With battery pack: Mac mini M4 becomes portable, networked with Vision Pro
Apple's new compact Mac draws very little power. One owner has combined it with a battery pack and uses the Mac mini M4 as a "server" for the Vision Pro.
Vision Pro and Mac mini M4: A portable combination.
(Image: Apple)
As we all know, Apple's new, powerful Mac mini M4 is not really portable. However, Wesley Hilliard from the US Apple blog AppleInsider has now shown that the small desktop can also be used on the go – and even as a kind of server for the Apple Vision Pro headset. A portable power bank with a 100-watt AC connection and 20,000 mAh capacity is used.
Lighter than a 16-inch MacBook Pro
The combination of power supply and Mac mini M4 weighs around 1.5 kg. That's less than a 16-inch MacBook Pro M4 Pro or M4 Max weighs (without the Vision Pro, of course). According to Hillard, the combination results in a mobile headless companion for his Vision Pro. However, it should be noted that the Mac mini M4 Pro is better not operated with the power bank, as it draws up to 140 watts instead of the 65 watts of the M4. In practice, the M4 drew between 12 and 20 watts, according to Hilliard, with the maximum being 25 watts during gaming tests (Steam via Whiskey). The maximum operating time was two hours at a time.
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The Vision Pro is in turn used as a display – via the Mac Virtual Display function, which Apple will also be expanding with visionOS 2.2. Hilliard also noted that it was not necessary to use a workaround such as a dummy HDMI stick on the Mac mini in order to use it with the Vision Pro. The only problem was logging on to the computer, as Mac Virtual Desktop only becomes active after this. The user name and password therefore had to be entered blindly using a Bluetooth keyboard.
Pay attention to power consumption
What is still missing is a kind of UPS mode for the battery. This would make it possible to shut down the Mac mini M4 before the battery has drained. Users would have to make sure that they do this themselves in good time to avoid data loss. All in all, the setup is a "reasonable proof of concept", according to hobbyist Hilliard. Of course, it would also have been possible to connect a Vision Pro to a MacBook.
Making Apple devices that are not actually portable mobile is not a new trend. For example, there are several suppliers of suitable batteries and housings for the HomePod mini. Their battery life is of course significantly longer than that of the Mac mini-M4 battery combination.
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