MTG: The M6 Mac mini Is £300 Dearer, and That Is the Whole Story

MTG: £899 versus £599 is the headline

The new M6 Mac mini is now on sale in the UK.

It starts at £899.

The M4 Mac mini launched in 2024 from £599.

That is a £300 increase, or 50 per cent, for the entry-level machine. You can dress that up with talk of AI, Neural Engines, faster graphics and impressive connectivity, but the first question is simpler:

Is the M6 Mac mini worth £300 more than the M4?

The short answer is that it is a very capable computer, but it is no longer the obvious bargain the Mac mini used to be.

Apple announced the M6 Mac mini by press release on 25 August 2026, without a keynote. Pre-orders opened the same day, and the machine went on general sale on Tuesday 22 September through Apple, Apple Store locations and authorised resellers.

There is also an M5 Pro version from £1,699, or £1,599 for education customers. That is a different proposition for people with genuinely demanding workloads. This piece is mainly about the standard M6 model and the buying decision facing ordinary people with ordinary computers.

MTG: What actually changed?

The M6 Mac mini keeps the same 5-by-5-inch design, so externally it is still the small silver box that hides behind a monitor and occasionally gets forgotten until you need to restart it.

Inside, the M6 has:

• A 12-core CPU.
• A 12-core GPU.
• Neural Accelerators in every GPU core.
• A dual 16-core Neural Engine.
• 16GB of unified memory, configurable to 32GB.
• Up to 170GB/s memory bandwidth.
• Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 6.
• 2.5Gb Ethernet as standard, with a 10Gb option.
• Two front Thunderbolt/USB-C ports.
• Three rear Thunderbolt ports, HDMI and a headphone jack.

The software is macOS 27, known as Golden Gate, with Apple Intelligence and Siri AI built in.

Apple claims the M6 Mac mini is up to four times faster for AI, twice as fast for graphics and storage, and 40 per cent faster for CPU performance than the M4 model.

Those are Apple’s figures, based on Apple’s own testing and chosen comparisons. They are not independent test results, and they do not mean every task will suddenly be four times faster. That is not how computers work, despite what the launch copy might suggest.

Still, the M6 is clearly a powerful little computer. The reviews published around 21–23 September broadly agreed on that point. The disagreement was about whether the performance justified the price.

Apple’s product announcement has the complete specification and Apple’s performance claims.

MTG: Who should actually buy one?

Nobody with a working M4 Mac mini needs this machine.

That is the important bit.

The M4 is still a good computer. It has not become slower because Apple has released something new. Your documents have not become heavier. Your email has not become more demanding. The internet has not suddenly decided that a 40 per cent faster processor is the minimum entry requirement for opening a browser tab.

The people who may genuinely benefit from the M6 are:

• Someone still using an Intel Mac.
• Someone with an ageing M1 or M2 machine that is beginning to struggle.
• Someone whose existing desktop has actually failed.
• Someone doing sustained video, audio, development, local AI or other demanding work.
• Someone buying their first Mac mini and wanting a machine to keep for several years.

For those people, the M6 is a serious computer in a very small box.

It is also worth remembering that the M6 is not really aimed at somebody who bought an M4 recently. It is a replacement option for an older machine, not an invitation to upgrade every time Apple changes the letter on the chip.

If your M4 works properly, keep it.

That is not anti-Apple. It is simply what the numbers suggest.

MTG: The 256GB trap

The base model comes with 16GB of memory and 256GB of storage.

That sounds acceptable until you remember that macOS, applications, photos, downloads, creative projects and local AI tools all want a piece of the same small cupboard.

The reviews have also highlighted a more technical problem: the 256GB configuration uses a single NAND chip, making it measurably slower than the larger storage options in some tests.

That is a review finding, not something Apple highlights as a product limitation.

The SSD is also soldered to the logic board. In practical terms, that means you cannot buy the cheapest model now and add internal storage later. What you order is what you keep.

You can, of course, attach an external SSD. That is a perfectly workable solution for photo libraries, video projects and backups. But it means another box, another cable and another thing to remember when moving the computer.

The more comfortable option is to buy more internal storage at the start. Unfortunately, Apple’s pricing makes that decision rather painful.

According to the Express review, adding 32GB of memory costs £400, while moving to 2TB of storage costs £1,000.

That means the £899 base model can reach £2,299 before you have bought a monitor, keyboard, mouse, speakers, external storage or the small collection of adapters that somehow grows around every modern computer.

Apple’s UK store currently lists the storage options clearly: 256GB is included, 512GB adds £200, 1TB adds £500 and 2TB adds £1,000. You can see the configurations on the Mac mini buying page.

My practical advice is simple:

Do not buy the 256GB version without first deciding how you will manage storage.

If the answer is “I will use an external drive”, fine. If the answer is “I will probably upgrade it later”, you cannot. If the answer is “I only need a little space”, remember that computers have a habit of filling up when you are not looking.

MTG: Samsung offers the more interesting upgrade

While Apple is asking you to spend £899 for a new computer, Samsung has been rolling out One UI 9 to existing Galaxy S26, S26+ and S26 Ultra handsets.

That is a rather useful counterpoint.

Samsung’s update follows its debut on the Z Fold8 and Flip8 range. It brings expanded Galaxy AI features including improvements to Now Brief, the new Now Nudge feature, Creative Studio, document scanning and voice recorder summaries.

Now Nudge can surface context-aware suggestions, such as saving a location or recalling reservation details from a conversation. Creative Studio adds prompts for creating images around upcoming events.

This is not the same as getting a faster processor. It is not a new piece of hardware. It is simply a device you already own becoming more useful through software.

That matters because the software update costs existing Galaxy S26 owners nothing beyond the usual inconvenience of finding the update button and waiting for it to install.

Samsung’s current UK hardware offers include the Galaxy S26 FE, in stores since 4 September from £699, and the Galaxy Book6 14-inch from £799. But there is no new Samsung UK hardware launch this week that you need to chase.

The more useful message is that your current phone may have improved without requiring a new phone.

Samsung’s official UK announcement explains what is included and how the rollout is being extended.

Apple is also pushing its software platform forward. macOS 27 brings Apple Intelligence and Siri AI to compatible Macs, although Siri AI was initially unavailable in the European Union on iOS, iPadOS and watchOS. Availability depends on the operating system, device and region, so it is worth checking the detail rather than assuming that every feature appears everywhere at once.

MTG: The autumn upgrade treadmill

Apple has had a busy September.

The Mac Studio M5 Max starts at £2,499, while the M5 Ultra starts at £5,499. Both also went on sale on 22 September and follow the same general pattern: more performance, higher prices. The 512GB unified-memory configuration is not due to ship until late October.

The iPhone 18 Pro and Pro Max, Apple Watch Series 12 and Ultra 4, and AirPods 5 have been in stores since 18 September. Apple’s first foldable iPhone, the iPhone Duo, is due for pre-orders on 16 October and release on 23 October.

There is always another product arriving.

That does not mean every existing product has become inadequate.

The M6 Mac mini is a strong machine. The price is the story because it changes the buying decision. At £599, the M4 was easy to recommend as a compact desktop with unusually good value. At £899, the M6 requires a more specific reason.

If your Intel Mac is exhausted, your M1 or M2 is no longer coping, or your computer has died, the M6 makes sense.

If you own an M4 and it works, the sensible upgrade is not to upgrade.

The cheapest way to get a better computer this autumn is to keep the one you have got.

That is the whole story.

if anything I've said today struck a chord with you and you'd like a chat or if you have a particular challenge with energy, power & infrastructure, business generally or you might like to use the studio, drop me an email at andrew@aelhawley.com. See you on Sunday in the field.. that to be clear, isnt my garden.