Apple exec addresses M4 Mac mini modular storage, relocated power button

Chance Miller | Dec 6 2024 - 6:58 am PT

In a new interview with Fast Company, Apple executive Kate Bergeron has shared several additional details on the M4 Mac mini – including info on the modular storage system and the relocated power button.

Shortly after it was released, teardowns revealed that the M4 Mac mini has a modular storage structure inside. While this naturally led some people to assume they could easily upgrade their Mac mini’s storage, that’s not actually the case.

In today’s interview, Bergeron, Apple’s hardware engineering vice president, has an explanation. As Fast Company summarizes:

The Mac Mini “is packed so tightly that actually, in the larger storage configurations, there’s not enough room on the main logic board to put the storage right onto the board,” Bergeron explains. The use of modular storage allows Apple to still provide the storage configurations users want—something it wouldn’t be otherwise able to do due to the limited size of some of the tiny Mac’s other components.

Another M4 Mac mini “controversy” has been the location of the power button. As part of its dramatic redesign, Apple moved the power button on the M4 Mac mini from the back of the machine to the bottom. Bergeron says that Apple focused on getting “as much I/O onto this little product as we could,” which meant it had to make changes to other parts of its design:

“We tried and, I think, succeeded, to get as much I/O onto this little product as we could. And so that necessitates some choices in other things,” Bergeron says. She notes that the new placement on the recessed lip of the device offers “pretty good access” to the button.

“And honestly, in Apple Silicon Macs, it’s very rare to use the power button” since most people just allow the computer to go to sleep when not in use, Bergeron notes. She says that “the versatility of having all of those [new front-facing USB] ports we thought was really [more] important.”

There’s also an interesting tidbit on how Apple engineers created an entirely new technology to cut exactly the right amount of aluminum for the body of the M4 Mac mini:

“The team developed a new technology, which is a diamond-plated nylon wire,” Bergeron reveals. This wire measures just a fraction of a millimeter thick. “So every time we slice . . . we keep more and more of that material, which is pretty great. [It] doesn’t ever have to even go through recycling. It gets used right in product.”

The full interview can be found on the Fast Company website.

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