Not really much of a difference, and you’re not taking into account the mini has a built in PSU.
Mac mini: 197 x 197 x 36mm
7090 micro: 183 x 179 x 36mm
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Kuo: 2023 Mac Mini to Retain Same Design as Current Model
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Not really much of a difference, and you’re not taking into account the mini has a built in PSU.
Mac mini: 197 x 197 x 36mm
7090 micro: 183 x 179 x 36mm
I think it would be nice to see a mini with smaller footprint. Desktop space is increasingly premium. At least design it so it can stand vertically like the Nintendo Wii.
There is literally nothing stopping you from standing it on its side. I did that with mine when I had one since the sides are completely flat.
Plenty of cheap vertical stands on Amazon if you’re worried about it falling over, though I never had that problem.
Number of units PC sold are much greater number than 20 years back.
Market share of personal computer vendors - Wikipedia
Also apple is serving diverse population (7+ billion people and counting) with diverse income.
As long as it is making money, why not.
SSD is a game changer, that really put PC in fast lane, almost every PC sold comes with SSD, which makes all the PC makes fast (compared to perceived slowness). Also as the technology improves every year, longevity of PC is higher compared to earlier years. Some and many workloads also moving towards Cloud. So really have to work hard to generate sales.
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Mostly it will get PRO chip and little cooling solution.
In Intel era, apple ended up using laptop chips in desktop to save cost from Intel (by using bulk orders of same chip across the product line).
With Mx Chips, they can choose to put whatever they like in whichever the product it seems doable.
The M1(2) Pro is why retaining the current design wouldn't surprise me.
The exterior dimensions of the Mac mini seem overkill now because of the base M1 chip, but I could seem them using the extra space for cooling the M1 Pro chip. The M1 Pro chip is probably what is replacing the Intel Mac mini and will serve the middle ground between the base M1 chip and the M1 Max/Ultra Mac Studio.
It's a timeless design that still looks great, so I'm fine with keeping it.
The present mini WAS ridiculous when there were internal parts to upgrade. A square bottom panel would have made life much easier. Having to swap in an SSD recently to my Core2Duo server version reminded me how annoying the screw bottom design is. At least I didn’t need to swap the top(bottom) drive.
Now that everything is soldered in, the design is perfectly fine as long as everything fits in the first time…
That is a problem.
Maybe the answer is to upgrade some of the specs of the base M1 mini and then only offer a 16GB M1 Pro (no 32?)?
My experience with the Pro for the last 3 months is 16GB for an M1 is more than enough unless you might be doing the kind of work where you should be buying the Studio anyway.
Being probably one of the oldest students around, I can say that M1 Mini with 16gigs RAM and 512 SSD constantly has challenges for me with respect to RAM. I might have several web pages open, Word, Pages, email open and some how, I get down to 1.4 % of memory available if we were to trust Memory Diag.
For me, just a bit of video issues that have changed over time - from a few glitches happening to the screen, inability to return after sleep to now a really fun one - 60hrz somehow changes on its own to "40-60hrz." For the latter I can tell as the screen flickers noticeably. The above is the other of course with very very odd memory management and certainly browsers "as is" do nothing but suck up as much of the pages as possible and MacOS allows it to occur which is equally suspect.
I'm a fan of the various Apple offerings from Mini to laptops to iMacs and non trashcan Pro but each time, just a lil something is off or witheld (intentionally?).
I also had issues with only 16GB RAM. With more complex Final Cut Pro projects, it was constantly complaining of running out of RAM and failing to export.
I haven’t encountered this issue on my M1 Max machine with 64GB RAM.
Those that perpetuates the myth that “16GB is more than enough on M1” is doing anyone they convince a disservice.
Apple is being lazy about the progression of design if this is true. Not good. Current Mac mini replacing the elegant iMacs? What a down grade!
Can they cram a M1 Max into a 14 inch laptop, the mini is plenty big. Passively cooled M1/Pro would be amazing progression of the mini. Another idea would be if it had exactly the same foot print as the foot of the Studio display so it can be "hidden" visually on/at the foot.
I think the studio has an uninspiring design. Just boring. The reason is that it is just a Mac mini extruded with some vent holes.
Can they cram a M1 Max into a 14 inch laptop, the mini is plenty big. Passively cooled M1/Pro would be amazing progression of the mini. Another idea would be if it had exactly the same foot print as the foot of the Studio display so it can be "hidden" visually on/at the foot.
I think the studio has an uninspiring design. Just boring. The reason is that it is just a Mac mini extruded with some vent holes.
If you look at the memory use details you’ll probably see some webpages that are consuming multiple GB. MacRumors forum is one of those where it slowly allocates more memory over time and you need to occasionally close the tab to clear it up.
If the March event had the Mac mini alongside the Mac studio - things would have been diff for me and would have got the Mac mini upgrade which perhaps would have had a pro chip but who knows but having it coming out later is a bummer. I ended up with the studio to see how it works for me.
16 GB is plenty many users (even 8 is enough for “single taskers”), but those doing higher level tasks like FCP could certainly need more RAM.
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I agree, but many out there in forums and comment streams suggest that 16GB is enough for everyone, and they’re wrong.
If all you do is the common basics, and 8GB Air is a great machine.
It's interesting how long Apple's late-2000s/early-2010s design language has lasted them. The all-aluminum Mac mini boasted such a simple design, to begin with, there really hasn't been any need to further improve upon it. It won't necessarily get better with a refresh - just simply different.
The nice thing resulting from this is that this Mac mini looks simultaneously retro and current. Pair it with an old Cinema Display (which looks quite contemporary on its own), and it would be difficult for most people to tell which generation of Mac mini it is - or even that the monitor is a decade+ removed from the Mac. I personally would love having the current M1 Mac mini alongside an Apple HD Cinema Display (30").
The nice thing resulting from this is that this Mac mini looks simultaneously retro and current. Pair it with an old Cinema Display (which looks quite contemporary on its own), and it would be difficult for most people to tell which generation of Mac mini it is - or even that the monitor is a decade+ removed from the Mac. I personally would love having the current M1 Mac mini alongside an Apple HD Cinema Display (30").
Until Apple announced that nex MacOS is the last with Intel support… this June…
There has been this one YouTube guy who shrunk the m1mini by some 70%.
Maybe not that radical, but a bit would be nice.
Maybe not that radical, but a bit would be nice.
I don't see anything wrong with the current design. So why change it?
How so? Remember all the talk about a new iMacPro, plastic Mini, Mini staying aluminium, M2 coming last Tuesday, M2 coming in the fall, M2 MacBook with touchbar etc etc are all just rumours.
What Apple did sofar in the Intel_2_AS switch is very consistent.
- Start with the entry level with no new design.
- Give the entry level iMac a new design
- Release high end MacBooks with new design while bumping up core counts on M1
- Release mid/high range desktop with even more cores
- Discontinue Intel models they don't want to transition to AS (for now)
- Promise the MacPro transition
Number of high bandwidth ports is limited by the M1 version used and I don't think they will change that for the M2 gen.
So IF they do a M2Pro BTO for the next Mini they might add those ports with all but 2 of the TBs falling back to just USB on the base M2. Just like the ones in the front of the Studio on a M1Max config.