Mac mini 2018 Review: Apple's mightiest mini yet

With the Mac mini finally refreshed after four years, we finally have our hands on the newest model. We're spending some time running through the ringer test Apple's mightiest mini yet.

In the box

Apple's Mac mini has always been a bare-bones machine and this new model is still a color-coordinated black power cord. Keyboard, mouse, display, are all you need to provide yourself.

We also have the usual getting started guide, which walks you through the new ports, as well as the highlights of Apple's long discontinued Thunderbolt Display. Apple has teased a new Mac Pro. Should this be our first look at it?

What you get

Our review unit has an Intel i3 quad-core processor with a speed of 3.6GHz, 8GB of RAM, and 128GB of PCI-E flash storage. But, if you're so inclined, there are i5 and i7 versions with six cores, RAM options up to 64GB, and storage up to 2 TB of flash storage.

That is a wide range of configurations and is perfect for this machine, so that it can be used in many different scenarios.

If you want to, however, be prepared to pay-it will cost you over $ 4,200. Our configuration retails for $ 799.

First impressions

Initially, the Mac looks like a lot of the same. It has that same body stout, just with a new finish. We would not hold it against you if you confused the new mini for the old.

Apple made a big point to note that like the MacBook Air, the Mac mini enclosure is made from 100-percent recycled aluminum. The quality of the metal looks as good as ever, creating a great and minimalistic look.

Flipping it around, there is a quartet of Thunderbolt 3 ports, two USB-A ports, auxiliary audio out, Gigabit or 10-Gig Ethernet depending on configuration, and HDMI 2.0. The cooling system has been redesigned, but it is slightly different from the previous one, four-year-old model.

We're guessing there will be some tears shed on the lack of any optical audio output, but that will primarily be a non-issue. For most users, HDMI 2.0 will be better than TOSlink connector. It will pass Dolby TrueHD and DTS HD Master Audio, both of which can not be transmitted across that TOSlink cable.

Our base model came with 8GB of RAM, though it can go all the way up to 64GB. Considering Apple's costs on memory upgrades, the fact that the chips are slotted and not soldered into the board is giant.

Space Gray Mac mini with Apple's Magic Space Magic Mouse 2 and Magic Keyboard to complete that all-black aesthetic.

Upgradability

As we have already mentioned, the RAM chips are slotted in rather than soldered in -and this is fantastic. That means they can actually open up the RAM themselves.

It's a fairly simple procedure, but it needs a bit of security, and a set of security Torx drivers. We'll be going into the upgrade process at a later date.

Should you opt to upgrade yourself, you will not have to worry about it.

You should also keep the original handy because you will not be able to do this. Luckily, since they are relatively easy to swap, it is not a big deal to get back to the Apple Store or Apple Authorized Service Provider – and frankly, during the troubleshooting process, you probably should have done this anyway.

As a downside, the storage is soldered into place, so that you are a no-go. Fortunately, external storage is a lot more acceptable on a desktop device.

benchmarks

Soon, we will be putting the Mac mini through more intensive thermal testing, but for the review, we'll be testing it against the CineBench R15 and Geekbench 4 tests.

Now that the mini starts with a 3.6GHz quad-core 8th generation Intel Core i3 processor, it should show quite an improvement.

We ran Geekbench 4 a number of times, averaging 4,769 and 14,202 on the single and multi-core tests. That compares well to the late 2012 Mac mini with an i7 processor -the previous multi-core -running field at 2.3GHz which pulled 3300 and 11480 on the single / multi-core tests.

This compares to the 2014 dual-core 3GHz Core i7 which was the previous single-core field with 3705 and 7062 single and multi-core performance respectively. Both of these tests for the new low-end Mac mini ahead of all models in the family.

The performance gap gets even larger as you go up to the six-core i7 processor, which we will be talking more about in the future.

For CineBench R15, we are averaged around 40 fps on the OpenGL test and have a tick above 220 on the CPU test.

A max amount of mini improvements

Other than upgraded processors and ports, This is Mac mini.

Internally, we've got Apple's T2 security chip, which performs a variety of different functions. Other Mac is used for running the Touch Bar and Touch ID, but on the Mac mini, it is relied on for secure boot, on-the-fly disc encryption, and hardware-assisted video encoding.

We also love that there are so many Thunderbolt 3 ports, as many as there are MacBook Pro. This opens up so many possibilities from external GPUs to crazy fast SSD storage.

One area that did not see a lot upgrade is the internal speakers. They exist, but they are not amazing. Especially as the volume goes up they start to sound a bit fuzzy and they certainly do not have much bass.

Distributed computing

Once upon a time, there was hope, and it was promising, but in actuality. Apple killed it a discrete product in macOS 10.8 "Mountain Lion" -but the concept of distributed computing lives on.

Apple obliquely referred to users having a stack of them, which set off a flurry of speculation that Apple had some kind of fancy interconnect between machines. However, the truth is more mundane than that.

Apple's Compressor has the ability to distribute the "embarrassingly parallel" batch task for media transcoding across multiple computers connected to a Gigabit Ethernet network, and this is what Apple both talks about on stage, and demonstrated in the hands-on area after the reveal. But, at present, distributed processing can not be used for jobs.

A huge upgrade, with a matching price

The new 2018 Mac mini is impressively powerful, even for the entry-level model. It is encouraging to see Apple deliver such a well-thought-out upgrade that was desperately needed.

We are sure that there will be a wide variety of uses for the new mini, but perhaps not for wide audience. The price has gone up to $ 799 for the entry-level model, an increase of $ 300 over the previous. As a result, there are fewer people in the world, and the most recent model is four years old, with the last one being six years old.

People who are looking for a basic computer are more likely to stay at home, and at least they are still available at third-party retailers.

Still, Mac is still the cheapest Mac you can buy and it is more powerful than it. While the "low-end" Mac mini packs a lot of performance in a small box and is a decent value assuming you do not need to internalize, the ecosystem could use one, at a $ 499 or $ 599 price point.

Rating: 4.5 out of 5

Where to buy

Apple's 2018 Mac mini is available for preorder from New York and New Jersey. Orders are shipped on a first come, first served basis and your cart will not be charged until your Mac mini is ready to ship.

For a full list of deals and product availability across multiple Apple authorized resellers, be sure to check out our 2018 Mac mini Price Guide. And for more information on how to save up to $ 310 on Apple's new hardware at Adorama, check out our buyer's guide.