This Macintosh-Style Retro Dock Turns Your M4 Mac Mini Into A Tiny All-In-One

We're big fans of the Mac mini lineup around these parts (dating back to the M1 Mac mini we reviewed in 2020), particularly as Apple's in-house M-series silicon has come into its own. The latest version of the Mac mini sports a choice between the M4 or M4 Pro, both of which are powerful and efficient, making the tiny Mac a viable workhorse in a compact footprint. If you want to spice it up while going with a retro theme, there's a nifty docking station that ups the ante while bringing Macintosh-style vibes to the Mac mini party.

It's the Wokyis M5 Retro Dock Station for the M4 Mac mini and it's available for $168.99 at Amazon. No, it's not a cheap accessory, but it's functional, looks great, and is about half the price of the newer upgraded model, which goes for $338.99 at Amazon. So, what's the difference?

Starting with the cheaper of the two, the Wokyis M5 docking station looks like an old-school Macintosh that, if you're old enough, you might remember playing Oregon Trail on in elementary school. It slides on top the M4 Mac mini to add a 5-inch HD (1280x720) display. Technically, that transforms the Mac mini from a mini PC into an all-in-one, but at 5 inches, it's best used a secondary display.

"Slide your Mac mini directly into the dock. Save desk space, reduce cable clutter, and create a streamlined, vintage-modern workstation setup," the manufacturer states.

It's also a 14-in-1 hub with lots of I/O. The cheaper version comes with 10Gbps USB-A and USB-C ports, an SD/microSD card reader, HDMI-In and 8K DisplayPort support, and a 3.5mm audio jack.

One of the nicer highlights, though, is a 10Gbps M.2 NVMe slot to add up to an 8TB solid state drive (SSD). It supports M.2 2280 (standard full-length SSD), 2260, 2242, and 2230.

If you opt for the pricier variant, all of the same features apply except it gets upgraded to Thunderbolt 5 with faster 80Gbps speeds.

The manufacturer points out that both models are not just compatible with the M4 Mac mini (which is on sale starting at $499 at Amazon), but also the MacBook Pro, Windows PCs, Android systems, and any device that supports Thunderbolt and DisplayPort. The caveat is that it's designed to slide onto the M4 Mac mini, but you can stand it up all the same.

Shout-out to Notebookcheck for spotting this cool dock.