The M4 Mac mini proves Apple has corrected its biggest mistakes of the past

Apple's M4 Mac mini is a surprisingly and incredibly successful product. According to a poll on our homepage, it's our readers' favorite product of the year — by a wide margin. Why is it such a hit? Because it's the most compelling evidence yet that Apple has learned from its past mistakes.

Apple's Big Missteps Are Not Far Beyond Us

The Mac is in the middle of a very exciting new era ushered in by Apple Silicon. Macs are regularly updated with new chips, battery life and performance are regularly impressive, and exciting changes like cellular connectivity may be on the horizon.

But it wasn’t long ago that Mac users found themselves in a very different situation.

Up until Apple’s silicon debut in 2020, the Mac suffered from a number of serious problems:

new models were regularly delayed due to Intel issues
ports were constantly being taken away, as were beloved features like MagSafe
Apple’s commitment to professional Mac users was in question
and, of course, the most significant problem was the butterfly keyboard

For years, it was hard to recommend a Mac laptop because of the terrible keyboard design that lasted too long. And it was hard to recommend Mac desktops because they too often looked out of date and fell behind the times.

Some of the Mac's problems were beyond Apple's control. But I'd argue that the biggest problems were entirely of Apple's making.

Pushing users toward USB-C and endless dongles was undoubtedly a mistake. So was the butterfly keyboard and Apple's hesitation to build high-end models like the Mac Pro.

Many of these decisions were made in an attempt to create thinner, lighter, and more compact devices.

But the tradeoffs were too great.

Two M4 devices that prove Apple has changed

This year, Apple has shown how much it has learned from its past mistakes.

First, look at the M4 iPad Pro.

It’s incredibly thin and light, yet it doesn’t compromise on performance or battery life.

The iPad Pro has the same reliable battery life as previous models, and it’s the first device to feature Apple’s cutting-edge M4 chip.

As good as the iPad Pro is, I think the new Mac mini is even better.

The M4 Mac mini introduced a major redesign that significantly shrunk the device.

Ten years ago, this would have been a daunting development for Mac users.

But Apple managed to shrink the Mac mini without sacrificing features for power users.

The base Mac mini has:

front ports: two USB-C ports and a headphone jack
plus three Thunderbolt ports on the back, HDMI, and Gigabit Ethernet

Sure, the power button placement is weird, but that's mostly inconsequential.

Ports aside, the Mac mini comes with 16GB of RAM standard, you can get it with the M4 or M4 Pro chip, and it somehow starts at just $599.

Top comment from Mind Scan

Liked by 4 people

Apple has done a lot right, but it needs to lower the prices of RAM and storage upgrades.

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All the power of the latest silicon advances, plus a compelling I/O lineup, all for a low price and in a tiny new design.

The M4 Mac mini proves that in this new era of Apple silicon, thin and light doesn't have to be at the expense of performance. The iPad Pro proves you don't have to sacrifice battery life.

More than anything, Apple's 2024 products prove that the company has learned from its biggest mistakes.

Do you think Apple has learned from its past mistakes? Why or why not? Let us know in the comments.