Mac mini (M5 Pro) vs Mac mini (M1, 2020)

Mac mini (M5 Pro)¹Mac mini (M1, 2020)²

Quick look

Quick look: Mac mini M5 Pro against Mac mini M1
Figure	Mac mini M5 Pro¹	Mac mini M1²
Price	£1,699³Apple UK store	£699⁴launch price
Chip	M5 Prochip	M1chip
CPU	15-coreCPU	8-coreCPU
GPU	16-coreGPU	8-coreGPU
Memory	24GBunified memory, base	8GBunified memory, base
Storage	512GBstorage, base	256GBstorage, base
Released	22 September 2026⁵ReleasedIn Apple Stores; pre-order from 25 August 2026.	10 November 2020⁶Available online; Apple gave no in-store day
Security updates	Not available⁷Security updates	Not available⁸Security updates

Price: The Mac mini M5 Pro is £1,699 on Apple’s UK store; the Mac mini M1 is £699 at launch, per Apple Newsroom (UK).

True to scale

Mac mini (M5 Pro) · 127 × 50 mm frontMac mini (M1, 2020) · 197 × 36 mm front

Front faces, from Apple’s published dimensions, drawn to one scale and superposed. Corner rounding is our drawing convention, not a measurement.

Specifications

Each figure is from the source marked by its Mac’s name unless it carries its own small number, which links to where that figure was read.

Body

Body: Apple Mac mini (M5 Pro) against Apple Mac mini (M1, 2020)
Specification	Mac mini M5 Pro¹	Mac mini M1²
Dimensions	50 x 127 x 127 mm	36 x 197 x 197 mm
Weight	0.73 kg	1.2 kg
Colours	Silver	Silver
Ports	Front: two USB-C ports with support for USB 3 (up to 10Gb/s), 3.5mm headphone jack. Back (M5 Pro): 2.5Gb Ethernet port (configurable to 10Gb Ethernet), HDMI port, three Thunderbolt 5 (USB-C) ports	Two Thunderbolt / USB 4 ports, two USB-A ports (up to 5 Gb/s), HDMI port, Gigabit Ethernet port (configurable to 10Gb Ethernet), 3.5 mm headphone jack
Thunderbolt ports⁹	3	2
Thunderbolt version	Thunderbolt 5	Thunderbolt 3
USB-A ports	No USB-A ports.¹⁰	2
HDMI	HDMI port	HDMI port
SD card slot	No SD card slot.¹¹	No SD card slot.¹²
Headphone jack	Yes	Yes

Chip and memory

Chip and memory: Apple Mac mini (M5 Pro) against Apple Mac mini (M1, 2020)
Specification	Mac mini M5 Pro¹	Mac mini M1²
Chip	Apple M5 Pro chip	Apple M1 chip
Apple silicon	Yes	Yes
CPU cores	15	8
Super cores	5¹³	Not available¹⁴
Performance cores	10¹³	4
Efficiency cores	Not available¹⁵	4
GPU cores	16	8
Neural Engine cores	16	16
Chip options	M5 Pro with 15-core CPU and 16-core GPU, or M5 Pro with 18-core CPU and 20-core GPU	M1 with 8-core CPU and 8-core GPU
Memory (base)	24GB	8GB
Memory (maximum)	64GB	16GB
Memory options	24GB, 48GB or 64GB	8GB or 16GB
Memory upgradeable by user	No, as Apple documents¹⁶	No, as Apple documents¹⁶
Memory bandwidth	307 GB/s	Not available¹⁷
Storage (base)	512GB	256GB
Storage (maximum)	8TB	2TB
Storage options	512GB, 1TB, 2TB, 4TB or 8TB	256GB, 512GB, 1TB or 2TB
Media engine	Hardware-accelerated H.264, HEVC, ProRes and ProRes RAWvideo decode enginevideo encode engineProRes encode and decode engineAV1 decode	Not available¹⁷

Battery and power

Battery and power: Apple Mac mini (M5 Pro) against Apple Mac mini (M1, 2020)
Specification	Mac mini M5 Pro¹	Mac mini M1²
Maximum continuous power	155 W	150 W

Connectivity

Connectivity: Apple Mac mini (M5 Pro) against Apple Mac mini (M1, 2020)
Specification	Mac mini M5 Pro¹	Mac mini M1²
Wi-Fi	Wi‑Fi 7 (802.11be)	Wi‑Fi 6 (802.11ax)
Bluetooth	6	5.0
Ethernet	2.5Gb Ethernet (100/1000/2500BASE‑T Multi‑Gigabit Ethernet; configurable to 10Gb Ethernet)	Gigabit Ethernet (configurable to 10Gb Ethernet)
External displays (base)	3	2

Camera and audio

Camera and audio: Apple Mac mini (M5 Pro) against Apple Mac mini (M1, 2020)
Specification	Mac mini M5 Pro¹	Mac mini M1²
Speakers	Built-in speaker¹⁸	Built-in speaker¹⁹

Platform

Platform: Apple Mac mini (M5 Pro) against Apple Mac mini (M1, 2020)
Specification	Mac mini M5 Pro¹	Mac mini M1²
Shipped with	Not available²⁰	macOS Big Sur²¹
Newest macOS	macOS 27 Golden Gate²²	macOS 27 Golden Gate²³
Model identifier	Mac17,16²⁴	Macmini9,1²⁵
Model year	2026	2020

Sources

Apple Support (UK) — Mac mini (M6 or M5 Pro) - Tech Specs · Default for Mac mini M5 Pro · Apple’s figure · read 30 Sep 2026
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Apple Support (UK) — Mac mini (M1, 2020) - Tech Specs · Default for Mac mini M1 · Apple’s figure · read 15 Sep 2026
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Apple UK store — Mac mini M5 Pro, 15-core CPU, 16-core GPU, 24GB, 512GB — From £1,699 · Apple’s figure · read 2 Oct 2026
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Apple Newsroom (UK) — Introducing the next generation of Mac · Apple’s figure · read 15 Sep 2026
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Apple Newsroom (UK) — Apple unveils a more powerful Mac mini featuring the all-new M6 and M5 Pro · Apple’s figure · read 30 Sep 2026
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Apple Newsroom (UK) — Introducing the next generation of Mac · Apple’s figure · read 22 Sep 2026
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Security updates: no end date published. Checked: endoflife.date. Read 30 Sep 2026
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Security updates: no end date published. Checked: endoflife.date. Read 22 Sep 2026
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Different Thunderbolt generations. Mac mini M5 Pro: Thunderbolt 5. Mac mini M1: Thunderbolt 3.
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Mac mini (M5 Pro): No USB-A ports. Checked: Apple Support (UK) — Mac mini (M6 or M5 Pro) - Tech Specs. Read 30 Sep 2026
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Mac mini (M5 Pro): No SD card slot. Checked: Apple Support (UK) — Mac mini (M6 or M5 Pro) - Tech Specs. Read 9 Oct 2026
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Mac mini (M1, 2020): No SD card slot. Checked: Apple Support (UK) — Mac mini (M1, 2020) - Tech Specs. Read 9 Oct 2026
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Apple Support (UK) — Mac mini (M6 or M5 Pro) - Tech Specs · Apple’s figure · read 2 Oct 2026
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Doesn’t apply: this chip has no super cores
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Apple lists this chip’s cores as 5 super cores, 10 performance cores, with no efficiency cores
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Apple Support (UK) — Upgrade or install memory in your Mac mini · Apple’s figure · read 18 Oct 2026
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Not published by Apple. Pages checked: Apple Support (UK) — Mac mini (M1, 2020) - Tech Specs; Apple Support (UK) — Identify your Mac mini model; Apple Newsroom (UK) — Introducing the next generation of Mac. Read 9 Oct 2026
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Apple Support (UK) — Mac mini (M6 or M5 Pro) - Tech Specs · Apple’s figure · read 9 Oct 2026
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Apple Support (UK) — Mac mini (M1, 2020) - Tech Specs · Apple’s figure · read 9 Oct 2026
↩
Not published by Apple. Pages checked: Apple Support (UK) — Mac mini (M6 or M5 Pro) - Tech Specs; Apple Support (UK) — Identify your Mac mini model; Apple Newsroom (UK) — Apple unveils a more powerful Mac mini featuring the all-new M6 and M5 Pro. Read 9 Oct 2026
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Apple Newsroom (UK) — Introducing the next generation of Mac · Apple’s figure · read 14 Oct 2026
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Apple Support (UK) — macOS 27 Golden Gate is compatible with these computers · Apple’s figure · read 30 Sep 2026
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Apple Support (UK) — macOS 27 Golden Gate is compatible with these computers · Apple’s figure · read 22 Sep 2026
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Apple Support (UK) — Identify your Mac mini model · Apple’s figure · read 10 Oct 2026
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Apple Support (UK) — Identify your Mac mini model · Apple’s figure · read 15 Sep 2026
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Not published by Apple

Mac mini M5 Pro. Apple doesn’t publish for this Mac: storage upgradeable by user, microphones. Geekbench 7: the Mac chart has no entry for this Mac, so no figures are shown (chart read 10 Oct 2026). Pages checked: Apple Support (UK) — Mac mini (M6 or M5 Pro) - Tech Specs; Apple Support (UK) — Identify your Mac mini model; Apple Newsroom (UK) — Apple unveils a more powerful Mac mini featuring the all-new M6 and M5 Pro, read 9 Oct 2026.

Mac mini M1. Apple doesn’t publish for this Mac: storage upgradeable by user, microphones. Pages checked: Apple Support (UK) — Mac mini (M1, 2020) - Tech Specs; Apple Support (UK) — Identify your Mac mini model; Apple Newsroom (UK) — Introducing the next generation of Mac, read 9 Oct 2026.

If you own one of them

Whether to move is a different question from which is better. Each Mac has a page on it: what its successor changes (the newest Mac in its line where Apple sells one, otherwise the Mac this site treats as its replacement, which can be in another line), what it fetches and whether it still gets updates. Should I upgrade my Mac mini M5 Pro? · Should I upgrade my Mac mini M1 (2020)?

The pairs a buyer of either Mac would also weigh. Any two Macs in the catalogue can be compared from the chooser.