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Why almost the Mac Mini reviews on the internet are bad?

santosmarco

santosmarco

macrumors newbie
Original poster
May 2, 2011
29
0
Mexico City
All the recent reviews (CNET, Amazon, etc.) classify the New Mac Mini 2011 as bad option mostly because no optical drive, why? sincerely I cannot see this bad at all... Apple brought almost the features that everybody requested (i5, i7, AMD GPU, etc.) and really believe in the digital media...
 
You do realize that the media outlets who review the mini themselves are greatly influenced (read controlled) by the same corporations that want you buying cd's and dvd's, blu rays... for the next ten years, right?
 
The reviews are crazy. Blu-Ray, USB3.0 and the optical drive seem to be why they're rating them so low. I think they're just doing it to make something Apple does seem negative so that people don't bash them for being biased. My only gripe with the new Mini is the pricing/options (i.e. no graphics card on base model or server model; no dual 500GB in base model; no SSD in base model). I wish you could just customize it however you want.
 
The 2GB RAM in the base mini is inexcusable for a machine that's supposed to work for novices right out of the box...if I were going to write a negative review I would definitely give Apple a beating over that decision rather than the lack of DVD drive. Of course, none of the reviewers seem to even mention the RAM.

Even so, to say that the 2010 mini is better than the 2011 one (as engadget did) is insanity.
 
I personally think that this was a great move because they also knocked $100 off the price. For people who do not need the optical drive, now they get something that's $100 cheaper. For those who need it, no biggie. Just buy an external SuperDrive for $70. It's not really that big of a deal since it is a desktop anyways. Even with the external super drive, it's still cheaper than what it is before.

Maybe the people writing reviews are not aware that you can just buy an external drive.
 
balamw said:
Exhibit A: Thread 500 https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/apples-new-thing-ipod.500/

People don't like change.

B
Click to expand...

From page 4:

Obviously, this crowd will only be happy when Apple is giving away kick-ass PDAs for with MP3 record/playback and a built-in world phone for free.
Click to expand...

This guy was $9.00 off, I guess.

Anyways, most of the reviews are actually pretty complimentary when you remove the optical drive references. Not that I put much stock in them...different people have very different needs. If I absolutely needed an internal DVD drive I'd give it a 0/10.
 
USB 3 is no excuse. Its been out a year and the chip cost difference is next to nothing. If USB3 and TB are supposed to "compliment each other, not compete", then there is no reason not to include it.

The other big downside (that kept me from buying one) is the extremely weak GPU, especially in the quad.
 
wordoflife said:
Maybe the people writing reviews are not aware that you can just buy an external drive.
Click to expand...

From what I can tell, the majority of the "reviews" on Amazon are written by people who haven't even bought or used the machine, but are just aghast at the idea of a computer without a DVD drive.
 
The Apple store had only one mini on display, and it was the slowest model (i5 2Gb RAM). I tried using iMovie and got spinning beach-balls... tried exporting a clip, which took 6 minutes (the same clip took 2 minutes on an i7 Macbook Air).

The employees were overwhelmed with everything else they sell (except the Pro, also neglected alongside the mini). I got frustrated and left.
 
The way the Apple Store treats the mini is an outrage and a scandal. Had you actually managed to flag a salesperson down they probably would have told you how awful the mini is and why you should get an iMac instead.

Though they do seem to get scared of you when you ask about the server mini.
 
Tulpa said:
The way the Apple Store treats the mini is an outrage and a scandal. Had you actually managed to flag a salesperson down they probably would have told you how awful the mini is and why you should get an iMac instead.
Click to expand...

I could have pressed the service button for help, but it seemed pointless without server or Radeon models available.

Can't really blame them for cashing-in on their other products of course....
 
Tulpa said:
The way the Apple Store treats the mini is an outrage and a scandal. Had you actually managed to flag a salesperson down they probably would have told you how awful the mini is and why you should get an iMac instead.

Though they do seem to get scared of you when you ask about the server mini.
Click to expand...

Try finding an Apple Store employee besides a Genius Bar tech who actually knows what to do with a server or why you would want one.
 
Seriously, why get a mini when you can buy a refurb 21" iMac with the keyboard and the magic mouse for not that much more expensive?
 
Tulpa said:
The 2GB RAM in the base mini is inexcusable for a machine that's supposed to work for novices right out of the box...if I were going to write a negative review I would definitely give Apple a beating over that decision rather than the lack of DVD drive. Of course, none of the reviewers seem to even mention the RAM.

Even so, to say that the 2010 mini is better than the 2011 one (as engadget did) is insanity.
Click to expand...

The RAM is extremely easy to change, and the lower ram helps keep the initial cost low.
 
darknite38 said:
Seriously, why get a mini when you can buy a refurb 21" iMac with the keyboard and the magic mouse for not that much more expensive?
Click to expand...

Other people have addressed this, but for me the decision came to this: My current iMac is a 24" model. I'm not going down in monitor size.

The bundle of Mini stuff I bought was $950 (i5/Radeon mini, kb/mouse, superdrive). Canadian refurb price for the current-gen 27" iMac is $1439. I suppose for $1270 there's an i3, but I don't know if I could bring myself to buy into an older machine like that :)

The current plan is to use our 37" TV as a monitor. I don't know if that will be suitable for all our computing needs, but for $200, we can get a fairly good 24" screen, bringing our total price to $1150 -- still saving $280.

Ultimately, I squander some power this time around (and yes, some sexy monitor real estate :) ), but I put myself on a much less expensive upgrade path.

If the price of entry remains around that $800 mark, I can upgrade more frequently than I do with an iMac that runs $1700 new.
 
I think people rate it badly because with the lack of cdrom it is like Apple making you conform to their app store. Plus Apple has to know that a lot of people use the Mac Mini as a media center pc. So they are just limiting it's use also. It is one thing to rip a ODD from a computer that is not meant to be a main computer but kind of silly to rip it from one that it. Some people use them quite often still. Being a student I get class books all the time with cdroms.
 
Man9z0r said:
I think people rate it badly because with the lack of cdrom it is like Apple making you conform to their app store. Plus Apple has to know that a lot of people use the Mac Mini as a media center pc. So they are just limiting it's use also. It is one thing to rip a ODD from a computer that is not meant to be a main computer but kind of silly to rip it from one that it. Some people use them quite often still. Being a student I get class books all the time with cdroms.
Click to expand...

They dropped the price by $100 on the base model, and you can buy any cd rom drive to hook up to it. Also, there is remote disc. They aren't forcing you to conform to anything, other than more HDD space and the same/smaller footprint.
 
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