Is the Mac Mini M1 Still Good In 2022? Long Term Review

lets dive in this one is the base model m1 mac mini its got the m1 chip, 256 gigabytes of storage and 8 gigabytes of ram. More specifically, this is actually a refurbished model from apple, which i highly recommend apples got an awesome refurbishment program. If you can find one in stock, they kind of come and go, but you can find one if you check it every now and again: okay, when it launched back in november of 2020. It was already a really good deal at 699 dollars, but, unlike typical apple products, mac mini has actually seen a lot of sales and you can find a discounted pretty regularly for 50 to 100 off the normal price, not to mention the used market. Speaking of pricing, there are quite a few configurations you can choose from when speccing this thing out and it can get pretty pricey as you bump up storage options, ram, etc, cetera. But you dont really need all that as ill explain in a minute and also just take a second to mention how much of a ripoff storage upgrade prices are from apple. I mean in what world does it cost 200 to go from 256 gigabytes to 512 gigabytes or 400 to get one terabyte when ssd prices are half that i missed the part where thats my problem? Okay, sorry sorry rant over the mac mini is a small kind of dull and plain looking hunk of aluminum. It measures about seven and a half inches by seven and a half inches and its pretty much identical to the older intel mac minis, but its a little bit lighter its pretty low profile and it blends in nicely under a monitor or on a desktop.

The only indication that this is even on is a small white led that stays on while the computer is turned on around the back. You get a good selection of ports. You get an ethernet port, two thunderbolt ports, an hdmi, 2.0 port, two usb a ports and, oddly enough, a headphone jack. This is a great selection and ive. Yet, to have time when i needed a port and didnt have one but rest assured, if you do need additional ports, theres always dongles, you can buy for pretty cheap theres, also a vent for the built in fan, and it does have a fan. But this thing runs whisper quiet in the year that ive had this thing. Ive never heard the fan spin up, but its never felt hot to the touch. Stop me if youve heard this before, but performance has been excellent for the price. At this point, you know what the m1 chip can do and you really cant push this thing. I mainly use it for video, editing and final cut pro web browsing things like that. The mac mini comes with an 8 core cpu and an 8 core gpu, which is cool because you actually have to pay extra for the 8 core gpu and the new imac and macbook air m1s. As with all the other m1 machines youre going to get the best performance from the native apple apps, like final cut pro garage band things like that, but there are plenty of people using these things with other programs using apples, rosetta translation program and they work just Fine, if youre, not sure if your program runs on here odds, are it probably does but theres plenty of lists online heres, the geekbench scores.

If these do anything for you, this thing can scrub through my final cut timeline with 4k video, with no issues at all and ive seen other reviewers mention that it can handle 8k video as well. So, no matter what task youre doing it can probably handle it without much trouble. Just for reference on a random 4k video of mine. It took roughly six and a half minutes to export a seven minute video, but its usually about one to one for me. Exporting thats using a lot of plugins cuts, edits things like that now, the mini is not perfect, so lets take a minute to mention some issues that ive dealt with and other users have experienced. The number one issue youll find online is a bluetooth connection issue. There have been a ton of reports of people having issues with the bluetooth connection, dropping at times or slowing to a crawl when they have multiple peripherals connected. This doesnt affect everyone as ive never had any issues, but i can see how this would get annoying. Just note this seems to have also been an issue in the older intel mac minis as well, dating back to like 2010. So it seems more like a build issue, disappointed one issue that i have had and its not a huge deal, but its been kind of annoying has been this thing, waking up from sleep all the time, for whatever reason, this thing will just wake itself up from Sleep and my monitor will turn on and its super bright in the middle of the night, like i said, not a huge deal but kind of annoying.

I just usually turn my monitor off when im not using it, but if thats the worst thing, i have to complain about thats pretty good, so why, by now with a possible new model coming out at some point this year, well lets break it down a little Bit just going by the leaks up to this point. If a new model is released, this year were most likely looking at a price pump, apples not going to release a new model without a performance enhancement, which means either the rumored m2 chip or a new model. That has the more expensive, m1 pro or pro max chips from the macbooks. Second, we dont know when the new model is actually going to release. Rumors are all over the map, with some people saying the spring others pointing to a fall release, but they also said apple was going to announce it last fall too so either way we cant say for sure, and you could be waiting till even 2023. Lastly, this thing is strong enough, as it is now ive had virtually zero slowdowns in my use case and its actually available now at a good price, so you can actually go out and buy it so whos this for well as much as i love this thing. Its not for everyone, anyone that wants a mobile experience, wont be happy with this. As its made for desktop use, i find im more productive working at a desk, so this works perfectly for me, you also have to have a few peripherals to make this thing work like a keyboard, mouse and monitor, while these are added expenses.

I actually like this because you can choose, say your favorite logitech mouse pair it with your apple keyboard and widescreen, monitor or any combination as cheap or as expensive as you like. Also remember that super expensive memory upgrade i mentioned earlier. Well, i just bought a separate 2 gigabyte ssd in this metal enclosure and its been awesome. It was about a quarter of the price and transfer speeds are crazy fast, but i will say that this is probably not going to be for super power users. Im talking like multiple 8k video streams, heavy rendering or things like that, the mini is powerful, but i feel like it would struggle under those conditions thats not going to apply to 99 of people looking for a new machine, so yeah this things awesome and pretty affordable Id say its probably worth it, even if youre not planning on video editing and just want a mini computer just for a clean desktop but anyways thats all ive got for today, thanks for stopping by and if you subscribed recently.

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