It's been over a week since Apple refreshed its small form factor desktop computer. The New Mac Mini now packs the freshly-baked M4 and M4 Pro chips and looks entirely different when placed alongside its older M2-powered sibling.
A newly surfaced partial teardown video of the device highlights a change in the New Mac Mini base model that Apple did under the hood but didn't discuss publicly. The new Mac Mini now houses two 128GB storage chips in the base model with 256GB storage, with a starting price of $599.
Partial teardown of M4 Mac Mini /w 16GB RAM & 256GB SSD. Interesting revealation: Wifi chip & antenna on the back of bottom air intake. SSD on a daughter board. And even the base 256GB version comes in two chips. No compromise in speed. Theoretically also end user upgradable. pic.twitter.com/vA2vQwkl7J
— ＨＧ 阿聻 𓆣 𓇽 (@ohgkg) November 8, 2024
Apple found itself in hot waters when it started fitting a single storage chip in the base variant of the M2 MacBook Air and 13-inch M2 MacBook Pro. Using a single storage chip delivers slower read/write speeds for the users, although it does not result in a noticeable difference in daily usage.
The trend trickled down to the M2 Mac Mini, whose 256GB variant packed a single chip. However, Apple started taking a U-turn with the release of M3-powered Macs.
MacRumors notes that using two 128GB chips in the New Mac Mini will not result in significantly slower SSD speeds when compared to higher-end models with 512GB, 1TB or higher storage, given that multiple NAND chips can deliver faster read/write speeds.
The teardown also uncovers the modular storage fitted inside the New Mac Mini. In other words, the storage is not soldered to the motherboard, unlike in previous generations. So, technically, it's possible to remove it.
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