Apple's New Mac Mini Kills the Entry-Level Mac

Macs are expensive. As if to reinforce this universal maxim, the last remaining bastion of Apple tree affordability evaporated into the crisp autumn air today above New York Metropolis, where Apple CEO Tim Cook unveiled a make-new Mac mini.

The old $499 Mac mini, a tiny desktop PC that is sold without a monitor or peripherals, was the to the lowest degree expensive entry point into the macOS ecosystem. Its replacement gets a slew of overdue improvements—the Mac mini's last refresh was in 2022—simply also a $300 price increase, which takes it far out of the realm of affordable desktops.

Even worse, the base of operations level specs are quite anemic for an $800 computer. While the former entry-level Mac mini included an Intel Core i5 processor and 500GB of storage, those are reduced to a Core i3 and only 128GB of storage for the new ane. It'due south a scrap of an imperfect comparison, since the new SSD and new CPU architecture are far better than the old ones, but it'southward still disappointing.

Nearly whatsoever style you slice it, spending $800 for a Cadre i3-powered desktop PC is a raw deal. Unfortunately, in that location's very little competition in the mini desktop PC market at present that many consumers are forgoing desktops altogether in favor of laptops and ii-in-1s. I Mac mini competitor, the HP Z2 Mini G4, as well includes a Cadre i3 in its base configuration but has an even higher starting toll of around $900.

If y'all delve deeper into the Mac mini'southward new pricing, it eventually becomes apparent that Apple is shepherding customers who are seeking the best processing ability or the most storage for their dollars into two separate configurations that each cost $1,099, or $300 more than the entry-level cost.

People who need extra processing muscle for apps like Adobe Photoshop will gravitate toward a model with a 3.6GHz, hexa-core Core i7 processor, with all other specs remaining the same. Meanwhile, those with large multimedia collections that require a roomier hard drive can instead opt for a 256GB SSD and a 3GHz hexa-core Core i5.

Both of these upgraded configs come with the base level 8GB of memory and Intel's integrated graphics processor. Both likewise include Intel'due south 8th-generation processor, which is calorie-free years faster than the fourth-generation chips in the previous Mac mini.

Still, none of this helps assuage the fact that the globe is a far more bleak identify for Apple-loving cheapskates today than it was yesterday: You tin no longer buy a brand-new Apple calculator for less than $500, which is the upper bound that PCMag uses to define the cheap desktop category.

This means that price-witting consumers now take two options. They tin begrudgingly lighten their wallets by an additional $300, or an additional $600 for one of the more desirable $1,099 Mac mini configurations. Or, they can plough the other way, to very inexpensive Windows tiny desktops like the Intel Compute Stick or the legions of modest PCs from brands they've probably never heard of, like ECS, Shuttle, and Zotac.

Likewise reasonable prices—you can option up a Google Chromecast-sized Intel Compute stick for as little as $99—tiny Windows PCs offer several other advantages over the Mac mini. The larger ones of the bunch are oft upgradeable, and so y'all can add together memory or storage as your upkeep and calculating needs evolve. The Mac mini is non. Meanwhile, the smaller ones are then pocket-size that they can plug into the back of your Television receiver, making them a better choice to power a wall-mounted Tv.

None of these options offer macOS, of course, so if that'southward your operating system of choice, you lot've got to rule them out or consider switching to Windows.

But while the Mac mini may now be a poor value in terms of its core components, Apple fabricated useful, thoughtful improvements to the coincident features of its smallest PC. For example, its port choice now includes a whopping 4 USB-C ports, all of which support Thunderbolt iii. You'd be hard pressed to discover some other desktop this size that includes more than 2 Thunderbolt 3 connectors.

Even amend, the Thunderbolt three ports don't come at the expense of regular USB Type-A ports, bucking Apple's tendency of ditching these older but still very useful ports on the MacBook Pro, MacBook Air, and MacBook. This is bang-up news for people who want to apply external hard drives instead of face up the astronomical costs of adding a larger internal SSD—a 1TB SSD is a cool $800 premium.

In addition to an improved I/O complement, the new Mac mini also now comes in the space gray colour of the rest of the Mac lineup, which ways it will nicely match the space grayness keyboard and mouse Apple introduced with the iMac Pro.

As welcome equally they are, none of these benefits excuse the fact that Apple just killed off its only inexpensive Mac. For the almost damning proof of Apple tree's decision to abandon the low finish of the PC market to focus on well-heeled shoppers, consider that while the visitor won't take your $499 anymore, they'll gladly sell you a Mac mini loaded with every available hardware option at a conniption-inducing $4,200.

Source: https://sea.pcmag.com/apple-mac-mini-2014/30181/apples-new-mac-mini-kills-the-entry-level-mac

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