Lifewire purchased the Mac mini to evaluate its features and capabilities. Read on to see our results.
Apple's ARM-based M1 Mac Mini is every bit as good as you've heard
The Mac mini (M1, 2020) is the first Mac desktop to get Apple’s new ARM-based M1 chip. It’s also the most affordable way to dip your toe into the brave new world of Apple Silicon, even though it’s powered by the exact same chip inside the much-more-expensive MacBook Pro. It can’t run Windows apps through Bootcamp like an Intel Mac can, and there will be some growing pains as developers change gears and target the new hardware, but that hardware offers great raw performance, excellent long-term potential, and more than acceptable real-world performance in the short term.
While I was a bit skeptical about Apple’s decision to ditch Intel, the promised performance of their custom silicon left me wanting to dig in and see how that raw power would actually translate into real-world situations. I was able to spend about a week using an M1 Mac mini as my main work machine, plugging in my keyboard and monitors, while my primary rig sat there collecting dust the entire time.
During my time with the M1 Mac mini, I naturally paid a lot of attention to performance, with a particular eye on how well the device handles both non-native apps and apps designed for iOS. The lack of Bootcamp support meant that I couldn’t completely ditch my old hardware, but there’s no getting around it: this is impressive hardware, regardless of the price, let alone a price tag that’s cheaper than the previous iteration of the hardware.
