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The question that springs to mind when seeing a Mac mini is: why can't PC manufacturers make something that looks like this? The unit is just 16.5cm long and 5cm tall, roughly the size of five CD cases stacked on top of each other.
The processor in our review unit is a PowerPC G4, running at 1.42GHz. This might sound slow compared with the latest 3.8GHz Pentium PCs, but the Mac's processor works in completely different ways.
It is more comparable with a notebook processor, such as the Pentium M and the 1.42GHz G4 is roughly as powerful as a 1.6GHz Pentium M. Our review model also comes with 512Mb of memory, and an 80Gb hard disk. These are more than adequate to the tasks the Mac mini will be performing.
The basic £339 model has a 1.25GHz processor, 256Mb of memory and a 40Gb hard disk. It lacks a keyboard or mouse, and none of the units come with a monitor.
You can plug in a PC monitor (there's a DVI connector on the back, with a VGA adapter in the box), USB keyboard and mouse, or buy Apple's own keyboard and mouse. Our unit had Bluetooth networking built-in and a stylish Bluetooth keyboard and mouse, both of which were pleasant to use.
The Mac mini runs the Mac OS X operating system, which comes with several applications. These include iTunes, which will be familiar to iPod owners, the picture editor iPhoto, the movie editor iMovie and the music editor GarageBand. Each offers several features you would have to pay for on a PC.
Our Mac mini happily ran several of these applications at once and coped well with showing full-screen video files. It also easily ran more demanding software, such as desktop publishing and video editing. The graphics card is a 32Mb ATi Radeon 9200, which will run most of the 3D games available for the Mac.
The computer is clearly aimed at 'switchers': PC users who are considering the move to a Mac. It's also designed to appeal to PC-owning iPod users, who have been seduced by Apple's style.
The bundled software indicates this, although Apple has missed a trick by not including AppleWorks, the equivalent of Microsoft Works. This means that users will have to pay extra for word processor, spreadsheet or presentation tools.
If you can supply your own keyboard, mouse and monitor, the Mac mini is a bargain for those who don't need high-quality games performance or want to do serious video editing. Spend another £20 on a TV adapter and you could use it as a streaming media device in your living room.
Contact:
Apple 0800 039 1010
www.apple.com/uk/macmini
Also consider:
Hoojum Cubit P4
See also:
Fancy building your own home entertainment PC? This is a good place to start 17 Dec 2004All Desktops
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