Apple Mac mini (2023) Review – Smallest Mac now also gets a small price

By admin On Feb 9, 2023

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The Mac mini (2023) is a well-performing mini PC, but it mainly distinguishes itself from its Windows competition due to its build quality, energy efficiency, and inaudibly quiet operation. The basic configuration is very sparse and opting for more memory or storage is very expensive, and upgrading yourself afterwards is of course not an option anyway. For the version that you actually want, you pay a lot more than the favorable price of the entry-level model suggests.

Pros

Remarkably affordable for a Mac
Good graphics performance
Energy-efficient and inaudibly quiet

Cons

The base model is low on memory and storage
Upgrading yourself is impossible
Configuration options are very expensive

In the wake of the new MacBook Pro, Apple also released a new version of the Mac mini. The Mac mini (2023) succeeds the 2020 model and uses the new M2 processor. Moreover, the price of the new mini PC is not higher, but lower than that of its predecessor. Does everything work just as well in practice as on paper?

Mac mini M2 (2023) vs. Mac mini M1 (2020)

To distinguish the old and new Mac mini in appearance, you need hawk eyes. The dimensions are unchanged at 19.7×19.7×3.6cm and the placement of all connections is identical. While invisible on the outside, there’s a slight change to connectivity, as the Mac mini now supports Wi-Fi 6E and Bluetooth 5.3.

You will only see a difference on the back if you buy the version with the M2 Pro soc. It has twice as many Thunderbolt 4 ports: four instead of two. The HDMI port also sends an HDMI 2.1 signal with that variant, where it is still HDMI 2.0 with the regular Mac mini M2. Controlling an 8k screen at 60Hz is therefore only possible with the Pro version. Connecting a Pro Display XDR with 6k resolution is always possible, because it fits through the Thunderbolt 4 ports.

Configurations and prices

Apple sells two customizable configurations of the new Mac mini. The entry-level model we tested costs 719 euros and has a normal M2 soc with eight CPU cores and ten GPU cores, supplemented with 8GB of memory and a 256GB SSD. You can equip this model with a maximum of 24GB of ram, a 2TB SSD and 10-gigabit ethernet at a hefty surcharge.

The model with the M2 Pro has twice as much ram, storage and Thunderbolt ports as standard, and should yield 1569 euros. It is striking that the soc is partially disabled by default; you have to pay extra for the full 12 CPU cores and 19 GPU cores. You pay more than 5,000 euros for the maximum configuration with 32GB of ram and an 8TB SSD.

Incidentally, Apple offers the Mac mini considerably cheaper for pupils, students and education staff; the entry-level model then only costs 599 euros , so 120 euros less than normal. For comparison, on a similarly priced iPad, you only get a discount of four decades through that program.

CPU	M2 8 core	M2 Pro 10 core
GPU	10 cores	16core
Memory	8GB	16GB
Storage	256GB	512GB
Thunderbolt ports	2	4
Recommended price basic model	€719 Current: €689	€1,569 Current: €1,569
Recommended price top model	€2,214	€5,249
upgrades	16GB memory + €230 24GB memory + €460 512GB SSD + €230 1TB SSD + €460 2TB SSD + €920 10GbE + €115	12-core CPU, 19-core GPU + €345 32GB memory + €460 1TB SSD + €230 2TB SSD + €690 4TB SSD + €1380 8TB SSD + €2760 10GbE + €115

Casing, connections, and upgrades

The Mac mini (2023) is a feast of recognition for those who know Apple’s previous mini PC well. Compared to other mini PCs, the device is special, because the fully one-piece aluminum casing feels very luxurious. Other mini PCs we’ve recently discussed, such as the Minisforum devices, but also the ‘original’ Intel NUC are largely made of plastic.

In a separate document (.pdf), Apple details the environmental impact of manufacturing the Mac mini. The total CO2 footprint is said to have decreased by almost thirty percent compared to the previous generation, partly due to the use of recycled metals and packaging that consists almost entirely of wood fibers.

Other than the black Apple logo on top and the subtle status LED on the front, there’s nothing exciting about the Mac mini from this angle.

On the back, you will find all the connections, which, as said, at first sight have not changed compared to the Mac mini with M1-soc. Next to the power button is the connection for the power cord; the power supply itself is integrated into the PC. From left to right you will also find the two Thunderbolt ports, the HDMI port, two USB-A ports and, yes, a headphone jack.

There is a ventilation grille for cooling under the ports, but the air that comes out of it rarely gets really warm.

Normally it is then time to talk about the upgrade options. However, we are quickly done with that, because there are none. Both memory and storage are soldered to the circuit board and are not upgradeable or even replaceable. It is likely that the new Mac mini will be added to Apple’s Self Service Repair program just like its predecessor, but at the time of writing the repair guide is not yet available. However, this only concerns repairs of, for example, the fan or the power supply, and no changes to the hardware itself.

You can of course expand the storage with an external hard drive or SSD. For the highest speeds you can then look atThunderbolt or USB4 SSDs, although they are still very expensive. You can possibly save some money bybuilding a Thunderbolt SSD yourself.

Benchmarking

As usual, the set of benchmarks we can run on Macs is a bit more limited than on Windows PCs. Still, there are a number of cross-platform tests that work on both Windows mini PCs and the new Mac mini. In the charts you will find, where possible and available, the old Mac mini with M1-soc, the MacBook Air with M2, the MacBook Pro with M2 Max, the Mac Studio with M1 Ultra, and several recently tested mini PCs with Windows. We’ve also included some desktop processors in the Cinebench charts for reference.

CPU Tests: Cinebench, Geekbench, and Corona Renderer

In the Cinebench R23 multitest, the new Mac mini with M2-soc scores 8677 points, which is practically identical to what the MacBook Air with M2 achieved last year. So the bigger form factor doesn’t seem to lead to better performance. The multithreaded performance is slightly above that of the Core i3 12100 quad-core and is 11 percent higher than that of the Mac mini (2020) with M1.

The performance increase in the single-threaded test is somewhat smaller at almost 9 percent. This raises the Mac mini from the level of a Ryzen 5000 CPU to that of a Ryzen 6000 chip, but the latest AMD and Intel processors for desktops are significantly faster per core.

In Geekbench 5, the difference between the old and new Mac mini is slightly larger. The multicore is 19 percent higher; in the single test the difference is 14 percent.

The Corona Renderer benchmark clearly needs longer on the Mac mini than Apple chips with more cores, but Windows PCs with AMD Ryzen 9 processors are also considerably faster here.

GPU Tests: 3DMark and Total War: Troy

The Wild Life Extreme test is still the only 3DMark benchmark that works with Apple’s socs. In the Unlimited version, however, the GPUs can also show their muscles in this fairly simple test. The Mac mini with its 10-core M2 GPU scores 6908 points, making the GPU 38 percent faster than that in the M1 soc. In this area, the performance increase is therefore much greater than with the CPU cores.

Variants of the M1 and M2 socs with a much larger GPU, such as the Max and the Ultra, will of course continue to do much better.

Although Apple prided itself on the availability of Resident Evil Village and No Man’s Sky for the Mac, games from 2021 and 2016 (!), in its presentation of the new Mac mini, the reality for gamers on macOS remains bitter. Most of the major games are not available, and those that are there often still have to use x86 emulation via Rosetta, which detracts from performance.

An example of such a game is Total War: Troy. On medium settings and 1080p resolution, you get an average of 66fps, slightly more than with the MacBook Air with M2. However, the recently tested Minisforum HX90G with Radeon RX 6600M GPU runs circles around the M2 GPU and also manages to deliver 93fps on ultra settings, where you get stuck at 33fps with the Mac mini.

Endurance testing

The first Blender runs on the Mac mini takes about 30 seconds, the same time as on the MacBook Air with M2-soc. While the passively cooled MacBook Air continues to slow down, the eleventh run taking about 30 percent longer than the first, the Mac mini manages to maintain that level of performance steadily. The Mac mini is therefore a lot smoother under prolonged load, even though both devices use the same soc.

Energy use, temperatures, and noise production

In addition to performance, it is of course also important how much power the Apple Mac mini (2023) consumes, how hot the parts get and how much noise the fan produces.

Power consumption

When the Mac mini is switched off, it also consumes virtually nothing: we measured a standby consumption of 0.2W. Even when idle, the Apple PC is very economical with 4.2W. Under full load, our energy meter does not exceed 44W.

Partly due to the low consumption, the Mac mini does not get very hot. With the simultaneous load on the CPU cores and the integrated GPU, which does not have a separate temperature sensor, it does not get warmer than 73 degrees.

Sound production

In the two noise production tests we can run on Macs, the Mac mini is so quiet that it doesn’t exceed the 14dB noise floor in our soundproof room. Although the mini PC is actively cooled, in practice I have never heard the fan in a disturbing way.

Conclusion

The Apple Mac mini (2023) is a special device, if only because we can usually never write that an Apple device has become cheaper than its predecessor. For a relatively reasonable price, you get a mini PC that performs in line with the market and is remarkably economical and whisper-quiet. While the CPU performs similarly to Windows mini PCs in the same price range, the GPU is noticeably faster on paper. In practice, given the range of games for Macs, and certainly specifically for native Apple SoCs, you only have something if you use the GPU for something other than gaming.

Basically, I’m quite enthusiastic about the new Mac mini, but the meager basic configuration is also the biggest problem. You can still work around the limited storage capacity with cloud storage or an external SSD, but the 8GB RAM is anything but future-proof. Although you don’t see much of that when we run one benchmark at a time, most people use all kinds of apps at the same time. With a mail client, Spotify, the necessary browser tabs and perhaps a photo program open, you can easily fill up 8GB in 2023.

Then you would actually want the 16GB model, but that is immediately 230 euros more expensive, and if you also want the 512GB SSD, you even pay 460 euros more. This means that the favorable price-performance ratio of the basic model goes straight out the window. It is not possible to upgrade yourself afterward, so it is already a choice or sharing when purchasing. In addition, the lack of upgrade options are in my opinion difficult to reconcile with Apple’s ambitious sustainability claims about, for example, the use of materials.

Although the attractive price of the entry-level model might suggest otherwise at first, the Mac mini (2023) is still just a typical Apple product: you pay more than you can actually justify for the version you really want. Instead of the price, you should therefore be convinced by, for example, the build quality and the silent operation, and also take the lack of tweak ability for granted.