Apple Mac Mini with M4 at Rs 59,900 is the best value for money computer

Apple has long held a reputation for premium devices with matching price tags. However, with the recent launch of the M4 Mac Mini, the company seems to have delivered a product that breaks the mould, offering immense power and value at a much more accessible price point. Last night, the company launched its redesigned Mac Mini powered by the M4 and the M4 Pro chipsets. The company called it small but fierce, borrowing a few words of William Shakespeare. And it indeed is.
In India, the M4 Mac Mini starts at Rs 59,900, and at least on paper, it easily outperforms similarly priced alternatives in the market. But it is not just the raw performance. It is also the appeal of the Apple ecosystem, the slick macOS, which is definitely superior to Windows nowadays, that makes the new Mac Mini incredibly appealing.
In a way, the Mac Mini M4 is so good on paper that it looks like arguably the best value for money computer at the moment. Why I am saying that? Let me break it down.
There are several reasons why I find the Mac Mini this appealing. One is the design. Unlike the traditional tower computers, which you might be tempted to buy, the Mac Mini is comparatively tiny. It is like a small box in which you get your zinger at a KFC. As in, it measures just 5X5 inches in width and just 2 inches in height. What this means is that in your house you will be able to slot it anywhere, in some corner, or on a shelf.
Two, there is power inside it. Despite the size, the Mac Mini comes with a superfast chipset. We will know the benchmark numbers and the capabilities of the chipset once they are out in the market, but for now it is safe to say that the M4 and the M4 Pro chipsets in the new Apple computer are going to be faster than any Intel or AMD chip in this price range. In other words, we expect the Mac Mini to not only function well in day-to-day use — say your kids doing their homework on it — but also handle more demanding tasks like compiling code — this is for you, engineering students — or do a bit of video editing with perfect ease. It also helps that the Mac Mini now comes with 16GB standard RAM, although the 256GB starting storage is still on the lower side. Though you can hook a Rs 2000 hard disk to it for more storage.
Three, for regular day-to-day use, I believe that macOS is more user-friendly. It has the assorted apps — Pages, Photos and even iMovie, etc — that you get out of the box. And the macOS interface is now superior to Windows, which has increasingly turned into a mis-mash of features thrown together without much thought.
Let’s talk of the cost. I feel a decently-priced computer, on which you can edit videos or compile code, is going to cost somewhere close to Rs 1 lakh. I mean even if you are going to assemble something, just look at the eye-watering prices of computer parts in markets like Nehru Place in Delhi or Lamington Road in Mumbai.
In comparison, the Mac Mini is priced at Rs 59,900 for its basic variant, which is going to be more than capable as a household do-it-all (except gaming because the AAA game library on Mac is still so small) computer. But of course, you have to add a good monitor to this. A 24-inch IPS monitor would cost around Rs 15,000. And you have to add a keyboard and mouse, which is another Rs 2000 to Rs 6000, depending on the aesthetics you are going for.
Which means it is safe to say that the entire setup may end up costing you around Rs 80,000. This is not exactly cheap. But it is also not terribly expensive. And when you consider the kind of performance Apple is promising with the M4 chipset, it looks like a sweet deal. It also looks like a perfect deal if you are hoping to get into the Apple ecosystem with a family device such as a computer instead of something personal like a MacBook.
One more bit to note here is that a price of around Rs 80,000 is for a regular and new setup. If you already have an existing monitor with an old computer, you can simply upgrade and it would be cheaper. It would also be cheaper if you managed to get discounts — there are already bank discounts. And you can save around Rs 10,000 if you happen to be a student, or parents of a student.
In other words, whichever way you slice it, the M4 Mac Mini looks like a computer that is going to appeal to a lot and a lot of people, and as I noted earlier, for a change, it is an Apple product that is even priced rather aggressively in India.