While Apple’s ‘It’s been way too long’ event was focused on the new iPad, the phrase would have been more appropriate if it was talking about the Mac mini. The Cupertino giant has finally upgraded its compact desktop PC and it has certainly been way too long since the last refresh in late 2012.
The new Mac mini should be considered a bigger launch than the iPad mini 3 which is disappointingly a (very) minor upgrade slapped with a $100 surplus price tag. The latest PCs finally offer Intel Haswell or better known as fourth generation Core processors which is pretty great.
However, we’ve lost much of the excitement realizing that the fifth generation Boradwell chips have already started showing up in devices having extremely thin form factors with fan-less designs. It’ll at least be a year (or 2 seeing how important the Mac mini is to Apple now) before we see the new silicon reach the device.
Also read: Apple’s new 27-inch iMac bears a mind-blowing 5K resolution, a list of its highlights
A total of three new models have been introduced, all packing dual core Core i5 processors from Intel. The high-end options can be upgraded to 3GHz Core i7 CPUs and the chips come with HD Graphics 5000 or Iris integrated. Storage options start from 500GB HDD and go all the way up to 1TB with options of Fusion Drive and SSD.
You’ll find a quick breakdown of the Mac mini’s specs below:
– OS X Yosemite
– Core i5, i7 dual core processor options
– Intel HD Graphics 5000/ Iris 5100
– 4GB, 8GB, 16GB RAM choices
– Up to 1TB HDD/Fusions Drive/SSD storage
– 2.6 pounds weight
– 1.4 inches x 7.7 inches x 7.7 inches dimensions
– HDMI, DVI, VGA, RJ-45 connector, Wi-Fi ac, Bluetooth 4.0
The Apple Mac mini base model now starts from $499 with prices going all the way up to $999 without customizations.