Mac mini Review

We could sit and argue about platform choices and Windows against Mac, power versus design, and whatever else, but one thing rings true with Apple’s updated Mac mini…it’s one of the best value-for-money deals in computing right now.

At £599, the Mac mini comes in a tiny box that’s fitting for its tiny form factor. Sitting at 5 inches x 5 inches and only 2 inches tall it’s absolutely tiny but still packs the punch of Apple’s new M4 processor, 16gb of unified memory, and 256gb of storage. That’s the base model but the device is configurable and upgradable in some big ways if you’re so inclined. 

2 USB-C ports sit at the front along with a power-on light and 3.5mm headphone jack, all welcome additions from the formerly barren front of the old Mac mini. In the back, there are three Thunderbolt ports, an HDMI port, Ethernet, and power in. Importantly, though, in the box, you get a power cable. Nothing else. 

The Mac mini is perfect for me. I have my setup, my display, keyboard, mouse, etc. If you’re looking for a setup that’s ready out of the box, then the Mac mini obviously isn’t it. All accessories need to be bought separately. This might seem obvious to some but not to others. You get the tiny little box and its power cable. Oh…and a little power button on the underside, back left corner, which is awkward…but not nearly as big of a deal as people seem to be making out. 

For clarity, I paired mine with a 4K monitor via a Thunderbolt to DisplayPort cable, a Keychron Q6 wired keyboard, a Logitech G502 Hero wired mouse, a Crucial X10 Pro 1tb external SSD and finally a Kensington SD5560T Hybrid Docking Station. More on how all that works with the Mac mini a little later. 

My experience so far has been great, as expected. I’ve been bouncing between an M2 MacBook Air and an M1 iPad Pro as my main machines for a while now. Both are fantastic and in truth neither needed the upgrade. My main motivation was needing a static Mac on my workstation and freeing up the MacBook Air for other users in my household. The reason I mention this is that in truth I’m yet to find a workload that any of Apple silicon’s chipsets can’t handle. Video editing and gaming on the M1iPad Pro is great (though external display support is starting to show its age) and the MacBook Air plows through everything I throw at it with ease. From a performance perspective, the Mac mini hasn’t flinched when trying video editing in Final Cut Pro , large projects in GarageBand and even gaming, Death Stranding 2 looks amazing on this machine and I’ll be looking forward to putting it through its paces with Cyberpunk 2077 next year. 

The simple truth is that at this price point I just don’t believe that you can get this kind of power and performance for under £600. Getting it into this tiny form factor…forget about it. 

It’s not all that sunshine and rainbows though. There are a few bugbears I have.

Firstly is the pricing structure Apple employs. The price increases on this for storage and unified memory are ridiculous. The term ‘pricing ladder’ is one I’ve heard thrown around a lot and the rungs between each step feel unreasonable. It’s another example of Apple setting customers up with either a fantastic entry-level offer, or pushing and pushing on every upgrade with the ultimate intention of steering towards something like a Mac Studio or MacBook Pro. It’s annoying. 

But like I said, I’ve picked up a high-speed 1TB SSD for £99.99, as opposed to £200 extra for only 256GB more storage if brought through Apple. I even decided to move Death Stranding Director’s Cut to said external drive and run it from there, hunting for a slip-up or slow-down, and it looked perfect to me. So I would recommend really thinking about configurations of this Mac. What do you need, what can you afford, and is there a workaround? I’ve found mine. 

That drive does bring me on to my other issue, however…

I’m awkward. I don’t want a Bluetooth keyboard and mouse. I know it’s 2024, but I have what I have, and I like what I like. I’m also using Thunderbolt as my main display out…so at this point, I’m out of ports. The keyboard, mouse, and display have used up my Thunderbolts. I considered running the display in via HDMI, which would then free up the Thunderbolt for the external drive, but then I’d have no spare ports on the back at all. I would have two spare USB-C ports in the front, but I don’t want things poking out the front of the machine in perpetuity…this is a first-world problem I know. Part of getting a machine this compact is making concessions on things like ports and I/O, and eventually, I decided to dig out the old docking station and run all my accessories through there, problem solved. If you want to plug a lot of things in like me, this might be a problem. Also of note is the lack of USB-A ports, which is when the dock came in very handy, and no SD Card inputs like the Mac Studio and MacBook Pros. I’d gotten around this with adapters and such with the MacBook Air and iPad Pro, so I had these laying around, but it’s worth considering. 

Last two tiny niggles, then we can get back to the positive vibes. 

The power button thing…it’s dumb. Now I’m not totally against it being on the bottom. That’s fine in my opinion. But on the bottom…at the back corner?! That’s where I draw the line. That’s up there with the Magic Mouse belly port. Stupid but as I said earlier int his review, it’s not nearly as big of a deal as people have been saying.

Secondly, I had an odd time when using a HomePod mini. I like running all my audio through Apple’s HomePod mini in my study, and this has been fine on all other devices. For some reason, on the Mac mini, there were strange delays but only for some content. It wasn’t present when using regular Bluetooth headphones either. It’s odd and it’s specific, but it felt worth mentioning. 

Conclusion

After a stretch of moaning, it feels important that I close up with one crystal-clear statement. The Mac mini is fantastic. It is arguably the best deal in computing right now. Yes, there are a couple of bits and pieces that crop up if you really dig for them, but that shouldn’t overshadow the fact that for less than £600, you can get not just a Mac, but an absolute banger of a Mac that will carry the load for an overwhelming majority of users who aren’t diving too deep into complex content creation or other heavy loads. For those who aren’t, you still have the option to bump the Mac mini to a space where it’s competing with even Apple’s own Mac Studio. 

This is an adorable little machine that packs a punch and offers unbelievable value for money. 

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