• Mini PC Wunderkind

  Mac Mini (M4, 2024)

  $559 $599 Save $40

  CPU

  Apple M4 (10-core) or M4 Pro (up to 14-core)

  Graphics

  10-core GPU (M4) or 16-core (M4 Pro)

  Memory

  Up to 32GB (M4) or 64GB (M4 Pro) unified memory

  Storage

  Up to 2TB (M4) or 8TB (M4 Pro)

  Ports

  Rear: 3x Thunderbolt 4 (M4)/Thunderbolt 5 (M4 Pro), 1x HDMI, 1x RJ45 Ethernet; Front: 2x USB-C 3.2 Gen 2, 3.5mm headphone jack

  The M4 Mac Mini is the smallest Mac yet, but it packs a punch with the Apple M4 chip. Day-to-day performance is outstanding and power usage is very low. It also looks sleek and compact.

  Pros & Cons

  • Incredible balance of performance and efficiency
  • A more complete supply of ports
  • It has a built-in speaker

  • No user upgrades
  • Storage and RAM upgrades are ridiculously expensive

  $599 at Best Buy $559 at Amazon
• Extra tiny

  Khadas Mind

  $549 $649 Save $100

  CPU

  Up to Intel Core i7-1360P

  Graphics

  Intel Iris Xe graphics

  Memory

  Up to 32GB RAM

  Storage

  Up to 1TB SSD, free M.2 2230 slot

  Motherboard

  Custom

  The Khadas Mind is an extremely compact mini PC powered by 13th-generation Intel Core processors and other high-end specs. It's the smallest mini PC around, and it has an interesting ecosystem of accessories that make it even more capable.

  Pros & Cons

  • Significantly more compact and portable
  • Ecosystem of accessories can make it very versatile
  • Windows is a better operating system

  • Performance is far behind Aple's offering
  • Accessories make it far more expensive
  • It tends to get pretty warm

  $549 at Khadas

Reviewing and using the M4 Mac Mini has been quite the experience over the past couple of weeks, and I've ended up liking this device a lot more than I was expecting to going into this. For the time being, at least, it's become my main computer.

But it's still pretty early, and as you may know, I had until recently been gushing about the Khadas Mind, my favorite mini PC. So with the M4 Mac Mini blowing my expectations out of the water, I wanted to put these two PCs face to face and really disect their differences or why I might prefer one over the other.

About this article: The Khadas Mind and its accessories were provided to me by Khadas for review. The Mac Mini was purchased by XDA for the same purpose.

Pricing and availability

First things first, both of these PCs are available to buy right now. The Khadas Mind is a much older device that released in 2023, and there is a new version released in 2024, but I haven't had the chance to test it yet. That said, it mostly just changes the processors, so most of this comparison still holds up.

The Mac Mini is available from all major electronics retailers, as you'd expect, and it starts at $599 with the 10-core Apple M4 processor, 16GB of unified memory, and 256GB of storage. There are multiple upgrade options that can increase that price very significantly, though.

Meanwhile, the original Khadas Mind starts at $649 with an Intel Core i5-1340P processor, 16GB of RAM, and a 512GB SSD for storage. There's also the Premium model, which I have, with a Core i7-1360P, 32GB of RAM, and a 1TB SSD, which costs an extra $300.

• Mac Mini (M4, 2024)

  CPU

  Apple M4 (10-core) or M4 Pro (up to 14-core)

  Graphics

  10-core GPU (M4) or 16-core (M4 Pro)

  Memory

  Up to 32GB (M4) or 64GB (M4 Pro) unified memory

  Storage

  Up to 2TB (M4) or 8TB (M4 Pro)

  Ports

  Rear: 3x Thunderbolt 4 (M4)/Thunderbolt 5 (M4 Pro), 1x HDMI, 1x RJ45 Ethernet; Front: 2x USB-C 3.2 Gen 2, 3.5mm headphone jack

  Expansion Slots

  None

  Display

  None

  Operating System

  macOS Sequoia

  Dimension

  5x5x2 inches (127x127x20mm)

  Weight

  M4: 1.5 pounds (670 grams); M4 Pro: 1.6 pounds (730 grams)

  Networking

  Up to 10Gb Ethernet, Wi-Fi 6E

  Speakers

  Built-in speaker

  Price

  Starting at $599

• Khadas Mind

  CPU

  Up to Intel Core i7-1360P

  Graphics

  Intel Iris Xe graphics

  Memory

  Up to 32GB RAM

  Storage

  Up to 1TB SSD, free M.2 2230 slot

  Ports

  2x USB Type-C, 2x USB Type-A, HDMI

  Expansion Slots

  M.2 2230 SSD slot

  Display

  None

  Operating System

  Windows 11

  Dimension

  5.75 x 4.13 x 0.79 inches (146 x 105 x 20mm)

  Weight

  0.99 pounds (450g)

  Networking

  Intel Wi-Fi 6E AX211 + Bluetooth 5.3

  Speakers

  None

  Price

  $649

Design

How compact can you get?

The reason I love mini PCs is that I want something as small as possible on my desk so that my setup looks as clean as it can. I've written about this at length in the past so I won't repeat myself, but suffice it. to say that the smaller a mini PC is, the better.

In this regard, Khadas wins easily, at least at first glance. The Khadas Mind is a much smaller unit, being less than half the thickness of the Mac Mini, while also being less deep. It is wider, but it barely matters. Considering the Intel processor is also much more prone to heating up, it's very impressive that Khadas managed to achieve this extremely compact design. The Mac Mini feels more like a standard mini PC you'd get from any other company in terms of size, so it's a little less impressive.

The Mac Mini has a more generous port supply

Of course, this race to the bottom in terms of size does have a downside, and that's ports. Out of the box, the Khadas Mind has two USB4 ports, two USB Type-A ports, and one HDMI port. By comparison, the Mac Mini has three Thunderbolt 4 ports (Thunderbolt 5, if you opt for the M4 Pro model), two USB-C ports, HDMI, Ethernet (either 1Gbps or 10Gbps), and a headphone jack with support for high-impedance headphones. The Mac Mini also has a separate AC port, while the Khadas Mind uses one of its USB-C ports for power.

The Mac Mini has a more generous port supply, and one that's a bit more future-focused with all the USB-C ports. I do like having USB Type-A for some of my peripherals, but depending on your perspective, you might blame the rest of the industry for not switching to USB-C.

The Mac Mini also has a built-in speaker, which the Khadas Mind lacks. It's not meant to be amazing, but it gives you audio if you have nothing else, which sometimes you might.

The Khadas ecosystem

Of course, where the Khadas Mind really shines is its ecosystem of accessories, which currently includes the Mind Dock and Mind Graphics. These two accessories change things significantly. The Mind Dock, which adds an extra $179 to the cost, gives you a few things: more ports, a fingerprint scanner, and speakers, including a volume wheel.

These extra ports include one more USB-C port, three USB Type-A ports, two HDMI ports, 1Gbps Ethernet, and a headphone jack. At that point, the Khadas Mind does have more of an edge over the Mac Mini, that much can't be denied. On top of having more ports, you get a fingerprint reader, which the Mac Mini doesn't have. The Mac Mini does have a built-in speaker, but this helps level the playing field on that front, too. Though you do make the Khadas Mind even wider, and also deeper to the point where it has a noticeably bigger footprint than the Mac Mini. However, it's still not as tall.

On the other hand, the Mind Graphics is a huge accessory (after all, it is a GPU), which make size comparisons almost pointless. At this point, the Khadas Mind becomes far larger than the Mac Mini, so in terms of desk space, it definitely takes a hit. It does have some more ports, too, though I've experienced repeated issues with the USB ports on the Mind Graphics, so it's hard to recommend based on that. The big additions there are Ethernet and DisplayPort ports. Then again, the Mind Graphics is a $1,000 accessory, so it's not fair to compare it directly.

This is also ignoring the potential hassle of switching between different accessories if you do want to make use of them. Keeping extra peripherals on standby isn't ideal, and connecting the Mind Graphics requires a reboot.

Upgrades are limited on both

In terms of upgradeability, both of these options are limited, though the Khadas Mind is objectively better in some ways. Both PCs come with all the main components fixed on the board with no official method for replacing them. However, the Khadas Mind has an extra M.2 2230 SSD slot, which you can use to expand the built-in storage. Apple doesn't give you that option.

The Khadas Mind has an extra M.2 2230 SSD slot

To make matters worse, upgrading the Mac Mini is ridiculously expensive, with each step in RAM or storage costing an extra $200, far more than on the Khadas Mind, where $300 doubles the RAM and storage, and gives you a better processor.

The Khadas Mind also has the potential benefit of upgradeable peripherals, so you can replace the Mind Graphics while keeping the same core hardware, for example.

Winner: Tie

Performance

Apple did some incredible work here

The other big factor here is, of course, performance. This is what matters most to me when it comes to becoming my go-to machine, but performance isn't just getting the highest scores or doing things faster. But we'll start with that. I've taken the scores from my Mac Mini review and re-did some of the benchmarks for the Khadas Mind on a clean install of Windows 11 version 24H2. Here's what it looks like:

As you can see, the Mac Mini pulls far ahead in every metric here. Whether it's CPU or GPU, the Mac Mini dominates in terms of performance across the board here. And if we look at a real-life workload, like running the AI Denoise filter on an image in Lightroom, the difference is immense. For a 24MP RAW photo, the Mac Mini can do this in about 40 seconds, while the Khadas Mind takes nearly 2 minutes and 40 seconds.

But like I said, it's not just about the performance numbers. The big thing about the Mac Mini is efficiency, and it's not even really close here. During any of these tasks, it was easy to hear the fan on the Khadas Mind spin quickly, and it still got very warm to the touch. Clearly, it takes a lot of power for it to run the way it does. Meanwhile, in my entire time using the Mac Mini, I have not once heard the fan spin up. Even during more demanding workloads, it's never been more than slightly warm to the touch, and that's with my hands being cold a lot of the time, so if it was warm, it would be very noticeable.

In my entire time using the Mac Mini, I have not once heard the fan spin up

The Apple M4 doesn't have an official TDP, but NotebookCheck claims the processor peaks at 40W during "high loads". Meanwhile, the Intel Core i7-1360P can go up to 64W, according to Intel's spec sheet, with a base TDP of 28W. That means you're potentially using more power to get significantly worse performance.

What if I use the Mind graphics?

But what made me love the Khadas Mind was the ability to use the Mind Graphics accessory to boost my performance that much more. This meant that I could use a lot less power for most of my workflow, but connect the GPU if I wanted to, for example, edit video or photos. So can the Mac Mini replace that? Well, yes and no. For quick reference, here's how some GPU-related benchmarks compare between the Khadas Mind with Mind Graphics (a combination that costs $1,849, mind you) and the base Mac Mini ($599).

Evidently, having a dedicated graphics card still matters. I do wonder how much closer this would be if I had the M4 Pro version of the Mac Mini, but that's irrelevant right now. A discrete GPU has clear benefits according to benchmarks. But what about real life?

One thing that's often a part of my workload is using the AI Denoise feature in Adobe Lightroom. With the Khadas Mind and the Mind Graphics accessory (a combination that costs three times more than the base Mac Mini, mind you), I could apply the AI Denoise filter to a photo in just 10 seconds, give or take. On the Mac Mini, the same task takes 40 seconds. Clearly, a dedicated GPU still provides performance you just can't get on the Apple M4.

A dedicated GPU still provides performance you just can't get on the Apple M4

But then we get to editing video, which uses both the CPU and GPU. And using DaVinci Resolve to export the same video at approximately the same settings, the Khadas Mind actually took 8 minutes and 36 seconds, while the Mac Mini took 8 minutes and 3 seconds. Apple can actually still pull ahead in some workloads.

Efficiency is the name of the game for me here, because if I can do my usual work decently quickly while saving energy, I'm always going to choose to that route. And yes, using AI Denoise on the Mac Mini does take 30 seconds longer, which adds up when you're editing a lot of pictures. But when the Khadas Mind is combining a CPU that can go up to 64W with a GPU that's rated for 160W, and the Mac Mini peaks at just 40W in total, it's really hard to ignore the lower power cost of Apple's computer. Would I rather use the Mac Mini and take a little longer to get it done, or use more power overall to have faster performance for these specific tasks? For my needs, I think I have to give it to the Mac Mini. If editing photos was all I did, things may have been different, for sure, but for my needs, the balance of efficiency and performance that the Mac Mini offers is very hard to rival.

Winner: Mac Mini

Software

Can macOS stack up to Windows?

This section is one that's going to be very personal, as it's not always easy to say objectively what's better when it comes to software choices and design. I'm a life-long Windows user, and I definitely have a lot of affinity for it. And objectively, Windows has a much more robust ecosystem. Almost any app you can think of is available for Windows, and in many cases, it's exclusive to Windows. macOS has a lot of major apps, but it does have slightly more limited options if you want more niche things. That also goes for things like drivers and customization software for specific peripherals, which can be heavily hindered on macOS.

For my usage, though, I've managed to tweak macOS to work almost exactly like I would expect a PC to work after using Windows for a long time. Apps like MacsyZones, Pasty, and AltTab make things way more familiar. And the other differences are subjective, so it's often just been a matter of getting used to a new paradigm. Some things about macOS are annoying, like having to enter a password for very basic tasks, but it's not that big of a deal in the end.

I'd say Windows still wins overall, but both operating systems work very well and you can make the experience feel pretty similar across the two.

Winner: Khadas Mind

Will the Mac Mini become my main PC?

With all of this in mind, am I switching to the Mac Mini full-time? Well, it's only been a couple of weeks, so it's a little early to say definitively. But for now, I'm very happy using the Mac Mini, and it's become my primary computer for all kinds of work, whether it's here or even making videos for my personal YouTube channel. I love knowing I can do everything I need while using far less power than I would otherwise, and I've worked around all the potential downfalls of the Mac Mini and macOS. I really like this setup.

As for the Khadas Mind, it's still a really cool PC, and a concept that I absolutely adore. The potential for the Khadas Mind concept is huge, and hopefully the ecosystem of accessories keeps growing to make it even more interesting. However, making the most out of it makes it an incredibly expensive product.