Expert’s Rating
Pros
- Slick, compact design
- Plenty of ports
- Fantastic starting price
- Powerful entry model
Cons
- No SD card reader
- Upgrades get expensive fast
Our Verdict
The entry-level Mac Mini is both impressively powerful and shockingly affordable making it arguably the best value computer on the market right now, but the price of spec upgrades makes more powerful models less appealing.
A new Mac Mini isn’t often greeted with too much fanfare – after all the design has hardly changed in years, it doesn’t have any natural rivals on the Windows side to compare against, and Apple mostly just updates the CPU and calls it a day.
This time is a little different. All of the above is still true, of course, but by throwing in its new M2 and M2 Pro processors and dropping the starting price to a mere $599/£649, Apple has made its mini Mac a value proposition that’s hard to beat – and how many Apple products can you say that about?
Design & build
- Iconic, compact design
- Plenty of ports
The Mac Mini looks much as it ever has: a small, silver box, tinier than a computer has any right to be, with a large Apple logo front and centre.
It is, as my girlfriend put it, ‘chic’.
Dominik Tomaszewski / Foundry
There are, for what it’s worth, a few mini PC rivals that run Windows, though they rarely look this sleek, and your favourite influencer wouldn’t use one. Apple has cornered the market on compact desktops that are aesthetic, so you can’t blame the company for sticking to its guns.
It is, as my girlfriend put it, ‘chic’
Where it has had to work to keep things up to date are the ports round the back.
On this current iteration of the Mini, you get two USB-C ports with support for Thunderbolt 4 and USB 4, along with DisplayPort. Opt for the more powerful M2 Pro processor, and Apple throws in an extra two of these for four in total.
Dominik Tomaszewski / Foundry
Either way, you also get a further two USB-A ports, a 3.5mm headphone jack, an HDMI output, Ethernet (Gigabit by default, upgradable to 10 Gigabit), and the power socket. Unlike its MacBook Pro laptops there’s no SD card reader sadly, but the old-fashioned USB ports more than make up for it.
Specs & performance
- Exceptional M2 performance
- Up to 32GB RAM
- Up to 8TB storage
The Mac Mini can currently be equipped with your choice of an M2 or M2 Pro chip – though not the higher tier M2 Max, which is currently limited to the MacBook Pro.
That shouldn’t be an issue though, as the two available chips offer plenty of performance. I’ve been reviewing the Mini with a regular M2 chip, which includes an eight-core CPU and a 10-core GPU.
Dominik Tomaszewski / Foundry
Upgrade to the Pro and you get 10 CPU cores and 16 for the GPU, with the option to go one step further for 12 CPU cores and 19 GPU.
That means every step up delivers an increase in overall performance, though with a particular focus on added graphical oomph – so if the GPU isn’t your main concern, you might well be just as happy with the default spec.
One thing you can’t do is take all that power and put it to use on games
This is certainly more than enough power for most day-to-day computing, handling my horde of Chrome tabs, Slack, Spotify, video calls, and Photoshop with ease.
Comparing Macs to Windows devices is tricky over benchmarks – insert your own variant on the Apple/oranges joke here – but it’s clear that even the basic M2 Mini is plenty powerful. The MacBook Pro we reviewed is equipped with the same 12-core M2 Pro chip that’s an option here, so is a good indicator of the performance jump available to you if you upgrade – or you can check out our sister site Macworld’s more technical deep dive into the performance of an M2 Pro Mac Mini.
Part of the power on offer comes down to RAM configurations too, of course. By default, the new Mini ships with 8GB RAM, but if you want you can bump that way up to 32GB with the M2 Pro chip.
Storage is even sillier – the 256GB initial allocation is probably plenty if you’re an avid cloud user, but for those who aren’t this goes all the way up to 8TB. At that point, it’s not quite so much of a value proposition though.
Display options are also impressive thanks to the combination of Thunderbolt 4 and HDMI ports. Pro models can drive a 8K@60Hz display over HDMI plus up to two 6K panels over DisplayPort, while cheaper M2 models cap at 4K@60Hz on HDMI with a single added 6K screen on DisplayPort.
Of course, this being a Mac, one thing you can’t do is take all that power and put it to use on games – pretty much the major reason someone might opt for a Windows desktop instead. Apple says this is improving, but Mac-compatible games remain thin on the ground, so don’t buy this expecting to play much.
Finally, connectivity is handled by the latest Wi-Fi 6E and Bluetooth 5.3 standards, plus that Ethernet port – which delivers Gigabit speeds by default, but as mentioned earlier can be upgraded.
Software & apps
- Ships with macOS Ventura
- Stage Manager improves multi-tasking
- Likely long-term software support
You won’t be shocked to hear that this Mac ships with macOS.
Dominik Tomaszewski / Foundry
The latest version, Ventura, delivers enhancements to multi-tasking and productivity that help elevate the Mini’s potential as a work device though, letting you make the most of all that power under the hood.
It’s a pretty safe bet that Apple will be issuing updates to this Mac Mini for years to come
The heart of that is the new Stage Manager feature, which allows you to group open apps while keeping them running and visible along the left-hand side of the screen, ready to switch to in a minute.
Together with the taskbar along the bottom, it does tend to make your display a little cluttered by default but makes it far easier to switch between different combinations of apps that work in synergy. I’ll admit to still preferring the simpler way Windows allows you to snap apps into various grids and configurations, but Apple is getting there.
Elsewhere this is mostly macOS as you know it, for good and bad. Its other key strength is interactions with the rest of the Apple ecosystem – it’s a doddle to pair AirPods for audio, to share files from your iPhone, or even use an iPad as a second screen. If you’re all-in on Apple, this stuff is a great extra.
Dominik Tomaszewski / Foundry
Finally, while there’s no specific promise of years of software support, it’s a pretty safe bet that Apple will be issuing updates to this Mac Mini for years to come. Ventura still supports Mac models released in 2017, so this could still be getting macOS updates come 2029.
Price & availability
The starting price of $599/£649 is the Mac Mini’s secret weapon – it’s $100/£50 cheaper than its M1-powered predecessor. To get the power of even the most basic M2 chip at that price is pretty exceptional value, and hard to find replicated elsewhere.
The $4,499/£4,599 maxed out configuration – with the Pro chip, 32GB RAM, 8TB storage, and upgraded Ethernet – is rather less of an impulse buy, but few people will need to go anywhere near that spec. Perhaps the biggest issue is that any upgrade to the M2 Pro comes at a price – even a basic version starts from $1,299/£1,399 – at which point this stops feeling like quite such a steal.
Dominik Tomaszewski / Foundry
The caveat of course is that this is only a desktop – all you get is the computer itself, and a power lead. If you don’t own them already that means you’ll also have to splash out on a mouse, keyboard, and monitor, all of which are sold separately. That’s par for the course, but worth remembering when comparing this price to an iMac or MacBook.
To find the new Mac even cheaper, check out our guide to where to buy the Mac Mini, including the best deals.
Verdict
Apple hasn’t changed much in the latest Mac Mini, except for those astonishing chips, but then it didn’t really need to.
The previous M1 model impressed, but with the M2 inside and a start price that’s closer to $500 than $1,000, the Mini is now an unexpected value-for-money prospect, an affordable desktop PC with all the power you need for, well, just about anything with gaming being the main caveat.
Even demanding creative users can probably spec up an M2 Pro configuration to meet their needs, and few will find this Mini short of power – which is impressive in its own right. That makes the Mini much more expensive though, so upgraded models are definitely less appealing.
Still, this makes the Mini the ideal everyday Mac. It’s the Mac for almost anyone – or at least those of us still working from desktops.
Specs
- Apple M2 or M2 Pro chipset
- Up to 32GB RAM
- Up to 8TB storage
- 2x/4x USB-C 4 & Thunderbolt 4 with DisplayPort
- 2x USB-A
- HDMI port
- Gigabit/10Gb Ethernet
- 3.5mm headphone jack
- Wi-Fi 6E
- Bluetooth 5.3
- 3.6 x 19.7 x 19.7cm
- 1.18/1.28kg