Apple announces new $899 M6 Mac mini and Mac Studio

Apple announces new $899 M6 Mac mini alongside a $5,499 M5 Ultra Mac Studio in a surprise desktop refresh ahead of its September event. Both machines are open for preorder now and ship Sept. 22, with sticker prices higher than the last generation. The move lands a day after rumors of refreshed Mac desktops, giving buyers a clear then-and-now snapshot of how Apple’s compact and pro towers have jumped in silicon, memory, and AI claims.

For readers who follow Apple’s long desktop arc on BlasterPost’s Nostalgia: Then & Now hub, this drop is less about a new look and more about what changed under the same shells. External designs remain unchanged, while chips, wireless standards, and base prices move forward.

Key Takeaways

• Apple surprise-announced an M6 Mac mini from $899 and an M5 Ultra Mac Studio from $5,499.
• Preorders are live in the Apple Store; shipping begins Sept. 22.
• The M6 Mac mini is Apple’s first 2nm chip and costs $100 more than the M4 model.
• The M5 Ultra Studio is $200 above the M3 Ultra base and can configure up to $18,299.
• Mac Studio also returns with M5 Max from $2,499 ($2,299 education), plus Thunderbolt 5 and up to eight displays.

What exactly did Apple announce, and why does the $899 Mac mini matter?

According to Mashable’s report on the announcement, Apple unveiled two updated desktops after rumors broke the day before: a portable Mac mini with the new M6 chip and a Mac Studio with M5 Ultra silicon. Apple called the Ultra its “most powerful chip ever” in a press release cited by Mashable.

Sri Santhanam, Apple’s vice president of Silicon Engineering Group, said the new processors offer “the next giant leap in performance and AI compute.” Prices rose slightly as well—Mashable notes the industry “RAMageddon” backdrop. The M6 Mac mini starts at $899, $100 more than its M4 predecessor. The M5 Ultra Mac Studio starts at $5,499, $200 more than the M3 Ultra model.

That $899 entry is the headline for everyday buyers. It keeps the Mac mini as the accessible desktop door while marking the first shipping M6 machine. Apple recommends the M6 mini for everyday users, students, developers, AI hobbyists, and enterprises.

How does the new Mac mini compare with the last generation?

Then: Apple’s recent mini chips used 3nm technology on M3, M4, and M5 silicon. Now: the M6 is Apple’s first processor built on a 2-nanometer manufacturing process, packing more switches onto a smaller die. Apple said that shift translates to “a major leap in performance and power efficiency.”

Core counts moved up too. The M6 has two more CPU and GPU cores than the M5 chip, for 12 of each, plus a Dual 16-core Neural Engine. Versus the M4 Mac mini, Apple claims up to four times faster AI performance and up to two times faster graphics.

Memory ceilings tell another then-and-now story. The new base configuration starts at $899 with 16GB of RAM and 256GB of storage, and it now maxes out at 32GB of RAM. The M4 model topped out at 24GB. Buyers who need more horsepower can choose an M5 Pro Mac mini from $1,699 with 24GB of memory and 512GB of storage, scaling to an 18-core CPU, 20-core GPU, up to 64GB of RAM, and 8TB of storage. Apple positions that config for pro users tackling app development, video rendering, and scientific simulations.

Connectivity also modernized without a redesign. Both new Mac mini models support 2.5Gb Ethernet, with a 10Gb upgrade available, plus Wi‑Fi 7 and Bluetooth 6. Mashable notes Mac minis have been popular this year for people running AI agents, and some M4 units have been hard to find in stock—context that helps explain demand for the refresh.

What is new in the Mac Studio, and when can you preorder?

The M5 Ultra is Apple’s first chip with quad-die architecture, made by fusing two dual-die M5 Max chips. It offers up to a 36-core CPU and 80-core GPU, up to 512GB of unified memory, and 1.2TB/s of unified memory bandwidth. The M3 Ultra was capped at 32 CPU cores and 96GB of RAM, with 819GB/s of memory bandwidth—so the jump is both wider and deeper on paper.

Apple says the M5 Ultra Mac Studio delivers up to 4.5 times faster AI compute and up to 40 percent faster graphics than its predecessor. Johny Srouji, Apple’s chief hardware officer, called it “the ultimate desktop for on-device AI and the world’s most demanding pro workflows.” The base M5 Ultra Studio starts at $5,499 with a 30-core CPU, 64-core GPU, 36GB of memory, and 512GB of storage. A boosted 80-core GPU option adds $1,300. Higher configurations climb as high as $18,299.

A second Studio path uses the M5 Max, starting at $2,499—or $2,299 for education—while the M5 Ultra education price starts at $5,099, per Mashable’s preorder guide. Apple says the M5 Max can deliver up to 3.9x faster on-device AI performance than the prior generation for prompt processing, aimed at musicians, videographers, engineers, and motion-graphics work. The Ultra tier is pitched for 3D renderings, 8K video editing, intensive gaming, and training AI models.

Both new Studio models add Thunderbolt 5 ports and support for up to eight displays, plus Wi‑Fi 7 and Bluetooth 6. Mashable details dual Thunderbolt 5 ports and an SDXC slot on the front, with four Thunderbolt 5 ports, two USB-A ports, HDMI, Ethernet, and a headphone jack on the back. The Apple Upgrade program is available for either model.

Preorders for the refreshed Mac mini and Mac Studio are live in the Apple Store now. Units will not ship until Sept. 22. Apple also says a Mac Studio with 512GB of unified memory is coming in late October. The announcements land ahead of Apple’s annual September hardware event, where Mashable says the company is expected to unveil the iPhone 18 series, a foldable iPhone, updated smart home devices, and new Apple Watches.

Is this refresh more about power than nostalgia for the same box?

Yes—in the sense that the boxes look familiar while the bills of materials do not. The mini still starts near the psychological $900 mark, yet it is $100 above the M4 baseline and debuts M6 on 2nm. The Studio still fills the pro tower role, yet it costs $200 more than the M3 Ultra entry and can stretch into five-figure configs when memory and GPU options stack up.

That pattern matches a familiar Apple desktop cycle: keep the silhouette, raise the silicon story, and nudge prices when memory markets tighten. Whether you are replacing an M4 mini that vanished from shelves or weighing an M5 Max Studio at $2,499 against the $5,499 Ultra, the practical next step is the same. Preorder if you need the machine on Sept. 22, or wait for the late-October 512GB Studio memory option if that ceiling is the deciding factor.

Either way, Apple announces new $899 and $5,499 desktop openers that redefine what “same design, new generation” means in 2026—more AI claims, more memory headroom, and a clearer then-versus-now gap than a simple model-number bump.