New Mac Mini Reviews: Performance Boost Makes This a 'Mac Studio Junior'

[lazyrighteye]

The star of the show so far this year. Cannot wait to get mine.

I have the reg M2 en route. Returning the X-mas M1 I picked for my 12 yo. Was tempted by that M2 Pro option, but passed.

 

[MoXoM]

The Mac Mini M2 Pro is shaping up to be a great all-round machine.

Just waiting for Samsung to announce pricing of their new 27” 5K display (ViewFinity S9)…

 

[Schnegg]

My god, these influencer thumbnails...

 

[lazyrighteye]

I'm torn between a M2 16/512 and an M2 Pro 32/512. The latter has the ports and plenty of RAM. I don't need the higher binned 12 core CPU. That SKU doesn't make a lot of sense, frankly, as once you go there you might as well buy a Studio. However, the 10 core with 32GB is $300 less than a base Studio with the differences of no value to me.

While that Pro was tempting… I went M2 16/512.

 

[radus]

Thats… that’s the Studio.
What on earth would be the point of putting that same chip in the mini?

My Studio has the M1-Ultra Chip and 128GB Ram.

 

[asdfjkl;]

The Mac Mini M2 Pro is shaping up to be a great all-round machine.

Just waiting for Samsung to announce pricing of their new 27” 5K display (ViewFinity S9)…

Agreed. Very interested to see how much the ViewFinity S9 ends up at. More likely to see discounts on Samsung products than Apple. Could be a very nice option.

 

[Turribeach]

Correct. That is why a lot of Mac users are excited to see the price and reviews for the Samsung 5k 27 inch and Dell 6k 32 inch displays that were revealed at CES this year.

I have the Studio display and agree with you, I spent too much. I also have 2 LG 4k 24 inch displays from Best Buy for $279/each. I have found that these are very good for those that want to keep their costs down. While not the traditional scaling/PPI, because the display is 24 inch, it is still very good for the price.

I don't get this. What is the problem with scaling/PPI? I have two Dell 27" QHD (2560x1440) and they look great on my Intel Mini. I found 4K to be too small for 27"s so it really needs 33-35" to look right.

 

[orbital~debris]

"Mac Studio junior"

A Mini-er Mac Studio, if you will.

 

[Turribeach]

Agreed. Very interested to see how much the ViewFinity S9 ends up at. More likely to see discounts on Samsung products than Apple. Could be a very nice option.

5K on 27" is too many pixels per inch. You will barely be able to see them...

 

[FFabian]

What about the normal non-Pro M2? Everyone and their grandma are raving about the M2 Pro Mini but *soundsofcrickets* on the regular M2 Mini.

 

[DeLaSoul]

Apple is carefully pricing the Mini not to eat into Studio sales.

Mac Mini vs Mac Studio with the most equal config possible:

Mac Mini
M2 Pro
CPU: 12 core
GPU: 19 core
Neural: 16 core
32 GB RAM
512GB storage
10 GE
$2099

Mac Studio
M1 Max
CPU: 10 core
GPU: 24 core
Neural: 16 core
32 GB RAM
512GB storage
10 GE
$1999

 

[FFabian]

There lies the catch that there's basically no monitor out there that you can use without needing to resort to weird scaling without buying the $1600 Studio display. 4K displays look comical at 2x scaling, and I'm not even sure you can get the 5K LG anymore.

The LG is still available and here in Europe actually at an even better price than in the USA (900€ vs 1200$). I had hoped for the new Samsung S9 to get released before the new M2 minis - didn’t happen so I ordered a ASD for the better build quality.

 

[OutOfShape80sWrestler]

Not going to lie, I threw-up a little in my mouth scrolling past all the links to the "influencer" videos. 🙄 🤢

Agreed. Seeing the same grinning faces smeared over the poster frames of YouTube "reviews" is grating to my nerves as well. It's the height of vanity. And just like cable news was to PBS NewsHour, YouTube tech reviews are choking out real journalism in favor of glitzy shallow look-at-me "reviews".

 

[Lounge vibes 05]

Irritating you have to opt up to the higher spec machines to get HDMI 2.1
Definitely market segmentation.

Really?
It makes perfect sense to me, I don’t know a single person who’s hoping to use a basic M2 that can’t even go past 2 TB of storage… But somehow wants to use it for 8K content.

 

[Sowelu]

I've not had my coffee yet, so is it me, or did they exclude the M2 (non-pro) from most of these benchmarks? Or is this another round of 'we are influencers and creators so we only talk about video editing' reviews?

I know the M2 Pro is the star of the show as it is new, but benchmarks and reviews comparing the M2 mini over the M1 mini would be nice (and I've not watched the reviews yet, so I may be pre-judging).

Waiting for MaxTech and the like to tell us why we 'SHOULDN'T BUY THIS', then a follow up video about 'WE WE WRONG', then a few days later 'INTEL'S M2 KILLER?!?'.

 

[Jankie]

I don't get this. What is the problem with scaling/PPI? I have two Dell 27" QHD (2560x1440) and they look great on my Intel Mini. I found 4K to be too small for 27"s so it really needs 33-35" to look right.

To each their own. But this is why many users are excited for the new displays.

See...
EXCELLENT article explaining how non-traditional scaling affects performance
Original article. Prior link is updated article Part 2

 

[asdfjkl;]

What about the normal non-Pro M2? Everyone and their grandma are raving about the M2 Pro Mini but *soundsofcrickets* on the regular M2 Mini.

Actually I'm very interested in the M2 Mini. A 16/512 configuration at $999 is a great deal, in my opinion. It's really the allure of 32GB of RAM that makes the M2 Pro mini interesting. That much RAM would make certain workloads possible.

 

[Luap]

A M2 Max Version with 64GB Ram would had been nice.

Might still happen yet.... ?

 

[SamRyouji]

Not going to lie, I threw-up a little in my mouth scrolling past all the links to the "influencer" videos. 🙄 🤢

Those nasty, narcissistic video thumbnails really need to be banished from the existence.

 

[FFabian]

Or is this another round of 'we are influencers and creators so we only talk about video editing' reviews?

This! I don’t do video editing and I guess a lot of people need a Mac for different tasks. I’m tired of all these “for video/photo editing” reviews. I want a M1 / M2 comparison and some thoughts on the usefulness for the average joe.

 

[idktbh]

I don't get this. What is the problem with scaling/PPI? I have two Dell 27" QHD (2560x1440) and they look great on my Intel Mini. I found 4K to be too small for 27"s so it really needs 33-35" to look right.

dude you don't understand how macOS scaling works. any resolution that is not 2x sucks and uses a lot of resources, QHD looks great? without subpixel rendering? ok...

 

[azentropy]

While that Pro was tempting… I went M2 16/512.

I was leaning toward that too, but I think I'll wait to see if/when retailers discount the Mac mini M2 Pro.

 

[Jankie]

dude you don't understand how macOS scaling works. any resolution that is not 2x sucks, QHD looks great? without subpixel rendering? ok...

I attached a reference article above that explains how performance is reduced with example images. I think this will help those that don't understand the resolution conundrum for many that use Macs.

 

[DotCom2]

No reviews for the M2 mini. I only see benchmarks for m2 pro mini

Irritating isn't it? Not enough love on the regular Mini M2.

 

[Stow]

m2 pro mini make more sense over a studio for xcode?