Apple Mac mini 2018 - advantages and disadvantages

The last show of the best Apple manufacturer was remembered by fans not only for the modified iPad Pro and MacBook Air, but also for the updated Apple Mac mini 2018, the advantages and disadvantages of which are discussed in this article.

The mini PC has been persistently waiting for its own queue for a long 4 years. Having decided not to change anything in appearance, the company has revised the hardware of the smallest PC in the series from beginning to end.

Design

4 years of silence were not in vain, the expectations of users were realized in improving the performance of new items by 5 times. A practical PC with an apple logo forced to reconsider the attitude towards portable digital electronics. Mac mini turned out to be faster than laptops and ordinary PCs in the low-cost market segment.

Last year and this year, the designers of the corporation redesigned phones and tablet PCs, the dimensions and materials used changed, and “highlights” from the company appeared. However, in the situation with the culprit of the review, it was decided not to continue this direction. For a PC, there is no need for such expressive components, it is important to save the primary dimensions by equipping the device with new options.

The first thing that stood out from the rest of the demonstrations was the appearance of a new colorway like Space Gray. The arrival of Space Gray was a welcome surprise for future consumers. Before that, this color came across only in premium gadgets of the corporation.

Ports

Nothing remarkable happened to the new shell. It supports all popular and proven connection formats. With the new chip, all actions are now carried out 5 times faster. The new gadget received all the necessary slots:

1. 4 x 3rd generation USB-C hardware shell. Multiple PCs can be connected to one display.
2. Slot for transferring digital information and clips in HDMI.
3. Out under the network, the speed of which reaches 10 Gb / s.
4. Ordinary USB sockets.
5. Out for audio.

A practical PC from Apple Corporation will be a good choice for users who love to watch videos in the evenings and users who are professional in the field of audio and video processing.

What is allowed to be connected?

One of the signs of the popularity of new nettop models from the Apple company is the ability to create a server by connecting a couple of PCs. A satisfied owner of a new practical PC can connect:

• High speed carrier;
• Auxiliary video graphics accelerator;
• Up to 2 displays that support the 4K standard.

Due to the ordinary "Out" with a USB slot, various types of digital devices are connected, and therefore the gadget is relevant in any situation and for multidirectional tasks.

Transfer of information

In the new product, Apple "was not greedy" and added as many as 4 Thunderbolt 3 connectors to the back side. These slots have the following benefits:

1. Data transfer is carried out at a speed of 40 Gb/s;
2. PC and other external devices are charged through any of the connectors;
3. If not integrated enough, then an external video graphics accelerator is connected.

Due to the unprecedented "generosity" of the corporation, it became possible to connect two displays at once that support 4K format.

Filling

Apple has apparently decided to develop a "no objection" modification of the Mac mini in the form of "one time and at a time", in order to satisfy outraged fans for a long time. It is worth noting that the developers of the company coped with this task.

Chip

Foreign bloggers and heads of scientific resources have already received a novelty for review. The very first tests showed that the long-term activity of the developers was not in vain. The portable PC was equipped with 2 chips of the eighth generation, one 4-core, the second - 6.

The device is used not only as a miniature household PC. The gadget is actively bought to connect several PCs in order to solve difficult computing processes.In this regard, there are significantly more questions to the chip than to all other components.

It is for this reason that Apple equipped the novelty with two innovative Core i5 and i7 chips from Intel. Already the first tests gave only favorable reviews. For example, about 15-20 tabs were opened, audio and videos were played, but no “lags” or “brakes” were found. It should be noted that the copying time to external media is less than 5 seconds. even for 5 GB.

RAM

The device is equipped with DDR4 RAM clocked at 2.6 GHz. As a result, "heavyweight" processes - rendering, working with capacious files and opening several virtual machines at once - will be faster.

It is worth noting that the gadget is allowed to put up to 64 GB of RAM. Representatives of the company claim that such an uber-setting will function up to 7.8 times faster than the "ordinary" 16 GB.

Turbo Boost

Turbo Boost from Intel has been used in PCs for a long time and has already proven itself from the best side. The technology improves the performance of various types of programs. Simply put, the processing of information in the chip is much faster.

Turbo Boost is activated from the factory and operates in automatic mode. In addition, the technology is applied during a lack of RAM. In fact, Turbo Boost accelerates the performance of the chip up to 4.1 GHz.

Carrier

The company abandoned the very obscure practice of the past, when Apple quickly did not want to put SSD-type drives in the usual modifications of poppies and preferred either primitive HDDs or a mixture of SSD and HDD, which is called Fusion Drive.

From now on, the novelty is equipped only with SSD-carriers.The largest capacity is up to 2 TB. At the same time, they function up to 4 times faster than SSDs on premium modifications in 2014 - in particular, the speed of stepwise reading reaches 3.4 Gb / s.

Cooling system

The increase in performance entailed the solution of problems with the cooling system. The practical shell interprets the equipment's own requirements. To fit the cooler, it was necessary to change the device of the power supply and specialized holes. Ultimately, the component received a 70% performance increase and 2x airflow capacity.

Performance

Naturally, most users at the same time will ask themselves the question: “What will the new incredible features really give, and how will they affect the operation of applications?” Here are some examples:

• Xcode - Layout on a mini mac with 6 cores is 2.2 times faster than on a 2014 device with 2 cores;
• Web Kit Compile - compiles 3.4 times faster;
• Adobe Photoshop CC - multi-threaded filters are 3.2 times faster;
• Pixelmator Pro - processes images using machine learning algorithms 3.3 times faster;
• Autodes Maya - rendering 5.3 times faster;
• Final Cut Pro X - export speed increases by 3.6 times;
• Logic Pro X - 5.4x more Alchemy tracks.

Protection of personal information

Data security in Apple devices is given due attention. Desktop systems of this year were equipped with the proprietary T2 Security Chip - a progressive chip for storing information. This chip has the following options:

1. Key security;
2. Fingerprint verification;
3. Secure boot option.

The proprietary T2 chip is activated at the hardware level, which is why no external, harmful application is able to influence it. The new chip will protect the device from the influence of virus software and hackers.

The last danger has not been an invention for a long time, in particular, of dubious bloggers. Every day there are many cases of connection by a pirated method to a PC, webcams or passwords. In the new product, Apple has provided a unique concept of protection, which is unrealistic to crack.

Equipment

The package comes with only the box itself and a long power cord.

Characteristics

Advantages and disadvantages

• Improved performance from all sides;
• Same as before, practical appearance;
• 4 USB type "C" Thunderbolt 3 slots;
• High build reliability.

• Integrated video card;
• Raising the starting price.

What is the price?

In the United States of America, the average price of a novelty starts at 53,000 rubles for an ordinary modification with an eighth-generation 4-core Core i3 chip from Intel, whose clock frequency is 3.6 GHz. The device is equipped with a graphics accelerator UHD Graphics 630 from Intel and is equipped with 8 GB of RAM and a 128 GB SSD.

If there is a desire, then the gadget can be improved in depth, of course, for an additional fee. Thus, a much more productive 6-core Core i7 chip from Intel will cost 20,000 rubles.16 GB of RAM increase the order price by 13,000 RUB, 32 - by 39,500, and 64 GB - by 92,500, respectively. If a 128 GB SSD is not suitable for the user, then a 256 GB block will add 13,000 rubles to the cost of the device, 512 GB - 26,000, a 1 TB solution - 53,000 RUB, and 2 TB - already 106,000.

The average price of a progressive version with a 6-core Core i5 chip from Intel, clocked at 4.1 GHz, will cost 72,500 rubles. The device has 8 GB of RAM and 256 GB of SSD.

In the Russian Federation, the novelty should appear very soon at a cost of 69,000 rubles for the regular version, and 94,000 for the progressive version, respectively.

Useful information!

A couple of new mini-macs can be connected into a complete network. Practical, with excellent performance and many slots, the network will be an excellent solution for professional activities.

Opinions of top foreign reviewers

Since some top bloggers have already got their hands on the new product, it will be wise to take into account their point of view and first impressions.

Tom`s Guide

This is the best mini mac ever made. If the user is thinking about upgrading any of the early models in the series, then the choice is clear.

The device will be an excellent choice for both fans of watching videos and users working in the audio and video field. Naturally, the ability to connect several devices to one server plays a significant role. This will make it possible to significantly increase the performance of a practical PC.

It would not be superfluous to highlight that despite all the superiority of mini-macs, there are a large number of PCs on the market with much spectacular graphics performance. The issue of games is not considered at all.

During tests, a device with a Core i3-8100B chip does an excellent job with 15 tabs open in the Safari browser, played music and a running video. No lags. It takes only a couple of seconds to copy almost 5 GB of data.

The novelty is definitely faster than many PCs in its category, up to rivals from HP Z2 Mini g4 or Lenovo ThinkCenter M710q Tiny.

AppleInsider

Compared to the previous model, the price of the improved poppy has increased by 20,000 rubles. This is if we talk about an ordinary modification. And such a cost, unfortunately, will repel a large number of potential consumers of the gadget.

But it is worth noting that this is a practical PC with really good performance. And at the moment it is still the most affordable Mac offered by Apple, if you do not take into account the retired old model with the old chip.

The good news is that the user can choose the usual modification and then personally add RAM. At the same time, such an improvement does not exclude its warranty, unless, of course, it breaks anything during the update process.

A good recommendation for the future: factory trims must be saved without fail, or when contacting an authorized service center, the user will be denied repair.

Testing an ordinary modification of the device (for 69,000 rubles at the domestic Apple Store) in CineBench R15, we got a figure of 40 fps on OpenGL and approximately 220 points during the chip test. Well, as for the smallest setting based on Intel's Core i3.

As a bonus, which is not noticeable at first glance, it is necessary to highlight the presence of the T2 chip.From now on, the user's Mac is much better protected when compared with previous models: secure boot and regular disk encryption are all “from the factory”.

six colors

In recent years, Intel has promoted the idea of ​​very practical miniature computers. This is unusual, but leads most users to assume that the next generation of Macs will become even more practical.

This did not happen in this update. Apple has decided to stay on the appearance tested by many years of experience. A significant external difference is only in color. From now on, the poppy mini has become darker.

TechCrunch

Probably the most key transformation in the gadget is the appearance of 4 Thunderbolt 3 slots at once. That is the number of them in the iMac Pro, and 2 times more when compared with the regular iMac of last year.

It is this feature that opens up significant opportunities for the future use of the device. Of course, the possibility of connecting a 4K display is also pleasing.

mac world

$53,000 for a standard Mac mini this year with a 128GB SSD. If there are few such parameters, then Apple provides a solution up to 2 TB. Of course, if the user is willing to pay for it.

Yes, the new product has PCI-e SSD standards. Simply put, the user will not be able to upgrade them individually. This must be taken into account before buying a device.

As for the RAM, everything is more pleasant here. Typical 8 GB DDR4 RAM clocked at 2.6 GHz can be upgraded up to 64 GB. In keeping with tradition, Apple recommends that you perform these procedures at a licensed service center.

Conclusion

Most users have been waiting for the company to present an improved modification of the popular nettop model for many years, in connection with which the fans were shocked that the Cupertino corporation finally released a new version this year. One way or another, this is not only a late iteration or a nimble, but "dirty" upgrade, which is designed to preserve the interest of fans, it is not.

Instead, users have a redesigned Mac mini, which inexplicably goes beyond what the fans were waiting for. It's a very cleverly crafted miniature PC that combines chic, innovative options and elements for performance that puts most other nettops to shame.

The Apple company acknowledged that the computing market has changed since the release of the last Mac mini. And as long as it's designed with creative users in mind, it's guaranteed to be a pretty budget PC to win Windows fans over.

With the increasing prominence of laptops and the availability of entry-level MacBooks, the company is delivering a new gadget aimed at skilled users.

The solution may seem extraordinary, but it works. It's an incredible miniature machine on its own, but when combined with an eGPU (or even a few secondary Macs), it makes for a powerful PC to run heavy-duty processes. A miniature PC with a wide range of features that allows customers to use their display and peripherals is a very flexible gadget.

Competitive pricing is also a big selling point when compared to other small form factor PCs offering a similar level of performance.Users have been waiting for an upgrade for a long time and, from the point of view of most experts, it was definitely worth the wait.