Mac mini (Late 2014) Review

[Mike Andronico]

The Mac mini (late 2014 edition) is an affordable and attractive OS X machine, though it sacrifices the upgradability of previous models.

Mac mini (Late 2014) Review : Read more

 

[c_etude]

DO NOT BUY THIS! You cannot upgrade it. 4 gb RAM doesn't do squat. YOU WILL REGRET IT.

 

[c_etude]

The older model (just previous one) is better and upgradable.

 

[inCR]

Mike, as a Tom's Hardware review this missed both the hardware and the Mac Mini's legacy. Not everyone plays games on their computer and some of us need powerful machines to support VMs (virtual machines) like Parallels and Fusion.

The Mini no longer offers a quad core option (your hardware article did not even mention cores!) so even a maxed-out memory, solid-state model won't match the older 2012 quad core performance. That would have been useful to note.

 

[Titillating]

Mike, as a Tom's Hardware review this missed both the hardware and the Mac Mini's legacy. Not everyone plays games on their computer and some of us need powerful machines to support VMs (virtual machines) like Parallels and Fusion.

The Mini no longer offers a quad core option (your hardware article did not even mention cores!) so even a maxed-out memory, solid-state model won't match the older 2012 quad core performance. That would have been useful to note.

This is a Tom's Guide review and focuses on the consumer segment of things, and not necessarily the power users who actually make use of VMs. Although Tom's Guide is under the same general branding as Tom's Hardware, they target different demographics and so the reviews will differ in levels of technical details. Let's face it, your average consumer is not going to be concerned with VMs, or with quad-core or dual-core; they'll care that this is a tiny, Apple-branded product at a low price point (compared to the rest of their products).

 

[inCR]

After years following Tom's Hardware I hope you'll forgive my confusion with the Tom's Guide rebranding for a consumer focus.

On the other hand, almost every other consumer-technical publication's review since the Late 2014 Mac Mini was released note the loss in quad-core capability and general lack of improvement in addition to the loss of upgradability. I know, I've read most of them and they're not complimentary to Apple.

Otherwise, only highlighting what this version can do and not comparing to the prior models just resembles more marketing for the Apple Mac Mini. Not what I expect even from a consumer-level publication of Tom's.

 

[Titillating]

Ah, don't misunderstand, the latter part of my post was pure speculation. Mostly, I was just trying to point out the difference between the TH and TG brands, which can be confusing to a lot of people.

To address your points though, the article does make a few brief comparisons to the 2012 model (though it doesn't get very in-depth), and the loss of the ability to upgrade certain components yourself is also stated. The focus seems to just be more towards comparisons to current similar/related products you can choose from as opposed to the older models.

 

[Senduci]

Here's my opinion about the Mac mini

The latest Apple Mac mini has more competitors to compete with than its predecessor did, but nonetheless, it still manages to hold its own. It's better linked compared to the Acer Aspire AXC-604-UR11 and more affordable than the Polywell i2304-i5. It is considerably more affordable than the gaming-oriented Maingear performs better on the multimedia standard evaluations too.

Its only true drawback is the shortage of internal memory expansion, and that is something which is becoming common among Macs and Windows PCs daily.