After much thought and a generous sale price I purchased a new M1 Mac mini. It’s the step up version (8GB of RAM and 512GB of storage). I’ve used it for a couple of weeks now and I’m enjoying it.
Without getting too deep in the weeds, here are the pros and cons:
Pros:
- Compatible with every app I use (your mileage may vary).
- Hardware works as expected.
- Runs cool no matter what I’m doing.
Cons:
- I can no longer use my mini as a space heater.
- Can only use two monitors (that’s not really a con for me).
- Bluetooth issues at times.
Needless to say I am delighted. The Developer Transition Kits (DTK) were not known to be bastions of reliability as they were barely alpha quality hardware. The M1 mini is a different story. It has been, apart from a few bluetooth issues, very reliable, from set up to everyday usage.
My Intel mini can get very warm at times running tasks you wouldn’t think would tax the machine. For example, at set up Spotlight starts indexing the hard drive. When I did this on the Intel mini it got very warm and the fans kicked in quickly. The M1 mini didn’t even get warm during this process, and finished the task much quicker than the Intel mini. I was astonished to see how easily the computer handled this task.
If I had to pick one thing that excites me the most it is Rosetta 2. All of the software I used on the Intel mini I brought over to the M1 mini using Migration Assistant worked without issues. I would say that the most impressive feature on these new breed of Macs is Rosetta 2.
The downside for me is the bluetooth is flakey at times. The keyboard and mouse lose connection for a bit, and it comes back just as quickly. It’s better now that Apple has addressed it, but it’s something to watch.
Overall, I’d give 5 thumbs up to this new M1 mini.
Have you made the leap to the new Apple Silicon? Let me know in the comments. I’d love to hear from you.