The Mac Mini has seen many iterations over the years, but Apple’s little Snow Leopard box has this week had its biggest revamp yet. It’s been given the full unibody treatment, just like the super slick MacBook Pro line. How does it handle in day to day use? Read on and find out in this part of our Mac Mini review.
Read the rest of our Mac Mini review
Mac Mini review
Mac Mini review: Speed and performance
Aesthetically, the new Mac Mini is a big step away from the older generation models: at 19.7×19.7cm, it’s substantially wider, but also much thinner at 3.6cm, giving it the look of an Apple TV crossed with a MacBook Pro, rather than a cheap work machine (Apple has also crammed the power supply unit inside, which gets a big tick from us).
If you’re concerned about the looks of the machine you’re using, the design of the new Mac Mini will have you besotted. It really is beautiful, with hardly anything scarring the front facing sides, save the DVD drive itself, and Apple’s emblem, naturally. We absolutely love the look of it: on top of other set top boxes under the telly, it outshines anything else but still keeps things subtle. The only caution would be that the edges are sharp, so you won’t want to place it anywhere near your keyboard and mouse.
Around the back, you’ll find all the ports you could need. Old stalwarts like ethernet (With N standard Wi-Fi inside too), Mini DisplayPort, FireWire 800 and audio in/out are present, along with a plentiful four USB sockets. But the big, welcome additions are an SD card slot and HDMI. The SD slot supposedly supports higher capacity SDXC cards alongside SD and SDHC, which is a future proofed bonus (One we weren’t able to test, but it opened all our SDHC cards without a hitch), while HDMI means you can finally connect the Mac Mini to your HDTV, transforming it into a highly functional set top box. A HDMI to DVI connector is included in the box for regular monitors also, but there’s no VGA for older screens.
The Mac Mini’s HDMI jack outputs at up to 1920×1200 resolution (with sound) so you can play 1080p video on it – although without a Blu-ray drive you’ll be getting it all off the web. Apple doesn’t say what specification the HDMI port is, so don’t expect to magically output 3D video to a compatible TV on it (We doubt it’s 1.4 or Apple would have been shouting it from the rooftops). But for beaming all your lovely two dimensional DVDs and web TV onto a flatscreen it works perfectly, so long as you remember to switch the audio source in System Preferences – as you can imagine, for something so small, the sound from its own speaker is far from spectacular.
There’s one final twist to the new Mac Mini’s design worth praising: a simple twist off slot on the bottom to add more memory – it can support up to 8GB of DDR3 RAM, if you want to boost performance. It’s a surprisingly open touch from Apple, if one many Mac Mini purchasers will never use.
While performance of the new Mac Mini is grand, once you’re up and running and using it on a daily basis, several flaws do start to appear. It’s not loud or hot, but the buttons and slots you might need on a regular basis are out of reach on the back of the Mac Mini. The power button is here, so you’ll have to grope for it blindly if you don’t have free space all around the computer, as are the SD card slot and USB ports. If we were to use the Mac Mini on our own work desk, we’d end up simply plugging in a USB hub and feeding it round the front: in pursuing its streamlined look, Apple really has forsaken convenience. Even one front facing USB port would have made for the perfect balance.
The DVD drive is also annoying: you have to feed the disc in almost all the way before the Mac Mini elects to accept it, which is very unnerving, and gives you a horrible sensation that you’re about to jam the machine.
Otherwise though, the Mac Mini is an excellently built machine. We can’t fault the innards, but think twice about the price.
Read the rest of our Mac Mini review
Mac Mini review
Mac Mini review: Speed and performance
