On Tuesday, Apple unveiled two new desktop Macs, followed on Wednesday by an invitation for September 9th. The Mac mini is being advertised with four times the AI performance. The figure that will have a greater impact on buyers in this country is found in the configurator.
The week of August 24th to 30th had two main focuses that could hardly have been more different. On the one hand, a hardware double launch without any fanfare: the Mac mini and Mac Studio were announced in the store, along with two new chips. The M6 is Apple's first processor manufactured using a 2nm process, while the M5 Ultra combines four dies into a single chip – a technological leap rarely seen in the Mac line in a single iteration.
On the other hand, there's the date the year is rapidly approaching. One day after the new Macs were announced, Apple sent out invitations for the September event. In between, two lawsuits continued, a streaming price increased in four markets, and an accessory became significantly cheaper.
🔥 Story of the week: Two desktop Macs and two new chips in one day
The new Mac mini comes with M6 and M5 Pro processors, Neural Accelerators in every GPU core, and Wi-Fi 7. Apple claims the M6 offers up to 40 percent more CPU performance, twice the graphics speed, and four times the AI performance – compared to an M4 with 32 GB of RAM and a 2 TB SSD. The Neural Engine doubles its core count, and memory bandwidth increases to 170 GB/s.
The upgrade is different for the larger model. The Mac Studio gets the M5 Max and M5 Ultra processors, up to 80 GPU cores, and the 512GB storage option that Apple had removed from the configurator during the storage shortage. However, this upgrade requires the fully configured system with 36 CPU and 80 GPU cores and won't ship until the end of October.
The chip mix is noteworthy: the smaller device contains the newer generation, the larger one the more powerful. An M6 in the Mac mini is therefore not automatically faster than an M5 Max in the Mac Studio – the generation number says nothing about the performance class.
The new desktop lineup ranges in price from €1,049 to €6,599. The Mac Studio with the M5 Max starts at €2,999, exactly where the M4 Max variant was last priced – a rarity in a year with several price changes. The Ultra costs €6,599 instead of the previous €6,299. The dividing line between the two cases depends less on the chip than on the RAM: The Mac mini tops out at 64 GB, while the Mac Studio goes up to 512 GB, but consumes 480 watts at peak load compared to 155 watts.
📰 What Else Mattered
The date is set. Apple is hosting an event at the Steve Jobs Theater on Wednesday, September 9th, starting at 7 PM CEST. The invitation's motto is "Surprise and shine," and the iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone Ultra are expected to be unveiled. For the pre-order date, it's worth looking back to 2015: the calendar was identical then, and Apple didn't open pre-orders until the following Saturday. September 11, 2026, marks the 25th anniversary of the attacks.
Two legal proceedings, both merely interim steps. In New Jersey, the court rejected the Justice Department's request for reconsideration on August 26, thus allowing Apple to retain access to files from 14 US government agencies. In California, the opposing side submitted its final brief: OpenAI is demanding the dismissal of Apple's lawsuit outright; the hearing is scheduled for October 1 in San Jose. In both cases, the issues at stake were procedural, not the merits of the case.
The streaming service is getting more expensive, but not everywhere. Apple is raising the monthly price for Apple TV to $14.99 – this affects the US, Brazil, Chile, and Mexico. In Germany, Austria, and Switzerland, nothing is changing. The German price has been the same since October 2023, while the US price has increased twice since then.
An Apple product is getting cheaper. The polishing cloth now costs only €10 in Germany instead of €25, even though the product description in the store is identical to the 2021 version. Only a direct side-by-side comparison of both generations reveals what has changed in the cloth itself.
Cook's tenure is drawing to a close. On Saturday, the review of his 15 years at the helm of Apple was published. His last day as CEO is next Monday.
💡 Rumor of the week: Red as a third color for the foldable iPhone
A leak shows three color variants of the iPhone Ultra, including a red one. The leaker is considered reliable, but the images themselves raise questions – and the timing doesn't add up. A third color just weeks before the launch would have had to be in mass production by now, but there's no indication of that from the supply chain. If the leak is confirmed, red would be the first vibrant color in the flagship model in years.
📊 Number of the week: six percent
This is the share that a single model holds of the entire global smartphone market: The iPhone 17 was the best-selling smartphone worldwide in the second quarter, with Apple accounting for all three top models and five of the ten best-selling models. The contrast with the surrounding market is remarkable: The overall market shrank by eleven percent, while Apple's sales grew by five percent.
👎 Flop of the week: 256 GB entry-level plan
On paper, the new Mac mini costs €100 more than the old one, €1,049 instead of €949. However, there's a catch: the €949 price was for a model with a 512 GB SSD, because Apple discontinued the 256 GB version without a replacement in May 2026. The new entry-level model again only comes with 256 GB, and doubling that costs an additional €220.
| Equipment | Mac mini M4 (until August 25th) | Mac mini M6 |
|---|---|---|
| Entry-level configuration | 949 Euro (16 GB / 512 GB) | 1,049 euros (16 GB / 256 GB) |
| 16 GB / 512 GB | 949 euros | 1,269 euros |
| 24 GB / 512 GB | – | 1,489 euros |
Anyone wanting the same specifications as before will pay €1,269 instead of €949 – roughly a third more. There's also a second hurdle: the advertised 170 GB/s memory bandwidth is only available with 24 GB of RAM; the base model offers 153 GB/s. This upgrade alone costs an additional €220. The advertising message and the base configuration are therefore inconsistent.
🔭 What's Coming Next Week
John Ternus takes over as CEO on Tuesday; Tim Cook's last day at work is the Monday before. This marks the end of a tenure that began in 2011 – and the beginning of one that will first be judged by a September event.
The next step for the operating system is approaching: Following Beta 7 on August 24th, an eighth developer beta of iOS 27 will be released, not the release candidate. Experience shows that the latter will typically arrive around the time of the keynote. Additionally, the September program schedule will be available on Apple TV, and the fully configured Mac Studio with the M5 Ultra will remain unavailable until the end of October.
💬 My Take
Apple has changed the metric it uses to sell Macs. It's advertising four times the AI performance and a doubled Neural Engine – a feature that's irrelevant to most buyers because local models are rarely used in everyday life. What does benefit these same buyers, however, is the configuration: the starting price remains visually similar at €1,049, but the real increase is in the features. Apple is advertising with the future while presenting the bill.
📚 From Our Archive
The 24GB threshold for the new Mac mini brings an old question back into focus: how much RAM is actually needed. Different rules of thumb apply to Apple Silicon than before, because the processor and graphics unit share the same memory.
The two desktop Macs also differ significantly in their display connectivity – three displays on the Mac mini, five or eight on the Mac Studio. Which Mac model can drive how many external displays depends on the chip, not the case.
A week that began with finished hardware and ended with an invitation – the real event is yet to come. Would you spend the extra €220 on the Mac mini to upgrade to 24GB of RAM, since the advertised bandwidth isn't available otherwise, or is that precisely the point where the entry-level Mac no longer makes financial sense for you? Share your configuration in the comments.
Until next Sunday, Apfelpatient wishes you a relaxing read and a good start to the week.
