Apple Reveals It Has No Plans to Launch a New Mac Mini Until 2023

Sophie Webster, Tech Times 20 May 2022, 10:05 am

Apple announced has no plans to launch an updated Mac Mini until 2023, even though the entry-level M1 model was released in 2021 and the high-end Intel was released in 2019.

Apple Won't Release a New Mac Mini in 2022

According to recent reports, Apple has been believed to be working on a new Mac Mini for months now.

The tech giant had updated the entry-level model with the M1 chip back in 2020, and the high-end version is still the Space Gray model with an Intel processor released in 2018, according to MacRumors.

The potential of replacing the older high-end model with an Apple silicon machine was previously at the center of rumors connected to the new Mac Minis, but now it seems like both the entry-level and the high-end model may be refreshed together, with no new model in 2022.

According to iMore, in early 2022, Apple had plans to introduce high-end versions of the Mac Mini with M1 Pro and M1 Max chips, but these plans were eventually scrapped in favor of the all-new Mac Studio.

Also Read: Apple M1 Mac Mini Modified by YouTuber to be 78% Smaller: No Change in Performance Noticed

Now, the tech giant is said to be working on two new versions of the Mac Mini, one with the standard M2 chip and a second higher-end model with the M2 Pro chip.

Changing the plans to refresh the Mac Mini in 2022 could allow the tech giant to show even greater performance and efficiency improvements with the 2023 update.

Features of the M2 Chip

According to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman, the M2 chip will feature the same eight-core CPU as the M1, but it will benefit from the speed and efficiency improvements.

It will also have around nine or ten new core GPUs, increasing from the seven or eight cores in the M1.

Following the M1 Pro, it is plausible that the M2 Pro will offer the same 10-core CPU but feature improved efficiency and more GPU cores than the 14 and 16-core options, similar to the standard M2.

Testing on the M2 chip is already underway, as evidenced by the references to the chip in beta versions of macOS Monterey.

The design of the Mac Mini is now more than a decade old, and despite the long wait for a high-end Apple silicon-based Mac Mini, the tech giant reportedly has no plans to refresh the design.

According to analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, the next-generation Mac Mini is likely to retain the same form factor as the current generation, an aluminum unibody design that the tech giant has used for every new Mac Mini since 2010.

Kuo's claims are contrary to the rumors from Apple leaker Jon Prosser. In 2021, Prosser said that Apple was working on a complete redesign for the desktop computer, changing the chassis to a plexiglass-like top.

During the March Peek Performance event, Apple's senior vice president of Hardware Engineering, John Ternus, said that the silicon transition has just one more product to go, and that is the Mac Pro.

Once the Mac Pro is released, the new Mac Mini is off the cards for 2022. In line with the rumors about the 2022 Mac Mini Refresh cancelation, Kuo has said that the new Mac Mini will not be released until 2023.