Apple today unveiled a completely redesigned Mac mini, featuring up to twice the graphics performance, a new HDMI port and a new SD card slot, all in an amazingly compact aluminum enclosure. Mac mini is the world’s most energy efficient desktop and starting at $699, is the most affordable way to enjoy Mac OS, iLife or Mac OS X Snow Leopard Server.
“The sleek, aluminum Mac mini packs great features, versatility and value into an elegant, amazingly compact design,” said Philip Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Product Marketing, in the press release. “With twice the graphics performance, HDMI support and industry-leading energy efficiency, customers are going to love the new Mac mini.”
Created with the unibody construction process pioneered by Apple, the new Mac mini features a compact aluminum enclosure just 7.7 inches square and 1.4 inches thin. A new integrated power supply eliminates the need for an external power adapter, reducing overall system volume by 20 percent and keeping cable clutter to a minimum. A removable panel underneath provides quick access for memory expansion. Mac mini is incredibly versatile, effortlessly connecting to existing peripherals such as mice, keyboards and digital displays, while the new HDMI output connects Mac mini to an HDTV and the new SD card slot enables easy transfer of photos and videos from a digital camera.
Inside its sleek, compact enclosure, the new Mac mini includes the fastest integrated graphics processor on the market today. With 48 processing cores, the NVIDIA GeForce 320M graphics processor delivers up to twice the graphics performance of its predecessor, making Mac mini ideal for graphics intensive applications or visually rich games. Mac mini comes standard with a 2.4 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor, 320GB hard and 2GB of RAM for $699.
With twice the graphics performance, the new Mac mini is still the world’s most energy efficient desktop. The new Mac mini reduces power consumption by an incredible 25 percent to less than 10W at idle, less than half the power required by competing systems. Mac mini meets Energy Star 5.0 requirements and achieves EPEAT Gold status.** The new aluminum enclosure is highly recyclable and Mac mini uses PVC-free components and cables, contains no brominated flame retardants and features material-efficient system and packaging designs.
Mac mini comes with Mac OS X Snow Leopard, the world’s most advanced operating system, and iLife, Apple’s innovative suite of applications for managing photos, making movies and creating and learning to play music. Snow Leopard builds on a decade of OS X innovation and success with hundreds of refinements, new core technologies and out of the box support for Microsoft Exchange. iLife features iPhoto, to easily organize and manage photos; iMovie® with powerful easy-to-use new features such as Precision Editor, video stabilization and advanced drag and drop; and GarageBand® which introduces a whole new way to help you learn to play piano and guitar.
Mac mini with Mac OS X Snow Leopard Server fulfills all the server needs of a workgroup or small business including email, calendar, file serving, Time Machine® backup, Wiki Server, Podcast Producer and more. Mac mini with Mac OS X Snow Leopard Server uses less than 11W of power at idle, a fraction of the power consumed in comparison to typical entry-level tower servers. Mac mini with Mac OS X Snow Leopard Server is faster than before with a 2.66 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor, two 500GB hard drives now running at 7200 rpm, 4GB of RAM and supports unlimited clients for $999.
The new Mac mini is shipping today and will be available through the Apple Store, Apple’s retail stores and Apple Authorized Resellers.
The Mac mini, for a suggested retail price of US$699, includes:
• 2.4 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor with 3MB of shared L2 cache
• 2GB of 1066 MHz DDR3 SDRAM, expandable up to 8GB
• a slot-load 8X SuperDrive (DVD±R DL/DVD±RW/CD-RW) optical drive
• 320GB Serial ATA hard drive running at 5400 rpm
• NVIDIA GeForce 320M integrated graphics
• AirPort Extreme 802.11n wireless networking and Bluetooth 2.1+EDR
• Gigabit Ethernet
• four USB 2.0 ports
• SD card slot
• one FireWire 800 port
• one HDMI port and one Mini DisplayPort
• HDMI to DVI video adapter
• combined optical digital audio input/audio line in (minijack)
• combined optical digital audio output/headphone out (minijack)
Build-to-order options and accessories include up to 8GB 1066 MHz DDR3 SDRAM, 500GB hard drive running at 5400 rpm, Apple Remote, Aperture 3, Final Cut Express 4, Logic Express, iWork (pre-installed), Apple Wireless Keyboard, Magic Mouse, Apple 24 inch LED Cinema Display and the AppleCare Protection Plan.
The Mac mini with Mac OS X Snow Leopard Server, for a suggested retail price of $999, includes:
• 2.66 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor with 3MB of shared L2 cache
• 4GB of 1066 MHz DDR3 SDRAM, expandable up to 8GB
• two 500GB Serial ATA hard drives running at 7200 rpm
• NVIDIA GeForce 320M integrated graphics
• AirPort Extreme 802.11n wireless networking and Bluetooth 2.1+EDR
• Gigabit Ethernet
• four USB 2.0 ports
• SD card slot
• one FireWire 800 port
• one HDMI port and one Mini DisplayPort
• HDMI to DVI video adapter
• combined optical digital audio input/audio line in (minijack)
• combined optical digital audio output/headphone out (minijack)
Build-to-order options and accessories include up to 8GB 1066 MHz DDR3 SDRAM, External SuperDrive, Apple Wireless Keyboard, Magic Mouse, Apple 24 inch LED Cinema Display and the AppleCare Protection Plan.
Find out more about Apple’s all new unibody Mac mini here.
Still with Snow Leopard Server for only $999 is a steal
Too expensive. Time to buy an HP tower with 8 GB RAM, 1TB Harddrive, card slot IN FRONT, and core i7 processor for much less. Until Apple can put price first, none of us will ever think of getting any mac/macbook.
Wait a min now, i-macs DON’T have HDMI, or an SD slot.
New i-macs comin up. You don’t really think Apple will let the mini have them, and they won’t be on i-mac, do you?
So, maybe blu-ray recording/editing on the mac? Mini tower?
4,000 x 2000 res recording. 3d camera? Check out 3d panasonic plasma. 3d is the future.
BTW. what is the point in having HDMI on the mini? what is it that you’re going to output, if ya don’t have blu-ray?
iMacs have an SD card slot.
I imagine what will differentiate these from an AppleTV will be iOS 4.
And the games people play, now, every night and every day, now,
Will be on the Apple TV-4…..now.
$700 for a legacy processor architecture (non i3, etc) is insane. For all of you spouting “quality parts” and “engineering”, do you really think that the Seagate/Hitachi/whatever drive, or the Intel video card, or the Kingston/Crucial/whatever memory is ANY different than in any other PC??? This is top dollar for legacy PC parts thrown in a shiny case.
Go to hell, Apple! Quit screwing over the 3 lemming customers.
@ 4 USB Ports!
Actually, the previous Mac mini had FIVE! Trade one USB port for one SD card slot. If you can install Mac OS X on a sufficiently large-cap SD card and boot from it, that’s a good trade.
@KevinOpp
I just got myself a 21.5″ Acer ( DVI /VGA ) 1920-1080 Res for $159 at Target.
Afterwards, I discovered my Local Staples Store was selling a Samsung LCD With the Same specs for $139, HannsG for $159.
I kept the Acer as it is a nice Monitor.
I just bought it 3 days ago as I had planned to get a new Mini.
I just ordered a 2.4Ghz Mac Mini / 500GB HDD / 4GB Ram
I thought of the Server and the the 2.66Ghz upgrade but I figured the speed isn’t a huge difference and it quite Alot to spend $1000+ for a Mac Mini that still uses Core 2 Duo processors.
Too expensive at $699. Much better off with a Macbook.
Why no Blu-ray? Almost seems like Apple wants sales of the Mac Mini to go down so that they can justify dropping it.
At $499 I had a pretty easy time convincing PC users to make the switch.
At $599 it was a much tougher sell.
At $699 forget it. Now it’s getting back to the same old response that Macs are too expensive and they do have a point. Many people can’t afford a $500 plus computer.
Yes I agree that over time Macs are less expensive and less trouble but many people can’t swing the upfront cost of a Mac. It’s a shame that Apple couldn’t keep a $499 option.
@ Lilochris
> for a Mac Mini that still uses Core 2 Duo processors.
Processor speed is an “over-rated” spec, unless you are doing something like genome sequencing (or high-end video content creation). Look how much love iPad is getting; it probably has less than one-quarter (maybe even one-tenth) the overall processing muscle compared to this new Mac mini. It’s all about efficiency, and that’s where “personal” computing is headed, not toward brute-force computing. This new Mac mini running Snow Leopard with a reasonable display is probably the most power efficient “desktop” computer in the world.
@ ken1w
Thats kinda why I went for the 2.4Ghz model. Really, is the extra 0.26Ghz really worth it??
I didn’t think there would’ve been much of a difference in performance overall. I just didn’t agree with paying $135 more for such a small boost. The speed difference just doesn’t compensate. Had it of been a 3.06Ghz C2D or a Core i5 then that upgrade price may be worth it.
Besides. A few weeks ago, I bought a 21.5″ 3.06Ghz iMac to replace my aging 17″ 2Ghz Core 2 Duo iMac which I had wanted to give to my parents to rid a PC $h!tboX they had. I used the iMac for a Few weeks but I just could’nt live with it any longer. It had this Dog whistle noise coming from the LCD backlight Power Inverter as soon as you adjust the brightness. I was able to return it and get a full refund
Comparing the 3.06Ghz iMac C2D (1066 Bus) Versus my old Late 2006 2Ghz C2D imac with a ( 667mhz Bus ), I honestly did not notice a huge difference. There was a slight speed increase but nothing earth shattering. Editing video with Handbrake wasn’t much faster, maybe an extra 90 seconds when editing a 96 minute video.
Which Brings me to the 2.4Ghz Mac Mini. It’s Faster than My old 2Ghz imac and a bit slower than the 3.06Ghz iMac that I Returned. I assume I should be happy with this unit. I don’t need the server with the Dual 500GB Drive as I already have a External 500GBl Mini Stack V2.5 Drive which runs off FW400 and adds a few FW & USB ports.
@Greg M
Not SO.
This is an Apple TV & Mac Mini Together here. The Reason Why Apple Still sell Apple TV in it’s current Form just doesn’t make sense.
Anyone with a Large HDTV, A Wireless Keyboard an Mouse is just set. I can see lots of people streaming TV shows online with this. Mac Mini has been one of Apples most reliable Mac
( The Mac Pro & Xserve).
for $300 more- a faster processor, 500GB RAID or 1TB total, twice as much RAM and a server OS; unlimited users… you don’t even have to be awake to make this decision.
Lilochris
I imagine if the next version of AppleTV software is iOS 4, then gaming and other apps will take off.
Very nice update.
Major complaint is lack of a GT video card with 256 or 512mb dedicated gpu ram.
This is the ultimate media center but it’s missing the serious game console element.
What they need to do is market the appletv/mac mini hybrid as an all in one mac gaming console and one stop media entertainment machine.
If Steve is serious about there being no go to market strategy for the appletv then appletv should be an interface on a machine like this.
I think he is wrong about that though. The xbox and playstation have done it. Look what ms just did with espn3!
That’s a first big step.
I want to see a mac mini that is also an apple tv and also plays video games better than an xbox. Not a new propriety game disc, just more mac gaming developers and better gaming specs.
That thing would kill pc gaming, console gaming, media center hubs, set top boxes all in one swoop.
Use iPods and iPhones for controllers work the ipad in there, update it once a year and leave em all in the dust years behind.
Why apple why do you not do this!
@ Lilochris–
re: your last paragraph—i couldn’t agree more. at that point i’m so close to the Land of iMacs, that i would probably just stay there where i am comfortable already. but the thought of doing something so cheap since all i need is the monitor for a non-essential computer in my veterinary practice (read–it goes online and works QuickBooks, and that’s about it), well it made the mini attractive to me for the very first time. but all these posts ARE getting to me. it is true that the price should have remained static if not decreasing….why the increase? i guess we all know that within 4 months at the most the price will come down a little…..
I’m sure there’s a reason, but I don’t see why I wouldn’t just want to go with an iMac instead – it’s cheaper, and you’re getting a full TB of hard drive space, instead of 500GB.
If anyone wants to enlighten me about the appeal, I’m listening.
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