Apple Mac mini (M6) review.

The same 16GB and 256GB now costs $450 more in Canada

When Apple launched the M4 Mac mini in 2024, the base model was $799 in Canada. The new M6 version, with the same 16GB of memory and the same 256GB drive, is $1,249 at apple.com/ca. That's a $450 jump for a computer that looks identical from the outside. In the US the story is the same in smaller numbers: Ars Technica, The Verge and Tom's Hardware all point out it went from US$599 to US$899.

Here's the thing though. Almost every outlet still loves it. The Verge gave it 9 out of 10 and called it the best tiny computer you can buy. Engadget gave it 8.7. Tom's Hardware and Ars Technica both praised the speed and both said the value story took a hit. The reviewers point to the same culprit: memory and storage chips got far more expensive in 2026 because AI data centres are buying everything.

So this review answers one question. At $1,249 and up, is the M6 Mac mini still the smart Mac desktop to buy in Canada, and which configuration actually makes sense? Short answer: yes for most people who need a Mac desktop, but not the base model, and not if a cheaper machine already does your job. Start with what Apple actually changed.

A new chip inside, and one thing Apple quietly took back

The M6 is Apple's first 2-nanometre chip and the Mac mini got it first. It has 12 CPU cores instead of 10, split into two very fast "super" cores, four performance cores and six efficiency cores. The GPU goes from 10 to 12 cores, and Ars Technica notes it's the first GPU core bump on Apple's entry chip since the M2. Apple's N1 wireless chip adds Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 6, and wired Ethernet goes from 1Gb to 2.5Gb as standard.

One detail hides in the memory table. Ars Technica points out the 16GB model runs at 153GB/s of memory bandwidth, while the 24GB and 32GB versions run at 170GB/s, about 11% more. That's a small bump for graphics and local AI, but it's one more nudge toward the pricier configs.

The thing Apple took back is storage you can upgrade. The M4 Mac mini had its SSD on a removable module, and owners bought cheap third-party upgrade kits. Appleosophy reported, citing a teardown by upgrade-kit seller Expand Mac mini, that the M6 and M5 Pro models have their storage chips soldered to the board again. It's one of the most-discussed complaints in r/macmini and r/mac, where several owners said it's the reason they're keeping their M4.

Who shouldn't upgrade? If you own an M4 Mac mini that does what you need, nothing here is urgent. If you're on an Intel Mac mini or an M1 with 8GB, the jump is huge. How huge depends on the work you do.

The base chip nearly matches last year's $1,899 M4 Pro

Apple claims the M6 is 40% faster than the M4 on the CPU and up to twice as fast on graphics. The reviews mostly back that up, and in places beat it. 9to5Mac's Geekbench 7 run showed the M6 about 24% ahead of the M4 in single-core, 48% in multi-core and 71% on the GPU. Ars Technica saw 20 to 30% single-core gains and 50 to 80% gains in multi-core and graphics across its tests.

The more interesting comparison is the M4 Pro, which cost $1,899 in Canada at launch. Tom's Hardware found the M6 21% faster in single-core and only slightly behind in multi-core: 21,045 against 22,661, even though the M4 Pro has 16 CPU cores to the M6's 12. In its HandBrake test, turning a 4K video into 1080p, the M6 finished in 2 minutes 46 seconds, one second faster than the M4 Pro and nearly two minutes faster than the M4. Engadget saw a similar picture: 16.5% faster single-threaded than the M4 Pro, with the older Pro chip keeping a small multi-core edge.

Not everyone is dazzled. Six Colors measured the M6 about 11% faster than last year's M5 in single-core, 23% in multi-core and 24% on graphics, and called it an average step rather than a leap. Fair enough. But nobody buying a Mac mini today is choosing between an M5 and an M6 desktop, since the Mac mini skipped the base M5 chip.

What this means day to day: if you edit photos in Lightroom, cut family videos or run a dozen browser tabs while on a Teams call, the base chip has more headroom than most people will use. You'd only reach for the M5 Pro for heavy, sustained work. The bigger decision is memory and storage.

The 256GB drive is the real trap, and fixing it costs $300

Ars Technica, 9to5Mac and Tom's Hardware all land on the same complaint: 256GB is too small for a $1,249 computer. macOS, a photo library and a couple of games will eat it fast. On the M4 you could fix that later with a third-party module. On the M6 you can't, so the drive you pick at checkout is the drive you keep.

Apple.ca charges $300 to go from 256GB to 512GB, which is why the 16GB/512GB model is $1,549. Going to 1TB adds another $450 on top of that, and 2TB adds $1,200 over the 512GB model. Memory works the same way: $300 for 24GB and $600 for 32GB. A 24GB/512GB machine is $1,849 at Apple and Best Buy Canada.

There's a speed angle too. 9to5Mac measured roughly 6,000 to 6,400 MB/s from its 512GB M6, about twice the 512GB M4. Appleosophy also passed on a Max Tech report that the 256GB model uses a single storage chip. On older Macs, single-chip base drives tested slower, but none of the reviews cited here measured the 256GB M6, so treat that as a question mark, not a finding.

Our pick is the 16GB/512GB at $1,549 for most people. If you already own a fast external SSD, the base model is workable for a home server or a kids' computer. Just know that Thunderbolt 4 tops out at 40Gb/s, so an external drive won't keep up with the internal one. That's fine for a Plex library, less fine for editing 4K video straight off it. Then there's the question everyone buying in 2026 asks about memory: what about AI?

Local AI works, but 16GB hits a wall fast

Apple's headline claim is up to four times faster AI performance than the M4, helped by neural accelerators built into every GPU core and a doubled Neural Engine. Gizmodo put that to work with Ollama. Its 24GB M6 had a mid-sized open model, Gemma 4 26B, write a photo-cleanup script in about 1 minute 30 seconds. A 16GB M4 took about 16 and a half minutes for the same job. Gizmodo flagged that the M4 had less memory, which explains part of that gap.

The ceiling showed up quickly, though. Gizmodo said a slightly larger model, Bonsai 2 27B, made the M6 struggle. Ars Technica's take matches: chatbots and image generation should run fine, while coding-focused models will feel squeezed for memory and bandwidth even at 32GB.

In r/macmini, people weighing a 32GB M6 against a 64GB M5 Pro mostly land in the same place. Several owners said 32GB handles smaller models for private, everyday tasks, and they still pay for a cloud service when they need the best answers. If local AI is a hobby, 24GB is the sensible floor. If it's the main reason you're buying, look at the M5 Pro or a Mac Studio, and expect to pay a lot more. Most buyers won't care about any of this, so what's it like as an everyday desk machine?

Quiet enough for a bedroom desk, and it'll run Cyberpunk at 1080p

Tom's Hardware ran Cinebench 2026 ten times in a row and the scores barely moved after the first run, hovering between 5,530 and 5,554. The fan sat near 1,000 rpm at idle and around 2,615 rpm under that load, with an average system temperature of 64°C. Engadget said it never heard the fan get loud, which it couldn't say about the M4 Pro model. If your desk is in a bedroom or a shared home office, that matters more than any benchmark.

Gaming is a bonus, not a reason to buy. Tom's Hardware got 58 fps in Cyberpunk 2077 at 1080p with Apple's recommended settings and 37 fps at 1440p. Frame generation pushed those to 96 and 63 fps. Turning on ray tracing dropped it into the 20s. Engadget saw about 55 fps in Cyberpunk at 1080p and about 70 fps in Lies of P at 1440p.

The small annoyances haven't changed. The power button is still on the bottom. Ars Technica notes it gets awkward with a Touch ID Magic Keyboard, which wants a double-press of that button during setup. There's no USB-A, so older mice, printers and USB sticks need an adapter or a dock. The Verge and Engadget both wanted an SD card slot. So how does all of this compare with what else $1,249 to $1,849 buys in Canada?

M4 leftovers, a $3,499 Mac Studio and a $969 Beelink

The M4 Mac mini is still around at some Canadian stores. On Oct 13, Best Buy Canada listed a new M4 with 16GB and 512GB for $1,199.97, while Amazon.ca had the same model at $1,399. That Best Buy price is $350 under the M6 16GB/512GB. You give up a lot of speed, 2.5Gb Ethernet and Wi-Fi 7, but you keep the removable SSD module, which is a real perk if you want 2TB or more cheaply. For light use, it's the value buy while stock lasts.

The Mac mini with M5 Pro starts at $2,399 at Apple.ca and Best Buy Canada, and $2,389.99 at Costco.ca and Amazon.ca, with 24GB and 512GB. You get Thunderbolt 5 and much stronger multi-core and graphics performance. The Verge scored it lower than the M6 because high-end configs get so expensive that a Mac Studio starts to make more sense. The Mac Studio with M5 Max starts at $3,499 at Apple.ca and Amazon.ca, with 36GB of memory and an SD card slot.

On the Windows side, the Beelink SER9 Pro with an AMD Ryzen 7 H 255, 24GB of memory and a 1TB SSD was $969 on Amazon.ca. That's more memory and twice the storage of the base Mac for $280 less, plus USB-A ports and two SSD slots you can fill later. Gizmodo's comparisons suggest the M6 trades blows with current laptop chips from AMD and Intel, so a Windows mini PC is a fair alternative if you don't need macOS. If you're coming from an iPhone and want AirDrop and iMessage on your desktop, the Mac still wins.

And if you'd rather have one machine for home and the GO train, a MacBook Air with M5, 16GB and 512GB was $1,789.99 at Costco.ca, about $240 more than the equivalent M6 mini but with a screen, keyboard and battery included. Owning the mini long term raises a few more questions.

Living with a Mac you can't open

Since nothing inside is upgradable, the long-term costs are mostly about storage. Budget for a decent external SSD if you bought 256GB or 512GB and keep a lot of photos or video. In the soldered-storage threads on r/macmini and r/mac, many owners said they plan to pair a smaller internal drive with a 2TB to 4TB external one. A few people said the change makes a used M4 more attractive.

Price anger is the other big Reddit theme, but it's split. In an r/mac thread about the cost of extra memory, plenty of commenters pushed back that RAM and SSD prices have climbed across the whole industry, not just at Apple. That fits what Ars Technica and Tom's Hardware reported about the 2026 memory crunch, and it means waiting for a cheaper Mac mini may not pay off soon.

Apple's standard warranty is one year, and Apple Canada allows returns for roughly two weeks after delivery. If the machine will run 24/7 as a home server, AppleCare+ is worth pricing out at checkout. One more software note from Tom's Hardware: macOS 27 no longer installs Rosetta by default, and macOS 28 is expected to drop support for older Intel-only Mac apps. If you rely on an old app, check it now.

Canadians aren't seeing the big launch-month discounts US shoppers got, either. On Oct 13, Costco.ca was only $9 under Apple's base price and Amazon.ca matched Apple. Students and teachers can get the base model for $1,109 through Apple's education store. So who should actually buy one?

Buy the $1,549 model, or don't buy one at all

Buy the M6 Mac mini with 16GB and 512GB at $1,549 if you want a Mac desktop for work, school, photo editing or family video, and you already have a monitor. Go to 24GB at $1,849 if you want to play with local AI or keep heavy apps open all day. It's quiet, fast and small enough to hide behind a monitor, and the reviews agree it's the best compact computer in its class.

Skip the base 256GB model unless it's a dedicated home server with external storage, or a gift for someone who lives in a web browser. If you only need email, YouTube and documents, a $1,199.97 M4 at Best Buy Canada or a sub-$1,000 Windows mini PC like the Beelink SER9 Pro will do the same job for less.

Pros who need Thunderbolt 5, more than 32GB of memory or heavy multi-core power should look past this model to the $2,399 M5 Pro version, and price out the $3,499 Mac Studio before they start ticking upgrade boxes. If you're torn, buy the $1,549 M6 from a store with an easy return policy and give it a real week of your normal work.