Apple Mac Mini 2.0 GHz [Review]

The cheapest Mac in Apple's line up has arrived at our labs. The Mac Mini received a hardware update this March, wherein the graphics and the processing power along with the memory was upgraded to make it up-to-date with today's demands. We run it through our tests to see whether it is still the best compact computer that you can buy.

Bundle

• Mac Mini
• Power adaptor
• Power Cable
• mini-DVI to DVI adaptor
• Software CD
• User Guide
  

Conspicuous in its absence is the lack of the wireless remote for operating Front Row which earlier used to be a part of the standard bundle of the Mac Mini. Also, as is usual for the Mac Mini, there is no keyboard, mouse or external speakers provided.

Design & Construction

The Mac Mini design has largely been unchanged since its debut in 2005. It still remains one of the best looking compact computers that you can find anywhere. The steel grey sides with milky white top and the large Apple logo look simple and elegant. It is difficult to believe that this is actually a full-fledged computer encased within something that looks like a fancy tiffin box.

The front side has the slot loading SuperDrive. As is usual for desktop Macs there is no physical eject button, which is in sync with Apple's philosophy of having the minimum number of buttons possible, and the only way to eject the disc is through the OS. On the right edge of the slot is a receiver for the wireless remote. Below that is a tiny white LED light that indicates the status of the Mini.

Now let us move straight to the rear side, as the sides are completely deprived of anything. The rear side has a plethora of ports, which includes 5 USB 2.0 ports, Firewire 800 port, mini-DVI port, Mini DisplayPort audio In/Out and power port. The 5 USB ports might sound exciting but it is important to remember that of these, two will be reserved for the keyboard and mouse. This means you'll be left with only three (unless you use a wireless combo that will have a single Bluetooth dongle, in which case you'll end up with four ports).

The rear location of USB ports is inconvenient, especially if you plug in or remove portable drives often. I assume Apple refrained from placing the ports at the front or the sides to have a clean and uncluttered design, a decision, which from the point of view of aesthetics, makes perfect sense but doesn't when you think of ergonomics.

The ventilation on the Mac Mini is placed at the back and at the bottom around the edges. The Mini runs surprisingly cool with the top and the sides always being lukewarm at the most even during the most processor intensive activities. And then there is the time honored Mac ability of running quiet as a whisper. The only sound it ever makes is of the drives kicking in softly when you turn it on or it bring out of Sleep mode.

Hardware

The Mac Mini comes in two variants. Both have 2.0 GHz Intel Core2Duo processors. The base model has 1 GB of DDR3 RAM and a 120 GB HDD, whereas the higher end model has 2 GB of DDR3 RAM and 320 GB HDD. The Mini recently gained the NVIDIA GeForce 9400M graphics with 128 MB shared memory on the lower model and 256 MB shared memory on the higher model.

Both come with slot loading 8x SuperDrive as standard. For connectivity the Mac Mini has Wi-Fi 802.11n along with Bluetooth v2.1+EDR for high speed connectivity. There is also a built-in mono speaker.


Software


The new Mac Mini comes with Mac OS X v10.5 Leopard built-in. It also has iLife '09 pre-installed, which includes applications such as iTunes, Time Machine, Quick Look, Spaces, Spotlight, Dashboard, Mail, iChat, Safari, Address Book, QuickTime, iCal, DVD Player, Photo Booth, Front Row, Xcode Developer Tools.

iTunes is a music playback and management software and is also used for accessing the iTunes store to purchase and download music, movies, podcasts and applications for iPhone/iPod Touch and for syncing your iPod and iPhone.

Time Machine is used for backing up your files on an external drive and restoring them in case you accidentally edit or delete them.

Spaces lets you create up to 16 different workspaces (desktops), so you can arrange your windows and applications in multiple workspaces without cluttering them in one.

Spotlight lets you quickly search your system and display your files and applications. It also shows the definition of the word from the built-in dictionary and can also make quick calculations when you type numbers.

Dashboard displays the widgets on the screen; you can choose from the pre-installed ones or download your own. Mail and iChat are the email and messenger clients respectively.

Safari is a web browser based on the webkit engine. It is an incredibly fast browser and Apple even goes to the extent of calling it the fastest browser in the world, which actually is true. But there isn't a major difference in speed when compared to something like Mozilla Firefox, which is also available for the Mac OS X.

The Safari is however a bit short on features when compared to browsers like the Opera and also lacks the sheer magnitude of add-ons that are available for Firefox. Although the Mac version of Safari does have a few add-ons available that adds some crucial features such as ad blocking.

QuickTime is the default video player. It can also be used for video conversion, however, that requires it to be upgraded to Pro version, which is a paid option. Unfortunately, the default codec support is very scant, so you'd require something like the Perian that adds some codecs to QuickTime. But even Perian doesn't support all the codecs, so it would be advisable to just install VLC Player for Mac.

Front Row is a media player application that brings all your photos, videos, music, podcasts, etc. under one app. It has a very easy to use interface that reminds one of the interfaces on the iPods. However, this application is best used with the help of the Apple Remote, which is no longer supplied with the default bundle in the new MacBooks.

Photo Booth is an image capture and video recording application. It uses the iSight camera above the display. You can add various effects to the images or distort them through the settings. The quality of the camera isn't great though, so images in low light turn out a bit noisy.

Xcode developer tools can be used to create applications that can run on Mac operating system.

For professionals, Apple also offers a range of professional applications for image and video editing. You have Final Cut Studio (includes Final Cut Pro 6, Motion 3, Soundtrack Pro 2, DVD Studio Pro 4, Compressor 3 and Color) which is a professional video and audio production suite, Aperture for post-production work on images and Logic Studio, which is a music production suite. You can also go for the iWork '09, which includes Pages - a word processing application, Keynote - a presentation application and Numbers - a spreadsheet application. Or you can get the Mac version of Microsoft Office.

Come September, we'll also see the launch of Snow Leopard, which is a major update to the Leopard operating system. It would be priced at $29 for current Leopard users and promises to bring a lot of improvements that will take an already solid OS to a completely different level. This is one update you should not miss.

Performance


(Note: The Mac Mini was tested by connecting it to a LG W2243T monitor with a resolution of 1920x1080 at 60 Hz)


Here are our results of XBench and Geekbench:

For such a tiny machine the Mac Mini is fairly powerful. A student or an average home user would not need more than what is on offer here. I used the Mini as my primary PC at office for two weeks and was satisfied with the way it performed. I had several applications running at the same time such as the Safari, iTunes, MS Word, Mail, Expose, QuickTime Player, Calculator and a few others and still the Mini did not feel sluggish. I also tried playing HD movies, which has now become the format of choice for movie lovers, and even at 1080p resolution the movies played beautifully without any lag.

I installed Windows on the Mac Mini through Boot Camp to see how it would perform while gaming. I tried modern games such as Crysis, Call of Duty 4, Mirror's Edge and NFS Pro Street. I tested the games at 1920x1080 resolution since that was the native resolution of the monitor I used. Unfortunately, even at the lowest settings on the games at that resolution the frame rate was lagging, sometimes dropping to below playable levels. On lowering the resolution, the games did become a bit smoother, but not until I dropped the resolution to very low levels did the games become absolutely smooth. Hence it is fair to conclude that the Mac Mini is unsuitable for gaming.

Verdict

The Mac Mini being the cheapest in the Mac family is like a stepping stone into the Mac club. This is a great machine for those who want to try using a Mac but find the MacBooks and the iMac out of their reach. However, being the cheapest doesn't mean it is an inferior machine.

Apple has equipped the Mac Mini with a fairly powerful hardware to keep an average home user happy. This machine can accomplish regular tasks such as web browsing, word processing, music and HD movie playback with ease. You can even manage some low-level image or video editing or casual gaming but if you want to get serious performance in either of these departments, then you'll definitely need to look beyond the Mini, as it is just not designed for these tasks.

Priced at Rs. 36,600 for the 120 GB models and Rs. 48,200 for the 320 GB model, the Mac Mini does seem a bit expensive, especially when you consider that it does not include the additional cost of a monitor, keyboard, mouse and speakers. A Windows PC user will scoff at these prices as you can clearly assemble a far superior PC at this price. However, when you consider the stunning small form factor of the Mac Mini, its satisfactory performance that belies its size, the wonderful Mac OS X Leopard operating system, and the iLife suite of applications that it comes with, the Mini is still good value for the price.

Specifications