By Laura Wybrow

Published: Tuesday, 24 January 2023 at 12:00 am


This small desktop computer has just gotten even mightier: the Mac mini is now more powerful and more affordable.

On Tuesday 17th January, Apple announced it was adding M2 Pro and M2 Max chips to its new MacBook Pro, and the tech giant has just unveiled it’s also adding M2 and M2 Pro chips to the Mac mini.

The M2 promises to deliver a speedier performance, more unified memory, advanced connectivity, and support for up to two displays. Meanwhile, the new M2 Pro chip delivers a professional-level performance to the Mac mini for the first time, as well as support for up to three displays.

And these improvements come with a new, more affordable starting price of £649.

Mac mini has therefore just become even more powerful, capable, and affordable — and you can buy the Mac mini today. Let’s take a look at the UK release date, pricing points, and specifications.

Buy the new Mac mini (2023) from £649 at Currys

New Mac mini (2023) UK release date and pricing

The new Mac mini, complete with M2 and M2 Pro, is available from £649. You can buy the model right now, and for those of you who pre-ordered the Mac mini, it’s out for delivery from today (Tuesday 24th January).

The 8-Core CPU, 10-Core GPU Mac mini with 8GB Unified Memory and 256GB SSD Storage costs £649. For the exact same specifications, except with 512GB SSD Storage, it’s £849. Both of these models come with the all-new M2 chip.

For an additional two CPU cores, an extra six GPU cores, as well as 16GB Unified Memory and 512GB SSD Storage, the M2 Pro Mac mini will set you back £1,399.

Buy the new Mac mini (2023) from £649 at John Lewis

How to buy the new Mac mini (2023) in the UK

Starting at £649, the new Mac mini is more affordable than ever. With M2 and M2 Pro, it is available to buy right now from the UK Apple Store. If you pre-ordered the Mac mini, it begins arriving to customers and in Apple Store locations from today (Tuesday 24th January).

There’s also the option to add AppleCare+ to your new Mac mini. AppleCare+ provides technical support and additional hardware coverage from Apple to give you peace of mind when purchasing a new product. After all, the Mac mini may be more affordable, but it’s still not cheap!

If you’re in the market for a new laptop, the MacBook Pro has also had an upgrade: you can buy the MacBook Pro (2023) on the UK Apple Store right now, with 14-inch and 16-inch availability, and M2 Pro and M2 Max options.

Buy the new Mac mini (2023) from £649 at AO

New Mac mini (2023) spec: what’s new?

Let’s compare the M2 and M2 Pro Mac mini to the previous generation. We already know the CPU and GPU offers higher memory bandwidth and a more powerful media engine, but what does that look like in practice?

When up against the Mac mini with Intel Core i7-3770, the M2 offers up to 22 times faster machine learning image upscaling performance in Pixelmator Pro, and over nine times faster complex timeline rendering in Final Cut Pro.

How about the M2 Pro? When compared to the M1 Mac mini (first generation), the M2 Pro delivers up to two and a half times faster graphics performance in Affinity Photo, over four times faster ProRed transcode in Final Cut Pro, and, one for the gamers, almost three times faster gameplay in Resident Evil Village.

You can buy the new Mac mini (2023) with M2 and M2 Pro from a range of UK retailers:

For more on tech and the latest deals, head over to our Technology and Gaming sections. For more on Apple tech, take a look at our iPhone SE (2022) vs iPhone SE (2020) comparison.