For education buyers, the starting price drops even further to $499. The entry-level M2 Mac mini starts at $599, down from the previous starting price of $699. Perhaps more notable than any of the performance or spec changes, the M2 Mac mini is also significantly cheaper than its predecessor.

Hardware-accelerated H.264, HEVC, ProRes, and ProRes RAW.The new M2 Mac mini lineup also supports Apple’s custom media engine features, unlike the previous-generation M1 Mac mini: Bluetooth 5.3 (Compared to Bluetooth 5.0 of previous model).M2 and M2 Pro Mac mini have a 3.5 mm headphone jack with advanced support for high-impedance headphones.

Up to 12-core CPU, 19-core GPU, and 16-core Neural Engine.

M1 Mac mini: 8-core CPU, 8-core GPU, 16-core Neural Engine.

Up to 8-core CPU, 10-core GPU, and 16-core Neural Engine.

Increased from the 16GB limit of the M1 Mac mini.

Here’s the breakdown of configuration options for the new M2 and M2 Pro Mac mini models.

One display: Up to 8K resolution at 60Hz or 4K resolution at 240Hz over HDMI.

Up to two displays: One display with up to 6K resolution at 60Hz over Thunderbolt and one display with up to 4K resolution at 144Hz over HDMI.

Up to three displays: Two displays with up to 6K resolution at 60Hz over Thunderbolt and one display with up to 4K resolution at 60Hz over HDMI.

Meanwhile, the new Mac mini with the M2 Pro chip inside can support up to three external displays, in varying configurations and resolutions:

OR: One display with up to 4K resolution at 60Hz over HDMI.

One display with up to 5K resolution at 60Hz over Thunderbolt.

One display with up to 6K resolution at 60Hz over Thunderbolt.

The Mac mini with an M2 chip inside can still power up to two external displays, but there are some changes to the details here:

This situation has gotten somewhat better with the new M2 and M2 Pro versions of the Mac mini. You could connect one external display up to 6K using a Thunderbolt 3 (USB-C port) and another external display up to 4K using HDMI. The previous generation of the Mac mini with Apple’s M1 chip was rather limited in terms of external display support. Alongside those headlining features, there are a few other interesting changes and tidbits with this year’s Mac mini revamp. Apple announced a major update to the Mac mini lineup today, offering new configurations with M2 and M2 Pro chips inside.

M1 mac mini external storage