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Apple is Now Selling a Refurbished Mac Mini for Just $319 (!)

hooptyuber said:
A $319 dollar Mac mini is a better option than an Apple TV. It's a bit more expensive but it's far more capable, versatile, and useful as a home entertainment device.
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Yeah I… don’t agree.
Maybe if someone has their entire movie library completely local and you don’t do much watching of modern television or you basically completely rely on piracy.
But for the vast majority of people who just use streaming services and maybe the occasional movie rental here and there, the Apple TV is a significantly better television experience.
Especially regarding navigation, the majority of streaming services on the Mac are either just websites or iPad ports.
And apples built-in TV app on the Mac is basically useless outside of purchased content and Apple Originals.
At least the TV app on the Apple TV actually integrates with most streaming services, Netflix being the biggest exception.
 
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theorist9 said:
This is more likely due to a simple mistake than a deliberate attempt to be clickbait-y.

First, the headline itself isn't clickbait.

Second, MR churns these articles out in high volume to generate traffic and thus revenue, and they are often produced without much care or editorial oversight. Whoever put this together thus probably grabbed a recent image of a Mini without remembering the cases had changed between generations.
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Agreed. I believe the article’s author when they said it was a simple mistake.
 
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Johnny907 said:
Or it means they’ll start to stratify features in future updates like they have iOS with version 18, releasing one build with all the latest bells and whistles for iOS devices packing at least 8GB of RAM, and a much more limited version for everything else.
It’s a dangerous precedent that makes it clear Apple now views its user base as a two tier structure, something Apple sycophants used to criticize Android products for not so long ago.

Funny how those same critics have all been silent now.
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That would be absolutely nothing new. Apple has been restricting new features to new hardware for decades.
They restricted home screen backgrounds to the iPhone 3GS despite the previous generation 3G receiving the same software update, they restricted Siri to the iPhone 4S despite it easily being ran with no problem on the 4 and even the 3GS.
They’ve been restricting plenty of features to Apple Silicon Macs over the last four years, even weird, simple things like Apple Maps features.
They restricted voice control to the third generation iPod touch… but only the 32 and 64 GB models. Not the 8 GB model.
iOS 7, added tons of transparency and parallax effects… only available on the iPhone 5.
Apple has always hardware locked software features both small and big. They’ve even hardware locked ringtones, “Reflections” is only the default ringtone on the iPhone X and newer.
So yes, I expect one day Apple will introduce a feature that requires the M4 or something newer. It will happen. It is nothing new.
It will not make all M1 through M3 machines unusable or obsolete, just like the fact that the iPhone 15’s inability to run Apple’s so called “ intelligence” features doesn’t make it any less of a good phone than when it launched.
 
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Apple Australia still has the stupid pricing for its refurbs with M2 of similar specs priced higher than M4 refurbs. I feel sorry for those who are going to get duped.
 
hooptyuber said:
No, man! According to posters on this thread, all your home entertainment gear should be at the level of a ten-year-old child and MacOS sucks! 🤣 :rolleyes:
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You are confused. A Plex server is not the same thing as a media streaming client. A Mac mini makes for a decent Plex server, but not a good media streaming client box for a TV.
 
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raythompsontn said:
I think it was about $299 the last time I remember. HSN throws in a crappy mouse, maybe some really low end headphones, and a year of tech support. HSN lists the retail at $799, normal HSN cost of $499, and a special sales price of $299. People jump all over them.

HSN also sells one model back of the iPad, minimum configuration, throwing in earphones, a case, and a cheap keyboard. About $40.00 worth of accessories. Then sells the package for $100.00 than the iPad alone costs at Apple.

Apparently a good business model for HSN, probably QVC included, as the two companies remain in business and continue to sell the machines.

The funny part of the entire presentation is listening to the hosts brag about the machines, how great they are, use them for business, traveling, college, etc. If you want to get laughed at a business meeting pull out your HP laptop with swirling colors and matching mouse.
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I think the draw of QVC and HSN is they do monthly payments for things without needing to qualify for credit. $299 isn't a horrible price for that laptop I guess, but it's definitely not a good price - that's for sure.
 
hooptyuber said:
No, man! According to posters on this thread, all your home entertainment gear should be at the level of a ten-year-old child and MacOS sucks! 🤣 :rolleyes:
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Even when I didn't have kids I didn't like home theater PCs. They were a hassle and the interface is bad compared to a simple remote, and a remote-focused interface...and I don't like to fiddle with my tech.

macOS is great, on a computer, with a mouse and keyboard, and a desk.
 
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brofkand said:
I think the draw of QVC and HSN is they do monthly payments for things without needing to qualify for credit.
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Perhaps. They still require a credit card. The real advantage is no interest over the payment period. But I think it goes deeper and the buyers are just clueless about technology and pricing.

I have purchased three printers from HSN. Canon printers that would print on CD/DVD blanks. I paid $49 each time. A new printer was cheaper than buying ink cartridges. The printer came with full size ink cartridges which was surprising. I threw the old printers away. Such a waste but better economics.
 
Corefile said:
The 319$ M2 Mini only has 8GB of RAM which is half the amount of new Macs. So it's something that will probably be limited to Sequoia and even that causes compressed memory just upon booting the thing.
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But to keep in mind is that it's $319.
 
TigerNike23 said:
I seriously think looking back, the 8 GB base will be considered one of the more anti-consumer things Apple has ever done.

In one year they’ve gone from “8 GB is enough” and “8 GB is like 16 on Windows” to 16 GB is the minimum and practically giving away 8 GB Macs.
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8GB was the base MacBook for 10 years??? Like 2014 I remember when Apple switched to the faster ssd

iPhone 6/plus had 1gb ram in 2014. And the ram for iPhone went up 8x in the same 10 year period.
 
Corefile said:
It's like Apple takes your 319 bucks then gives you a knee where it hurts. That's what running Sequoia in 2025 is like.
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Not everyone are in the position to spend >$319.

Ever wonder why many here are adamant about not getting Mac with Apple Silicon or even an Intel Mac?

It's an economic limitation that does not cover your specific use case or discretionary spend.
 
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WarmWinterHat said:
Even when I didn't have kids I didn't like home theater PCs. They were a hassle and the interface is bad compared to a simple remote, and a remote-focused interface...and I don't like to fiddle with my tech.

macOS is great, on a computer, with a mouse and keyboard, and a desk.
Click to expand...

Apple's Front Row UI was the least bad attempt at a home theater PC, but it was much less powerful than Windows' home theater UI.
 
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ChrisA said:
These older Minis are VERY usfull for specialized usecases. I have a 2014 Intel Mini with 8GB RAM running headless (no monitor and keyboard) as a small server. I can get to it using screen sharing. They can also run a virtual machine and use Linux on that. I use this to develop software that will eventually go in a Raspberry Pi, the virtual machine on the M2, runs MUCH faster than an actual Pi.

And of course, if your main use of a computer is web browsing the base M2 is overkill, connect it to a cheep 4K monitor and you are good to go for a toal price well under $600
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I have mine hooked up to a 43" 4K TV that I use as a monitor. Now that I'm used to so much screen real estate, I can never go back to a monitor.
 
Not bad. I'll probably bite once I see a cheap M4 model with 16gb of ram.

M2 was barely any better than the M1. But both M3 and M4 were big jumps.
 
Lounge vibes 05 said:
On the contrary, I think the fact that Apple was still selling 8 GB ram in 2024, while absolutely not a very good purchasing decision, at least means Apple will have to optimize macOS for those machines at least until 2031.
If macOS 21 still runs decent enough on 2024 hardware, just like the current macOS15 runs fine on 2018 hardware, means that not only will those 8 GB machines be fine for years to come, but the current 16 GB machines will continue to be optimized as well.
The days of macOS or iOS updates destroying old devices has really been over for quite a while now.
The 2018 Macs still run Sequoia just fine, the iPhone XS and XR with 3GB of RAM still run fine today.
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Hell, using OCLP 2010 Macs run sequoia pretty well
 
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