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The latest Mac mini update by Apple is from October 16, 2014. That year, Apple launched the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus, unveiled the first Apple Watch, introduced Apple Pay and compel customers to download a U2 album. You may also remember that many celebrities have had their iCloud account hacked and their personal photos leaked, everyone is taking part in the Ice Bucket Challenge and Scotland has voted to keep it in the UK United in its referendum on independence.
in four years, but the Mac mini remained motionless. In fact, the Mac mini was so neglected that it seemed certain that Apple would remove it from the lineup. Then in 2017, in an email to a customer, Apple CEO Tim Cook confirmed that the Mac mini would be "an important part of our product line."
Cook then revealed that "our customers have found creative and interesting uses for Mac mini" and Apple recalled that the Mac mini 2018 (November 7, 2018) was unveiled.
When the Mac mini was launched in 2005, it was an entry-level budget. machine that has become a popular choice for "switchers" (Windows users switching to Mac). Over the years, it has become the preferred medium (before everyone has integrated Netflix into their TV), as a server and as the cheapest way to own a Mac. But software developers and other business users like it too, and the Mac mini has also found its way into data centers. All this has been a good reason for Apple to update the Mac mini. Finally,
Price
The Mac mini 2018 is still an attractive entry-level Mac at a low price, starting at 799 £ not as economical as the 2014 model that started at £ 399 / $ 499. It's a little disappointing that the Mac mini does not reach less than £ 500, but let's face it, the current prices are all higher. At £ 799 / £ 799, the Mac mini, with its 3.6GHz quad-core i3 processor, is a bargain because you will not get a cheaper Mac than this one.
There are two standard Mac mini models available and even the highest. discounted version costs less than the MacBook Air and the same price as the entry-level dual-core iMac 2.3GHz at £ 1,099 / $ 1,099. This gives you a 6-core i5 processor at 3 GHz with Turbo Boost up to 4.1 GHz.
There are also various custom build options. You can configure your machine with 3-core 3.2 GHz i7 processors (Turbo Boost up to 4.6 GHz) (+ £ 150 / $ 200), 64 GB RAM (+ £ 1,260 / $ 1,400) ), 2TB of storage (+ £ 1,200 / $ 1,400), 10 Gigabit Ethernet (£ 90 / $ 100) for a price of £ 3,859 / $ 4,199. That's less than the entry-level iMac Pro (£ 4,899) if you want a bit of perspective.
Here is the Mac mini range:
- i3 at 3.6 GHz quad-core, £ 799 / $ 799
- 3.0GHz 6- Core i5 with turbocharging at 4.1 GHz, £ 1,099 / $ 1,099
- i7 3 core 3 core with 4.6 GHz turbo boost (+ 150 £ / 150 $) BTO.
This is the last custom built unit we have under review. Our colleagues at Macworld US looked at the entry-level model so we could include benchmarks for both models to give a good overall impression of the range.
Design
Parallel to the launch of the new Mac mini by Apple, the redesigned MacBook Air. If you're hoping the Mac mini has also been redesigned a lot, you'll be disappointed. There is no doubt that Apple could have reduced the clutter of the device, but the latter chose not to do it.
The main reason why Apple has not reduced its size is probably due to the fact that some data centers have made a huge investment. If you change the size of your Mac mini, it will cause problems.
Keep the size as it was also allowed to update the cooling system. There is now a bigger fan and bigger vents. Apple says that the airflow inside the new Mac mini has doubled. The Mac mini always works exceptionally quietly.
The design is however slightly different. It is now space gray rather than silver and it is constructed from recycled aluminum. The new Mac mini color could indicate its professional status: the iMac Pro is also available in Space Gray. Of course, the new MacBook Air also offers a Space Gray option, so maybe not.
Spec
Apple announced the new Mac mini, according to what it claimed it is five times faster than previous. We certainly hope that is the case considering the gap of four years. However, it's more than that. The Mac mini 2018 has not only acquired eighth-generation Intel processors, but they are also compatible with desktop computers, as we will see later. In 2014, the processor was a U series that (like Y processors) are normally found in laptops or low-power desktops.
The new units also come with a flash memory (SSD) – there are no more hard disk drive options or Fusion drive available. This will also speed up the units.
Here is an overview of standard machine specifications and custom build options.
- Core i3 at 3.6 GHz, 128 GB, 8 GB of RAM
- 3.0GHz 6 Core i5 at 4.1 GHz with turbo boost, 250 GB, 8 GB of RAM
- BTO Options: [19659012] Core i7 3-core 3 GHz with 4.6 GHz turbo boost
- 16 GB of RAM
- 32B RAM
- 64 GB RAM
- 512 GB SSD
- 1 TB SSD [19659013] 2 TB SSD
- 10 Gigabit Ethernet Processor
Getting rid of the hard drive means that Apple can install a better processor inside the chbadis (this could probably have been activated)
The quad processor -core Core i3 at 3.6 GHz Mac mini at £ 799 / $ 799 compares very favorably to the previous mini's chip, along with two other processing cores. The only thing missing is the Turbo Boost, which would increase the speed of the processor, as is the case with the other standard Mac mini.
The Mac mini at £ 1,099 / $ 1,099 is equipped with a Core i5 6-core processor at 3.0 GHz. It's still two cores, so six processors running in 3GHz versus four at 3.6GHz. This will benefit you the most if you are running mostly multicore applications. This processor offers Turbo Boost technology that allows it to accelerate at a speed of 4.1 GHz.
You can also choose an i7 processor at 3.2 GHz at the point of sale. This option costs £ 270 / $ 300 more. Hyper-threading is enabled on the Core i7 chip and it also offers a 4.6 GHz Turbo Boost. With this option, you could get a fairly powerful Mac for just £ 1,069.
Storing
One of the most important changes made to the Mac mini is the fact that it does not work. There are more options for hard drive or Fusion Drive. Now, there are more than SSDs. The good news is that the speed is good, the only negative is that hard drives are cheaper per GB, so you will pay more for less space.
The other factor to note in terms of SSDs is that more storage usually means better performance and faster write speeds. So you can expect that a computer with a 1TB drive will be faster than a computer with a 128GB drive. It's a thing to consider if you plan to upgrade the storage on your Mac mini.
We suggest that the 128GB storage in the entry-level model is probably not enough – unless paying the monthly fee for iCloud. Storage drive, or have an external drive as you work. You can upgrade the model from £ 799 at the point of purchase to 256GB (+ £ 180 / $ 200) or 512GB (+ £ 360 / $ 400).
If you need more storage space than the one you have chosen, you must choose the model of £ 1,099 / $ 1,099. , which comes standard with 256GB of storage but can be upgraded to 1TB (+ £ 540 / US $ 600) and 2TB (+ £ 1,260 / US $ 1400).
You must upgrade the storage at the time of purchase as storage. is soldered to the logic board so you can not update it later. You can also connect an external drive: Thunderbolt 3 storage could be faster than integrated storage.
Graphics
If you are a Creative Professional, player or graphic user of graphical graphics, you will be disappointed to learn that the Mac mini does not have a discrete GPU.
The Mac mini comes with the Intel UHD Graphics 630 processor. Compared to the graphics of the old Mac mini, compared to any Mac with a discrete card, this will be a disadvantage. It depends on your point of view whether or not you need a powerful graphics processor (which the vast majority of Mac mini users probably do not go to.)
If you need to a correct graphics card, consider buying a Thunderbolt eGPU 3. Apple sells two Blackmagic eGPUs:
- Radeon RX Vega 56 graphics processor with 8GB HBM2 memory, £ 1,199 / $ 1,199 [19659013] The Radeon Pro 580 graphics processor with 8GB of GDDR5 memory, £ 599 / $ 699
If you wish To get an idea of the difference that any of these cards might make, take a look at Look at our benchmarks below where you'll find the test we performed with the Blackmagic unit at £ 599 / $ 699 and the 13-inch MacBook Pro.
Benchmarks
Apple lent us a high-end Mac mini, while our Macworld US colleagues were loaned to the entry-level machine. We are therefore well placed to give you an overview of the benchmarks for both models.
There are some interesting points to note from the points of reference below. We will start with the CPU performance tests, for which we use Geekbench 4.1.
We're going to start with the multi-core test, where, as you can see, the Mac mini we tested was beating the 15-inch 2.9 GHz six-core. MacBook Pro – it's not surprising considering that our Mac mini has a 3.2 GHz six-core processor. What's interesting is that a Mac mini with a 3.2 GHz processor starts at £ 1,069, while you have to pay around £ 3,000 for a 15-inch MacBook Pro with a processor. six cores of 2.9 GHz.
Note also Even the entry-level Mac mini is as fast as the Core iMac Core 2017 at 3.4 GHz. So you have the choice between spending £ 1,449 / $ 1,449 on a 21.5-inch iMac or spending £ 799 / £ 799 on a Mac mini and using the £ 650 / $ 650 balance for a 4K display and customizing the mini with integrated function
If you mainly use applications such as email, Safari, iTunes, etc., it is likely that multiple cores will not benefit you very much. In this case, the single-core reference model will interest you more.
Again, the Mac mini at 3.2 GHz works well. It's worth noting that the entry-level model at 3.6 GHz is lower than this one despite it being "faster" – we badume that the difference is attributed to the fact that the Mac 3.6 GHz mini lacks Turbo Boost.
Regarding graphics. the fact that the Mac mini does not have a discrete GPU drops it, as shown in our Cinebench OpenGL test. We tested a MacBook Pro with an eGPU and found that it was making a remarkable difference, as you can see from the Unigene Valley test. We expected to see the same thing with the Mac mini.
Scalability
One of the criticisms of the Mac mini 2014 was its lack of scalability. Two years before the 2012 Mac mini, it was easy to upgrade, one of the biggest advantages of this model. But the memory of the 2014 model had been soldered, so there was no way to upgrade it anywhere other than at the point of sale.
The good news is that the plastic bottom always comes off easily and you can unscrew the hatch. Beyond that, access to components is probably not simple enough for home upgrades, but it can be done. The RAM is scalable because, this time, it is not soldered, it is just a little difficult to access because it is in a cage behind the fan and other components. If you want to upgrade your RAM, Apple recommends that you do it (do it yourself and you will void the warranty).
mini scalability supports up to 64GB of RAM, which will cost you £ 1,260 if you buy it at Apple. You might want to go around. You can get 64GB of RAM from Crucial for £ 884.39 or $ 969.99.
Ports and Peripherals
In some ways it does not matter that it's not possible to upgrade everything inside the Mac mini because you can plug in external devices and boost your mini this way.
The good news for the input / output fans is that there are two USB-3 ports (AKA USB-A on the Mac mini). You can also connect them. The HDMI port also stays, which is great if you want to connect your Mac mini to a TV screen.
Mac mini Thunderbolt ports have been updated to Thunderbolt 3 / USB-C. You can take advantage of the ultra-fast external storage as well as the eGPU mentioned above. These ports also allow you to connect two Thunderbolt screens as well as a separate HDMI screen if you wish. You will need an adapter if you do not want it. We have a USB-C / Thunderbolt display, but we had no problem using this Arktek USB-C (Thunderbolt 3) to D Adapter VI with our existing monitor.
As standard, there is a Gigabit Ethernet port, but it can be upgraded to 10Gb Ethernet for $ 100 / $ 90.
] You will need to provide your own keyboard and mouse because these are not included with the Mac mini. It's probably not a big deal, it reduces costs and most people will have a keyboard and a mouse lying around.
It surprises us that Apple is not giving customers the option of adding a Space Gray Magic Keyboard (£ 149 / $ 149) and Space Gray Magic Mouse 2 (£ 99 / $ 99) to their order however. It's an obvious choice when you buy your Mac Space Gray.
Maybe Apple will soon update the Magic Keyboard with Touch ID. The T2 chip provided in the Mac mini can meet the security requirements related to Touch ID. Therefore, if a new iMac comes with a Touch ID compatible keyboard, the Mac mini will take advantage of it.
Software
One last word on the software. If you already have a Mac, you will be aware of the wide range of software provided. You'll find many applications on your iPhone or iPad, including FaceTime, Messages, Mail and Office applications (Numbers, Pages and Keynote), as well as photos, iMovie and more. The Mac mini comes with the latest version of the Mac operating system, currently macOS Mojave.
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