Apple Mac mini M2 Review

The 2023 Mac mini M2

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The same old chorus for the Mac mini is that it is a easy and good worth solution to get individuals into the Mac ecosystem, and that is no completely different. In an unobtrusive block of aluminum, Apple packs in additional than sufficient computing energy to maintain individuals productive, in an total cheap bundle.

These qualities makes the Mac mini a implausible software for switchers, coders who want Home windows and Mac {hardware}, and people in search of a fast computing improve for his or her desktop.

In 2023, Apple has gone with an entry-level M2 and a higher-end mannequin with the M2 Professional. It is a related technique that it had with the Intel Mac mini, and been rumored for a while.

The 2 tiers serve very completely different markets. On this overview, we’ll be analyzing the $599 configuration with 8GB RAM, 256GB storage, and the M2 processor. We’ll be trying on the M2 Professional in a future overview.

Mac mini could be very a lot a recognized amount within the Apple catalog, and it has steadfastly remained the identical externally between generations. You recognize deep down that the brand new one’s extra highly effective than the final, and it’ll do what you need it to do.

The looks of the Mac mini is, as common, daring and spectacular whereas additionally clearly speaking Apple’s decade-long Mac design language from afar. It is a square-ish flat aluminum enclosure with an Apple brand on the highest, rounded corners, and a modern look that retains all the ports and different wanted bits to the rear.

Mac mini and its energy cable

Virtually all the things after this level will likely be issues introduced up in earlier Mac mini discussions, as a result of they’ve not modified. For a begin, the measurements of the Mac mini are formally 7.75 inches lengthy and vast, and 1.41 inches tall.

These numbers are completely different from the earlier technology, however solely as a result of Apple’s rounding to 2 decimal locations, not one. That is evident within the metric measurements of 19.7cm or 19.70cm vast and lengthy, and the peak of three.6cm for the M1 changed by 3.58cm for the M2.

We have already tried it in mounts, docks, and so forth that depend on the form-factor, and it nonetheless suits tremendous in all the things.

The burden can be equivalent to final time at 2.6 kilos, although in metric, the 1.2kg of the M1 is now 1.18kg within the M2 mannequin.

To a degree, and pardon the pun, Apple has boxed itself right into a nook with the design. It is greater than ideally suited for what the system affords, and Apple has few causes to truly change the way it seems.

Many rumors pointed to the Mac mini having a significant design overhaul, together with a plexiglass-like cowl and a usually thinner look. We clearly did not get that.

Apple might have used the chance to introduce a giant change to its look, prefer it did for the 24-inch iMac and the MacBook Air. As an alternative, it provided the identical well-worn design with no adjustments.

This is not a foul factor. Equipment stay the identical, and it is simple to market.

The principle draw of the brand new Mac mini is the M2 chip used inside it. Whereas the earlier technology was a part of the primary wave of Apple Silicon units utilizing M1, the Mac mini needed to wait a bit earlier than it gained the M2.

The M2 Mac mini CPU we’re reviewing right here is an 8-core model, consisting of 4 high-performance cores together with 4 energy-efficient cores. That is much like the M1’s CPU, besides the M2 runs at a better clock pace of three.49GHz.

It is supported by a GPU with ten cores, up from the eight-core GPU of its predecessor. In the meantime, the 16-core Neural Engine has been boosted from as much as 11 trillion calculations per second to fifteen.8 trillion.

The M2 additionally advantages from reminiscence boosts, with the unified reminiscence now working at 100GB/s, up from the 68.25GB/s of reminiscence bandwidth seen within the M1. There’s even an additional reminiscence possibility, with the M2 including a 24GB capability possibility alongside the earlier 8GB and 16GB,

Geekbench 5 benchmarks, single-core

M2 additionally advantages from a full Media Engine, borrowing the ProRes and ProRes RAW hardware-accelerated video encoding and decoding capabilities from the M1 Professional. Whereas the M1 has hardware-accelerated encoding and decoding of H.264 and HEVC, the M2 provides within the function for ProRes and ProRes RAW.

This all provides up right into a chip that’s clearly extra highly effective than the final chip Apple utilized in a Mac mini. Based on Apple, the M2’s CPU is eighteen% sooner than the M1, whereas the GPU offers as much as 35% sooner efficiency.

When it comes to benchmarking, Geekbench 5 improved from 1688 to 1951 when evaluating the M1 Mac mini to the bottom M2 Mac mini on the one core check. That may be a roughly 15% enchancment and near what Apple had promised.

Geekbench 5 benchmarks, multi-core

On the multi-core, the M2 improved from 7361 to 8827, or a close to 18% development.

Graphically, the brand new Mac mini touts extra energy thanks to 2 extra GPU cores on the bottom mannequin. Our base unit not has a 10-core GPU which ran circles across the last-gen unit.

M2 Mac mini Geekbench 5 Steel Compute check

On Geekbench 5’s Compute benchmark operating on Steel, it went from 22871 on the 2020 M1 Mac mini with the 8-core GPU to 31135 on the 2023 M2 Mac mini with the 10-core GPU.

Within the Blackmagic Disk Velocity Check, we solely managed to see 1608 MB/s for write speeds, and 1493 MB/s for learn speeds on our base unit. That is notably lower than the 2600ish MB/s on the M1 Mac mini.

Let’s discuss that SSD pace within the $599 mannequin. It’s price noting, as a result of it exists — however that is about it for this specific mannequin and who it is meant for.

Sure, it is a cost-saving measure for Apple. Sure, it is slower than the 256GB M1 mannequin.

No, it would not matter a lot in day-to-day use. Your common surfer, Excel enjoyer, Phrase purveyor, 1080p video editor, TikTok creator, social media person will not see any distinction in any respect.

If you happen to time a macOS startup with the M2 Mac mini versus the M2 Professional mini, it’s going to be seconds slower. The place it would — would possibly — noticeably come into play is greater decision video enhancing. And, relying on the exterior drive, it might make a distinction in file transfers to it.

However, the screaming and moaning about it that additionally occurred with the M2 MacBook Air is ridiculous. In order for you the most effective pace attainable in a Mac mini, you already know what you have to purchase — and it is not the $599 configuration.

We’ve got already established that the Mac mini’s externals have not actually modified that a lot. Not solely does this relate to its normal bodily look, but in addition to the collection of ports you will discover across the again.

Visually unchanged from the final technology, the M2 Mac mini consists of two 40Gb/s Thunderbolt 4 ports that may additionally deal with USB 4, USB 3.1 Gen 2, DisplayPort, and older applied sciences utilizing USB-C adapters. The M2 Professional model has 4 of those ports, which makes having half the quantity a bit disconcerting for the M2 variant.

There’s additionally a pair of USB-A ports to the right-hand aspect, in addition to an HDMI port with multi-channel audio, and a Gigabit Ethernet connection that may be upgraded to a 10Gb model.

Ports on the rear of the M2 Mac mini

Under the USB-A ports is the three.5mm headphone jack, which this time has been upgraded to a model with assist for high-impedance headphones. It is an improve that has slowly made its manner by way of the Apple ecosystem, and one which audiophiles will love.

Audio can be dealt with by the built-in speaker. Because it has all the time been, do not depend on it for greater than something apart from system sounds.

Just like the M1 Mac mini, you may hook up a most of two shows to the bottom M2 Mac mini, with a 5K 60Hz display screen supported over Thunderbolt concurrently with a 4K 60Hz display screen over HDMI.

The very best decision you may get is 6K at 60Hz over Thunderbolt, however just for one show.

That video playback can embody HDR in HLG, HDR10, and Dolby Imaginative and prescient varieties, in addition to HEVC, H.264, and ProRes. Audio playback consists of AAC and MP3 assist, Apple Lossless, FLAC, Dolby Digital, Dolby Digital Plus, and Dolby Atmos.

For wi-fi connectivity, Apple has up to date the Mac mini to assist Wi-Fi 6E, enabling it to work with greater Wi-FI speeds — supplied its on a community that helps the usual.

Bluetooth has additionally unexpectedly been up to date, with Bluetooth 5.3 now supported.

The bottom M2 Mac mini right here, is $599, which will get you 8GB of unified reminiscence, 256GB of SSD storage, and Gigabit Ethernet.

If you wish to increase the reminiscence, it is $200 to get to 16GB, and one other $200 once more for 24GB. We did not run into any points with 8GB for many productiveness duties, browsing, and different informal use. We do advocate the improve to 16GB at buy, although, for no different cause that future-proofing — however extra on that in a bit.

The 256GB SSD inside will not be sufficient for a lot of energy customers, however you may go for 512GB for $200, 1TB for $200 extra, and 2TB for an extra $400 once more.

The final upgradable bit is the Gigabit Ethernet, with 10Gig accessible for $100. That is both future-proofing, or for enterprise. Both manner, you already know in the event you want it, and it is cheaper than Thunderbolt options.

As is normally the case for Apple’s configuration pricing, this can be very excessive price for what you get. You will not get a lot usable free house while you’re on 256GB, so count on to depend on different kinds of storage.

Because it’s unified reminiscence, upgrades listed here are helpful since there’s an impact on different parts of the M2 past the CPU because of the pooling of reminiscence capability between parts. Sure, it looks like some huge cash to go from 8GB to 16GB, however that reminiscence increase may even affect the GPU, which can assist its graphical functionality too, making it a worthwhile replace.

AppleInsider usually advises to prioritize reminiscence upgrades over storage, and to depend on alternate methods to develop storage capability for the price. Thunderbolt is quick sufficient for including exterior SSD storage, and complete overkill for exhausting drives, even in the event you’ve obtained numerous new, quick ones in a 8-bay RAID.

Going for the improve from 8GB to 16GB of reminiscence and going to 1TB doubles the price of the M2 Mac mini to $1,199, which is not the best solution to configure the Mac mini if value is an element.

Because of the nature of all the things being positioned on the M2 chip, you merely cannot add in further reminiscence or storage. It isn’t person upgradable in that manner in any respect, and it has been a coverage for Apple’s consumer-oriented Mac lineup for just a few years now.

Essentially the most agreeable answer to the configuration drawback would most likely be to go to 16GB of reminiscence and 512GB of storage, which provides a usable quantity of native storage and the efficiency improve for a complete price of $999 together with the Mac mini.

That further $200 that would’ve gone in direction of the 1TB storage improve can simply cowl the price of a higher-capacity exterior storage drive linked to Thunderbolt, or might go in direction of some network-attached storage.

Apple might ultimately make the Mac mini user-upgradeable once more, once more down the road, however we’re not anticipating it. However for the second, you both need to swallow the improve charges or settle for workarounds.

The entire level of the Mac mini is to supply customers with an inexpensive Mac. Particularly, a Mac that they will purchase with out breaking the financial institution, and get going with minimal effort.

The 2023 M2 Mac mini in field

At $599, the bottom M2 Mac mini definitely meets that purpose, particularly because it’s $100 cheaper than the M1 launch. For educators and college students, they will choose it up for a fair higher $499.

That is a complete Mac that, below schooling pricing, is half the price of an iPhone 14 Pro.

We’re all for squeezing each final dime out of a capital funding in computer systems. That stated, in the event you’re interested by efficiency on a budget, the one cause to stay with an Intel Mac mini at this level is Boot Camp.

For everyone else, in the event you’ve obtained an Intel Mac mini of any kind, it is most likely time to improve. The $599 configuration is quicker than any Intel mac mini, and never by a bit.

Almost all of the necessary software program is Apple Silicon-native now, and non-native Mac software program is quicker below Rosetta than it ever was on an Intel mini.

Apple definitely hasn’t made any exterior design adjustments to the Mac mini, and it might be some time earlier than it really implements any of the rumored alterations. Besides, the unchanged exterior continues to be trendy and sensible sufficient.

Bar none, the M2 Mac mini is the most effective steadiness of computing energy to price for the computer-as-appliance crowd that you may get for the cash. That is one thing that definitely hasn’t modified.

• M2 chip with Media Engine
• Improved CPU and GPU efficiency
• New decrease price
• Acquainted trendy and compact design

• Restricted Thunderbolt and USB-A ports
• Excessive reminiscence and storage configuration prices
• Lack of person upgradeability

Apple’s M2 Mac mini is on sale at Apple Licensed Reseller Adorama, with unique promo code APINSIDER knocking $50 to $100 off choose configurations.

The newest affords are at your fingertips in our 2023 Mac mini Price Guide, which is up to date all through the day. Examine costs throughout quite a few Apple resellers and scan the highest Mac mini deals to pick the most effective configuration, similar to the bottom mannequin on this M2 Mac mini overview, to suit your wants.