It looks like testing on a new iteration of the Mac mini has begun at Apple according to fresh reports from an industry insider.
In his regular ‘Power On’ newsletter, Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman claims multiple new Macs are being worked on across Apple’s Cupertino campus; all of which sport the upcoming Apple M3 chip.
The company’s latest silicon reportedly uses the advanced TSMC 3nm process, which, if accurate, makes Apple the first to use this advanced process node.
Gurman has already stated that “several next-generation machines are in testing, including “new iMacs, as well as entry-level and high-end MacBook Pros.”
Now the Bloomberg journalist is reporting yet another model has gone into testing; this one running a base version of the M3 chip. And due to the rumored specs of this device, it could well be a M3-powered Mac mini.
Mac mini M3: potential specs
If a new version of the mini is in development, Gurman suggests its internal codename is ‘Mac 15,12’. Specs-wise, it looks to have 8 CPU cores “made up of four efficiency cores and four performance cores." It is claimed this new pint-sized PC also has 10 GPU cores and 24GB of system memory.
If Gurman’s sources are accurate, this early build of the new Mac mini M3 is running macOS Sonoma 14.1 — which will be the first major update for Apple’s forthcoming operating system.
According to the third-party developer logs shared with Gurman, the following M3 Macs are also currently in development:
- M3 13-inch MacBook Air (codename Mac 15,1 and J513 / J613)
- M3 15-inch MacBook Air (codename Mac 15,2 and J515 / J615)
- M3 13-inch MacBook Pro (codename Mac 15,3 and J504)
- M3 iMac (codename Mac 15,4, Mac 15,5, J433 and J434)
- M3 Pro and M3 Max 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pros (codename Mac 15,7, Mac 15,8, J514 and J516)
- Possible M3 Mac mini (codename Mac 15,12)
If various sources prove true, we could see the first M3 MacBooks launch in October (potentially even some of the models above).
The prospect of getting our hands on a Mac mini M3 is exciting. We loved its predecessor the Mac mini M2, awarding it 4/5 stars in our review, with my colleague Alex praising its small form factor, aggressive price point and strong performance.
Considering the M3 chip should deliver considerably more power than its predecessor, we can’t wait to see what the rumored new mini and those MacBooks above deliver in terms of performance.
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