Skip to main content
  1. Home
  2. Computing
  3. Deals

The Mac mini M4 is a killer value, but buy this during Cyber Week instead

Add as a preferred source on Google
The Mac mini M4 Pro on a desk.
Chris Hagan / Digital Trends
This story is part of Digital Trends' Cyber Monday coverage 2025

When the M4 Mac mini came out, I called it an “absolute steal” at $599 in my review. There’s just never been a PC being offered at that price with this much bang for your buck. It’s the best mini PC ever made.

But during Cyber Week, it’s only $16 off at Amazon. Don’t get me wrong, that’s still absolutely worth a buy. It gets a full endorsement from me, especially if you’re interested in the smaller size or added performance of the M4. But there is, perhaps, an even better deal out there — at least, for some people.

I’m talking, of course, about the M1 Mac mini, which is on sale today as well. You can currently Buy at Amazon — both at Amazon and Walmart. That’s $74 cheaper than the price for a new M1 Mac mini, which is currently selling for $465. An Apple Silicon Mac mini for under $400 is fantastic — even if it’s an M1 with 8GB of RAM. Now, I wouldn’t buy one if you need some serious performance, but if it’s just a basic computer for general web browsing, office work, and studying, you won’t be disappointed.

Buy at Amazon

The Mac mini on a wooden desk.
Luke Larsen / Digital Trends

The Buy at Amazon is also out there, of course. It’s selling for $435 but only really provides a small bump in performance over the M1.

Now, don’t be fooled by the “retail” price and percentage drop. The M1 and M2 Mac mini are no longer officially a part of the lineup, so there’s no set price anymore. Still, picking one of these up for under $500 (or $400 for the refurbished M1 Mac mini) is absolutely worth it if you’re on a tight budget. I’d argue the jump up to only $583 for the M4 Mac mini is still worth the money, especially since it comes with 16GB of RAM instead of 8GB. That alone would be worth a $200 price jump.

But again, if you’re trying to save as much money as possible, that Buy at Amazon is unbeatable.

Luke Larsen
Former Senior Editor, Computing
Luke Larsen is the Senior Editor of Computing, managing all content covering laptops, monitors, PC hardware, Macs, and more.
AI companies may be gobbling up old books, and I really hope they aren’t destroying them
Booksellers are seeing mysterious bulk orders for old books, and some suspect AI companies
Book, Publication, Text

Secondhand booksellers have noticed a curious pattern over the past few months. Large orders are coming in for old books that often share no obvious subject, author, or genre, leaving sellers wondering who wants them and why.

According to The Guardian, booksellers in the U.K. and Ireland have received bulk orders covering everything from agricultural texts to racing biographies. Some buyers reportedly use opaque aliases, send orders to the same freight warehouses, and pay full price without negotiating bulk discounts. Similar activity has also surfaced in the U.S., Australia, and Europe.

Read more
Claude is getting ambitious with watermarking, and I can smell the problems from a mile away
Claude’s text watermark could flag AI involvement even when it only helped with translation or editing
Claude website open on laptop

Anthropic wants to make AI-generated text easier to identify, and on paper, I have very little reason to complain. The company is experimenting with an invisible watermark that can be baked directly into text generated by Claude.

It sounds like a sensible idea. AI-generated text is everywhere, and knowing where something came from could certainly help. Moreover, Anthropic isn't simply hiding a marker somewhere inside a document. Its approach changes how Claude selects words to create a statistical pattern that can later be detected.

Read more
I switched from Windows to Mac after 25 years, and it’s the trackpad that converted me.
Well, that rhymes.
Computer, Electronics, Laptop

I’ve been using Windows laptops for almost 25 years. In that time, I never once seriously thought of buying a MacBook. In fact, I can honestly say I had never used one at all until I bought my MacBook Air M5 six months ago. Never borrowed one for a weekend, spent an afternoon at an Apple Store, or even played with one at a friend's house. Macs, to me, were just expensive computers for those who edited videos, made logos, or liked drinking expensive coffee.

My change came completely by accident.

Read more