The Mac Mini deserved an upgrade and we wonder why it took Apple quite a long time to do it. Let’s see what has changed and if the upgrade was worth the wait.
The new Mac Mini is now enclosed in a sleek, compact aluminum unibody which is very nice compared to the plasticky enclosure from the first model. They also integrated the power supply so you won’t have that brick of an adapter lying in your desk like before, just a cord straight to the outlet. The bottom panel can also easily be removed to add more memory if the need arises.
Apple also brought in the SD-card slot that was missing from the previous model. It’s just right that they also included an HDMI port in the new Mini.
How about the insides? Well it’s a bit disappointing that the new Mini will only get a 2.4 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor when all the rage these days are the Core i5’s and i7’s. Graphics is twice as better now with the help of an NVIDIA GeForce 320M graphics processor.
Apple also claims that the new Mac Mini is the most energy-efficient desktop in the world consuming less than 10 watts when idle and is a 25 percent reduction from the old Mini.
Pricing and Configuration
The Mac mini, for a suggested retail price of P38,990, includes:
- 2.4 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor with 3MB of shared L2 cache
- 2GB of 1066 MHz DDR3 SDRAM, expandable up to 8GB
- a slot-load 8X SuperDrive® (DVD±R DL/DVD±RW/CD-RW) optical drive
- 320GB Serial ATA hard drive running at 5400 rpm
- NVIDIA GeForce 320M integrated graphics
- AirPort Extreme® 802.11n wireless networking and Bluetooth 2.1+EDR
- 4 x USB 2.0 ports
- SD card slot, one FireWire® 800 port, one HDMI port and one Mini DisplayPort;
The Mac mini with Mac OS X Snow Leopard Server, for a suggested retail price of P55,990, includes:
- 2.66 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor with 3MB of shared L2 cache
- 4GB of 1066 MHz DDR3 SDRAM, expandable up to 8GB
- two 500GB Serial ATA hard drives running at 7200 rpm
- NVIDIA GeForce 320M integrated graphics
The processor was a letdown for a 2010 release but the new Mac Mini is still a decent desktop option if the iMac is out of your budget. If you’re interested, it’s already available from the Apple Store since earlier this week.
