Apple has started selling refurbs of the M1 Mac Mini at its Certified Refurbished Mac page. For example, doubling the RAM to 16GB costs $180 with the student discount instead of the usual charge of $200.Īlso at Apple, you might find a refurbished M1 Mac Mini. It's worth noting that the Apple Store offers students an educational discount, where you can save $50 on the price of a new Mac Mini. While still unconfirmed, it's worth noting just in case you prefer to have the latest and greatest models. There is a rumor that Apple will be hosting an event on March 8 which could have some new Mac Mini and iMacs included as part of the product announcements. Apple's M1 system-on-a-chip integrates the CPU, GPU, RAM and other components for greater power and efficiency, but the downside of this integration is the lack of DIMM slots that would allow you to add additional RAM after purchase. And unlike in most other desktops, the Mac Mini's RAM is not user-upgradable. One benefit of paying full price and buying from Apple is you can customize the machine and add more RAM or a higher-capacity SSD, whereas the models sold on Amazon and other retailers are fixed configurations. Both Mac Mini models are discounted by only $30 at Amazon at the moment, which is still the biggest price break we see for either right now from any online retailer. Bigger discounts were available earlier this year at Amazon when the 256GB model was $129 off and the 512GB model was $149 off.
The step-up model costs $899 from Apple and doubles the storage capacity to 512GB. The baseline model of the M1-based Mac Mini costs $699 from Apple and features 8GB of RAM and a 256GB solid-state drive.
It didn't get the M1X update that the 14-inch MacBook Pro and 16-inch MacBook Pro did last fall, but the Mac Mini remains the company's least expensive MacOS computer and is discounted at Amazon right now. The Mac Mini, along with the more mobile MacBook Air and 13-inch MacBook Pro, was one of the first Apple computers to ditch Intel silicon in favor of Apple's impressive M1 processor.