Thoughts on this chip being the new base? It's an Intel Core i5-7260U with Intel Iris Plus Graphics 640.
http://ark.intel.com/products/97539/
Scores around 3,600 and 7,700 for GeekBench, up from 2,600 and 4,800 for the 4260U.
They've only just put the Skylake ones in and these Kaby Lake ones are launched - not currently shipping. I doubt Apple would use the Kaby Lake CPUs in just a Mac Mini for several months - far easier to go with economies of scale as our desktop engineers have spent months getting the battery and toolbar right in the MBP. It'll hurt if and when Apple release a 2017 Mac Mini and it uses the Skylake CPUs that were released 3 months ago in the Macbook Pro, though
I would say the CPUs remain a decent upgrade and the GPU is interesting. If the Mini is entirely made up of 15w Skylake CPUs and marketed as even more energy efficient we couldn't really complain too much if they retain the same case and maybe engineer a better cooling solution to keep the machine quieter for longer under load.
If anything, thinking ahead, the price of the Toolbar equipped Macbook Pros with the 28w CPUs make it more likely we will see the Mini go 15w Skylake across the board - for example the
i5-6360U.
We could see nice fast Mini with 2 USB-C/Thunderbolt 3 ports, PCIe NVMe SSD and hanging off the PCH several USB3 ports, HDMI, Ethernet, Wifi/BT and an internal SATA port for a spinning disk. It's just a crying shame that Apple decided to make the Mini such a completely sealed unit. Going all 15w CPU would have allowed us the chance of a smaller form factor and all Flash.
Phil Schiller: "Apple's most energy efficient desktop."
The Skylake 15w CPUs should give the 28w Haswell ones in the 2014 Minis a run for their money.