Apple Mac Mini 2010
Makes other SFF PCs look like towers
Review I’ll admit up front that I’ve always liked the Mac Mini. I used one as my main office computer for a couple of years before retiring it to my living room where it’s hooked up to my HD TV and makes a terrific little media centre.
Apple's Mac Mini: the new Apple TV?
So I was delighted to see that the new model not only sports an even sleeker, more compact, more living room-friendly design but also leads the way by being the first Apple computer ever to include an HDMI port.
And the new Mini now sports the same brushed metal design as the rest of the Mac range - and, perhaps not coincidentally, especially given the addition of HDMI, the Apple TV.
It’s actually a little wider than previous models, measuring 197mm wide and deep, compared to 165mm for the one in my front room. However, they’ve shaved almost 20mm off the height of the unit, bringing it down from 55mm to a svelte 36mm.
Now with HDMI and SD Card support
The reduction in size is even more impressive when you realise that Apple has managed to squeeze the AC adaptor inside the box too. The Mini does now get warm when it’s running, but you can still lay your hand on it without any discomfort. The only noticeable noise comes from the occasional whirring of the on-board DVD drive.
COMMENTS
Zino HD is not "similarly priced"
Why does The Reg keep insisting that the Zino HD is so expensive? Because it keeps quoting the jacked-up price of the blu-ray model it was sent for review.
My Zino HD cost me £329 last Christmas, and appears to be the same price today. It has internal DVD rewriter (check), HDMI output (check), 3GB RAM (1GB more than the new Mac mini), bundled wireless keyboard and mouse (neither included with the Mac mini), and a 500GB 3.5" SATA drive (not a slow laptop one).
I could have paid £20 extra for 802.11 wireless, or £80 more for a faster CPU (mine has 1.5GHz AMD dual core), or £60 more for a faster graphics card. Even with all those it would still be 25% cheaper than the Mac, but if you don't want these features, you don't have to pay.
Misleading
Sadly, you are missing quite a few points here with your 'slower but more expensive' nonsense.
There used to be two Minis - one at $599 and one at $799. Apple went with a single model which is exactly in the middle of those two prices. The newer model adds:
HDMI (for some people, this alone is worth the price)
SD (remember all the people complaining about the iPad because SD is 'so critical'?)
Much faster GPU
CPU marginally slower than old high end model and marginally faster than old base model)
Stronger case with better heat transfer
Significantly lower energy usage
Twice the RAM capacity
RAM replacement easier for end user
No more external power supply
Or, if you want to take away the one negative, you could go with the upgraded CPU. The system would then be $50 higher than the older high end model, but would have a faster CPU in addition to all of the above.
Now, I can see that you might not think that it's worth the money, but I frankly don't care. The system is less expensive than the old high end system and better in almost every way (except for CPU speed which will not affect most users given the significant increase in GPU performance). But this one-sided misleading trolling about 'slower but more expensive' is just plain wrong.
HOW MUCH?!
With no monitor, keyboard or mouse, shit processor and feck all base memory!!!
Meh - buy yourself a PS3 or new XBox 360 for a media centre and save yourself 300 notes.
Acer Revo
I'm a Mac fan with a Macbook Pro and Mac Pro Tower. But even I struggle to see why people would want a mini when you can have an Acer Revo with Windows 7 for a fraction of the price. Sure the Mini is shiny and has OSX but my lord, the price!
The point of the Mini was to create an entry level Mac, but they have gravitated towards producing something that is small as possible but not cheap. While it wouldn't be a good thing for Apple to be producing cheap as possible the Mini has lost much of its appeal for me due to the costs.
If you are considering the Mini but were put off by the cost like me, do take a look at the Revo. It's a remarkable little machine given the price and even comes with a Chinese rip-off of the Apple wireless keyboard I'm typing on at the moment.
So...
... they made a product that's slower, has less RAM, still doesn't support Blu-ray, and then upped the price. It also doesn't look as nice (IMHO).
In terms of price/value, even for the wildest fanboi, it's complete crap.
A fool and his money are easily parted.
