Offered at €699, the Mac mini M2 is currently the cheapest Mac in the Apple brand’s catalog. But is it enough to meet current needs? What are its real limits? After two weeks in his company, we can say that without a shadow of a doubt. The Mac mini M2 is an excellent machine. And it will suit 80% of uses. The whole question being whether yours are part of it.
Mac mini M2 price and availability
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The Mac mini M2 is currently priced from €699. Two basic configurations are present in the Apple catalog. The first includes an M2 chip, 8 GB of RAM and a 256 GB SSD, with a NeuralEngine equipped with 16 hearts. This is the model we tested. The second configuration offers a little more storage and it goes up to 512 GB. The amount of RAM does not change.
Apple offers several options. On the cheapest model, it is for example possible to go up to 16 GB of unified memory for 230 €, or to 24 GB for 460 €. Three storage options are also available: 512 GB for €230, 1 TB for €460 or 2 TB for €920. Finally, it will be possible to request the installation of a 10 Gigabit Ethernet card for 115 €, and thus achieve a theoretical speed of 10 Gbps. Note that all Mac mini integrate WiFi 6E.
Mac mini 2023 M2 256 GB at the best price
Base price: €699
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Video review of the Mac mini M2 by Fred
Vibrant look, ideal size
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The Mac mini shines with its format… and its style. It takes on board everything that has made the success of the brand’s products. Aluminum, a sleek look, exemplary finishes, it is impossible not to succumb to its charms. Once again, Apple has fully delivered on its promises.
No matter where you put it, the Mac mini blends into its surroundings. On a desk, in a server cabinet, on living room furniture, on a sideboard, behind a screen, its place is everywhere.
So of course, design is not an end in itself. And when you buy a computer, it’s above all for its performance. Nevertheless, the design of a product is an integral part of the experience delivered. And as we spend more and more time sitting at our desks, it makes sense to be on the lookout for a certain aesthetic. Because an office that is pleasant to look at is also an office that you want to use.
But sight isn’t the only sense the Mac mini will delight. There is also hearing. And this for a rather obvious reason: it will never be heard, or almost. During these two weeks spent in his company, he only made himself heard once, on a laborious video export. The project was quite long and it contained a lot of animations. On smaller projects, on the other hand, the least expensive of all Macs did not make itself heard.
A connection problem
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The offer is solid, but the Mac mini still suffers from a limitation: its connectivity.
On the back, you’ll find an Ethernet port, an HDMI output, two USB-A ports, a headphone output, and two Thunderbolt ports. The small Mac ignores the SD card slot. It also does not offer a Display Port output. For my part, it didn’t bother me. I have been using a Thunderbolt OWC dock for years. So I only had to plug a cable into the Mac mini to get its display back on my screen and find an SD and Micro SD card slot.
But if you don’t have a dock, and if you use SD cards daily, then you’ll need to invest in an extra accessory. It’s not necessarily embarrassing, you have very nice things that now exist – especially at Satechi – but you will have to think about it.
Lots of responders for basic tasks
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The design is good, but the uses are better. And precisely, what can we do with the cheapest Mac from Apple?
The Mac mini M2 can meet all common needs. Word processing, spreadsheet, presentation software, surfing, nothing scares him. Ditto for all project management applications like Notion, for example. On these uses, I never noticed the slightest slowdown, even having a heavy hand at the level of open applications.
No problems with photo editing either. I use Lightroom to manage my photo library and I never noticed the slightest slowdown, whether in exposure correction or working on colors. Not even on RAW files of tens of millions of pixels. The transition from Lightroom To photoshop is also quite fluid. On the other hand, you will have to wait between three and four seconds between the moment when you close the document on photoshop and when your changes will be reflected on Lightroom.
Be careful not to have your eyes bigger than your stomach!
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Video editing, on the other hand, poses more problems for the small Mac. Basic operations do not pose any particular concerns. Placing rushes in the timeline, making cuts, moving tracks, adding a bit of sound design, managing levels, the Mac mini M2 is doing very well.
On the other hand, it begins to lose ground as soon as the video begins to be a little long, and as soon as the rushes are more numerous or even with superimposed shots. And the situation gets worse, of course, when you start grading and playing with heavy-duty effects. The worst comes when you start creating animations. At this point, just moving the playhead will make the little Mac suffer like never before.
So of course, Premiere Pro is not an optimization freak. So I continued my tests with two other software, namely DaVinci Resolve And Final Cut Pro.
Knowing less about these software, I have not been able to do with them what I do with Premiere Pro. So I limited myself to basic tests by playing with the grading tools and stacking sequences in 4K 4:2:2 10bit. For a result similar to that obtained with Adobe software.
On a simple montage, with a few rushes, Final Cut Pro And DaVinci come out with no problem. However, the situation becomes less tenable with the addition of effects and the superimposition of sequences. Here, you have to be more patient. Many jerks, blockages, the Mac mini M2 very quickly reaches its limits.
Does the problem come from the amount of RAM, or even from the sluggish SSD on board the cheapest model? It would seem that is not the case. After talking to several colleagues, it turned out that the Mac mini M2 with 16 GB of RAM and 512 GB of storage has the same limitations.
And for games?
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Macs have never been known for this use. However, there are titles optimized for this platform. Borderlands 2 is one of them and so I had fun installing it on the Mac mini to push it to its limits. And also because I seriously needed a fun break from this test. I was obviously expecting slowdowns, especially after setting all the options to maximum, but that didn’t happen. The title remained extremely fluid, which ultimately gives a fairly accurate idea of the computing power of an M2 chip.
So of course, Borderlands 2 is not a recent title. He has a few years behind him. That said, the video game market has changed a lot over the years, in particular thanks to the advent of very high speed. And today, it is quite possible to turn to solutions like Shadow or xCloud to play your favorite titles. What was a limitation ten years ago is no longer really one today. At least not in fiber cities.
And precisely, in this regard, it may be interesting to note that the Mac mini M2 offers WiFi 6E as standard. A 6E WiFi allowing speeds – theoretical – of 10 or 11 Gbps to be reached. At least provided you have a compatible router.
Mac mini 2023 M2 256 GB at the best price
Base price: €699
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Which Mac mini to choose?
And here we come to the conclusion of this test. If we had to sum up everything we’ve just seen, well, we could say that the Mac mini M2 is an excellent machine… when we know its limits.
For me, it’s really the ideal Mac for doing office work, browsing the Internet, coding or even retouching your photos. On the other hand, for 3D or video, it is more complicated. If you plan to use it to edit your holiday movies, it will be more than enough. Even in its basic configuration. On the other hand, for more advanced needs, it will undoubtedly be preferable to opt for the Mac mini M2 Pro, which we also had the honor of testing.
