MIGHTY MINI
WHY APPLE’S NEW DESKTOP POWERHOUSE IS THE BEST BANG FOR BUCK MAC YOU CAN GET
ONCE it was a given that Apple made two kinds of computers – powerful, high-end machines for the most demanding, professional users, and lower-specced Macs for the rest of us.
These slower machines were, of course, more than powerful enough for most of the things normal people want to do – email, web surfing, perhaps a little light photo or video editing.
But you would never dream of installing pro software like Apple’s Logic music studio, or video editing app Final Cut Pro. They just couldn’t cut it for those demanding workhorses.
All that has changed in the last couple of years as Apple has created its own chips and upended years of convention.
Its latest desktop – the 2023 Mac Mini that I’ve been testing for the last week – is very much a case in point.
This year’s model has received a number of hardware updates, and chief among those is the switch to Apple’s latest M2 chip.
This allows other updates, like faster memory with more bandwidth and a faster solid state drive that can now support up to 2TB of storage.
There is a version of the new Mac Mini with the M2 Pro chip, which is even more capable than the device I tested… but I didn’t encounter any performance roadblocks with the Mini.
OK, so I’m not editing several streams of 4K video in Final Cut Pro but I did have a go at splicing together some 4K Prores clips captured on holiday on my iphone, and those are big, big files. The M2 didn’t blink once.
Apple says you’ll get a performance boost over last year’s Mini with the M1 across the board. And that in itself was a rapid machine.
The 2023 Mini also has faster wi-fi and
bluetooth, two Thunderbolt 4 and two USB-A ports, as well as an HDMI port, ethernet and headphone jack.
So what you’re getting here for your money is a machine that’s capable of running pro apps well, a machine that will doubtless improve your productivity.
So you’d think you’re going to have to come up with the big bucks. But starting at £649, it’s actually the cheapest Mac you can buy.
Of course, it doesn’t come with a keyboard, mouse, or monitor… and if you were to add Apple accessories including a Studio Display, you’d be well up in the £2,000s.
But if you already have those bits of kit (and they don’t have to be Apple’s own), the Mini is surely the best Mac bang for buck you’ll ever get.
■ The new Mac Mini is available now from apple.com/uk
Starting at £649, it’s actually the cheapest Mac you can buy
Justin Connolly