised prices across its hardware lineup, with chip and memory shortages cited as the cause. As a result, the M4 came to cost $799. Depending on perspective, the sale is either a genuine discount or a reminder that the machine used to be much cheaper.
What the M4 can do
The M4 is no longer Apple's most powerful small computer; that title now belongs to the M6 and M5 Pro models. Still, the processor remains strong and efficient. Wired notes that demanding work such as AI tasks or video editing calls for more than 16 GB of memory, and people who bought the machine for AI loaded it with 32 GB of RAM.
The M6 chip is more powerful because it has more CPU and GPU cores, Neural Accelerators and higher memory bandwidth. For web browsing and general productivity, however, the difference is small. The outlet recommends the M6 for those who need the extra performance, while for everyone else it considers the M4 sufficient and this price unlikely to be beaten.
