APPLE MAC MINI (M1, 2020) 8GB 256GB

With a new lower starting price and Apple’s straining-at-the-leash M1 CPU, the Mac mini is far and away the most polished, potent tiny desktop in its class. The Mac mini doesn’t get upgraded often, but when it does, it makes an impact well out of proportion to its trim dimensions. For the money, it’s hard to find a compact desktop on any platform that outdoes it on performance potential, sheer elegance of hardware and software design, and user experience.

M1 Chip

The Apple Mac Mini has the same compact design you love – but this one has the M1 chip at its core. The M1 packs everything you need into a single chip – it includes the CPU, GPU, Neural Engine, I/O and more onto one compact chip.

That means it offers incredible performance, so you’ll be able to get much more done on your Mac Mini than ever before.

The 8-core CPU is up to 3x faster than the previous generation, while the 8-core GPU brings you incredible graphics – they’re up to 6x better than before.

The Neural Engine keeps everything running smoothly – the machine learning technology is perfect when you’re analysing videos or processing images.

macOS Big Sur

Working seamlessly with the M1 chip, the Mac Mini runs on Big Sur. With a stunning and bold design, it offers all the great performance you’d expect, as well as excellent privacy features and security. Once you hit the desktop, you’ll be faced with the new look of macOS, Big Sur, which is one of the biggest switch-ups to the OS in recent years.

The Mac Mini can wake from sleep almost instantly (just like your iPad) and browsing and swiping through photos is quick and smooth. Setup is quick, and can involve porting over key files and apps from another Mac if you’re already in the macOS ecosystem.

SSD storage

SSD storage helps to keep everything running quickly. With speeds up to 3.4 GB/s, you can load apps and open files without waiting around.

Connectivity

There’s plenty of ports available too, just as you’d expect. There are combination Thunderbolt / USB 4.0 ports that are perfect for transferring data, an HDMI port for your monitor and two USB ports for your peripherals. As for display connectivity, you get support for up to two panels at a time, one on Thunderbolt and one on HDMI. The HDMI port supports a monitor with native resolution up to 4K and up to a 60Hz refresh rate.

WiFi 6 keeps your connection speedy and stable. At up to 1.2 GB/s throughput, you can stream, upload or backup without any delay.