I've been waiting for it. You've been waiting for it. The whole damn world has been waiting for it. And now, at long, long, last, Apple has held its "There's More in the Making" event in Brooklyn New York, it's finally here…
The new Mac mini!
1. Design
It's space gray. And that means Pro, right?
Otherwise the new Mac mini looks the same from the outside. It's even the same size casing, so you can literally pull a previous generation model out and push a new one in.
That may not matter so much if it's just on or under your desk, but if it's in your stack or by the hundreds or thousands in server racks, it means a lot.
2. Performance
Mac mini hasn't been updated in so long any spec bump would have gone a long way. With Intel's Coffee Lake, it goes pretty much all the way. You can get quad or 6-core intel i5 or i7 processors, which are night and day ahead of what was there before.
There's a new thermal system to keep it all cool inside that tiny enclosure, including new vents and a new power supply.
You can go up to 64 GB of DDR4 memory and up to 2 TB of super-fast flash storage.
It's also got the Apple T2 security chip for secure boot, real time encryption, Secure Enclave, and the new, consolidated controller architecture.
Like with MacBook Air, it makes Intel better than Intel alone, and in a way no other PC maker can currently match.
3. Scalability
Once upon a time the Mac mini was the switcher's machine. You put it on your desk, added you own display, keyboard, and mouse, and you were good to go.
Now switchers want notebooks, but the Mac mini.... the pros want those. And a lot.
Add a Mac mini to your MacBook Pro and offload Compressor work to a Mac Mini or half dozen. Sit on the beach with your MacBook Air, hit a button, and build and deploy on your Mac mini.
Or, you know, just fill your server room with them. They're not the new Mac Pro. They're not meant to be. They're meant to be everywhere around it.
4. Recycled
Like the MacBOok Air, the coolest new feature of the Mac Mini is that it's made of 100% recycled aluminum.
Which is fantastic. It won't save the earth. The earth will be fine with or without us. But it might just keep us on the earth a little longer.
5. Pricing & Availability
The new Mac mini is available for pre-order now and ships next week. It starts at $799, fully $200 more than the previous Mac mini and if you add all the processor, memory, storage, and ethernet options, can jump past $4000.
