The Mac Mini remains Apple’s most affordable desktop option, but it’s now become more expensive than before.
Up until a few days ago, the Mac Mini started at $599 with 256GB of storage. Apple has now removed that base option, which leaves the $799 option as the new base tier.
It does come with 512GB of storage, twice as much as before. Regardless, you will now have to pay an additional $200 if you want the cheapest new Mac Mini.
This forces buyers into some additional decision-making. The MacBook Neo starts at $599, a whole $200 cheaper than the Mac Mini. That said, it’s been even harder to come by. It also comes with less RAM and a less-potent A18 Pro processor instead of the M4 chip.
Still, $200 is nothing to sneeze at, especially with everything seemingly going up in price nowadays.
This is likely in response to the ongoing global memory shortage, which has been driven by AI-focused data centers gobbling up as much memory as possible. This leaves companies like Apple fighting for what remains, which hasn’t been much.
This led Apple to remove the Mac Studio version with 512GB of RAM back in March. It’s also responsible for the MacBook Air and MacBook Pro seeing price bumps.
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