New M1X Mac Mini leak could confirm major features in upcoming release

By Dua Rashid Published August 10, 2021

The M1X Mac Mini is going to see an upgrade later this year or the beginning of next year, and a tipster has now leaked its apparent schematics offering us a potential look at what the compact PC could look like, and hint at what tech specs to expect.

The schematics are provided by LeaksApplePro and match earlier leaks of the machine, though the account’s tweet has since been deleted.

Leaked render of the M1X Mac Mini. — Image used with permission by copyright holder

The original leaks came from famous leaker Job Prosser in May. He claimed that the next Mac Mini will feature a thinner body than the current version as well as more ports. LeaksApplePro’s leaks validate Prosser’s claims with not just the body but the layout of the ports also looking quite similar to the renders that Prosser leaked earlier.

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Apple has given the iMac and MacBook Pro design changes in the past few years, but the Mac Mini’s chassis has more or less stayed the same, not having undergone any major overhaul apart from a couple of minor changes made in 2018. The leaked renders point toward this changing, with the machine looking much more streamlined. The thinner design might also sport a ‘plexiglass’ material on top of the body, according to Prosser’s sources.

Moreover, the new Mac Mini is rumored to leverage the Apple M1X SoC, which could apparently have 10 CPU cores and up to 32 GPU cores. Mark Gurman from Bloomberg reported in May that the company has plans on releasing two versions, the ‘Jade C-Chop’ and ‘Jade C-Die’, which may differ in terms of GPU cores. This should provide a significant upgrade in performance over the current M1 model, especially in the graphics department.

Rumors also reveal details on which ports to expect, from left to right. The newest version of the Mac Mini will purportedly host a power button, a magnetic charging port, four Thunderbolt 4 ports, two USB-A ports, one RJ45 Ethernet jack, and one HDMI port. Not present in the current M1 Mac Mini, the magnetic charging port is also an upgrade that the new model could use that would align it with the current 24-inch iMac.

Rumor has it that just like the upcoming portable Macs, the M1X Mac Mini will feature 32GB of RAM as well. It is also believed that the company will release the compact computer in a variety of colors, as we saw in the latest 24-inch iMac.

As far as the release date is concerned, another tipster claims that the M1X Mac Mini could possibly be released alongside the new MacBook Pro coming out by the end of 2021. This means we could expect them as early as October or November. However, considering the shortage of Apple components as well as the pandemic, we can’t be too sure. There is also no word on pricing as of yet.

Former Computing Writer

Dua is a media studies graduate student at The New School. She has been hooked on technology since she was a kid and used to…

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