Mac Mini: Apple reveals new standalone computer featuring its first ever chip

(Apple)

Apple has revealed a new Mac Mini, featuring the first ever chip it has made itself.

That M1 chip brings a host of features, including vastly improved power and no need for a fan.

It is also coming to the new MacBook Air and 13-inch MacBook Pro, which were announced at the same time as the new Mac Mini.

The new Mac mini starts at £699 or $699 – £100 cheaper than the previous generation, which had used the old Intel chips.

It can be pre-ordered from today and will be available next week.

Compared with that computer, the CPU is three times faster and the GPU offers six times faster graphics, Apple said. Machine learning is improved by 15 times, it said.

In practise, that means that graphics-intensive games can be played with up to four times higher frame rates, that it will render video in Final Cut Pro up to six times faster.

It is now also able to support up to two of Apple’s 6K Pro Display XDR screens.

As well as the performance benefits of the M1, the Mac Mini also gets the Secure Enclave inside that chip. That allows the computer to store certain very sensitive data on a part of its hardware that is physically separate from other parts of the system, which should make the computer more secure.

On the outside, the computer is the same as the Mac mini it replaced. That is also true of the other computers Apple unveiled during the same launch event.