Apple’s latest silicon innovation shines in the Mac Mini. This tiny desktop computer is the latest Apple computer with the M2 chipset. Buyers can choose the M2 for $599. Or, spend $1,299 to buy the impressive M2 Pro for its own benefits.
Over the past few days, my M1 Mac Mini has sat on the sidelines while the new Mac Mini takes the court. This machine soars. As expected, the new SoC allows the machine to easily jump between applications and tasks. That said, the 2020-released M1 Mac Mini has always worked flawlessly. But it’s no longer the speed of new phones. With this M2 Pro, he feels like his F1 driver with new tires and a full tank of petrol. I’m ready for another 100 laps.
I threw it all in my daily rotation with the M2 Pro and it never blinked. Zoomed media encoding and mass photo editing. It conquered benchmarks and withstood Chrome’s endless quest for system memory. I’m glad I used it.
The Mac Mini has long been Apple’s most affordable computer. But at times, years of Intel CPU updates left behind the computer seemed unloved and forgotten. The Mac Mini is back in rotation now that Apple is manufacturing the chip. In 2020, Mac Mini helped debut his M1 chip. In 2023, a Mac Mini will debut as his M2 Pro alongside his 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pros.
M2 Mac Mini buyers have several options. For $599, you can opt for the base model with an M2 CPU, 8GB of memory, and 256GB of storage. Spend $799 to upgrade SSD to 512GB. The M2 Pro is available for $1,299, and at that price the buyer gets his 16GB of memory and 512GB of his SSD storage. Spend more to upgrade your CPU core count, get more system memory and up to 8 TB of local storage.
The differences between the M2 and M2 Pro are subtle, but significant. The M2 Pro has great advantages in some applications. The M2 Pro has twice the transistor count of the M2 and has twice the memory bandwidth. The M2 has an 8-core CPU and a 10-core GPU. The M2 Pro is equipped with up to 12 core CPU and up to 19 core GPU. The M2 Pro also has an additional Thunderbolt controller, allowing it to have four Thunderbolt ports instead of the standard M2 Mac Mini’s two. This allows the M2 Pro Mac Mini to support up to three monitors instead of the standard M2’s two.
My tester’s M2 Pro set an incredible benchmark. For example, in Geekbench 5, the multicore benchmark scored 14,991. This beats the performance of his M1 Max (12,336) and his late 2019 Intel Xeon W-3245 (14,674) in Mac Studio by a few clicks. Single-core benchmarks were even more impressive. The M2 Pro scored 1,932, surpassing the previous record of 1,900 set by the 13-inch M2-equipped MacBook Pro. The M1 Mac Mini scored 1,715.
Benchmarks are only part of the story.
Let’s take a look at the arrangement of the $2,099 M2 Pro and the $1,999 Studio M1 Max. Think of the Studio line like a Super Mac Mini. Mac Studio with M1 Pro and Max was released almost a year ago in winter 2022. Apple may update it eventually, but as it stands, it offers some nice advantages over the new M2 Pro Mac Mini. Put Studio behind the new computer. The difference lies in the rugged M1 Max. The maximum designation indicates that the chip has additional CPU cores, a video decoding pipeline, and a Thunderbolt controller. The $1,999 Studio also comes with 32GB of RAM, an additional $199 for the Mac Mini. The Mac Studio has an SD card slot on the front, which I would like to put on the Mac Mini.
Apple wants to highlight that you can play video games on your Mac Mini. But this is not a gaming computer. For the Mac Mini to perform well as a gaming computer, games need to use Metal. That is, it is coded directly for Mac OS. Unfortunately, there are very few games on the market in this format. Apple gave us a copy of Resident Evil Village, and the graphics are the best I’ve ever seen on a Mac. It looks great and games are smooth and responsive, but I doubt anyone would buy a Mac Mini primarily to play games.
Gaming has never been the Mac’s selling point. Unfortunately, the M2 is no different, but it’s nice to see Apple’s progress in this area.
The M2 chip takes Mac Mini to new worlds of performance. Benchmarks show computers that can keep up with the fastest computers Apple has ever made.
But do you need the M2 Pro? That’s my lingering question. The M1 chip can handle most everyday tasks, and the M2 is built from the same secret sauce. If it was my money, would you say the M2 Pro is a must-have upgrade?
Outside of resource-intensive media editing software, I doubt most users will notice a difference between the M2 and M2 Pro. The standard M2 is great for browsing the internet and using Apple’s built-in apps. And the standard M2 is a great upgrade for existing systems. At $599, the M2 Mac Mini seems like a bargain, despite its limited local storage.
Mac Mini with the M2 and M2 Pro is one of the most powerful computers Apple offers at any price point. And let’s remember one of the Mac Mini’s main selling points. it’s a mini. Mac Min is a very flexible little package. Bundle it with one of Apple’s Studio displays for a great iMac alternative, or pair it with a cheap monitor for a low-cost workstation. As always, the Mac Mini is a great value proposition and has never looked better with the M2 and M2 Pro.
