- Start
- Sep 22, 202690% CONFIDENCEfrom the source
Apple Mac mini (M6 or M5 Pro)
- Apple announced the new Mac mini by press release on 25 August 2026, with no keynote; pre-orders opened the same day and the machine is "Available starting 9.22"[1][3][5][6][7]
- U.S. pricing starts at $899 for the M6 ($799 education) and $1,699 for the M5 Pro ($1,599 education); the base M6 is 16GB/256GB, a $100 increase over the previous base configuration, which had started at $599 before June price rises took it to $799[1][5][6]
- Apple's launch video calls it "five by five inches of pure power and performance" and closes "Pre-order now. Available starting 9/22", and Johny Srouji is quoted saying "Mac mini has always been our most versatile Mac", with Apple positioning it for "always-on, deskside agentic computing"[1][7]
- Apple's buy page lists six pre-order configurations - four M6 (16GB/256GB, 16GB/512GB, 24GB/512GB, 32GB/1TB) and two M5 Pro (15-core/24GB/512GB and 18-core/64GB/1TB) - without showing prices[3]; 9to5Mac's Overtime episode 079 of 28 August 2026 compares the outgoing M4 $899 mini with the new M6 model[4]
Notable features
- Compact silver desktop 5.0 inches (12.7 cm) square and 2.0 inches (5.0 cm) tall, weighing 1.5 pounds (0.67 kg) with M6 or 1.6 pounds (0.73 kg) with M5 Pro; two USB-C ports (up to 10Gb/s) and a headphone jack on the front, and on the back HDMI, Ethernet and three Thunderbolt 4 (M6) or Thunderbolt 5 (M5 Pro, up to 120Gb/s) ports[2]
- The M6 has a 12-core CPU (two more cores than before), a 12-core GPU with Neural Accelerators in every core (a first on Mac mini) and a dual 16-core Neural Engine, for up to 4x faster AI, 2x faster graphics and storage and a 40 percent faster CPU than the M4 model; 16GB unified memory configurable to 32GB at up to 170GB/s[1][5][6][7]
- 9to5Mac adds that the M6 is Apple's first 2nm chip - 2 super cores, 4 performance cores and 6 efficiency cores - with 170GB/s bandwidth against 153GB/s on M5 and 120GB/s on M4, and that Apple's own benchmarks claim up to 13.5x faster LM Studio prompt processing than M1 (4.8x vs M4)[6]
- The M5 Pro option offers up to an 18-core CPU and 20-core GPU with up to 64GB of unified memory[1][5][6]; MacRumors lists two configurations (15-core CPU/16-core GPU and 18-core CPU/20-core GPU) and up to 8TB of storage, while 9to5Mac puts M5 Pro memory bandwidth at 307GB/s and its AI gain at up to 8.5x an M2 Pro (4x an M4 Pro)[5][6]
- Wi-Fi 7, Bluetooth 6 and 2.5Gb Ethernet are standard with a 10Gb option, and it ships with macOS 27 and Siri AI; MacRumors adds that the design is unchanged from the 2024 models, silver only, with Thunderbolt 4 on the M6, Thunderbolt 5 on the M5 Pro and support for up to three external displays[1][5][6]
References 782% CONFIDENCE
The first entry is always the pin's source. Overall confidence is a weighted average of how firmly each reference supports the start and end times used above; a reference counts half as much for every 180 days older than the newest.
- [1]90%apple.com/newsroom/2026/08/apple-unveils-a-more-powerful-mac-mini-featuring-the-all-new-m6-and-m5-proapple.com· Posted Sep 14, 2026· Starts Sep 22, 2026 ✓· 15% of score
Availability date from Apple's[2][3] own newsroom announcement (https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2026/08/apple-unveils-a-more-powerful-mac-mini-featuring-the-all-new-m6-and-m5-pro/): pre-orders from August 25, 2026, and it 'will begin arriving to customers, and in Apple Store locations and Apple Authorized Resellers, starting September 22'. September 22, 2026 is the shipping/on-sale day.
- [2]93%Mac mini - Technical Specifications - Appleapple.com· Added Sep 22, 2026· 15% of score
Apple's[1][3] Mac mini tech-specs page gives the 5.0 x 5.0 x 2.0 inch size, 0.67 kg (M6) and 0.73 kg (M5 Pro) weights, front USB-C ports and rear Thunderbolt 4 (M6) or Thunderbolt 5 (M5 Pro) ports.
- [3]88%Buy Mac mini - Appleapple.com· Added Sep 20, 2026· 15% of score
Apple's[1][2] own store page for the Mac mini, the first-party MSRP: $899.00 for the M6 base configuration (the price this pin records), $1,699.00 for the M5 Pro. Checked 20 September 2026, two days before the on-sale date.
- [4]72%Overtime Episode 079: The $899 Mac mini | 9to5Macyoutube.com· Published Aug 28, 2026· 14% of score
9to5Mac's[6] own podcast episode on the new Mac mini, embedded in the 9to5Mac article already cited here, discussing the $899 M6 starting price that the pin records.
- [5]74%Apple Announces New Mac Mini With M6 and M5 Pro Chips and Moremacrumors.com· Published Aug 25, 2026· 14% of score
MacRumors' own coverage confirms Apple[1][2][3] announced the new Mac mini with M6 and M5 Pro chips on 25 August 2026, with deliveries beginning 22 September 2026 - both dates bracketing but not exactly matching the pin's stored 8 September 2026 date, which corresponds to Gear Patrol's weekly roundup window rather than Apple's own announcement or ship date.
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