Mac Mini Review

I have an old Media Center PC linked to my living room HDTV and while it’s really been a boon in the living room, it is bulky and is beginning to get a little old. Looking around for a replacement I was surprised to find a low priced Apple available that is aimed at the HDTV home living room market.

The Mac Mini is a aesthetically pleasing little computer that is ideal for the living room. When comparing it to similar PCs it is a little overpriced, but it is an Apple after all!

So what is the Mac Mini Like?

Firstly, Apple have really tried to make the Mac Mini blend in with the living room. It is small, has a iPod kind of look to it, and has HDMI video outputs, and SD card Slot and is designed to handle Web based HD video. It is definitely elegant in design, and really will remove a lot of the clutter and mess associated with the current breed of media PCs.

Having said that, it does lack storage capacity having a Laptop hard drive rather than a full desktop drive. Also, it doesn’t have a blu-ray player – while I realize this would add to the cost, it would have let me replace a Blu Ray DVD player with this device (it does have a DVD player / writer though). I’m really not sure why Apple excluded this.

The inclusion of the HDMI is perhaps the Mac Mini’s biggest selling point, and really enhances the ability for the machine to be used in the living room as a media center. The addition of an SD slot also helps those who own digital camera etc get to their pictures quickly and easily.

The benefits of the Mac Mini include the very good OS and the ease of integration between hardware and software, however there are many low cost PCs that have far higher specs and although they are not as ‘cool’ looking as this machine, they certainly should be looked at.

Power wise the Mac Mini is adequate for most living room tasks and even some business tasks should you want to do them in the living room. The hard drive access is a little slow thanks to it being a laptop drive, but that’s the only technical defiency.

Conclusion

If you’re looking for the most powerful media center PC under $700 then look elsewhere, there are plenty of decent alternatives from Gateway, Dell and HP – if you are looking for something that is very easy to use, blends well with the living room then the Mac Mini is for you – the only caveat is the lack of the Blu Ray player!