Apple added the Mac mini to its Mac product catalogue back in 2005. In 2010 they
revamped its looks unifying all Mac products to the aluminum uni-body finish. In
the latest annual upgrade, Apple hasn't changed the looks of the Mac mini but
has brought the hardware under the hood up to speed. Is it enough to be an elite
Apple product or will you do better to look elsewhere?
First
Impression
One look at the device and you will agree that it is one of
the tiniest CPUs you have ever seen. It is merely 1.4-inches tall and is really
light weighing about 1.22kgs. Out of the box, all you get is the Mac mini, a
power cable, HDMI to DVI converter and the manuals. It is probably the most
portable CPU out there.
The body of the device has an aluminum encasing with
the Apple Logo on the top. All the ports including the power supply and the
power button neatly rest at the rear of the device.
On the down side you have
to buy the monitor/display, keyboard and mouse separately.
Performance
In terms of the power under the
hood, the 2011 Mac mini has been brought up to speed with the second-generation
Intel iCore processors. The basic model comes with a 2.3GHz core i5 processor,
2GB RAM, 500GB HDD and Intel integrated graphics for Rs. 44,900.
A higher
model has a 2.5 GHz Intel Core i5 processor with 4GB of RAM, an AMD Radeon HD
6630M graphics processor with 256MB and a 500GB HDD for Rs. 54,900.
In terms
of connectivity options, the Mac mini has all the ports neatly laid out at the
rear. It has four USB 2.0 ports, one Thunderbolt I/O port, HDMI out, FireWire
800, Ethernet port, power supply, SDXC card slot, mic and headphones port and
the power button. You do feel the lack of an optical drive and USB 3.0 is.
The performance of the Mac mini as a stand-alone desktop was a bit of a let
down. For starters, you need to purchase the display, keyboard and mouse
separately. It makes sense if you have an HD TV and you would like to use the
device as an HTPC (Home theater PC) as the device supports HDMI out straight out
of the box. The maximum resolution that you can get from the HDMI out is
1920x1200. If you truly want to take advantage of the display resolution, Apple
has added its Thunderbolt I/O to the device. Thunderbolt displays support a
resolution of 2560x1600.
Apart from the fact that the device packs in a punch
under the hood and can support the highest display resolution, the fact remains
that you can take advantage of the device only if you have all the accessories.
We connected the Mac mini to a Samsung 21-inch HD monitor, a Sony 2.1 audio
system, Dell Keyboard and a Microsoft Arc mouse. Setting up the device was as
easy as plug and play and we were ready to use the device in under 5
minutes.
For daily computing needs the device performed extremely well. Lion
as an OS is brilliant and works very smoothly. Running multiple apps on the
device work like a charm. The problem - we didn't have the Apple magic mouse to
take advantage of Apple's multi-touch functionality (you need to purchase it
separately). If we wanted to use apps such as Photo Booth or FaceTime, we needed
a web cam - another add on to the hardware. Also, there's no optical drive. On
the bright side, setting up any keyboard/mouse with the Mac mini was as easy as
biting an Apple!
Multimedia
This is where we believe the
device has some serious potential. A lot of consumers who are tech savvy like to
build their own HTPC (Home Theater Personal Computer). For those that aren't
tech savvy, this device can act as a HTPC straight out of the box. With the HDMI
out, you can connect it to your amplifier/HDTV and enjoy all your audio/video
content. We ran a couple of 1080p videos on the device encoded in .MKV, .MOV,
.MP4 and .M2TS. All of them ran very smoothly and without any hiccups.
The
size of the device also adds to the HTPC value as you can carry it with you
wherever you go.
With the horsepower under the hood it is easy to get some
gaming out of the device. Although the Mac games library is small, it should
appeal to the casual audience. If you are hardcore, we suggest you dual boot to
Windows or look at a dedicated windows machine.
Verdict
All-in-all the device is a bit pricey for what it offers,
especially since you need to consider the cost of a display, mouse and keyboard
which you will buy separately. If you are looking for a small, portable CPU that
can also double up as your simple out of the box HTPC with great power under the
hood, then the Mac mini could definitely be on your list.
Pros
Small, compact and portable
Good power under the hood
Well
built
Good option for an out of the box HTPC
Cons
No USB
3.0
No Optical Drive
Expensive
Keyboard, mouse and display need to be
purchased separately
Price: Rs.
44,900
Specifications:
2.5 GHz dual core i-5 processor
3MB L3
Cache
4GB DDR 3 RAM
500GB 5400 RPM HDD
AMD Radeon 6630M graphics card
with 256 MB DDR5 memory
802.11 Wi-Fi
Bluetooth
4.0
RATINGS:
Performance: 4
Price: 3
Ease of setup:
5
Ergonomics: 4
Wow Factor: 4
Overall:
3.5
Benchmarks:
Geekbench: 7100
iBench:
7
CineBench:
OpenGL: 24.85 fps
CPU: 2.59 pts
View the original article here
Saturday, June 1, 2013
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