New Mac Mini Teardown Provides Look Inside Apple's Smallest Mac Ever

YouTube channel Brandon Geekabit today shared a teardown video for the new Mac mini base model with the M4 chip, 256GB of storage, and 16GB of RAM. The video provides the first complete look inside Apple's smallest Mac ever, revealing the computer's logic board, built-in power supply, cooling system, and other components.


While previous Mac mini models with Apple silicon chips had plenty of unused internal space, since the computer had not been redesigned since it used Intel processors, components take up nearly all of the space inside the new model.

The bottom metal plate on the Mac mini continues to double as an antenna. Once that is removed, you can see the fan and heat sink that help to keep the computer running cool. Beyond that, you can see the Mac mini's modular storage that we reported on earlier today. The base model with 256GB of storage has two 128GB chips, which means it will no longer have slower SSD speeds compared to higher-capacity models. Last, you can see the Mac mini's logic board with the M4 chip and the power supply below that.

The new Mac mini has an innovative thermal architecture, in which air is guided from the bottom foot to different levels of the computer.

mac mini thermal architecture feature
As far as the new Mac mini's repairability is concerned, we will have to wait for the website iFixit to share its own teardown video.

Overall, the new Mac mini is an impressive engineering feat made possible by the industry-leading performance-per-watt characteristics of Apple silicon. The new Mac mini launched in stores today, and we recently shared our own hands-on video.

Related Roundup: Mac mini
Buyer's Guide: Mac Mini (Neutral)
Related Forum: Mac mini

Popular Stories

iOS 26

iOS 26.2 Coming Soon With These 8 New Features on Your iPhone

Thursday December 11, 2025 8:49 am PST by
Apple seeded the second iOS 26.2 Release Candidate to developers earlier this week, meaning the update will be released to the general public very soon. Apple confirmed iOS 26.2 would be released in December, but it did not provide a specific date. We expect the update to be released by early next week. iOS 26.2 includes a handful of new features and changes on the iPhone, such as a new...
iOS 26

iOS 26.4 and iOS 27 Features Revealed in New Leak

Friday December 12, 2025 10:56 am PST by
Macworld's Filipe Espósito today revealed a handful of features that Apple is allegedly planning for iOS 26.4, iOS 27, and even iOS 28. The report said the features are referenced within the code for a leaked internal build of iOS 26 that is not meant to be seen by the public. However, it appears that Espósito and/or his sources managed to gain access to it, providing us with a sneak peek...
iOS 26

Apple Releases iOS 26.2 With Alarms for Reminders, Lock Screen Changes, Enhanced Safety Alerts and More

Friday December 12, 2025 10:10 am PST by
Apple today released iOS 26.2, the second major update to the iOS 26 operating system that came out in September, iOS 26.2 comes a little over a month after iOS 26.1 launched. ‌iOS 26‌.2 is compatible with the ‌iPhone‌ 11 series and later, as well as the second-generation ‌iPhone‌ SE. The new software can be downloaded on eligible iPhones over-the-air by going to Settings >...
AirPods Pro Firmware Feature

Apple Releases New Firmware for AirPods Pro 2 and AirPods Pro 3

Thursday December 11, 2025 11:28 am PST by
Apple today released new firmware designed for the AirPods Pro 3 and the prior-generation AirPods Pro 2. The AirPods Pro 3 firmware is 8B30, up from 8B25, while the AirPods Pro 2 firmware is 8B28, up from 8B21. There's no word on what's include in the updated firmware, but the AirPods Pro 2 and AirPods Pro 3 are getting expanded support for Live Translation in the European Union in iOS...
macOS Tahoe 26 Thumb

Apple Releases macOS Tahoe 26.2 With Edge Light

Friday December 12, 2025 10:08 am PST by
Apple today released macOS Tahoe 26.2, the second major update to the macOS Tahoe operating system that came out in September. macOS Tahoe 26.2 comes five weeks after Apple released macOS Tahoe 26.1. Mac users can download the macOS Tahoe update by using the Software Update section of System Settings. macOS Tahoe 26.2 includes Edge Light, a feature that illuminates your face with soft...
AirTag 2 Mock Feature

Apple AirTag 2: Four New Features Found in iOS 26 Code

Thursday December 11, 2025 10:31 am PST by
The AirTag 2 will include a handful of new features that will improve tracking capabilities, according to a new report from Macworld. The site says that it was able to access an internal build of iOS 26, which includes references to multiple unreleased products. Here's what's supposedly coming: An improved pairing process, though no details were provided. AirTag pairing is already...
ipados 26 1 slide over

Apple Releases iPadOS 26.2 With Multitasking Improvements

Friday December 12, 2025 10:09 am PST by
Apple today released iPadOS 26.2, the second major update to the iPadOS 26 operating system released in September. iPadOS 26.2 comes a month after iPadOS 26.1. The new software can be downloaded on eligible iPads over-the-air by going to Settings > General > Software Update. iPadOS 26.2 continues with the multitasking improvements that were added with iPadOS 26.1. You can now drag and...
iphone fold text

'iPhone Fold' Arrival Expected to Cement Book-Style Era for Foldables

Friday December 12, 2025 3:55 am PST by
Foldable smartphone panel shipments are projected to jump 46% year-over-year in 2026, with Apple's entry into the market serving as the main catalyst, according to Counterpoint Research's latest Foldable-Rollable Display Shipment Tracker. "Apple is the key driver as it starts to procure panels for its first foldable iPhone," said Counterpoint's Guillaume Chansin. The research firm expects...

Top Rated Comments

Chuckeee Avatar
14 months ago

Max Tech does unboxing the right way.


Sorry Max Tech cringe inducing clipbait commentary makes me want to puke.
?
Score: 11 Votes (Like | Disagree)
JPack Avatar
14 months ago
Remember when M2 came out and some people invented ridiculous excuses for Apple using a single NAND?

“but THeY dOnt MaKe 128gB cHIps aNyMoRe”

Glad to see Apple listening a bit to customer feedback on price/performance and external display support.
Score: 8 Votes (Like | Disagree)
DavidSchaub Avatar
14 months ago

The ****ing RAM is not ****ing soldered onto it. It is integrated in the ****ing CPU.

But unfortunately, the SSD is not user replaceable, which honestly is inexcusable at this point.
No, the RAM are just standard LPDDR5 chips connected to the package that the SoC die is also connected to.

Three distinct chips on the package:



At least the flash chips are repairable, if not really end-user replaceable. Given that the Mac would otherwise be bricked when the flash chips failed, this is a nice change.

Attachment Image
Score: 4 Votes (Like | Disagree)
mrhick01 Avatar
14 months ago
dosdude1 has done a teardown and an upgrade of the storage from 256GB to 1TB (the 2TB upgrade failed because of a bad chip).

It's doable, but not by any user. Takes technician-level skills and some tools.

Given the SSD speeds, a good attached TB4/USB4 drive with an NVMe2 SSD can beat the speed of the base 256 GB (1700 read/2000 write), and match the 1 TB upgrade (3000 read & write).
Score: 4 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Victor Mortimer Avatar
14 months ago

The ****ing RAM is not ****ing soldered onto it. It is integrated in the ****ing CPU.

But unfortunately, the SSD is not user replaceable, which honestly is inexcusable at this point.
The ****ing RAM is ****ing soldered onto it. It is not integrated in the ****ing CPU.

And the SSD IS user replaceable as soon as 3rd party parts show up. I suspect there weren't enough Studios for OWC to build the parts. That will not be the case with the mini.

No, I'm not joking about the RAM. It's NOT integrated in any way, it's just soldered onto the same package as the CPU.
It's separate chips.
Score: 4 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Zdigital2015 Avatar
14 months ago

No SD card reader and limited ports?
No thank you.
They had a sale until I didn't see an SD reader.
Mac mini hasn’t had an SD Card reader since the 2014 model. A high quality reader plus a USB-C cable to run it will be ~$50 at most.

If you really need a new computer, then you outfit what they sell you with the stuff you need. Otherwise, you really don’t need a new computer.
Score: 4 Votes (Like | Disagree)