The Mac mini is the odd duck of Apple’s Mac lineup. While Apple has been selling the mini for 14 years, many people have never even heard of it. Even the concept of a desktop computer without a built in screen or keyboard is confusing to people in 2019.

In my case, I was familiar with the Mac mini, but buying one never crossed my mind until a few weeks ago. So why did I end up with a Mac mini? And how is it working out? Read on for the answers in my mini-review.

Life without a Laptop

The reason that I ended up with a Mac mini boils down to two words: “portable desktop”. Behind those two words is the story of how my workflow has evolved to the point that I don’t see myself buying a laptop ever again. That would have sounded crazy to me just a few years ago.

Like many people, I’m using my phone and tablet for more things and my laptop and desktop for fewer things. The iPhone, iPad and even Apple Watch screens all have gotten bigger. iOS has gotten more powerful. The iPhone now comes in 5.8” and 6.5” screen sizes, while the iPad Pro comes in 11” and 12.9” variants. These mobile devices have truly become tiny computers that do many of the things desktop and laptop computers could do, plus much more.

I find myself leaving the house without my phone and using the Watch for things I would have used my phone to do, such as a calls, texting and listening to music during workouts. I find myself using my iPhone for things I would have used an iPad to do, such as reading long articles and books. And I find myself using the iPad for things i would have used a laptop to do, such as work email, writing and presentations.

This is all by design. Back in 2015, Apple’s senior vice president of marketing, Phil Schiller, offered a “grand unified theory” of Apple’s product portfolio:

The job of the watch is to do more and more things on your wrist so that you don’t need to pick up your phone as often. The job of the phone is to do more and more things such that maybe you don’t need your iPad, and it should be always trying and striving to do that. The job of the iPad should be to be so powerful and capable that you never need a notebook. [The job of the Mac] is to challenge what we think a computer can do and do things that no computer has ever done before, be more and more powerful and capable so that we need a desktop because of its capabilities. – Phil Schiller

This theory has more or less played out in my day-to-day usage. Last year, I tried using the 12.9” iPad Pro as my main work computer. Aside from a few hiccups, the experiment was a success, and the iPad Pro has become my primary computer for both work and personal use. For most things, it works extremely well.

Still, the Mac is useful for heavy duty tasks such as music production and working with complex data sets. And for those days when I am sitting at a desk doing heads down work for 8+ hours, it’s tough to beat the ergonomics of a large external monitor and keyboard setup. My 2012 MacBook Pro worked just fine for these purposes, except that the battery no longer held a charge and it was starting to chug a bit when running under heavy loads. I had no intention of replacing it, since I also had a 2015 MacBook through work.

Then I got a new job. The new company said I could use a Mac, but only if I brought my own. Their standard issue laptop was a Dell, and dude, I was not getting one of those. My 2012 MacBook with a dead battery was not going to cut it for a full time job. Nor did I want to spend the money on a brand new MacBook Pro with a screen I would rarely use and a keyboard that has become notorious for being unreliable. An iMac would be perfect for home use but comically difficult to transport to and from work. In short, with the iPad filling the role of a laptop, what I really needed was a desktop, but a portable desktop that I could use both at home and at work.

Big Machine in a Little Box

Enter the Mac mini. Suddenly, the most overlooked Mac seemed like the most practical and affordable choice for me. It offered the right combination of performance, portability and bang for the buck. It seemed to be designed specially for people like me who no longer wanted a laptop but still needed a Mac for professional use cases.

The mini wasn’t always a “pro” machine. The previous generation came out in 2012. Starting at $499, it mainly served as an entry-level Mac for basic computing or as a cheap media server that people connected to their TVs. After 6 years without an update, many thought the Mac mini was dead. Even though the external design has remained the same, the 2018 mini is a different beast aimed at a different audience.

The new Mac mini starts at $799 — still the cheapest Mac available, but positioned more as a versatile pro machine than a basic computer for the masses. It’s still just a rectangular box with a power cord. It includes no screen, keyboard or trackpad, which means it will never be the mainstream choice for those looking for an all-in-one machine.

The specs and performance have been jacked up. It can be configured with up to 2TB flash storage, 64GB memory, 10 Gigabit ethernet, and a 6-core Intel Core i7 processor. A mini with these maxed out specs costs $3,599, putting it well into pro territory in terms of price and performance. Its only Achilles heel is the integrated graphics card, but that only matters if you’re doing gaming or hardcore video editing. I went with a mid-tier option with a Core i5, 16GB memory and 512GB storage for far less than I would have paid for an equivalent MacBook Pro.

So, the Mac Mini sounded like the perfect complement to the iPad Pro: a machine that provided the comfort of a desktop set up when needed, but that was small enough to bring to an from work. But how is it working out so far?

The Verdict

I’ve been using the Mac mini for a couple weeks now and overall feel that this machine is perfect for my needs.

I’ll start with the good. The mini is small, fast and silent. It slips easily into my backpack, weighing the same or less as a 13” MacBook, and with a much smaller footprint. It’s super easy to unplug at home, put in my bag, and plug in at the office. I like that it takes up less room on the desk than a laptop, which I was using docked to a monitor 90% of the time anyway. It feels great not to be lugging around a laptop screen and keyboard that I don’t even use.

The performance has been rock solid for everyday office tasks. And while I haven’t fully pushed the limits, recording and mixing in Logic Pro X with compressor plug ins running on all tracks has been smooth and free of latency.

I really appreciate that machine is completely silent. Unlike the MacBook, I’ve never been able to hear the fans spin up, due in part to the new thermal architecture. It does get noticeably warm to the touch under heavy loads, but never makes any audible sound. This is nice during normal use and critical for recording music with sensitive mics.

Now, the bad. The I/O on the Mac mini is better than most Macs, with three Thunderbolt 3 ports, two USB 3 ports, an HDMI port, an Ethernet port and a headphone jack. But I still had issues connecting my older monitors and peripherals both at home and at work.

At home, I have an old Apple Cinema Display with a Mini DisplayPort connection. I bought Apple’s Thunderbolt 2 to Thunderbolt 3 adapter, but it turns out this does not support Mini DisplayPort (which uses the same port as Thunderbolt 2), as I learned when I plugged in my display and could not get a video signal. I solved this by connecting the display to my Thunderbolt 2 hub and using the adapter to connect the hub to the Mac mini. Then I restarted my machine and lost the video signal again. Apple support said I had to buy a 3rd party Mini DisplayPort to Thunderbolt 3 adapter. Grrr.

At work, I was blessed with an old Dell VGA monitor. I tried connecting the Dell monitor to the mini via a VGA to HDMI adapter, but it turns out that analog VGA is not supported even with an adapter. I had to run out and buy my own HDMI cable. Grrr.

After these initial dongle hiccups, which are unfortunately the reality of buying any new Apple hardware unless you also buy new peripherals, everything has been silky smooth. I’m loving life without a laptop and feel like I’m living in the future by using a device that was almost left for dead in the past.