In a perfect world I wouldn’t have to write such blog post, but it’s been 1304 days since the last update of the Mac Mini.

Today I want to walk you through its past and why that little gem deserves to have a future.

Intro

Mac Mini was brought into this world on January 11, 2005 by Steve Jobs, as a headless, affordable, bring-your-own-keyboard-and-display solution.

Throughout the next almost a decade it was updated pretty much on a yearly basis, with its peak being the Late 2012 version. For $799 (mid-tier option), you could buy a Mac Mini equipped with a Quad Core i7, 4GB of DDR3 Memory and a 1TB Hard Drive. That’s an insane bang for the buck in the Apple world, especially given the fact that the memory was easily upgradable, and you could replace the HDD with an SSD fairly painlessly.

Fast forward two years later and we got a refresh that some people, very reasonably, consider a downgrade.

Long story short: The powerful quad core i7 monsters found in the mid and high tier of the 2012 version were replaced by ultra low voltage dual core i5 (and i7 in the high tier). We went from the horsepower found in the 15 inch Macbook Pros to the one found in the 13 inch Macbook Pros. Also, the RAM modules became no longer user replaceable.

Most of the people who were anticipating the refresh of the computer were so disappointed, that they preferred buying a second hand 2012 Mac Mini instead. That became a common practice, hence the increase of its price in the second hand market. Refurbished minis in Apple’s store were selling like hot bread as well.

As of writing of this post (12th May, 2018), the newest Mac Mini you can buy is a 1304 days old machine with a Haswell CPU.

Need

There are countless use cases for the Mac Mini. For most of them it’s the best solution as well.

I live in Eastern Europe. As most of you are aware, the standard isn’t that high compared to the western countries. This leads to the fact that Apple computers aren’t all that easy to purchase here, even if you have a higher-than-average standard of living.

That doesn’t mean that you have to settle for less. When I decided to get familiar with macOS, back in 2016, I opted for a second hand Macbook Pro 13, Mid 2014 — my first ever Apple computer. It costed me €750 and it was (and still is) well worth the money spent. But that wasn’t the first time I was playing with the idea to finally get a Mac. One month after the announcement of the 2014 Mac Mini refresh I ordered the mid-tier model — i5–4278U, 8GB RAM, 1TB HDD, for around €850. I cancelled the order the next morning. Life is too short to use a spinning hard drive for a system disk and replacing it with an SSD would have voided the warranty. I spent the next two years silently hating Windows but continuing using it. Thankfully, those times are long gone.

The Mini still sees a lot of use as a HTPC, NAS, home server, secondary PC, main PC for people with non-demanding computing needs. At the office we have one and use it as a build server. And it’s not only that, it is a perfect introduction to the macOS world, enabling upcoming developers, video editors, musicians from low and middle income countries to have their first experience working with industry leading tools such as XCode, Final Cut Pro, Logic X. Its place in Apple’s portfolio has never been among their best, but to act as a window, exposing you to the potential the high end Apple computers can offer.

However, right now that window needs some washing.

Apple Don’t Have To Do Much

I think most of us can agree that we can live without a fancy redesign, making the Mac Mini share the Apple TV form factor, or be a mind-blowing coke-can-mini-mac-pro. The exterior is fine as is. Sure, it is much bigger in all dimensions than Intel NUC and similar other brand solutions, but if keeping the shell the same is going to keep costs low, I’m perfectly fine with it.

The new Mac Mini should:

- Adopt 8th Gen Quad Core i5 CPUs for mid-tier and i7 for high-tier

- Have only SSD options (it’s 2018)

- Have updated I/O (ex. mirror iMac’s — 3.5mm jack / SD card slot / 4x USB 3.0 / 2x Thunderbolt 3 / Gigabit Ethernet. Even 2x USB 3.0 would be enough.)

- Have a minimum of 8GB RAM

- Retain a low cost option ($499)

And that’s simply enough. Fulfilling that list will revive a member of the Mac team of a much needed price point that currently has no valid occupation.

With the introduction of iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus, it came clear that Apple have finally realized that one size does not fit all. This was later confirmed by reintroducing the 4 inch form factor as iPhone SE. Well, it’s time for a Mac SE.

I want to believe.

WWDC

DubDub ’18 is right around the corner. Historically, Apple have updated hardware at the event a couple of times. It’s expected that we’re going to receive a refresh of the whole Macbook line. An affordable $899 Macbook Air successor is rumoured as well. Hopefully, the main character in this post will be one of the pleasant surprises.

We’ll see.

— Thank you for reading this post. ✌️