Apple's new Mac mini is faster than ever - and $300 pricier for the exact same memory and storage.
The M6 Mac mini keeps the same compact design Apple has used for years, swapping in a new chip for better performance. That's the standard Apple playbook: new guts, same price, free speed bump. What's not standard this time is the price. The base configuration, still 16GB of RAM and 256GB of storage, now starts at $899, up from $599 for the equivalent M4 Mac mini in 2024. The review frames the jump as fallout from an unprecedented memory crunch this year, not as an explanation offered by Apple itself.
A generational chip upgrade used to be close to free for buyers: same price, more speed, every year or two. Charging $300 more for identical memory and storage specs breaks that pattern, meaning the real cost of a baseline Mac mini is rising even as the chip inside it improves.
Whether this is a one-year blip tied to memory market conditions or the new normal for Mac pricing is the question worth watching.