Rumors of a new Apple Mac Mini have begun to swirl, early this year, just as some were getting ready to call the end of line for the entry-level Mac, which has seen as much upgrades as the MacBook Air.
According to MacWorld, clear signs indicate that the tiny desktop Mac will get a complete overhaul sometime in 2017.
The last update of the Mac Mini was in 2014, almost three years ago. Yet it would be foolish to think that Apple is willing to end the Mac Mini, considering that there are no comparable Macs within a similar form factor, and most importantly price.
Budgets consumers have become increasingly important to Apple in recent years, and the proof is trends that have characterized Apple products, such as the iPhone 5C, and most recently, the Apple iPad Mini 4.
Starting at $499, the most entry level configuration available is powered by a 1.4GHz Intel dual core i5 processor, with 4GB of RAM, and a 500GB HDD storage, with an Intel HD Graphics 5000 GPU, which is great for most entry-level customers looking for a cheap, small, powerful desktop. Apple needs a better entry level product, and since all signs are pointing at future years of more powerful, and more expensive MacBooks, the Mac Mini is the only Mac capable of retaining a sizable chunk of budget consumers, and here is how Apple is likely to accomplish this feat:
The problem with leaving a two-year-gap between updates is that technology changes rapidly, with smaller, faster devices available, to which a next generation Mac Mini will have to catch up. With that in mind, there is plenty to catch up, especially considering the growing popularity of 4K resolutions in laptops and even tablets.
The current generation of the Mac Mini comes with native support for 1080p displays, at 60Hz refresh rate. If you want to connect a display with a higher resolution, there are compromises to be made in terms of refresh rate, which is cut in half on UHD displays (3840 by 2160). 4K displays will work, but the refresh rate will drop to 24Hz, which is far too noticeable for decent 4K video playback.
There are a number of substantial changes that the Mac Mini will need to go through, and one is in terms of power efficiency and storage.
Switching to SSD will make the Mac Mini considerably faster, yet more expensive. This extra cost needs to be offset by a less powerful, but more efficient CPU, which could come in the form of an ARM chip. Rumors of Apple looking into ARM chips to power future laptops aren’t new, and could make even more sense in a Mac Mini, in which heat management and power are crucial to keeping the price down. This could also mean a fanless ARM-based Mac Mini might just happen.
With this in mind, the Mac Mini might not feature Thunderbolt 3 ports, but rather USB Type-C ports, due to TB3 being a proprietary Intel design that the chip manufacturer might not like to provide to Apple for non-iOS products.
Considering that the Mac Mini’s primary focus, aside from the form factor, is accessibility from consumers with a lesser budget, this design could require a level of compromise similar to that of the 12 inch MacBook Retina.
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