Mac mini M1: Specifications, Price and Review

It’s nothing without accessories

Before starting to talk about any other section, you should know that this Mac mini is little more than a paperweight if you do not have peripherals to connect it. This is something that although most users know, if it is the first time you know about this equipment you should know. In the box, in addition to the device itself, you will only find the instructions for use and a cable that is used to connect it to the power. Therefore you will have to have an external monitor, keyboard, mouse or trakcpad that can be connected to this device, either via cable or Bluetooth connection.

A very Apple brand aesthetic

Little has changed this Mac mini with M1 compared to the original Mac mini presented in 2009 by Steve Jobs himself. It has decreased in size, but still has that signature of simplicity and minimalism so characteristic of the co-founder and Apple itself. Its dimensions are as follows:

• Height: 3.6 cm
• Width: 19.7 cm
• Length: 19.7 cm

This together with its 1.2 kilograms of weight make it a really compact equipment. This detail may seem unimportant and it probably is when you place it on your desk, but if you usually work in different areas and want to take your Mac mini with you, this will not be a problem, although you should have the aforementioned peripherals that you have to take with you.

Of course, unlike its generations with Intel, this Mac mini is only available in silver , leaving behind the space gray. It is not a major drawback and it does not end up being even for those who prefer that other color, but it is true that if you have darker accessories that version would be more game.

Ports of this Mac mini M1

Knowing as we have said that this Mac needs to connect external accessories, knowing its ports is something really important. And not only for being able to connect the essentials, but for knowing the possibilities that are available when connecting other accessories such as external drives, cameras or even our iPhone.

If we look at the Mac mini from the rear, we find the following, ordered from left to right:

• Power button.
• Power connector.
• Ethernet port.
• 2 Thunderbolt USB 4 ports supporting Thunderbolt 3 up to 40 Gb / s and USB 3.1 Gen 2 up to 10 Gb / s.
• HDMI 2.0 port.
• 2 USB-A ports up to 5 Gb / s.
• 3.5mm jack headphone jack.

It is true that if you want to have other connections such as VGA, you will have to buy special adapters separately, but taking into account that the ports that do not appear belong to connections that are already somewhat outdated, the truth is that little complaint can be had in this section. Perhaps more USB 4 or USB-A ports could have been added, but in the end the size limitations are what they are and if you need something more you can always resort to a hub that multiplies the number of connections.

Performance that lives up to expectations

The Mac Mini we have tested is the chip M1 8 s core together with 16 GB RAM unified 256GB SSD.

The case of RAM is interesting to analyze, since in any of the Macs with an M1 chip there is a limitation of 16 GB for the device configuration. Apple has not explained this officially, but this limitation could be motivated by a lower demand on resources by the new processor. This also occurs in computers such as the iPhone and iPad, which with less RAM than their Android competitors manage to perform the same and even better.

In a benchmark that we have carried out through the Geekbench application we have obtained these scores for the CPU and GPU.

It should be noted that in our case, the scores for this Mac mini have been between two other tests performed on the MacBook Air with M1 and 8 GB of RAM and the MacBook Pro with M1 and 16 GB of RAM.

Well, what does this score translate to in real life? The numbers are still that, figures that do not really say anything practical. In our intensive use we have been surprised by an improvement in fluency in practically all sections when compared to the experience obtained with the latest Mac mini with Intel.

In applications like Final Cut we have been able to put this little one to the test well and we have noticed that the loading times of the application, the rendering and even the management of the timeline look tremendously fluid, without any type of cut or lag that if experienced on peers with Intel. In graphics performance tests carried out with applications such as Cinebench we have also obtained pleasant surprises.

Although it must be taken into account that not all apps work well, something that we will comment on in the next section, we can say that this Mac mini meets the highest of requirements with a note. It can not perhaps be compared to a Mac Pro with Intel and probably not when they have their own Apple Silicon, but it can serve perfectly for those who have traditionally demanded less power than those computers have.

Do all the applications work?

As of this writing, Apple Silicons have only been on the market for a few weeks. Apple advised that the transition would take approximately 2 years, time they estimated for developers to be able to adapt all their applications to the new ARM chip. All the native macOS applications work perfectly and in fact you can even notice that the loading times are faster.

But what about third-party apps? Some of them, as popular as Google Chrome, are already fully adapted to the M1 chip. However, there are others that load through Rosetta 2. This system is actually a code translator that makes a kind of virtualization of the applications in the background, so that visually it seems that the applications are running normal, but in reality they are not. .

A majority of those apps that run through Rosetta 2 work normally and it is not even noticeable that they load slower because they are virtualized. However, there are others that no matter how hard you try, do not end up working correctly, being something totally understandable. This happens for example in many games that are not yet adapted to the M1.

There is also a way to know if an application is running through the Apple processor or with Rosetta 2. It is by opening the Activity Monitor and going to the CPU tab, where you will find a column in which it precisely says “Apple” or “Intel” .

No, Windows cannot be installed (at the moment)

Another current limitation of the ARM chip in this Mac mini is this. On Macs with Intel, the Boot Camp wizard is present, which considerably speeds up the process of installing the Microsoft operating system on a partition. However, on Macs with M1s like this ‘mini’, the Boot Camp application exists, but when it is opened, a message appears stating that this program is not compatible with the computer.

As Craig Federighi, Apple’s vice president of software, commented in an interview, Boot Camp is expected to work with Macs with Apple Silicon at some point. However, Federighi dissociated Apple from this matter, stating that in the end it is a matter that depends on Microsoft and its power to adapt the operating system leaving behind the x86 architecture.

Do you hear that? It’s the silence of the Mac mini

Beyond the joke in reference to a well-known ex-Spanish politician, this phrase is perfectly fulfilled on this computer. We do not notice absolute silence as in the case of the MacBook Air with M1 for obvious reasons and that is because that computer does not have any fan and this one does. However, despite all the demands made on the Mac mini, it has been difficult for us to hear the sound of the blades. The temperature in any case has always been kept at a stable level, so the efficiency of the cooling of this equipment is beyond doubt in our opinion.

Price more than round with what it offers

We know that talking about prices, more in an Apple team, is always the least controversial. Judging that something is cheap or expensive ultimately depends on many factors and most of them tend to be quite subjective. However, we believe that the price for which the different versions of this Mac mini are marketed is at least justified and may seem even more profitable than in previous years.

These are the prices of the different versions of the M1 and those of Intel, so that you can understand how in the comparison Apple Silicon also wins, offering even superior performance in some sections.

Mac mini M1 from 799 euros

• 8-core M1 processor
• 8-core GPU
• 16-core Neural Engine
• RAM:
  • 8 GB
  • 16 GB: +230 euros.
• SSD storage:
  • 256 GB storage
  • 512 GB of storage: +230 euros.
  • 1 TB of storage: +460 euros.
  • 2 TB of storage: +920 euros
• Final Cut Pro pre-installed: +329.99 euros.
• Pre-installed Logic Pro: +229.99 euros.

Mac mini Intel from 1,259 euros

• Processor:
  • 8th Gen 3GHz 6-core Intel Core i5 with Turbo Boost up to 4.1GHz.
  • 8th Gen 3.2GHz 6-core Intel Core i7 with Turbo Boost up to 4.6GHz.
• Intel UHD Graphics 630
• 2,666 MHz DDR4 RAM:
  • 8 GB
  • 16 GB: +230 euros.
  • 32 GB: +690 euros.
  • 64 GB: +1,150 euros.
• SSD storage:
  • 512 GB of storage
  • 1 TB of storage: +230 euros.
  • 2 TB of storage: +690 euros
• Ethernet:
  • 10/100 / 1000BASE-T Gigabit Ethernet with RJ45
  • 10 Gigabit Ethernet NBASE-T compatible with 1 Gb, 2.5 Gb, 5 Gb and 10 Gb Ethernet with RJ45: +115 euros.
• Final Cut Pro pre-installed: +329.99 euros.
• Pre-installed Logic Pro: +229.99 euros.

Who is your purchase advisable for?

This Mac mini, at least in our opinion, is focused on those users who do not need a laptop, but are not comfortable with what Apple offers in the iMac range. Anyone who already has a monitor or is willing to buy one and also wants to be able to choose the exact size and resolution of it, can do so with the Mac mini.

Although it is not designed to be transported regularly, we see that due to its size it is not heavy equipment and could be carried sporadically if for any reason you had to leave your home or office to work elsewhere. It also leaves plenty of free space on the work table, which is also a plus.