The introduction of Apple silicon arguably did extra for the Mac mini lineup than some other nook of Apple’s computing vary. Certain, the effectivity of Apple silicon not solely improved efficiency in Apple’s MacBooks, however introduced huge positive aspects to their battery life capabilities, too. However for Mac mini, it was a totally new lease of life — Apple’s diminutive desktop machine had been neglected at the hours of darkness within the latter Intel period, lacking key improve cycles, turning into underpowered and overpriced.
However the M1 Mac mini reset the steadiness, making the mini a sexy desktop choice for these on the lookout for an entry stage system with slightly extra flexibility than the screen-packing iMac provided.
Bounce to 2023 and, after a barely protracted wait, we’ve acquired the M2 Mac mini vary, and it is really coming into its personal. Not solely does the entry-level mannequin get extra highly effective, nevertheless it’s really acquired cheaper than its M1 counterpart. And for many who desire a bit extra oomph, the Mac mini can now be bumped as much as embrace the prosumer M2 Professional chipset bringing efficiency near the mega M1 Max Mac Studio.
For the primary time in years, there’s an entry-level desktop Mac that’s (comparatively) reasonably priced, and doesn’t really feel like a compromise in price versus efficiency, one which simply takes its place among the many finest Mac computer systems Apple provides.
Mac mini (M2, M2 Professional, 2023): Value and availability
Even if Apple’s new M2 Mac Mini comes with a serious M2 energy enhance, the brand new entry-level system is definitely cheaper at its beginning value level than the previous M1 mannequin, making it an absolute discount when it comes to its power-to-price ratio.
The brand new M2 Mac begins at $599 / £649 for the base-model M2 chip — that’s a gratefully-received $100 low cost over the beginning value of the M1 Mac Mini, a uncommon step down in value for advancing Apple {hardware}. For that value, you get the 8-core M2 with 10 GPU cores, 8GB of RAM, and 256GB of storage. There’s additionally a preset $799 / £849 M2 choice which comes with 512GB of storage.
There are, in fact, loads of improve choices for the M2 Mac mini that can add some prices, relying on what you select.
A gratefully-received $100 low cost over the beginning value of the M1 Mac Mini, the M2 Mac mini provides a uncommon step down in value for brand new Apple {hardware}.
You may improve to 16GB or 24GB of unified reminiscence for $200 / $400, respectively, in addition to upgrading to 512GB, 1TB, or 2TB of storage ($200, $400 and $800 respectively).
Another choice you may wish to think about is the ten Gigabit Ethernet port, which provides an extra $100.
New to the Mac mini this 12 months is the M2 Professional mannequin choice, which will get you a far heftier processor and extra GPU cores at a better value level. That’s the unit I am reviewing right here, and it begins at $1,299 / £1,399. For that value you get the 10-core M2 Professional CPU with 16 GPU cores and 16GB of unified reminiscence, in addition to 512GB of SSD storage as normal. The Professional mannequin additionally comes with two extra Thunderbolt 4 ports for a complete of 4, so is price contemplating if connectivity is excessive in your precedence record. Its HDMI port is on the 2.1 normal too, whereas the M2 Mini solely will get a HDMI 2.0 port.
In relation to the M2 Professional improve record, the choices are largely the identical with a few key variations. $300 will get you the spicier 12-core CPU M2 Professional with 19 GPU cores — that is the machine I’ve been utilizing. Unified reminiscence may be upgraded to 32GB ($400). There are additionally bigger storage choices of 4TB and 8TB costing $1,200 and $2,400 respectively.
Within the field, you get a Mac mini and an influence twine, so keep in mind you’ll want all of the requisite peripherals together with a show to get began. Issue that into the price in case you’re on a finances.
In the event you’re questioning the place to order the brand new Mac mini with M2 and M2 Professional, you’ve acquired just a few choices. In fact, there’s Apple, both on-line or in-store. There’s additionally Greatest Purchase, B&H Photograph, Amazon, and different retailers.
Whereas there are many nice improve choices, given its lower cost level of $599 ($499 with schooling low cost), the base-model Mac mini is a superb decide. In the event you want extra storage, you may at all times go together with an exterior exhausting drive or an analogous choice. However keep in mind; in case you plan on dwelling together with your buy for a number of years, assume as a lot about your future wants in addition to what you’re planning on utilizing it for at present. These are closed designs, with no alternative for future inside upgrades post-purchase. I’d encourage, for example, stumping up for 16GB of RAM, which ought to actually be the naked minimal at present, particularly contemplating the reminiscence swap RAM-to-SSD options employed lately when RAM is topping out.
The M2 Mac mini is a fairly-priced, excellent choice on the entry stage then, and the M2 Professional Mac mini significantly attractive for these wanting on the Professional-chip MacBook Professional vary, however with out the necessity for portability and able to make a saving because of this. It will get trickier on the prime finish of the M2 Professional Mac mini configurations, the place the cost-to-performance ratio of the top-end M2 Professional Mac Mini and entry stage Mac Studio, with its increased RAM and GPU core rely, begins to come back into play. If GPU-intensive duties are the order of your day-to-day, I’d nonetheless say look to the Studio, fairly than souping up the M2 Professional Mac mini.
Mac mini (M2, M2 Professional, 2023): {Hardware} and design
At a fast look, not a lot has modified externally with the M2-generation of Mac mini {hardware}. It’s nonetheless a compact, low-profile aluminum enclosure, measuring 3.58cm x 19.70cm x 19.70cm (HxWxD), box-like however with rounded corners, and a distinguished black Apple emblem on the highest. It’s a beautiful wanting factor, and its small dimension will make it simple to accommodate on virtually any desk.
Port choice is discovered on the rear, as is the facility button. Right here you’ll discover Thunderbolt 4 ports (2x within the entry stage mannequin, 4x within the M2 Professional model), two USB-A 3.1 ports, a HDMI port, a 3.5mm headphone jack and that upgradeable Ethernet port. It’s a strong I/O array, significantly on the M2 Professional mannequin, although I’d nonetheless have preferred some front-facing ports for simple entry. It’s a small and lightweight sufficient machine (1.18kg for M2, 1.28kg for M2 Professional) to carry round and pop dongles and equipment into the again, however the comfort of, for example, the Mac Studio’s front-facing ports, is missed.
There’s additionally the facility port, and a air flow opening for preserving issues cool when operating underneath load. The Mac mini, for all however essentially the most intensive benchmarking duties I put it by, ran near-silently, because of the thermal effectivity of Apple’s silicon. And when its followers did whir up, they by no means did so at a quantity that was disturbing.
Wi-fi connectivity is dealt with by Bluetooth 5.3, and tremendous speedy Wi-Fi 6E. Paired with these Ethernet choices, you’ll get blazing-fast internet speeds right here.
The Mac mini ran near-silently, because of the thermal effectivity of Apple’s silicon.
One of many benefits of the Mac mini line is the flexibility to pair it with whichever monitor you select, and the M2 vary provides you extra choices than the earlier technology. The entry stage mannequin provides help for 2 shows concurrently (one show at as much as 6K decision / 60Hz over Thunderbolt and one show at as much as 5K decision / 60Hz over Thunderbolt or 4K decision at 60Hz over HDMI). The M2 Professional pushes that as much as three shows — two screens as much as 6K decision at 60Hz over Thunderbolt and one show with as much as 4K decision at 60Hz over HDMI. The M2 Professional provides just a few different refresh charges in between too, supporting 4K decision at 240Hz, and even an 8K monitor at 60Hz — a primary for Mac.
Although you’re prone to pair the Mac mini with a pair of audio system, there’s a small, very tinny speaker within the pc itself. It doesn’t sound good, nevertheless it’s useful for these events when your exterior audio system are out of motion.
Do not forget that the Mac mini solely comes with an influence twine within the field, so that you’re going to have to provide your personal keyboard and mouse right here. In the event you’re not going to be choosing up Apple’s Magic Keyboard and Magic Mouse, it may be a irritating set-up course of for different wi-fi equipment — the Mac mini gained’t allow you to join some other Bluetooth units till after the preliminary set-up is full, which means you’re going to must dig out wired equipment (or the wires to your wi-fi gear) earlier than you’ll be capable to rise up and operating. A few latest Logitech wi-fi keyboards I’ve mendacity round don’t even help a wired connectivity mode, so be sure to’re all set with suitable gear earlier than you get residence together with your new Mac mini — it gained’t be a lot good with out it.
Mac mini (M2, M2 Professional, 2023): Software program and efficiency
With the advances the M2 chip technology has made, significantly on the M2 Professional aspect, the M2 Mac mini lineup feels a world aside from its M1 predecessors, and will probably be a transformative distinction for anybody upgrading from an Intel-based Mac mini.
For assessment, I used to be supplied with an M2 Professional Mac Mini, with the 12-core CPU and 19-core GPU improve choice, 16GB of RAM and a 1TB SSD, a configuration that’ll run you $1.799 / £1,899 — so very a lot the high-end of Mac mini’s potential efficiency. Maintain that in thoughts when studying our efficiency notes beneath.
For perception into what to anticipate from the M2 chip efficiency of the base-level Mac mini, I’ll level you to our 13-inch MacBook Professional 2022 assessment, which provides comparable sustained efficiency because of its energetic cooling followers.
However Apple itself claims the M2 Mac Mini represents vital positive aspects over its outgoing Core i7 Mac mini units, with 5.5x higher efficiency in Safari and 1.8x enhancements in productiveness duties like Excel. Whereas the identical stats present solely marginal positive aspects over the M1, it’s a extra pronounced distinction with regards to GPU oriented efficiency — you may anticipate a couple of 20% efficiency soar over M1 for picture scaling in Pixelmator Professional, and greater than twice the ProRes transcode efficiency in Ultimate Lower Professional.
And Apple’s personal efficiency metrics for M2 Professional vs M2 are extra pronounced nonetheless — by Apple’s estimations you may anticipate a 3rd quicker venture construct efficiency in Xcode, a couple of 25% soar in filter software in Photoshop, near twice the timeline render efficiency in Ultimate Lower Professional, and about double the gaming efficiency, too.
With the caveat of our assessment configuration out of the way in which, it’s simple to be impressed with the benchmarks I noticed on the M2 Professional Mac mini I’ve been utilizing.
| System | CPU | Single Core | Multicore |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mac mini (early 2023) | M2 Professional (12-core CPU / 19-core GPU) | 1952 | 15006 |
| MacBook Air (mid 2022) | M2 (8-core CPU / 10-core GPU) | 1917 | 8950 |
| MacBook Professional 13-inch (2022) | M2 | 1,920 | 8,869 |
| MacBook Professional 13-inch (late 2020) | M1 | 1,705 | 7,382 |
| MacBook Air (late 2020) | M1 | 1,702 | 7,400 |
| Dell XPS 17 9700 | i7-10875H | 1,282 | 8,119 |
| Dell XPS 15 9500 | i7-10875H | 1,318 | 7,621 |
| Razer Blade Professional 17 | i7-10750H | 1,314 | 6,164 |
| ASUS ROG Zephyrus G14 | Ryzen 4900HS | 1,221 | 7,982 |
| Floor Guide 3 | i71065G7 | 1,298 | 4,511 |
| Dell XPS 13 9300 | i7-1065G7 | 1,284 | 4,848 |
Trying first at Geekbench benchmarking runs, our top-end M2 Professional Mac mini hit single core efficiency scores of 1952 — not an enormous leap over the M2 MacBook Professional’s 1920 rating. However in multicore exams the outcomes noticed a major soar as much as 15006, in comparison with the MacBook Professional’s 8869. In relation to multi-core efficiency then, the M2 Professional Mac mini is blisteringly quick, simply wanting doubling the efficiency.
It’s near double the efficiency once more when wanting on the GFXBench Metallic check for 3D graphics efficiency. Taking a look at our baseline check of the 1440p Aztec Ruins / Excessive tier offscreen benchmark, the Mac Mini with M2 Professional put its 19-core GPU to work to push an outstanding 211.225 fps common, and a formidable 92.5 fps common when pushing that benchmark to its 4K decision setting. That’s a giant leap in comparison with the M2 MacBook Professionals 110 fps / 48fps scores.
For all however essentially the most demanding of 3D rendering jobs, the M2 Professional Mac mini is not going to disappoint then, and can make mincemeat of on a regular basis productiveness duties and content material creation. I might think about this being an incredible centerpiece of a house audio recording studio, or design workstation — actually ‘prosumer’ video enhancing, audio manufacturing and picture enhancing duties gained’t make the M2 Professional Mac mini break a sweat. With Apple’s silicon now nicely established, I didn’t run into any functions that wouldn’t run nicely on the Mac mini both, whether or not with a local software or (more and more hardly ever) utilizing the Rosetta compatibility layer.
How does it arise on the gaming entrance? In the event you’re seeking to hit any of the finest Apple Arcade video games, you’ll don’t have any drawback. Even the extra demanding titles like NBA 2K23, Gear.Membership Stradale and Horizon Chase 2 ran flawlessly.
In relation to video games native to a console or PC efficiency was strong, however not transformative. The Tomb Raider reboot is a bit lengthy within the tooth, however has a great pedigree for benchmarking Mac gaming capabilities, so I went again to that with the M2 Professional Mac mini.
Gaming stays one of many few areas the place it’s nonetheless troublesome to wholeheartedly advocate Mac.
At 4K decision on the Final settings preset, the Mac managed only a lowly 13.4fps per second — however this appeared primarily to be a brought on by a battle with the TressFX hair rendering function. Switching that off (the equal of the Extremely setting) noticed a much more respectable 45fps reached. That’s very playable, however a comparably-priced gaming PC would make mincemeat of the ten 12 months previous sport’s benchmark device. Dropping the decision to 1440p returned a 98fps common.
I had enjoyable enjoying the Mac model of Borderlands 3 too — although its benchmarking device didn’t seem to work accurately (I might see the picture was far smoother than its lowly body rely recommended), you’d be capable to confidently play it at excessive settings at resolutions as excessive as 4K, which is an effective signal.
It’s only a disgrace we don’t see extra native Mac gaming ports put collectively — there’s nonetheless few making the most of Apple’s Metallic API which might be the place we’d anticipate to see the most important positive aspects. It’s one of many few areas the place it’s nonetheless troublesome to wholeheartedly advocate Mac — avid gamers stay higher served by Home windows PCs.
It’s price remembering that, just like the M2 MacBook Air and M2 13-inch MacBook Professional earlier than it, that entry stage 256GB SSD, in line with experiences, once more suffers from slower SSD speeds than their last-gen counterparts, utilizing a single 256GB NAND flash chip the place earlier generations used two 128GB chips for parallel pace advantages. It’s unlikely to hassle most customers — the SSD speeds gained’t come into the equation for day-to-day duties. However for these with extra demanding workloads transferring massive recordsdata recurrently, it’s another excuse to think about stumping the money for the bigger storage capacities. In contrast, our 1TB mannequin labored in keeping with expectations. Utilizing the Blackmagic Disk Velocity Take a look at benchmarking device, I noticed learn and write speeds north of 4700MB/s, if not increased.
Mac mini (M2, M2 Professional, 2023): Competitors
With two notably completely different configurations, you’ve acquired two notably completely different Apple choices to think about when wanting on the Mac mini.
In the event you’re wanting on the entry-level M2 Mac mini, you may additionally think about the beautiful 2022 M2 MacBook Air. It’s a improbable re-imagining of Apple’s slimline laptop computer, with improved port choice, internals, operate keys and webcam. It’s a delight, nevertheless it’s costly, doesn’t have fairly the identical port choice because the M2 Mac mini, and is fast to throttle its chip’s speeds and energy because of the limitations of its passive cooling arrange.
In the event you’re excited about the dearer M2 Mac mini with an M2 Professional chip, and need to push its configuration into the excessive finish, chances are you’ll wish to take a look at the Mac Studio with M1 Max chip. It comes with 32GB of unified reminiscence by default, has increased reminiscence bandwidth, and is healthier at GPU intensive duties because of its increased GPU core — even whether it is technically ‘last-gen’ silicon. However that’s provided that in comparison with Mac mini builds hovering across the $2,000 mark the place the Mac Studio turns into a viable (even preferable) various, and people seeking to max out the M2 Professional Mac Mini spec to that extent are prone to be few and much between.
However what in case you’re on the lookout for an analogous kind issue, however are pleased to make the soar to a Home windows machine as a substitute? The Intel NUC 11 Excessive may be present in configurations that match (or finest) the M2 Professional Mac Mini at an analogous value level, in a chassis that’s extra like a mini desktop tower. It’s not a like-for-like system, however efficiency may be configured equally relying in your finances, and there’s higher scope for gaming and upgradability there, too.
Mac mini (M2, M2 Professional, 2023): Must you purchase it?
Purchase the Mac mini (M2, M2 Professional, 2023) if…
You need energy, on a finances.
Whether or not you go for the base-level M2 choice or push for the M2 Professional, the price-to-performance ratio of the 2023 Mac mini is great.
You may have equipment that you just’re proud of.
The Mac mini may be paired with no matter monitor, mouse or keyboard you select, so that you’re not pressured to pay further for units you don’t want or need.
You’re employed solely at a desk.
A number of the financial savings to be made with the Mac mini are because of its deskbound nature — good in case you don’t have to take your computing duties on the go together with you.
Do not buy the Mac mini (M2, M2 Professional, 2023) if…
You want portability.
Although it’s sufficiently small to maneuver round simply, the Mac mini isn’t strictly transportable like a MacBook. Think about that if you wish to get work performed away from a desk area.
You need future improve choices.
With parts soldered to the board, and no in-store post-purchase improve choices obtainable from Apple, what you purchase on day one with a Mac mini is what you’re left with for the remainder of its life.
You need all you want in a single field.
For higher or worse, this can be a BYODKM system, as Steve Jobs used to place it — convey your personal show, keyboard, and mouse, which must be factored into the general value in case you don’t at the moment have them. And chances are you’ll run into complications in case you don’t go for Apple’s (dear) first-party choices in the course of the preliminary set-up. For these folks, a MacBook or iMac should still be a greater choice.
Mac mini (M2, M2 Professional, 2023): Verdict
The 2023 Mac mini vary is an actual win for Apple. The completely different pricing and configuration choices plug the gaps in Apple’s computing vary successfully, placing entry to macOS in a suitably-powered new machine at an accessible value level, whereas additionally providing wise upselling choices to these with extra to spend in want or extra ‘oomph’.
With a little bit of a RAM enhance, the M2 Mac mini is straightforward to advocate, nevertheless it’s the M2 Professional Mac mini that, unsurprisingly, is essentially the most thrilling introduction right here. As long as you don’t have to take your computing classes on the go, the M2 Professional Mac mini places critical energy at your disposal, in a stupendous kind issue at a value that feels truthful. It’s a stretch to say that something a premium producer like Apple makes is ‘a discount’, however within the case of the M2 Mac Mini and the M2 Professional choice, calling it a discount may nearly be justified.
Mac mini (M2, M2 Professional, 2023)
Backside line: A improbable desktop pc that is compact, highly effective, and extra affordably approachable than ever earlier than.
