When you think of the best Mac for creative work, it’s tempting to lean towards Apple’s super-powered Mac Pro. But the often-overlooked Mac mini can actually be the perfect machine for a huge number of designers, artists, illustrators, photographers and more. With its compact size, attractive price and potent power, it’s well-suited to a wide range of creative pursuits.
That’s why it’s important not to neglect it, whether you’re new to the Apple ecosystem or are a seasoned pro looking to upgrade. When you consider everything that the Mac mini has on offer, it’s a fantastic choice for users across the creative industries.
01. The price
(Image credit: Apple)
When you first begin to explore the Mac mini, the price is one of the first things you’ll notice. Starting at $599/£599, it’s the most affordable Mac that Apple sells. That alone makes it worthy of your attention.
But don’t mistake its low price as an indication of low quality – in fact, the complete opposite is true. The Mac mini offers tremendous value for money thanks to a whole host of compelling reasons, from its rock-solid build quality to its blazing-fast performance. Its wallet-friendly price tag is ideal for creatives on a budget and proves that you don’t have to break the bank to get the computer you need.
02. Size and build quality
(Image credit: Apple)
The clue is in the name: the Mac mini is the tiny little Mac that could. It was small before Apple’s M4 chip came along, but the latest version has shrunk things down even further. Its footprint is now less than half that of the previous M2 model, and it’s so compact that it can easily fit on a desk crowded with cameras, drawing pads, tablets, multiple monitors and more.
Its slimmed-down frame belies an often-overlooked fact: the Mac mini comes with surprisingly rugged build quality. Apple has constructed it from solid aluminium, and there’s no tacky plastic here. That gives it remarkable durability, which – combined with its miniscule footprint – makes it ideal for travel. Whether you’re hotdesking, working on location or collaborating with clients, it’s easy to pack it up in a bag without worrying about scratches and dents.
03. Powerful performance
(Image credit: Apple)
You might think that a device this small and this affordable would skimp on performance, but that’s not the case with the Mac mini. It comes with enticing features for creatives, including hardware-accelerated ray tracing that can boost 3D rendering and an improved Neural Engine that’ll rip through machine learning tasks.
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The base model is outfitted with Apple’s M4 chip, which comes with a 10-core CPU, a 10-core GPU, and up to 32GB of unified memory. We’ve not yet reviewed the M4 Mac mini, but when we put the M4 iMac through its paces, our testing revealed “some of the most impressive benchmark results we’ve seen across the board.”
You can swap the M4 out for an even more powerful M4 Pro chip – with its 12-core CPU, 16-core GPU and up to 64GB of unified memory, it’s a remarkably capable offering in a teensy tiny package.
04. Strong connections
(Image credit: Apple)
One of the most underrated benefits of the Mac mini is the freedom it gives you to connect whatever input peripherals you like. Unlike a MacBook, you’re not stuck with a keyboard and trackpad that you might not even want to use, taking up space that could be better used for other things.
No, with the Mac mini, you can hook up your own keyboard, mouse, and up to three external displays. That’s a double-whammy boost for users: not only can you stick with your tried-and-true peripherals, but it allows Apple to cut the cost of the Mac mini, saving you money in the process. It’s a win-win situation all over.
05. Ports to the front
(Image credit: Apple)
The last-generation M2 Mac mini had a problem: all of its ports were hidden at the back of the computer. That meant you had to fumble around blindly any time you wanted to connect an external device. It was a situation that got old fast.
Thankfully, it’s now mostly a thing of the past. While some connections remain at the rear of the M4 Mac mini, Apple has finally relented and added two USB-C slots and a headphone jack to the computer’s front. That makes connecting external peripherals much easier than before – for instance, you can directly attach a camera to offload photos without having to get up and struggle around the back of the Mac mini looking for a port. That’s a small but satisfying victory in our book.
06. 10Gb Ethernet
(Image credit: Apple)
As creatives, it’s not uncommon to find ourselves working with files stored off-site on a NAS box or similar setup. That’s perfect for editing photos and videos, where you might not have enough storage on your computer to keep everything held locally, but it can introduce a real problem: network bottlenecking. If you don’t have a fast enough connection, transferring files back and forth to work on them can slow things down to a crawl.
Fortunately, the Mac mini has a solution in the form of a 10Gb Ethernet port that massively increases your bandwidth compared to the default 1Gb Ethernet connector. It’s an optional $100 extra, but if you find yourself doing this kind of work, it’s well worth the money.
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