KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 26 — Ahead of the new iPhone 18 Pro announcement, Apple has announced its updated Mac Mini for 2026. While it retains the same compact 5-inch by 5-inch desktop form factor, the new Mac Mini gets significant performance upgrade with the new M6 and M5 Pro chips.
However, the starting price has gone up significantly due to the current global RAM shortage. The new Mac Mini with M6 starts from RM3,799 in Malaysia, which is RM1,300 more than the M4 Mac Mini’s RM2,499 launch price in 2024.
Besides the newer processors, Apple has upgraded wireless connectivity with WiFi 7 and Bluetooth 6, while wired LAN is now faster with 2.5Gb Ethernet.
Mac Mini 2026 Malaysia pricing and availability
The new Mac Mini will be available for pre-order in Malaysia starting Thursday, 27 August 2026 at 9am MYT through the Apple online store and Apple Store app. It will be available from 22 September through Apple Store locations and Apple Authorised Resellers.
In Malaysia, the Mac Mini with M6 starts from RM3,799, while the more powerful Mac Mini with M5 Pro starts from RM7,499.
The base M6 configuration comes with a 12-core CPU, 12-core GPU, 16GB of unified memory and 256GB SSD storage.
Meanwhile, the base M5 Pro configuration gets a 15-core CPU, 16-core GPU, 24GB of unified memory and 512GB SSD storage.
If money is no object, the Mac Mini with M5 Pro can be configured with an 18-core CPU, 20-core GPU, 64GB of unified memory, 8TB SSD and 10Gb Ethernet. This fully-specced configuration costs RM30,449.
Education pricing is also available, starting from RM3,399 for the M6 model and RM7,099 for the M5 Pro model.
What’s new with Mac Mini 2026?
The biggest upgrade for the new Mac Mini is under the hood. The M6-powered model now gets a 12-core CPU and 12-core GPU, which is a significant upgrade from the base 10-core CPU and 10-core GPU option on the previous M4 model.
According to Apple, the M6 delivers up to 40 per cent faster CPU performance and up to 2x faster graphics compared to the M4. Its GPU also gets Neural Accelerators in each core, while the chip features a Dual 16-core Neural Engine. Apple claims this provides up to 4x faster AI performance compared to the previous M4-powered Mac Mini.
Apple says the M6 can deliver up to 4.8x faster LLM prompt processing in LM Studio and up to 1.5x faster spreadsheet calculations in Microsoft Excel compared to the M4. For gaming, Apple claims up to 2x faster ray-tracing performance in Cyberpunk 2077: Ultimate Edition.
The M6 Mac Mini still starts with 16GB of unified memory and can be configured with up to 32GB. Maximum SSD storage also remains at 2TB. However, memory bandwidth has increased from 120GB/s on the M4 to as much as 170GB/s on the M6.
For heavier workloads, the M5 Pro Mac Mini offers up to an 18-core CPU and 20-core GPU. In comparison, the previous M4 Pro topped out with a 14-core CPU and 20-core GPU.
The unified memory can be upgraded up to 64GB, while maximum SSD storage is still 8TB. Memory bandwidth has increased from 273GB/s on the M4 Pro to 307GB/s on the M5 Pro.
Apple claims the M5 Pro delivers up to 4x faster LLM prompt processing in LM Studio, up to 1.4x faster ray-traced rendering in Blender and up to 1.5x faster image processing in Affinity compared to the M4 Pro.
There are also some useful connectivity upgrades across the range. While the previous Mac Mini came with Gigabit Ethernet as standard with 10Gb Ethernet available as an option, the 2026 models now get faster 2.5Gb Ethernet as standard. There’s also the option to upgrade to 10Gb Ethernet if required.
Wireless connectivity has also been upgraded from WiFi 6E to WiFi 7 and Bluetooth 5.3 to Bluetooth 6.
At the front, you still get two USB-C ports supporting USB 3 speeds of up to 10Gbps and a 3.5mm headphone jack. Around the back, there are three Thunderbolt ports, HDMI and Ethernet. The M6 version uses Thunderbolt 4 with speeds up to 40Gbps, while the M5 Pro gets Thunderbolt 5 with speeds up to 120Gbps.
The M6 Mac Mini supports up to three external displays, including two displays at up to 6K 60Hz plus a third display at up to 5K 60Hz. The M5 Pro model can drive up to three 6K 60Hz displays. — SoyaCincau