And it could actually be "Mini", which is increasingly a stretch for the current design from 8 years ago. The Apple TV is probably smaller and more powerful if you could run a general purpose OS on it.
NUC is all I want out of Apple, and I would definitely (eventually) buy a Pro Mini. I take my "laptop" to work and home every day, but I plug into bigger monitor and better keyboard. However, because the latest gen laptop keyboards are so terrible, even when I want portability I use my older gen and smaller size MacBook Pro. This has led me to realize that my needs for a portable home<->work machine differ from my needs of programming anywhere. I want two machines, and I don't want the other machine to even have a screen.
But why reduce the size? Apple has tvOS for the living room now. The Mini is already tiny enough that you can comfortably carry it around in a backpack, or hide it behind your screen. I find it hard to see any gains beyond that.
If Apple keeps the current chassis, they could either make it more silent, or more powerful. Both would be fantastic for a pro machine.
Edit: I wouldn't even mind a slightly larger machine. The HP Z2 Mini G4 looks like it's going to be a great six-core workstation.
Oh, I almost expect Apple to make it too thin to be useful. But I've seen people actively hope for a smaller Mini on Twitter before, and I don't understand that sentiment. What's the market for a tiny $1000 desktop Mac?
Yeah laptops I understand, I travel for work and the thinner and lighter is all the better for my specific use case. For desktops, I've never even understood the case for the Intel NUC. Isn't it just a headless laptop? And they don't seem to be substantially cheaper than a laptop, and a laptop is easy to just tuck away on/under your desk if you want it out of sight, so what's the point?
I'm sure someone is using them for something, but I've never fretted how big a stationary computer is.
All the relevant ports are on the back instead of split between the left and the right. Plus, they're purchased bare bones so you can add in however much storage and RAM you want which is an increasingly hard to find option on a laptop.
They also have somewhat better cooling than laptops because they're so thick, and you can buy silent passive cooling cases for them.
I have a 2013 NUC that I used as a desktop PC for a few years. What I found nice is that it came with its own VESA bracket, so I could mount it on the back side of my monitor to produce something that looks like an all-in-one PC or iMac.
Actually a tiny Mac Mini which could plug into an iPad as a screen is an interesting work "machine." That would be pluggable into a real setup at home.
Why would it not get smaller? Intel makes their NUCs the size that they are because that's the size of the components these days.
It's not like Apple's going to make the new Mac Mini three times the size it needs to be and stuff a bunch of 3.5" HDD bays in for people who want to use it as a file server.
Smaller with fewer components and everything soldered/glued together is a cheap way to build smaller and cheaper at the cost or repairability, and Apple clearly doesn't care about repairability. They've said that the Mac Pro redesign will be more modular, but I don't see them doing that here.
Agreed about repairability. What we don't know is whether Apple cares about noise. Powerful laptops and Intel's high-end NUCs suffer from fan noise under load[1]. One of the advantages of non-tiny desktop machines is that they can afford better cooling solutions.
At least since it's not a handheld touchscreen device, you can take it apart and replace stuff. It even uses Torx screws! But there's not a lot of discrete parts here, just the power supply,the motherboard, and the fan.
Once upon a time the Mac Minis would have let you replace the RAM or disk, but I'd expect it to look like a similar similar power supply + motherboard + fan in a box.
Right, but we’re including a potential “pro-focused” Mini which will quite possibly use the same quad core processors available in the 13” MBP. Can you cool that passively in a small case?
Minis a few years ago had a quad core processor option and a lot of people have been disappointed by its absence, making the current generation objectively worse than previous ones. I don’t think they’ll pass up the option to put it back in, IIRC it was something to do with their choice of Intel’s processor families that got it dropped in the first place.
https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=9SIAE4N7YU8...
And it could actually be "Mini", which is increasingly a stretch for the current design from 8 years ago. The Apple TV is probably smaller and more powerful if you could run a general purpose OS on it.