So, I'm in two minds as to whether or not to purchase an M1 Mac mini.

I'm an Apple guy. I've got an M2 MBA, iPhone 14 Pro Max, Watch SE (1st gen), iPad Air (3rd gen) and AirPods (2nd gen). For day to day tasks and semi-professional photo editing on Lightroom, I feel that I need a desktop experience, and so I am seriously considering getting an M1 Mini.

It's on sale on Amazon. I've already got a 2k monitor, keyboard and mouse.

Issue that I have is the timing of the purchase. The M1 Mini was released in 2020 with the M1 chip, but before then it was probably Apple's most neglected product. It wasn't upgraded for years before then.

By the time I purchase this, I'm not entirely sure that Apple won't release an upgraded model with the M2 chip sometime in 2023. I want to get my money's worth and don't want to spend significantly on a model that might be showing its age in a shorter timespan.

Given that the Mini wasn't upgraded in several years until 2020, it's hard to predict when the new model will come out.

Mac minis have unpredictable release dates. I deliberately skipped the M1 Air because I knew the M2 model was coming, and would be faster with a more modern look.

Or should I just take the plunge and purchase it, irrespective of what happens in 2023? This machine will most likely have 16Gb configured, and for my aforementioned usage the M1 chip is still blazing fast.

What should I do?