The Mac Mini has been ARMed with Apple Silicon, a big change for the compact Mac’s timeline.

Image Source: Apple

For its first batch of devices, the Apple M1 brings an 8-core CPU that boasts the promise of a performance 3 times better than the previous family of Mini. It is being advertised as a productivity machine, something worth compiling a million lines of Xcode – a feat claiming to be up to 3x faster compared to the last Mini. Another use case is building multi-track music projects on – if you’re a Logic user, you can use the Mini with up to 3x as many real-time plug-ins. If light video editing is in your scope, you can render a complex timeline in Final Cut Pro up to 6x faster. Pixelmator Pro can up your photo resolutions 15x faster

Image Source: Apple

Sticking with the 8 theme, it has an 8-core GPU and promises to deliver up to 6 times increase in graphics performance… but that is in comparison to integrated Intel graphics. No one should go into this thinking you will get the performance of a dedicated AMD or NVIDIA chip. It does however allows the Mac Mini to tackle tasks like 3D rendering with reasonable ease. In terms of value for money, the last generation was smashed by much cheaper Hackintosh’d NUCs from Intel however this new M1 chip may be the turning point.

Image Source: Apple

Apple has claimed the Mac Mini also features an advanced thermal design to keep cool and quiet, support for up to two displays including Apple’s Pro Display XDR in full 6K resolution, and WiFi 6 for faster wireless performance.

It also features the Secure Enclave in M1 for security… think Secure Boot but for Mac. Speaking of booting… no more Bootcamp, a real shame. This may help the development of Windows On Arm but for the time being, no dual booting.

Mac mini is now available for just AUD $1,099 inc. GST, This is AUD $200 less than the previous-generation quad-core model (Australian edition).