Apple Mac Mini User reviews

By Rich Brown, CNET.com on 12/01/2005

More Apple reviews , RRP: AU$799.00

The good:

  • It's very small
  • It's very cute
  • It's a low-cost Mac

The bad:

  • Baseline model is a little bit too baseline
  • Expandability woes

The bottomline:

As an introduction to the Mac world -- or as a second Mac -- it's hard to fault the Mac Mini, as long as you plump for a few optional extras that really shouldn't be optional at all.

Buying choices:

Users' rating:

10/10

Tags:

apple | desktop | mac | mini | pc

anonymous
29/07/2005, 08:41 PM

The ease of use blowed me away.

So easy!! if only windows new how to make a decent computer. in mind RIP Windows

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anonymous
29/07/2005, 08:38 PM

Just plain awesome.

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anonymous
29/07/2005, 07:47 PM

Yes it's small, but that does'nt mean not worth a look.

At first i was'nt sure, Mac's didnt seem to appeal to me,or fot that matter Mac osx, but one of my mates got a new eMac, i played around with it and i was convinced, i bought the new superdrive equiped Mac Mini with 512Mb of RAM, 1.42Ghz with all the software i'll ever need i was set, i've never looked back, and never will. Mac's all the way!

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dabe
29/07/2005, 03:29 PM

Pathetic

I could build a barebone PC for that price! The only plus about this is it's a space saver, but I already have enough paperweights around the house. Besides, any other uncovered paper I own is not in imminent danger as I'm not exactly blown away by Apple's latest underperforming, overrated, looks-cool-on-the-outside-but-lacks-in-substance machine.

It's the iPod all over again! Apple wins the style battle hands down - no two ways about that. It's the performance of their recent products, however, which have been less than impressive.

I remember the days when I'd lose a large piece of my ego when comparing my PC to my mate's Mac. And while their high-end machines still rival the performance of high-end PCs, you can definitely see the trend from Apple to spend more of their hard earned money on style and arty-farty rather than tech.

Grunt v Style: The Modern Day Geek War. The only end in sight is to find the perfect balance of both - something that will not likely be seen for years to come.

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29/07/2005, 08:10 AM

too much $

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Brett OMalley
28/07/2005, 01:59 PM

Now with 512MB RAM

Now that Apple has finally released the Mac mini with 512mb RAM, what is not to like about this? I plan on getting one next week - I have used Macs for 8 years now and I will never turn back to windows. What I can't do on a Mac, isn't worth doing.
I plan on using this mac mini as a headless home file server.

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15/07/2005, 01:05 PM

minimalistic power

osx tiger is amazing with clear and uncluttered file directories. Expose is the BEST FEATURE of osx and in fact since window Desktops were invented. 10 out of 10.

Ok now the design :) Stunning and typically MAC. Basically ditch that old, noisy, cluttered PC which sounds like an old car and clean your desk. Then place the small clean mini... with LCD screen... stand back and see how quickly you feel organised. Then turn it on and experience stability, clarity and working!! LOL.

its great!

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Charlie
23/06/2005, 01:59 PM

Great package especially for inexperienced users

I am a PC software developer and needed another machine for storing photos, music and all my old files. The MAC mini has fully lived up to my expectations and more. It is stable, quiet and powerful. It's multi-tasking is much smoother and more reliable than the PC and if I really want to run PC programs I can use Virtual PC or a terminal services session. In addition it comes laden with a suite of powerful software like iPhoto and the Tiger upgrade gives you spotlight and automator which make light work of hefty operations. I was a bit concerned that it would be difficult to network with my PC network but I needn't have been. The oeprating system just found my PC network and added it to the file manager (Finder). In addition there's the dashboard that allows you to pop up all kinds of useful gadgets from dictionaries to wikipedia entries to the latest Dilbert cartoon.
Now all I need to do is convince the rest of the world to use them...

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09/05/2005, 04:22 AM

Nice!

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Joni
17/04/2005, 05:00 PM

Disagree with Alegh

Just write a message to Alegh that his comment was very judgemental. How can people just judge from the outlook and configuration but not even TRY the product? I was a PC user for over 15 years and last year was my 1st switch to OSX. One word comment: AWESOME. The system is super stable: it never hangs. The organisation of files are also very simple and great.

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