Apple's New Mac mini Solders SSD, Blocking Aftermarket Storage Upgrades

In a quiet but consequential design choice, Apple has bound the storage of its new Mac mini permanently to the motherboard, foreclosing the kind of user-driven adaptation that once gave modest machines long second lives. The decision is not without precedent in Apple's history, yet it arrives in deliberate contrast to the Mac Studio, which still permits storage changes — suggesting intention rather than necessity. As devices grow ever more sealed against the hands of their owners, the question of who truly possesses a tool, and for how long, becomes harder to set aside.