The Mac mini’s price has jumped 50% in 5 months — come on Apple, put an A18 Pro chip in an Apple TV-sized box and give us a $599 'Mac Neo' PC to bring the cost back down

Apple has just unveiled the new Mac mini with M6 processor , and for me the biggest news is the price hike to $899 for the cheapest model.

<![CDATA[ <article> <p>Apple has <a href="https://www.techradar.com/computing/macs/apples-new-mac-mini-looks-the-same-but-the-m6-inside-brings-a-major-performance-boost">just unveiled the new Mac mini with M6 processor</a>, and for me the biggest news is the price hike to $899 for the cheapest model.</p><p>This is a jump from $799 for the previous <a href="https://www.techradar.com/computing/macbooks/apple-mac-mini-m4-2024">Mac mini M4</a> model — but that had <a href="https://www.techradar.com/computing/apples-mac-mini-now-has-a-higher-starting-price-as-it-discontinues-the-entry-level-model-and-slides-down-to-the-mid-range">also received a de facto price rise only back in May</a>, when Apple discontinued the $599 entry-level option (with 256GB of storage) and made the $799 version (with 512GB of storage) the new lowest-price option.</p><p>It means that between April 2026 and August 2026, the minimum price you can pay for a Mac mini has jumped by 50%. That's not an <em>ideal</em> situation at a time when it feels like our income is being squeezed harder and harder every week.</p><p>Yes, you get more storage and the new $899 version has more powerful chip than in the older $599 version — but, frankly, there will be plenty of people for whom price is <em>the </em>key factor, not the ability to run LLM requests faster.</p><p>Apple knows this; these people are exactly who the <a href="https://www.techradar.com/computing/macbooks/apple-macbook-neo">MacBook Neo</a> is aimed at. So now that the Mac mini is no longer a budget buy, we need Apple to bring the Neo principle to the desktop.</p><div style="min-height: 250px;"> <div class="kwizly-quiz kwizly-WlMolO"></div> </div> <script src="https://kwizly.com/embed/WlMolO.js" async></script><h2 id="no-revolution-necessary">No revolution necessary</h2><p>As I said in the headline, I don't think a 'Mac Neo' PC even needs to be a complicated proposition to develop: we already know the A18 Pro chip runs macOS really well, because we've seen it do it in the MacBook Neo. And Apple already has a small body that can take the thermal requirements of iPhone-level chip, in the form of the latest <a href="https://www.techradar.com/reviews/apple-tv-4k-2022">Apple TV 4K</a>.</p><p>The existing Apple TV 4K body already has Wi-Fi and Bluetooth antennae built in, and Ethernet and HDMI output ports — and while it no longer has USB-C, it used to, so it wouldn't be too hard to add back in.</p><p>Surely, in a plastic body, using an iPhone chip, we can get the price down below $600 again. The MacBook Neo is $699, and that includes a screen, keyboard and battery, after all.</p><figure class="van-image-figure inline-layout" data-bordeaux-image-check ><div class='image-full-width-wrapper'><div class='image-widthsetter' style="max-width:1920px;"><p class="vanilla-image-block" style="padding-top:56.25%;"><img id="oZrXV6DmgZfutNr8MznGW7" name="MacBook-Neo-full" alt="The MacBook Neo at an Apple event" src="https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/oZrXV6DmgZfutNr8MznGW7.jpg" mos="" align="middle" fullscreen="" width="1920" height="1080" attribution="" endorsement="" class="inline"></p></div></div><figcaption itemprop="caption description" class=" inline-layout"><span class="caption-text">The MacBook Neo is a genuinely great laptop for a low price — so let's drop the bits we don't need… </span><span class="credit" itemprop="copyrightHolder">(Image credit: Future)</span></figcaption></figure><p>If Apple is working on this, I expect we might have a bit of a wait — supposedly, <a href="https://www.techradar.com/computing/macbooks/apple-is-entering-the-touchbar-phase-again-macbook-oled-could-be-on-track-to-launch-in-a-few-months-but-skeptics-still-hate-that-rumored-touchscreen">the MacBook Neo will get a refresh in 2027 with an upgrade to the Apple A19 Pro processor</a> (which brings a boost from 8GB of RAM to 12GB with it), which makes sense in terms of <a href="https://www.techradar.com/phones/ios/only-3-iphones-can-access-the-best-version-of-siri-ai-heres-which-features-are-exclusive-to-apples-most-powerful-on-device-model-afm-core-advanced">Apple saying that the new AI Siri's most powerful features require 12GB of RAM</a>.</p><p>It would probably make sense to launch my new 'Mac Neo' or 'Mac Nano' or whatever you want to call it alongside the next MacBook Neo, if it were to happen.</p><p>The idea of putting a cheap Mac in the Apple TV's body is something I've been talking about ever since <a href="https://www.techradar.com/news/apple-m1-chip">the M1 chip was unveiled back in 2020. </a>When the Mac mini M4 redesign appeared, with its excellent $599 price, I basically felt like I got what I wanted from the start.</p><p>But at these prices, I'm returning on my crusade — all the pieces are there to bring the Mac back to a truly budget price, and now more than ever people need a reliable, privacy-friendly computing option that's easy on the wallet.</p> </article> ]]>