As a result, inside the shell, you won’t find any SO-DIMM slots for upgrades as before. Unlike the 2018 Mac mini, the M1-based version incorporates the main system memory into the SoC’s module. There’s no point in prying inside, anyway. But if you want a compact, macOS-based system that’s not a laptop to attach to a TV, a spare monitor, or even just a public informational display, the Mac mini has long been the Apple alpha and omega. Sure, you can still select between 21- and 27-inch iMac models (which we’d expect to gain the M1 CPU before too long, as well). The Mac mini remains the only true “small” Mac desktop. It easily earns our Editors' Choice nod.ĭesign: A Familiar Face, an Amped-Up Core Apple’s own highly integrated system-on-a-chip (SoC), the M1 brings the Mac mini to new performance highs, and while a few fundamentals have changed, the peppy performance, the reasonable mix of connectivity, and a new lower $699 starting price combine to make it one of the best values in compact computers, period. The real update of this iconic little desktop is this one, and it's a big-band extravaganza. A slight variation on the same sheet music, played with little fanfare earlier this year, pumped up the two base models’ SSD capacity.

The 2018 Mac mini was a PCMag Editors’ Choice pick for its pep, connectivity, build quality, and limited upgradability. The Mac mini doesn’t get upgraded often, but when it does, it makes an impact well out of proportion to its trim dimensions.

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That would be something I personally would wait for to upgrade, but if the 16 GB in your current mini is working for you and your workload is not “heavy lifting” or “CPU guzzling”, the M1 mini with 16 GB and it’s faster SSD should be fine. I think the biggest “jump” in the next Mac mini would be a higher RAM ceiling (hopefully at least 24 GB like the M2 MacBooks). I think the M1 mini gives a nice speed boost, you likely won’t ever hear the fan, and they’re shipping now. The M2 MacBook benchmarks higher than the M1 models, but the rumors are mixed in when an M2 Mac mini would actually ship…could be a few months, could be next year. The 2018 Mac mini was one of the best computers I’ve owned, and the MacBook Air gave a pretty noticeable speed boost for “normal” tasks (due to the higher performance CPU and the memory and disk/SSD throughput). You’d see similar benchmarks on the M1 Mac mini. Here are the GeekBench results for each Mac:

I used that same Mac mini model for three years and switched to a M1 MacBook Air over the last year.

Mac mini m1 ram upgrade