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The new Mac mini costs A$450 more, and its storage is soldered again

Apple’s 2026 Mac mini went on sale in Australia on 22 September with the new M6 chip from A$1,449 and an M5 Pro version from A$2,699. The outside has not changed. The price has: the M4 model it replaces launched here at A$999. Within hours of the first units shipping, a teardown showed that the removable SSD module Apple introduced with the M4 is gone, and a benchmark showed the 256 GB base model runs its storage at about half the speed of the 512 GB one. This is what Apple has confirmed, what independent testing has found, and what it means if you are buying one in Australia.

Published 6 October 20268 min readSnapshot: 6 October 2026
This is a dated snapshot of a shipping product, not a hands-on review, so there is no score. We have not used or tested the 2026 Mac mini. Every price, specification and measurement below comes from a cited source - Apple’s own pages, Australian and international technology press, an Australian retailer listing and published third-party testing - listed at the end. Where we do our own arithmetic it is labelled as ours. Nothing here is a recommendation to buy anything.

The short version

  • The M6 Mac mini starts at A$1,449 with 16 GB of memory and 256 GB of storage. The M4 model launched in Australia at A$999 with the same memory and storage, so the entry price is up A$450, or 45% (our arithmetic).
  • The M5 Pro Mac mini starts at A$2,699 with 24 GB and 512 GB. GadgetGuy reports that is A$500 more than the M4 Pro model it replaces.
  • The chip is a real step. Apple says the M6, its first 2 nm chip, has a 12-core CPU and 12-core GPU, and claims up to 40% faster CPU performance and up to four times the AI performance of the M4. Wi-Fi 7, Bluetooth 6 and 2.5 Gb Ethernet are now standard.
  • The SSD is soldered to the logic board on both models. The M4 Mac mini used a removable storage module that third-party upgrade kits relied on. That option is gone; the storage you buy is the storage you keep.
  • The 256 GB base model has roughly half-speed storage. Published Blackmagic tests put it at about 3,200 MB/s read and 3,000 MB/s write, against about 6,400 and 6,600 MB/s for 512 GB.
  • Apple’s own Mac Studio keeps removable SSD modules, according to Apple’s repair documentation as reported by AppleInsider. The change is specific to the Mac mini.

What Apple announced, and when

Apple announced the new Mac mini on 25 August 2026, US time (26 August in Australia), less than a day after reports of the update surfaced. Pre-orders opened immediately and the machines went on sale on 22 September. The enclosure is the small 12.7 cm square box introduced with the M4 in 2024, still 5.0 cm tall and still silver only. Apple lists the M6 model at 0.67 kg and the M5 Pro at 0.73 kg, with a maximum continuous power draw of 155 W. As Pickr put it, there are practically no changes on the outside.

The naming is unusual. The base model gets the new M6, while the step-up model uses the M5 Pro rather than an M6 Pro. 9to5Mac describes the M6 as Apple’s first 2 nm processor, with a 12-core CPU made up of two “super” cores, four performance cores and six efficiency cores, a 12-core GPU and two 16-core Neural Engines. MacRumors reports that both chips put neural accelerators in every GPU core.

Mac mini with M612-core CPU, 12-core GPU; 170 GB/s memory bandwidth; 16 GB standard, up to 32 GB; 256 GB standard, up to 2 TB. Three Thunderbolt 4 ports on the back. From A$1,449 (US$899).
Mac mini with M5 Pro15-core CPU and 16-core GPU, or 18-core CPU and 20-core GPU; 307 GB/s memory bandwidth; 24 GB standard, up to 64 GB; 512 GB standard, up to 8 TB. Three Thunderbolt 5 ports on the back. From A$2,699 (US$1,699).
Both modelsHDMI, Ethernet (2.5 Gb standard, 10 Gb optional), two front USB-C ports (USB 3), front headphone jack; Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 6; up to three external displays.
Apple’s claims for M6 against M4Up to 40% faster CPU, up to four times faster for AI tasks, twice the graphics and twice the storage performance. These are Apple’s figures; we have not tested them.
The M4 model it replacesLaunched in Australia at A$999 with 16 GB and 256 GB, a removable SSD module, Wi-Fi 6E and Bluetooth 5.3.

The price, in Australian terms

The headline rise is A$450 at the bottom of the range and, by GadgetGuy’s figures, A$500 for the Pro. GadgetGuy describes both as A$500 rises; against the A$999 M4 launch price the base model rise works out at A$450 (our arithmetic). The independent price tracker The Mac Index listed the M6 base model at an Apple RRP of A$1,449 when it last updated on 4 October.

The context is the memory market. As we covered in our RAM and SSD price snapshot, memory and flash have become the most expensive parts of a new computer in 2026, and every maker has been either raising prices or cutting memory. Apple has kept 16 GB as the floor and raised the price instead. We have not found an Apple statement explaining the increase.

Above the base model, the one Australian retailer configuration price we could verify is JB Hi-Fi’s listing for the M6 with 24 GB and 512 GB at A$2,049, shown as not available when we checked. That is A$600 more than the base model for 8 GB more memory and 256 GB more storage (our arithmetic). Apple’s Australian store lists the configurations but did not return prices to our fetch, so we have not quoted Apple’s upgrade prices.

The storage is soldered again

When Apple released the M4 Mac mini in 2024, teardowns found the SSD on a small removable module rather than soldered to the board, a first for an Apple silicon Mac mini. Third-party companies built upgrade kits around it, which made the cheap base model a reasonable starting point: buy 256 GB, add a larger module later for less than Apple charges.

That has ended. On 22 September, the day the new machines went on sale, the upgrade-kit company Expand Mac mini opened both the M6 and M5 Pro models and found the NAND storage soldered directly to the logic board, as it was on the M1, M2 and M3. Its verdict, quoted by 9to5Mac: “No slot means nothing to swap.” MacRumors and AppleInsider reported the same finding the same day. AppleInsider notes that Apple’s own repair documentation for the new M5 Max and M5 Ultra Mac Studio still describes replaceable SSD modules, so the change is a Mac mini decision, not a company-wide one.

We could not find an Apple statement on why. Expand Mac mini is a company with a commercial interest in upgradeable storage, which is worth knowing, but three separate outlets reported its finding and no source we found has disputed it.

The 256 GB model is slower, not just smaller

MacRumors reported on 22 September that the YouTube channel AAPL Ch. ran Blackmagic’s Disk Speed Test on both storage sizes. The 256 GB M6 model measured 3,216.8 MB/s read and 3,000.2 MB/s write. The 512 GB model measured 6,371.5 MB/s read and 6,577.4 MB/s write. MacRumors attributes the gap to the 256 GB model using a single NAND chip where larger capacities use more than one, a pattern Apple has repeated on base Macs since the M2 generation.

Two caveats. First, this is one published test from one channel; we have not reproduced it. Second, MacRumors itself says most people are unlikely to notice the difference in everyday use. Where it shows is in moving large files, video editing from internal storage, and memory swap: a 16 GB machine running heavy AI or creative work leans on its SSD, and on the base model that SSD is half as fast.

Put together with the soldering, the base model asks more of the buyer than it used to. On the M4 you could buy 256 GB and fix it later. On the M6 the 256 GB is permanent and slower.

What we could not establish

  • Apple’s Australian upgrade prices. We could verify the base prices from several Australian sources but not Apple’s own price for each memory and storage step.
  • Independent performance results for the M6 chip. Apple’s 40% and four-times claims are Apple’s. We have not relied on any third-party benchmark of the chip itself in this snapshot.
  • Why the price rose by A$450. No source we found quotes Apple on the reason.
  • Whether the M6 will reach the MacBook Air. Nothing Apple has published says when or whether the M6 comes to its laptops.

What to do with this if you are in the market

  • Decide your storage now. It cannot be upgraded later. If you keep large photo or video libraries on the machine, or plan to run local AI models, budget for at least 512 GB.
  • Treat 512 GB as the performance tier, not just a capacity tier. On published tests it doubles storage speed. That matters more on a 16 GB machine that swaps to disk.
  • If 256 GB is enough, an external drive is still a fair answer for bulk storage. The M6 has three Thunderbolt 4 ports and two front USB-C ports, so a fast external SSD for media is practical. It does not fix swap speed.
  • Check M4 clearance stock. An M4 Mac mini, if you can still find one, has a removable SSD and started A$450 cheaper. You give up the newer chip, Wi-Fi 7 and 2.5 Gb Ethernet.
  • Compare against Apple’s Australian store on the day. Retailer listings and stock change quickly; the A$2,049 JB Hi-Fi figure was a listing marked unavailable when we checked.
  • Reasoning beyond the sources: the base M6 Mac mini at A$1,449 is now close to the price of an entry laptop with a screen, keyboard and battery included. If you do not already own a monitor and keyboard, cost the whole desk before deciding the mini is the cheap option.

The bottom line

The 2026 Mac mini is a faster, better-connected computer than the one it replaces, and Apple’s numbers suggest a large jump for AI work. But the qualities that made the M4 version the obvious cheap Mac have gone in one generation: the A$999 entry price, and the removable SSD that let a buyer start small and grow. What remains is a A$1,449 machine whose base storage is small, slow and permanent. For most buyers the sensible configuration is now the 512 GB one, which puts the real starting price of a Mac mini closer to A$2,000 than A$1,000. We will update this snapshot if Apple changes Australian pricing or if more independent testing appears.

Sources

Figures and quotes above are drawn from these sources, captured 6 October 2026:

New Technology is an independent editorial publication. This article is an analysis of manufacturer announcements, Australian retail listings, contemporaneous technology reporting and published third-party testing - we have not used, tested or measured the 2026 Mac mini, and performance figures attributed to Apple are Apple’s claims. Price differences and percentages are our own calculation from the cited inputs. Pricing, stock and configurations change without notice; check Apple’s Australian store before relying on any figure here. Nothing in this article is financial advice or a recommendation to buy any product.
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