It will also be hard for consumers to understand the benefits of the Thunderbolt port, a new high-speed data port that debuted in Apple's most recent iMacs this past spring. The new Mac Mini features a Thunderbolt port among its other inputs. You can read our review of Lion here, but note that because the Mac Mini does not include input devices, you will need to purchase the $69 Apple Magic Track Pad if you want to use Lion's new gesture-based input commands. Other updates to the Mac Mini include a move to Intel's new second-generation Core i5 CPUs, a new version of OS X, code-named Lion, and, of course, the high-speed Thunderbolt port.
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Given the amount of downloadable software available for purchase from Amazon, the iTunes Store, the Mac App Store, Steam, and elsewhere, we find Apple's anti-disc stance reasonable.
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These users can also rely on an external optical drive to install legacy disc-based software, but the impact of the lost DVD drive for traditional computing is less severe than in the living room. Those interested in the Mac Mini for day-to-day computing or for office work will also have to endure the inconvenience of an absent optical drive. You could consider adding an external USB optical drive, and Apple offers one for $79, but that would arguably compromise the appeal of the Mac Mini's tidy design. The HDMI port still allows you to connect it to a TV, but with no DVD drive (give up on Apple ever supporting Blu-ray, by the way, if you haven't already) you will need to weigh the importance of your disc-based media. The absence of the optical drive on the Mac Mini will likely provide the biggest point of uncertainty for shoppers contemplating a purchase, particularly for those hoping to bring the Mac Mini into the living room. As with last year's edition, which debuted the new Mac Mini chassis, a plastic piece on the bottom twists off to allow user memory slot access.Īll new Mac Minis now lack an optical drive. We expect that some potential buyers would happily sacrifice the new clean look for an optical drive, but with or without the slot, the Mac Mini remains one of the best-looking computers available. The only major design change to the new Mac Mini comes to the front panel, which now has a continuous aluminum face instead of a slot for Apple's SuperDrive DVD burner.
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Value shoppers and living room PC enthusiasts with large DVD collections, this is not the desktop for you. If you're a member of a niche who might benefit from owning an affordable Mac desktop with decent performance and a promising new input standard, the Mac Mini is a reasonable deal. That decision makes the Mac Mini more of a niche computer than ever before.
Competing slim-tower PCs from the Windows side of the aisle offer more features for the same price, among them optical drives, which Apple has left off its new small form factor desktop. No other system in its price range comes close to the Mac Mini's pleasing, compact design, and this $799 model brings some welcome performance improvements, along with the still-developing potential of its Thunderbolt port.
Apple's new Mac Mini features some welcome updates and a controversial omission, but overall it remains in the same competitive middle ground as its earlier incarnations.
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