Customer Ratings & Reviews

Apple continues to build devices that are stunning in quality and performance. I manage an IT department and we are a Windows and PC based organization. We do have many of our employees who have MAC OS products I assist so I purchase Apple computers myself so I can be versed in both ecosystems. I find the MAC mini an excellent device in both build and how it operates. about 80 percent of the OS functionality is easy to use between Windows and MAC. What I find unique and really cool about the current Mac mini desktop model is its total solid state design and engineering. No fan noise, no hard drive clicking, it just sleeps and wakes up whenever you need it to. The new ARM SOC is more like a modern cell phone or Chrome type tablet, however running most applications is a seamless experience. It is fast, it works error free, reboots quickly, and updates itself for security patches and OS updates exactly as MAC OS's have done for a decade or more. Simplicity, price, performance, quality, and surprising efficiency for such a durable and elegant computer many would like at home and at work. I am not compensated from Apple for speaking about my personal experience so just sharing it for others to hear about. My previous Mac Mini never needed repair and lasted 8 years before I decided to upgrade to the new M1 model. From my understanding, many of my friends share the same experience with reliability and longevity.

I purchased this Mac Mini instead of another iMac because I needed dual screens and didn't want to have a nice looking iMac screen sitting next to another monitor that looked nothing like it. Instead, I paired my new Mac Mini with a 34" high resolution ultrawide monitor. I will comment on the change from iMac to Mac Mini, but will first comment on performance. Regarding performance, I have not ever had a computer as responsive as this. Everything is quick and have not had any issues with lagging. The only time I have to wait is when waking it up from sleep. It unlocks using my apple watch, but it takes about 4 or 5 seconds. My old 2012 iMac would wake the instant I moved the mouse. That's a non-issue for me, though. I'm using a Samsung T7, which has worked nearly flawlessly. The only issue I see is the rated speed on the SSD is 1,050 MB/S. However, when testing it straight from the thunderbolt port I get about 700 MB/S. I have read that this is common with the new M1 Macs, but nobody seems to know why. I have seen when some have used Thunderbolt 4 hubs and plugged the SSD into the hub instead of directly into the back of the M1 Mac and got faster speeds. But 700 MB/S is plenty for me, so it is not an issue. Going from an iMac to a Mac Mini posed some convenience issues for me. I don't like a lot of cords and I like being able to control everything from the keyboard. (1) I can no longer control the brightness from the magic keyboard. I now have to go into the monitor's settings and reduce/increase brightness accordingly. The iMac automatically adjusts brightness according to how bright the room is. This is something you don't appreciate until you no longer have it. (2) I had to buy external speakers. This means more wires that have to be managed and you must plug them into the back of the Mac Mini if you want to use the volume controls on the Magic Keyboard. Plugging them into the back of the monitor to reduce cord running means you must use the knob on the speaker to adjust volume. (3) I wanted to mount the Mac Mini under my desk, but there is no convenient hub to use that does not bring back the issue of running cords. All of the hubs I looked at have the power cord and thunderbolt cord coming out of opposite sides of the hub. Why oh why has nobody thought about this. I want the cords to run out of the back and the ports on the front (or the side). Therefore, I just kept the Mac Mini on top of the desk and purchased the Satechi stand for the Mac Mini. It is the same shape as the Mac Mini and the ports are front-facing, but clean. I needed the convenience of front-facing ports in the event I need to connect something quickly and not have to worry about reaching behind the Mac Mini and having to re-situate everything before and after. (4) Cord Management became a priority. I didn't have this issue with the iMac. I used Velcro straps and painter's tape (it doesn't leave sticky film) behind my sit/stand desk and I don't see any cords. I really worried about this, but it worked out. I'm really happy I purchased the Mac Mini and happy I went with the ultrawide screen. One ultrawide monitor is cleaner, looks good and I can treat it as dual 24" screens. Yes, the iMac is a much more consolidating unit, nice looking, really sharp screen, and everything performs in concert. But for me, I needed a bigger screen or dual screens and the Mac Mini provides the higher end 8-core GPU. Lastly, there were no iMacs available to purchase anywhere unless buying a less than desirable color. I'm happy with my purchase. I'm in the apple ecosystem with great performance and a little difference experience now with an ultrawide monitor, which the Mac pairs great with in terms of resolution. Just make sure not to get the lower resolution ultrawidescreens.

FAST & EASY TO USE GREAT PRICE SITS ON MY DESK TAKES UP VERY LITTLE SPACE

Apple has ruined me for all other PCs. This little computer is my daily workhorse. I use it from my work-at-home job all day. It runs silently, never feels even the slightest bit warm, never asks me if I would like to recommend MacOS to my friends (I'm looking at you, Windows 10 and 11 and your annoying, built-in ads), came with practically all the software I'll ever need, and runs all my work-related software without any problems. I typically only reboot when Apple rolls out upgrades requiring one. Otherwise, I just swipe the cursor down to the lower left screen corner (courtesy the Magic Touchpad and a little MacOS thing known as "hot corners") to lock the computer and put the screen to sleep when I step away from my desk. I wanted to get a PC to supplement my at-home work, but with Citrix and virtual desktop options my job offers, I really have no need. In years past, I've lost countless hours maintaining and fixing my Windows computers. Since buying Macs, I simply use them then walk away when I'm done. The M1 is a marvel making this Mac mini fast, power efficient and 100% silent and cool to the touch. Built-in Wi-Fi means I can put it anywhere in my home. Even the box it comes in is a tenth the size of a fully unpacked Windows PC. Get this computer!

Ok, packs all the punch of a top end desktop, in a tenth the space ... Problem is, for that, you lose a CD or DVD drive, and so many ports you want to scream. Apple has the best code language ever invented, because they invented it ... but, like true Geeks, they refuse to acknolage that non Geeks may need to use what they write with it, so, to say that the learning curve is steep, is an understatement. In fact, this thing won't even connect with a standard wired Apple keyboard ... nope, will only see a "wireless" one. Pretty harsh. As a person with some disabilities, I should never, would never have bought this, if I had known half of it's "special" little issues. Having said all that, It is a tough little computer, which because of it's design and software, has resisted scores of attacks and attempted data breaches from would be hackers (I do tend to poke the bear, with my communications...) Wish it had an affordable, or understandable sound system, or an optical mouse that I could use, and afford ... that list goes on, but, You will notice, I did not take it back. now.

I have been a Pc user / Gamer for a long time and still own a nice Ryzen 7 3700x with a 5700xt system, I have owned apple laptops and desktops before but was never really impressed. So after the M1 was released I decided to try it again to see what all the talk was about and WOW it blew away many other systems I own and really held its own. No it was not faster than my gaming system but it did play games quite well and smooth for many games. It was able to perform in browsing, video editing, and Light to mid Gaming very well and from what I can tell will only get better as more companies provide support for arm. The really amazing part about this in my tests is it ran amazingly fast and did so with such a low power cpu and it was quiet I installed parallels and ran the arm version of windows and was able to play games like world of warships, sim city 4 and a few others with no issues. In the arm list of games that run on mac directly I ran a few games from Steam and world of warcraft all ran ok with no issues. Will all games work prob not, but it can game.

The new M1 Mac Mini is excellent! It runs fast, everything is a mere half second pop up of launch. Even my internet seems faster on this thing. Apps just work, the M1 really is faster like Apple says, it works wonders. I haven't felt any heat from the Mac Mini at all, it's always cold. I only feel a little less cold when it's been on for a while. This is a great buy, you will not be disapointed. In fact I've seen people do benchmarks with the new M1 in the Mac mini and it beats Intel core i3, i5, and even i7. The i9 and xeon are the only ones that can beat the M1 in benchmarks. I don't know comparisons on AMD to M1 though. Overall the best Mac mini Apple has ever made!

Decided to try out this Mini Mac with the M1 Chip. Overall much faster compared to the previously owned MacMini running an Intel Chip. Set up was a breeze and was able to transfer / run apps from the intel Mini to the M1 Mini without any issues.

So small, but so powerful. It's so nice to keep the clutter to a minimum. It's also great to add whatever size monitor/s you want.

Excellent machine. Fast, great graphics, quiet (no fan noise). Relatively compact. Like most Apple products, it is easy to use, and integrates well with other Apple products. For example, it can be unlocked with one's Apple Watch.

Incredible machine. Super quiet. Like ridiculous. Performance is on point for 99.99% of anything that you want to do. Can’t recommend any other compared to this one. Best money value comparison by far.

small convenient and works great. it has its own email and other software so i don't need to buy any extras or pay yearly rental fees.

This is a great product the only thing i didnt like was the unified Ram. I would of like the ability to increase to 16 gb from a previous mac mini i owned.

Very pleased with this Desktop Mac! Wish I would have purchased sooner. I almost went with the M2 Mac mini but this is more than enough for me.

Really like my new Mac mini M1, it is really fast and I'm able to do all my work on it and that includes video editing with Davinci Resolve, man it was rendering a 20 mini video at 280fps and that includes some Fiarlight some audio processing plugins added, the heaving edited parts with title animations averages about 25fps unbelievable speed. Everything else works great. Note: Don't put your Mac Mini under a metal monitor stand or it will kill the Wifi and Bluetooth and you'll have problems if your using a Bluetooth keyboard and mouse. I got the MX Keys for Mac and the Logitech Triathlon mouse and both of these work with Windows as well, but switching the MX keys between Mac and Windows does not work very well for me. 8GB of ram is plenty and it only writes to swap space went using Davinci and having other programs open and it doesn't slow down, some people complain this will shorten the life of the SSD drive, but I check how long it will last if the Mini is writing to swap and the suggestion was between 10 to 12 years so probably I will be upgrading long before that happens who know. All the software runs great except for Cubase 11 which is un-usable BUT I know Steinberg will fix it and it should be smoking fast after that hopefully. P.S. Cubase 10.5 works from what I read on blogs. I use Logic Pro as well because Cubase and Logic are both two awesome tool and they go hand in hand for me and I love the AI drummer, I've written a lot of songs with Logic and the AI drummer and it's fantastic. So would I recommend the Mac mini M1 oh ya without hesitation go for it. It is a sweet, sweet machine and runs fast and cool and doesn't make any noise. Thanks for reading this, hope it helps you out. God Bless

Stellar computer. This Mac mini blazes video and audio editing out of the box. I have 2 fully spec’ed out 5 year old Mac book pros and they are antiques compared to how well the M1 Mac mini handles AV. I was a little apprehensive getting it at first however considering the price point and the performance I am quite happy with my purchase. As a power user I have high expectations and needs for what my tech must be able to do. Get one and you’ll be glad you did. Apple changed the game moving to ARM chips. The performance will blow you away.

Great computer, as you’d expect. It’s lightning fast to load everything. A solid Apple product you won’t be disappointed with.

This is a great product! I only wish I had waited two weeks for the new upgraded M2 chip model for only a few more dollars!

While I already have a MacBook Pro, I was really curious as to the performance of the M1 chip. I also wanted a desktop computer. Call me crazy but I actually miss having a desktop over a laptop. There is no denying that the computer is faster than the Intel based Mac I have. You can tell a little bit of a difference in the performance of applications that utilize Rosetta 2 but not enough of a difference to complain about. If you're curious about the M1 chip and need a desktop, this is probably a no brainer.

Great product from apple with a great price from Best Buy considering it was an open item on an end of the line product.