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Irish Mirror

Lifestyle

Mark Kavanagh

Apple Mac mini M2 review: the best computer you can buy for less than €1,000

Apple Mac Memory

I’ve been testing out the Apple Mac mini M2 model for more than a month now and have been blown away by how much power is in such a tiny frame.

Performance

The most impressive thing about the Mac mini M2 was its performance and power.

It’s a veritable beast that was more than capable of everything I threw at it thanks to the super powerful M2 chip.

I ran a variety of benchmark tests (such as Geekbench 6 and Cinebench R23) with ridiculously high scores, but it was in real world everyday use that this impressed most greatly – whether I was importing and then batch editing hundreds of GB of large photo and video files from memory cards or downloading videos from my drone.

It’s more than capable of running a digital audio workstation (DAW) such as Logic X Pro or Ableton and breezes through editing video.

Multitasking through work programs while having a couple of dozen browser windows open was no problem.

My review unit cost €959 and was the model with the Apple M2 chip which had an 8-core CPU (four high-performance and four high-efficiency cores) and a 10-core GPU along with 8GB of unified memory and 512GB of fast SSD storage.

It’s more than enough computing power for the average consumer.

But if you do need more power, then you can spec up with more unified memory and storage – not to mention the M2 Pro chip. Models with this even faster chip start at €1579.

Design and build

The timeless looking compact square aluminium box fits in just about anywhere – it is less than 4cm thick, measures less than 20 cm each side and weighs just 1.8kg. And it runs almost silently and never got hot during my time testing it.

When pushed hard while processing large amounts of data, the fan is just about audible if you listen out for it.

As is the case with a standard desktop PC, you simply plug the Mac mini into a screen and connect your keyboard and mouse.

Software

Mac mini M2 runs macOS 13.2 Ventura which boasts new features such as Stage Manager which automatically organises open apps and windows making it easier to concentrate on tasks.

You can see the current window you are working in displayed prominently in the centre of the screen and other open windows appear on the left-hand side so you can quickly and easily switch between tasks.

As you’d expect, Mac Mini integrates seamlessly with other Apple products such as the new HomePod speakers.

You can use a compatible iPad as a second screen, use the attached mouse and keyboard to control an iPad or other Mac and use an iPhone as a wireless webcam using Continuity Camera.

And you can quickly switch a FaceTime call from your iPhone to iPad to Mac mini with ease thanks to Handoff.

Setting up

You can plug and play with your existing equipment, or you can choose from Apple’s range.

My review unit came with the firm’s gorgeous Magic Keyboard with Touch ID and Numeric Keypad which has black keys on the keyboard (€205) and Magic Mouse which has a similarly coloured black multi-touch surface (€109).

They both suit the Mac mini colour scheme perfectly, as does the Magic Trackpad. And while I wasn’t sent this to test, you might like to consider it as it has a full range of multi-touch gestures and force touch technology.

Apple also sent a loan of the 5K 27in Studio Display (available from €1799) which has a 12MP ultrawide camera with Centre Stage, impressive microphones, and a decent six-speaker sound system with Spatial Audio.

Other features

There are ample connectivity options at the rear: ethernet port, HDMI 2.1, headphone port, two USB-A 3.1 Gen 2 ports, one Gigabit Ethernet and two Thunderbolt 4/USB 4 ports.

This enables you to connect to two monitors simultaneously – one at 6K 60Hz using the Thunderbolt 4 port and the other at 5K 60Hz.

The USB-A ports were handy for connecting legacy devices I had such as microphones and webcams.

(If you buy the M2 Pro version, you get even more ports.)

And you get Wi-Fi 6E, Bluetooth 5.3, and the option to go for 10Gbps ethernet.

There is an internal speaker in the Mac mini, but it's only useful for system sounds.

The 3.5 mm headphone port supports high-impedance headphones, incidentally. And there is a built-in digital analogue converter (DAC) so you can enjoy Apple Music’s Hi-Res audio at up to 96kHz resolution if using wired headphones.

It’s important to note that unlike a Windows PC, you cannot upgrade a Mac mini after you buy so be sure to choose an option that will suit you for the next few years.

Any Mac I’ve bought has lasted many years so no harm getting a spec with a bit of future proofing.