It’s been a busy couple of years for Apple, starting in 2015, with the beginning of the end for the MacBook Air, and the start of a whole new way of designing and building MacBooks and iPads.
The Apple iMac has also had its share of spotlight, with two suped-up versions of the Apple iMac, the ultimate desktop all-in-one, finally sporting staggering 4K and 5K resolutions, with a display big enough to make the old and glorious Thunderbolt display go hide under a rock in shame.Next, the whole new Apple TV is announced, and it talks, it listens, and will order you pizza (Papa John’s only for now), while you browse for something good to watch.
Finally, Apple surprises us again with three brand new MacBooks with a crazy OLED touchscreen display strip embedded in the keyboard, with a design inspired by the 2015 MacBook, which, on a hunch, will have a repeat in 2017.
With that said, there‘s still two names on the role call: the Mac Pro, and the Mac Mini, neither of which have gone through any significant update for more than three years and counting.
While some have already started talking about the Mac Pro in the past tense, there seems to be renewed hope for the Mac Mini, considering all the attention consumers have gotten in regard to family devices like the iMac and the iPad Pro 9.7 inches.
Starting at $499, the current version of the Apple Mac Mini is about as low as you can go if you want to buy a Mac computer. With that in mind, the Mac Mini is still a notch above most other mini PCs, unless you plan to do any video editing or play high-end games on it, in which case, 500 bucks won’t get you much further than a 1.4GHz dual core i5, and a 500GB spinning drive, with 4GB of RAM, and an Intel HD Graphics 5000 GPU.
Still, the form factor is unbeatable for its specs, even if long term usage means dealing with overheating issues, and mediocre video support at 1080p.
By this token, it’s almost 2017, and the reality is: people still want a new Mac Mini under the tree. Will we get it? Probably not this year, but it would be nice, because if Apple can build a 13 inch MacBook Pro that’s entry-level enough to kill the MacBook Air, with a price tag to match, there is no reason why it can’t do the same with one of the most beloved mini-desktops still on the market.
There is lots of reasons to want a Mac Mini in 2017, even without any significant design updates. The specs are of the essence here: 4K/5K support at 60Hz, 8GB of RAM to start, and at least an Intel Skylake CPU, would be enough to drive sales into 2018. Throw in an option for a decent GPU, such as the lowest-end NVIDIA 1050, or any number of entry-level AMD Polaris, and watch this new Mac Mini fly off the shelves.
Will there be a price hike? Sure! Will you have to deal with sub-par video resolution? No, and you’ll be able to hook this new mini monster up to the biggest 5K curved display you can find, and drive this sucker up to 60Hz, no problem.
Will it have an SSD? That’s a rhetorical question, and that will be most likely the reason for a 200-300 dollars price hike. SSD storage prices are coming down, but not nearly fast enough, which is most likely one of the reasons why Apple has been holding back on releasing a new updated version of the Mac Mini. Will you still want it? We are prepared to bet you will.
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