M4 Macs review roundup: Mac Mini is awesome, the MacBook Pros are adequate and the iMac…. Exists
One’s amazing, one’s alright and one’s……colorful?
Apple made sure to dominate the early month news cycle by making most of its recent announcements dedicated to Macs. For the first week of November it was essentially a success as almost everyday you had new Mac news to listen to and to be excited about, so much so that one could argue the actual Mac announcements didn’t live up to the hype around it. But hype train aside, last week’s Mac announcements were definitely important, and they definitely show the future of a company that is less unique at laptops again, trying to cover ground in the AI race, and still expanding its reach into niche areas where Windows has dominated for decades.
16GB is the new basic
Say what you may about Microsoft’s Copilot+ Snapdragon PCs, but if there’s one thing they did right it’s setting 16GB of RAM as the minimum amount that any PC over $500 should have. Was this a move made to improve the performance of their AI and make the MacBook Air look bad? Definitely. And yet it’s clearly helped since Intel, AMD and now Apple’s latest machines all come with a minimum of 16GB as well. This makes tonnes of workloads much easier for a lower price point, and considering Apple’s egregious pricing for ram upgrades, this is a lifesaving moment for lots of users, and arguably the easiest reason to jump on any M4 Mac. But how about we get into those actual machines.
The M4 Mac Mini : smaller package, bigger performance.
I think I can officially say that the Mac Mini is now my favorite Apple machine, easily being a better deal than any MacBook, the iMac and the MacBook Pro. Because next to the MacBooks, it continues to be an awesome showcase of why Apple Silicon chips are as good as people say they are. Even by the M2 Mac Mini, this little fighter had become the perfect balance between being really small, fairly well priced, and surprisingly powerful. Now with the M4 version and M4 Pro version (because yes it got a power upgrade), Apple decided to just make the whole machine smaller, so small that it fits in your pocket actually, while being faster and more powerful compared to the last one. Add in the aforementioned 16GB mandatory upgrade and two more USB C ports at the front and I’ll be honest enough to say this machine is basically almost perfect. It’s definitely the one in this whole article that lives up to Apple’s claims of “the best computer in its class”, because honestly for $600 I’m not sure I can just throw up a brand new windows ma hone that’s as small, as powerful and as well optimized to work specific use cases. You can probably find a machine that fills one or two of those things, but not all three.
This doesn’t mean the Mac Mini is perfect though. The Dave2D review above proves that. After all 256GB of storage as a start is a joke for any machine over $500. Especially in a world where SSds keep getting cheaper, yet Apple still charges $200 if you want to boost it up to 512GB. That’s honestly the biggest weakness of this machine, because at $800 a lot of people might consider an older MacBook Air, or just outright go for a slightly more powerful and better specced Windows machine, desktop or laptop. Still, there’s a reason everyone talked about this little guy the most, and even I see the appeal.
M4 MacBook Pros : Defending a Throne
Now let’s be clear, the M1 MacBook Air is the machine that basically sold the power and portability of Apple Sillicon, But the M1 MacBook Pros made everyone have to take notice of its power. In top of that, Apple made arguably their best machines with the first M1 MacBook Pros, and to the point where every upgrade after has partially felt redundant (just look at what most of your favorite tech YouTubers carry everyday). As such these new M4 MacBook Pros do seem a little boring at first glance. I mean they’re more powerful, but so what? Well, for starters Apple needed to prove that power victory, because Apple Silicon isn’t so special anymore. Qualcomm’s Snapdragon PCs are essentially the new hotness this year and out right beat the M3 MacBook Air while giving the M3 Pro MacBook Pro a run for its money. So the new M4 Pro and M4 Max MacBooks are outright starting by being up to two times as powerful as their M1 versions, while even outperforming the likes of M2 Ultra machines like the Mac Studio and Mac Pro. That’s right, those $6000 machines can be beaten by these $2000 ones. None of them are cheap but saving $4000 is a huge step forward. In fact the MKBHD review pretty much puts it into context about how the power upgrade is enough to make most M1 and even M2 Pro, Max, or Ultra users think of the upgrade.
So this machine wins at power, how about everything else? Well, that’s more hit or miss depending on who you are. For starters, even the base model which starts with a regular M4 processor now included 3 USB ports vs 2 from before, which is always a win. It also comes with a non reflective nano texture coating which is more of a luxury item for an extra $100. But considering how even in the Windows world these are sought after, it’s a nice win as well. The other big thing is thunderbolt 5 supporting the M4 Pro and Max models, which can power 3 6K displays with the lid open (it’s an odd Mac issue that started last year) and while it’s not a huge deal right now, it’s a great future-proofing measure for a machine that may be someone’s whole life for the next 5 years. But that’s pretty much it. There are also some display brightness improvements but we weren’t joking when we said Apple nailed these machines back in 2021(minus that stupid notch of course) and this is the case here. If you need the very specific power and areas that these machines excel at, jump right in. Otherwise if you want to save yourself $1000 or so, I would very much suggest an M3 Pro or Max MacBook Pro.
The M4 iMac : It’s just.. Fine
Now let’s be clear, the M4 iMac is one of those machines that knows exactly where it’s going: an office reception, some fancier schools and maybe even a home study. That’s exactly what it’s for and ever since the M-series was launched the new iMacs have done the job well enough minus a few port issues. The only problem is this: if you have an M2 iMac with 16GB of RAM to better support the Apple intelligence workloads, you really don’t need this machine. iMacs have never been “Pro” workflow machines as the MacBook Pros, Mac Studios and even Mac Minis of the world have taken that up. This is why they only come with base level M processors as compared to their Pro or Max variants. But if that’s really the case, then the honest truth is a better specced M2 machine will give you most of the same experience. As such. This machine is fine. But it’s the least likely one to buy here. And yes I know I’m biased because I’d prefer Apple put a touchscreen on these. But that doesn’t mean I’m wrong either. Oh and for everyone who’s saying it makes a pretty okay gaming machine due to the graphical power of the M4 chip, you’re not wrong….if the metric for gaming was running games from 4+ years ago, which is what Apple is doing. Don’t get us wrong, their strategy to use the iPhone as a vehicle to bring games to Mac is working, and it even makes some Android phones look bad, but buying any of the machines mentioned here is like buying a Windows machine to run MacOS. You can do it, but making that your main reason is just…weird.
And that does it for Apple’s machines. Again, the Mac Mini is the one I’m crazy about. But the MacBook Pros make a pretty good case for themselves and outright call out Intel and friends to do better(which I always like). The iMac probably isn’t the machine for me. But I know some people would benefit from it. And as such we finish the year with a solid enough lineup as we go into what continues to be a recently reinvigorated time for laptops and PCs.
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