The Mac mini has prolonged been a oddity child of a Mac family: it’s a usually consumer-level appurtenance from Apple that isn’t a fully-integrated experience, and it’s a only Mac to have had a sub-$1,000 sticker cost in some time. But people love this little oddball, as well as they love to do weirdly overwhelming things with it — we’ve seen Mac minis stuffed into all from old G4 Cube shells to volleyball-playing robots to pianos to… DeLoreans. Yes, DeLoreans. And, of march, people have longed been joining Mac minis to HDTVs and using ‘em as a media players — it’s small, quiet, relatively powerful, as well as it’s the genuine mechanism, so it can play probably any video record you chuck during it. And now it’s gotten even some-more tasteful as the home drama PC, since Apple’s given a newest Mac mini the distinguished unibody makeover, NVIDIA GeForce 320M graphics, and — the first for any Mac — an HDMI pier, making it a dead-simple further to your HDTV. On the flip side, the bottom cost of a usually stock consumer pattern has left up to $699, and to be blunt, most cheaper PCs have had HDMI ports forever. So is a mini value the reward? Is it a ultimate small PC for a vital room — as well as over? Read on to find out.
Mac mini (unibody) unboxing as well as hands-on

Hardware

The new mini represents the initial major redesign in a product’s story since it was initial introduced in 2005. That’s partially a covenant to a minimalist good looks of a previous pattern, of march — it’s managed to blend in with every Apple pattern trend of the past five years. By the same token, a new design promises to have next to staying energy: it’s during once both simpler and more deeply deliberate. Obviously a major portion of the case is a aluminum unibody, which is thinner than the previous-gen during an inch and the entertain, though slightly bigger around during seven by 7 inches square. Apple tells us the brand-new and old minis have been radically the same distance by volume; you might consider of the new mini as being the flattened-out chronicle of a aged. In fact, the new mini looks similar to zero so much as a Apple TV — but we’ll get to the heart of which comparison later.
Mac Mini vs. Apple TV… quarrel!

The brand-new mini doesn’t actually lay flat on a surface — it essentially rises up off a ground by a few millimeters on a circular pedestal. This is for dual reasons: a front mouth houses an air intake, that is vented out the back, and it also originally conceals a WiFi antenna, which would differently be stifled by which all-aluminum enclosure. Bluetooth and a second relating WiFi receiver are additionally located upon a plastic behind row for 360-degree coverage. We tried a mini all over a residence on the 5GHz WiFi network as well as suffered zero problems, so it seems like this little trick was effective for us — we’ll see how others with incomparable or some-more formidable WiFi setups transport.

About that pedestal: as you competence have noticed from our hands-on photos, flipping the mini over reveals the circular entrance doorway, that you can turn off to get at a RAM. It’s hard not to marvel during a perfect Apple-ness of a panel a first time you interact with it — other companies simply don’t have computers similar to this. Unfortunately, you can’t get during anything alternative than a RAM once the row is off, as a hard drive isn’t user replaceable. That’s pretty stupid, in our opinion: tough drives have a nasty robe of failing, especially when you run ‘em non-stop in servers as well as video playback machines, and we’d much rather than have the tough time upgrading the IMPEL once during a opening than feel helpless about replacing the glitchy hard drive.

Round behind there’s a pretty standard array of ports: 3 USB, FireWire 800, gigabit Ethernet, an SDXC label container, mini DisplayPort, HDMI, mic in, as well as audio out, that supports optical out as good. Apple says the thought is for the mini to be able to plug into most all out of the box, so there’s an HDMI-to-DVI adapter packaged in a box, and you can obviously score a VGA mini DisplayPort adapter as well. The HDMI port itself is said to be “HDMI 1.3-compliant,” as well as it’ll lift up to eight channels of audio and run displays up to 1920 x 1200, nonetheless it doesn’t await a little-used Deep Color. As with the prior mini, you can use both display outputs simultaneously; a mini DisplayPort supports the max res of 2560 x 1600. Oh, and this is a first time Apple’s finished as well as SDXC container, so that’s nice — design to see which on other SD-equipped Macs as time goes upon.

Inside, a mini is very similar to a $999 MacBook: the tester was the sole standard configuration, with a 2.4GHz Core 2 Duo, an NVIDIA GeForce 320M GPU, 2GB of IMPEL, as well as a 320GB tough drive. It’s not the ton of computer for $699 — you can get any number of Core i5 PC towers with identical GPUs for a same income — but as common, that’s not unequivocally what Apple’s going for, as well as what you remove in tender computing energy you gain in saved energy energy, as the mini draws reduction than 10 watts of energy at idle, reduce than roughly each alternative rival appurtenance. What’s more, the new 85-watt energy supply is now built right in, so there’s no energy section, that is utterly nice, especially for home drama as well as other nonstandard installations. (In fact, a energy block is a same as a Apple TV, so you can swap in the mini right in place.)

The mini is additionally exceptionally still: we never listened a fan flog in, even whilst you played games or watched videos. That’s not to say the air blower wasn’t starting, though just that we never heard it. Given our recent practice with incredibly repulsive MacBook Pro fans, we’re imprinting that in a plus mainstay. The mini was also laudably cool — you never felt it get even somewhat warm after the the full day of contrast.

Of march, there’s a single really notable hardware omission here: a Blu-ray drive. It’s arrange of extraordinary which Apple will happily sell you the $700 computer with an HDMI pier which doesn’t support the best, easiest as well as highest-quality consumer HD playback format available, but for whatever reason the association just doesn’t suggest any machines that do Blu-ray, even though it’s the member of the Blu-ray Disc Association. When we pressed them about it, Apple told us they only don’t see customer demand for BD drives because the format has yet to take off. We patently remonstrate, but that’s the last answer — maybe the mini’s newfound affinity for HDTVs will finally push Apple to suggest Blu-ray in the future.

Performance
At this indicate the opening characteristics of a 2.4GHz Core 2 Duo Mac with a 1066MHz bus are pretty informed domain; Apple’s had identical basic hardware in the lineup since 2008. The brand-new mini adds a NVIDIA GeForce 320M graphics processor to a brew, that is a some-more manly successor to a informed 9400m from a prior model — it’s still integrated graphics, but it’s reasonably quick integrated graphics.

Needless to say, the brand-new Mac mini was more than capable of simple tasks like browsing, word estimate, as well as running iTunes. And distinct the Atom- or Ion-based nettops you might consider putting underneath your TV, a mini is additionally more than able of using HD Flash video without any perplexity — and it’ll be even better when Flash 10.1 “Gala” ships with hardware video increase in speed for Mac OS X. The mini can also play probably each alternative video file you might chuck at it regulating either QuickTime with a open-source Perian component or alternative renowned video apps similar to VLC or Movist, which is our brand-new the one preferred. We didn’t have any issues personification 1080p files from a variety of sources, and we wouldn’t have any hesitation you do a small light iMovie work on a side. On the straight benchmark front, a mini put up the Geekbench score of 3385, that is right in line with what we’d design.

Where the mini does onslaught is gaming performance. Although the GeForce 320M can handle less fatiguing games as well as reduce resolutions just excellent, it can’t cling to once you crank things up — we averaged in between 17-20fps using Portal at 1920 x 1200 with the default settings, and about a same when we ran it during 1080p connected to the TV. If you’re willing to step it down, though, you should be excellent — you got 30fps running Half-Life 2 Episode 2 during 1280 x 800. Passable, though if you’re the hardcore gamer you’re substantially not looking during Macs anyway.

In the vital room

So this is where it gets interesting — people have been using the Mac mini as a simple HTPC for years right away, and the new model’s HDMI port certainly makes it appear like Apple’s given the small guy its good fortune to invade the vital room. It’s not utterly that elementary, though — as well as if you were hoping to just drop in the new mini in place of an aging Apple TV, well, you’ve got some surprises coming. First, you should note that all a HDMI port really gets you is a easier interconnect story; differently you’re still traffic with the full-on computer, not an integrated media device. Second, a fact that you’re regulating a genuine computer equates to that you need some arrange of keyboard and mouse to do anything of value — certain, you can click by Front Row regulating an Apple Remote, but that’s the pretty limited experience compared to even the Apple TV, and you didn’t just compensate $700 for the limited experience. Apple was flattering upfront about this: they told us that a mini’s HDMI port is about charity flexibility, not creation a play in a living room, and which mini customers who wanted to hook it up to the TV were probably savvy enough to find their own program and input methods. In fact, the usually HDTV-specific square of program upon the mini is a brand-new underscan slider in a Displays welfare mirror, that lets you dial in a distance of a picture on your TV. Apart from which, you’re on your own here, Chico.

That pronounced, a mini is a capable small HTPC once you get it set up as well as starting with a program of your preference: you patently attempted out Front Row as well as Boxee, that both worked exquisitely, as well as you had no problem personification back a 1080p MKV over HDMI once we commissioned Perian. Since a mini can output up to 8 audio channels over HDMI, it’s technically possible to run the full 7.1 surround complement from it, though removing DTS audio output in OS X from anything other than a DVD is clearly unfit, so if you’re a stickler you should be transcoding to AC-3 surround and sending that to your receiver. Like we said, you can’t only offshoot this up to the TV and go — you’ve got to baby it a little if you want the most appropriate knowledge. Of march, all this would be a lot simpler if Apple would only suggest the Blu-ray drive, but you digress.

That’s really the only hardcore home theater contrast we did — alternative, easier things similar to personification behind Netflix as well as Hulu patently work only as well as they do on any alternative Mac, and you won’t run into any problems. Of march, you can additionally purchase or lease movies and TV shows from the iTunes Store; we didn’t run into any problems doing which, patently.

And that’s really it — a Mac mini is only a Mac, despite one that’s unequivocally easy to hook up to your TV. If you want to take the jump into carrying a full-on mechanism in your living room, it’s the fine approach to begin, given it’s small, quiet, cold, and fast. Just know that removing the best knowledge isn’t necessarily block and play — unless you’re peaceful to spend a little time monkeying around with semi-obscure utilities similar to Audio MIDI Setup, putting the mini underneath your TV competence means more problems than it solves.

Wrap-up

Apple tells us its idea with a Mac mini was to have a small, stretchable computer that would fit into whatever surroundings people wanted it to go — a association seems utterly chuffed with a series of people who put minis into cars, for e.g.. By that magnitude, the new Mac mini is the raging success — it’s one of a many perfectly-executed small PCs we’ve ever encountered, as well as it can in truth hook up to roughly anything as well as get ahead nearly any charge. If you’ve got $700 as well as you need the small Mac, you’re going to be flattering happy with the Mac mini.

On a alternative palm, $700 ain’t poor. You’ll roughly certainly get some-more bang for those bucks in the PERSONAL COMPUTER universe, although you’ll sacrifice a little fit and finish. It’s additionally fairly easy to find a $700 HDMI-equipped PERSONAL COMPUTER with the Blu-ray drive, which is a striking repudiation from a mini — especially since it seems so perfectly suited to the vital room. No, a mini isn’t a undiluted HTPC, although it’s tighten. But if you can live without Blu-ray as well as you can afford a cost tag, the mini promises to be just as friendly an oddball as the prototype.