Product Reviews

The launch of the Mac mini marked the midpoint in the transition of Apple's desktop and laptop Macs to Intel processors, and much of the reaction to it centred around the fact that, at £599, the more expensive of the two machines in the range is nearly twice as expensive as the original mini. That's true, but it doesn't tell the whole story.

There are two machines in the new range, a 1.5GHz Core Solo machine and a 1.66GHz Core Duo box. We tested the Core Duo mini.

There are a couple of things to note about the external appearance of the Intel mini. The first is the infrared receiver next to the slot-loading optical drive; and the second is the presence of two additional USB 2 ports and a line-in on the rear. Aside from those additions, the mini's case is the same as it has been since the launch of the original in January 2005.

Inside, however, it's an entirely different story. The Intel processor is accompanied, somewhat controversially, by an Intel GMA950 graphics processor, which shares 64MB of the mini's RAM installation. That's something of a surprise, given Apple's previous aversion to shared graphics, and leaves only 423MB of RAM available on the standard Mac mini configuration after the 16MB reserved for general system setup is taken out of the equation.

We asked Tom Boger, Apple's vice-president of desktop product marketing, why the company had changed its position. His answer was that the GMA950 was a huge improvement on previous integrated graphics chips and enabled the mini to run Core Image, which lets it do clever things, such as perform the ripple effect in Tiger's Dashboard and display the Front Row interface in all its glory. While the mini isn't up to the job of playing the most demanding games, the GMA950 is clearly significantly more powerful than the ATI Radeon 9200 installed in the G4 mini. The very fact that the mini now supports Core Image is a signal of the improvement in its graphics performance and that the move to integrated graphics isn't a retrograde step.

The Core Duo processor is also a huge step up in performance terms and puts the Mac mini Core Duo much closer to the low-end iMac and MacBook Pro in terms of raw power than was the case when they all had PowerPC processors. The Core Duo mini we tested, which had 1GB of RAM fitted, had no problems running 1080p high-definition QuickTime trailers from Apple's website, whereas an iMac G5 2.1GHz could only stutter through them. Before the move to Intel, these trailers needed a dual 2GHz Power Mac to run properly, but now you can do it on a Mac mini. Progress indeed.

Installed RAM has long been a thorn in Apple's side - and there's no change with the Mac mini. The base configuration, despite the need to allocate 64MB for graphics, is still only 512MB. There are 1GB and 2GB build-to-order options, but these cost £70 and £210 extra, respectively. In all cases, the RAM is installed as two chips of equal size, meaning there are no free slots for after-market upgrading. The reason for this, according to Boger, is that the RAM is dual channel and there are performance benefits from installing it in pairs. Even so, and

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despite the fact that the mini was never intended to be user upgradable, it's a little disconcerting that there are no free slots.

Other specifications include an 80GB serial ATA hard drive (60GB in the Core Solo) and a dual-layer SuperDrive (Combo drive in the Core Solo). There's also built-in AirPort Extreme, Bluetooth, Gigabit Ethernet, four USB 2 ports, a FireWire 400 socket, and combined digital and analogue line-in and out 3.5mm jacks with support for optical cables using an adaptor.

Like its predecessors, the Intel mini ships without a keyboard or mouse, but with Apple's remote control. The remote is the same one shipped with the iMac, MacBook Pro and iPod HiFi. It's purpose here is to control the new version of Front Row that comes pre-installed on the mini, alongside iLife '06 and various other goodies. Apple calls this version Front Row with Bonjour. To you and me, that means that as well as using it to access music, video and slide shows on the host Mac, you can now use it to play content from any Mac on your network. So if you have a Mac in your office with iTunes music, videos imported into iTunes, or photo slide shows in iPhoto, Front Row can access them from a new menu item labelled Shared.

This adds to the Mac mini's credentials as a media centre and, as you can see from our feature on p100, Apple has provided information on its website about how to connect the mini to your TV.

While the idea of the Mac mini as media centre in your living room is attractive, for most of us the Mac mini remains a low-cost desktop workhorse, and does its job very well. The lack of Universal Binary versions of Office and Creative Suite is less of an issue for the mini, as its target market is more likely to use iLife and iWork, both of which run natively on Intel Macs. Further, according to Apple, there are now more than a thousand Universal Binary applications, giving prospective Mac mini owners plenty to choose from.

You can see from our results graph that the Mac mini comes a close third to the iMac and MacBook Pro in terms of raw performance. It has no problems with the processor-intensive task of crunching video files and handled everything we threw at it with aplomb. Where buying a PowerPC-based Mac mini meant making major compromises in terms of processor speed, hard disk speed (4200rpm in the original mini) and RAM allocation, the Intel mini feels much more like the kind of desktop Mac you could use for most professional tasks.

Unfortunately, the blurred lines spread to the pricing. Whereas, previously, there was clear water between the Mac mini and the iMac, there's now only £329 between the Core Duo Mac mini and the 17in iMac. The iMac has a faster processor, a bigger hard drive and comes with a keyboard, mouse and and iSight camera. And, of course, it has one of the best 17in displays you'll find anywhere. Add those together and include a small premium for the convenience of having everything in one box and the prices are broadly comparable.

The iMac has the benefit of looking great, only needing one power cable and being marginally more powerful. However, the mini is more flexible allowing you to upgrade your screen whenever you want and even carry the mini between locations. If you want to do that, you can buy a second power adaptor and keep one in each location.

We're very impressed with the new Mac mini range. Yes, it's more expensive than we'd like, but its performance improvement together with the addition of digital audio, a couple of extra USB ports and the support for Core Image are very impressive. It's still as desirable as ever and the only difficult decision you're going to have to make is whether to put it in the office or under the TV.