Mac mini
From £479
A welcome update in 2014 brought a £100 price drop to the most affordable Mac, but rises in late 2016 added £80 back on. The mini has some interesting talking points: the entry-level model has a 1.4GHz dual-core Intel Core i5 processor and 4GB of memory, making it one of the lowest-spec Macs around, adn with a 500GB hard drive and no display. Higher end models come with 1TB storage (Fusion Drive and SSD options are available), 8GB of memory, a better graphics processor and either a 2.6GHz or 2.8GHz Intel Core i5 for £679 and £949. Those models can be upgraded to a Core i7, but there aren’t any quad-core options available.