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The Mac mini is one of Apple's most underrated yet great products. It is Apple’s most affordable desktop computer. Mac mini has a compact design with great specifications and a good variety of ports. However, buyers still do not fully understand its potential. Let's figure it out together.
What Could a Mac mini be Used for?
Home / Office Desktop
Most often, people buy Mac mini to equip a workplace in an office or at home. It costs less compared to other Mac products, but the price does not affect the performance at all. Mac mini can cover all you need in a desktop computer.
The Mac mini’s main advantage is its size. It’s still Apple’s smallest computer. It doesn’t take much space so you can set up a workplace wherever you need.
The basic model has two Thunderbolt / USB 4 ports, two USB-A and one HDMI port, which allows you to connect a variety of peripheral devices to it. It doesn’t come with a mouse or keyboard though. You should buy them yourself and set your workplace as you like. And even after you spend extra money on a monitor, mouse and keyboard, you still benefit from buying a full-fledged desktop computer, like an iMac.
Video or Music Production
MacOS gives you access to the best music and video applications like GarageBand, Logic Pro X and Final Cut Pro. The Mac Mini is the cheapest Mac on the market, which means it's the entry-level for music production if you want to try your skills in this field. You can connect to Mac mini multiple displays, MIDI keyboards, other musical accessories and start creating.
The latest Mac mini has an M2 chip which is considered one of the best on the market. Because these Apple chips are famous for their speed and incredible performance, you can render everything you need quickly and efficiently.
Coding and Development
Many programmers use the Mac mini as a starting computer for software development. Depending on the model, you can connect either two monitors (M2 Mac Mini) or three (M2 Mac Mini Pro) which allows you to set your workflow by your liking.
Any Mac mini model is great for software development. If you work with iOS or MacOS, then even more so. And do not forget the main benefit — Mac mini is so tiny that you can put it in your backpack at any time, take it with you anywhere and continue working. It’s a portable and very powerful computer at the same time. What could be more important nowadays when so many people tend to work remotely?
Media Server
You can also use your Mac mini as a personal media server to stream any high quality content. There are some MacOS or third-party apps which can help you to do this.
Web Server for Work
Compact design and powerful performance let you turn your Mac mini into a local office server. You can make it a file or a caching server. Thankfully MacOS provides built-in support for all of this.
Which Model to Choose?
The Apple website now offers 3 options, all based on the M2 chip. The cheapest option starts with £649. This Mac mini has an 8-core CPU, 10-core GPU, 8GB of memory, and 256GB of storage. It offers two Thunderbolt 4 ports.
Often a Mac mini is bought as an entry-level Mac. The price to performance ratio is incredible. Even with the basic cheapest model, it's impossible to go wrong.
Of course, you can add £200 and get twice as much storage — 512GB. The other specifications will be the same.
Or you can choose the top version — 10-Core CPU, 16-Core GPU, 16GB unified memory and 512GB SSD storage. Also you will get four Thunderbolt 4 ports instead of two. All for £1399.
You may want to consider buying a refurbished Mac mini: M1 Mac mini or the previous model with an Intel chip. They cost a lot less and still are a great option.
Conclusions
The Mac mini can be used for quite many purposes. Compact design, a wide variety of ports, M2 or M1 processors. Will it be useful for you in work and life in general? We think the answer is yes. Don’t hesitate, give it a try!
