iMac 24' or M1 Mini + Large Monitor?

[martin2345uk]

So looking ahead a few months, I think I will be upgrading my ridiculously cheap all in one Windows PC with a Mac of some kind...

I am torn between the M1 iMac and an M1 Mini

As far as I can see the advantages of the iMac are:

1. Looks good
2. Less equipment/clutter
3. Less power consumption?
4. Sharp display

Whereas the Mini has these going for it...

1. Can get a larger display than 24'
2. More ports
3. Possibly slightly cheaper depending what monitor I went for

What do you guys think? Use case is very basic stuff - emails, browsing, Office work...

 

[SRQrws]

I've worked with these three setups: M1 iMac, mini + LG 27" Ultrafine, and my current home office setup of a Mac Studio + Apple Studio Display. The iMac is great for the reasons you listed, but for my workflow, the 27" monitor is best. I do much of my work with side-by-side windows, such as an Excel spreadsheet and a browser, open at the same time. The extra real estate of the 27" makes a significant difference for me. If you work in full screen mode, or don't need two windows open side-by-side, the iMac is a great option and a good dollar value. The mini also gave me some issues with Bluetooth connectivity, but that may have been fixed by now. My current setup with the Studio and ASD is ideal, but it's quite costly.

 

[Obi Wan Kenobi]

So looking ahead a few months, I think I will be upgrading my ridiculously cheap all in one Windows PC with a Mac of some kind...

I am torn between the M1 iMac and an M1 Mini

As far as I can see the advantages of the iMac are:

1. Looks good
2. Less equipment/clutter
3. Less power consumption?
4. Sharp display

Whereas the Mini has these going for it...

1. Can get a larger display than 24'
2. More ports
3. Possibly slightly cheaper depending what monitor I went for

What do you guys think? Use case is very basic stuff - emails, browsing, Office work...

I went from an older 27" iMac to the new 24" one. The difference in screen width is not significant for the use case you describe (which is similar to mine).

I'd recommend the iMac. You really don't need many ports these days, plus by the time you've spent money on a screen worthy of the graphics potential of your Mac Mini, you will have spent the same if not more than the price of an iMac.

 

[pmiles]

A couple of things you may have overlooked:

iMac is an all-in-one... meaning you have everything you need right out of the box. The Mini requires you to bring your own speakers, mouse, keyboard, monitor, et al.

iMac is limited on screen real estate... there's a reason why 27" and larger is quite a common for screen display size these days. The older you get, the more this becomes relevant to you.

Unless you truly have little use for your computer as you claim, you're going to be getting an external drive for additional storage. The days of clutter free Macs are over... hence they cry for more ports on just about every new silicon Mac there is.

If you even remotely dabble in gaming on your PC, you're going to wish you kept your PC once you see the lack of games that are available on a Mac.

Both the M1 iMac and M1 Mini are due for a refresh in the coming year. Gives you more time to do your homework on just what you can and cannot do on a Mac compared to your PC. Unlike your PC which is upgradeable... Macs are not. What you buy today is all it will ever be from this point forward (excluding the INTEL Macs).

 

[Yebubbleman]

So looking ahead a few months, I think I will be upgrading my ridiculously cheap all in one Windows PC with a Mac of some kind...

I am torn between the M1 iMac and an M1 Mini

As far as I can see the advantages of the iMac are:

1. Looks good
2. Less equipment/clutter
3. Less power consumption?
4. Sharp display

Whereas the Mini has these going for it...

1. Can get a larger display than 24'
2. More ports
3. Possibly slightly cheaper depending what monitor I went for

What do you guys think? Use case is very basic stuff - emails, browsing, Office work...

Power consumption is pretty similar between the two. You have the option for 10Gb Ethernet on the mini. Otherwise, you trade two USB-A ports for two USB-C ports (Mac mini to iMac), and HDMI for a built-in display. The mini is probably going to be less expensive, but mainly because you have your choice of display (you don't have to buy a Studio Display, the LG Ultrafine 5K or literally any other monitor can suffice).

That all said, I have M1 minis and a base model M1 iMac (and mind you, the only reason I even got the base model M1 iMac is that it was at an okay price used on eBay; I'd only ever recommend someone get the 8 GPU Core/4 port variant of M1 iMac) and they all work reasonably well.

Both the M1 iMac and M1 Mini are due for a refresh in the coming year.

There's nothing concrete to suggest that's happening. Latest iMac rumors suggest that Apple will skip M2 for it altogether and just update it when the M3 is a thing. Gurman suggests it, and certainly Apple needs to replace the 2018 Space Gray Intel Mac mini with SOMETHING, but there's no concrete rumors. The Mac mini has consistently evaded the rumor mill in terms of accurate predictions.

I'd say that the M2 Pro and M2 Max are much more of a shoe-in for a newer rev of 14" and 16" MacBook Pro and possibly a newer generation of iPad Pros, but past that, there's nothing consistent. The Mac Pro might not even use an M-series chip at all.