“Is it fair to compare Apple’s diminutive Mac mini with an iPhone, even if they’re priced about the same and one has more features than the other?,” Jack D. Miller writes for Mac360. “Sure. Why not?”
Miller writes, “Allow me to argue that an iPhone SE, Apple’s newest entry level iPhone, is pretty close to as powerful and possibly more useful than a Mac mini, which starts life at $499, which happens to be the same price as an iPhone SE with 64GB of storage, far less than a comparably priced entry-level Mac mini, which does not come with a screen, keyboard, or mouse, but has heftier hardware specifications.”
“Basically, and this really isn’t arguable, Apple has made entry level– for an Apple product– attractive and affordable again. Instead of pushing three model year hardware onto an unsuspecting public who do not fully appreciate product migration and pricing, Apple made the iPhone SE a fully qualified iPhone for 2016,” Miller writes. “Is this a Mac mini in your pocket? Yes. And no.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take:
SEE ALSO:
Apple’s got millions of reasons to make the smaller iPhone SE – March 22, 2016
The new iPhone SE finally makes a small phone feel powerful – March 21, 2016
Apple unveils iPhone SE, the most powerful phone with a four-inch display – March 21, 2016
I reject the argument.
Yes. I don’t even know why this is an article. I read that the iPhone is incomparable. I read the same thing a few years ago about the Mac mini. So, obviously, the two products can’t be compared.
Can I plug in an external monitor, keyboard, and mouse into my new iPhone SE?
Lightning to Digital A/V Adapter (HDMI), mirror straight to a screen, use a Bluetooth keyboard, can’t use a mouse as the iOS is not a cursor-driven operating system.
Close enough? :/
Thanks, Justin.
Imagine that there’s Sum Dum Gai who doesn’t even know you can use a BT keyboard with iPad.
wait, isn’t the iPhone the “mouse”?
To be precise, i meant:
wait, isn’t the iPhone the “trackpad”?
This is only for iPads but have you seen the new feature in iOS 9 where you double-tap the keyboard with 2 fingers ? You get a cursor that you can move around the screen like a track pad. Very nice for editing (placing cursor) on multi-line text. And it shows that iOS could be a “partially cursor driven” OS. I would actually prefer a track pad and cursor in some cases, like when its on a stand on the dining room table (very often), it gets uncomfortable reaching for the screen sometimes (I’m getting old and probably related to some carpal tunnel issues). Anyhow check it out.
Mirroring just isn’t the same as actually having a second screen to work on.
Well yes I can connect a full size keyboard through Bluetooth and AirPlay my screen to any HDTV screen via Apple TV. Voila!
Yes actually. With a Bluetooth keyboard, AirPlay, and recent support shown for pointing devices, I don’t see why not.
…add 4TB of disk space?
show me how to add 4TB of disk space to a mini… unless external.
i have a drive shared via airport that i access via my iPad for viewing movies and listening to music, havent needed it for documents since they are in iCloud for Pages
Up through 2010, the Mini had enough room for dual internal drives.
OWC would allow you to upgrade if you wanted to do so:
http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/drive_bracket/datadoubler/
Today’s Mac Mini is not nearly as versatile from a user upgrade perspective.
I have a real Mac Pro ( the tower, not the trashcan) and no iOS device on it’s best day comes close to what my Tower does without breaking a sweat.
This morning I was making TruPhone VoIP calls for Primary GOTV, browsing the Internet, streaming France 24 & BBC World News, editing HDTV recordings from EyeTV while recording another, transcoding others with Handbrake, IMing friends and family, checking and responding to e-mail and playing back iTunes music in the background.
Simultaneously
Try that with your iPad Pro.
I’m very, very, very impressed.
Now, for your meals, does your mom bring them to you in the basement or do you have to come up to the kitchen?
I mostly eat out and I don’t have a basement.
You miss the point that it is ridiculous to compare a desktop to an iOS device. I used the extreme example of my Mac Pro, but I have lesser devices as well.
My iPad Air 2 is mostly a device used to consume media, browse the internet and maybe handle some e-mail. The iPhone mostly a Cell with the ability to stream via Bluetooth in the car.
The point is that the capacity of a serious Desktop to do a lot of things simultaneously simply swamps any mobile device- thus making the comparison absurd.
Like Steve Jobs said with the analogy about cars and trucks, some of us need a truck.
Actually, I didn’t miss your point. It’s just the way you wrote that made it come across the way it did to several of us.
Sorry to offend.
You’re comparing a Mac Pro to an iPad? Seriously?
Nobody has ever made that comparison… They were comparing it to a Mac mini because of its place in the line up. Would you say a Mac mini is the same as a Mac Pro? No, you wouldn’t…
I have the same Mac Pro (2012 model, 12 cores, 48GB ram) and yes, it can do a zillion things at the same time while also being the media server in my house. But it is a beast, one of if not the fastest desktop machine you can purchase on the planet… No one is comparing that to an iPad. What a strawman…
Wow just how many hands do you have you must be a human millipede.
Life is complex, but after learning to play Guitar and Piano it is easier.
Surf the net, check email, text, watch videos, etc, while moving from bed room to kitchen to back yard, to potty. Try that with your Mac Pro Tower.
I’d like to see you try fitting that Mac Pro into your back pocket or lifting to your ear with one hand. Yeah, I like being ridiculous, too. No iPhone and a Mac Pro can be reasonably compared as being similar platforms.
Stop. Just stop. ridiculous.
I don’t get it, a slow news day story (make that dumb story) on a day that is not that slow.
Iphone cannot run VMware Fusion, like my mini can.
OK, I forced my keyboard into the lighting port and the monitor into the earphone jack. Now how do I get this to work?
No. But it’s a nice subject for comparison.
IOS compared to OSX? like comparing a Smart car to an 18 wheeler in terms of functionality.
Are you kidding?