I hope they don’t get stingy on the ports.
I know some people will “everything is usb-c now!” except everything isn’t, so stop.
I have a ten year old Mac Mini on my desk that has two FireWire, four usb, an sd card reader, and Ethernet. I still want most of these things (though, of course swap FireWire for some number of usb-c). I don’t want to HAVE to buy a dock for this machine.
In hearing that it’ll be smaller, my initial assumption is Apple will do the Apple thing and arbitrarily reduce the number of ports while saying “if you want more here’s the Mac Studio that’s way more expensive!”
If it’s the size of an Apple TV it will definitely only have a few ports. I can’t speak for anyone else but I’m personally fine with that, 1-2 USB-C, 1 USB-A, Ethernet, Power and HDMI would be fine IMO.
I think this was more of an issue when USB-C docks were less compatible and more expensive. Now you can get all the ports you need for $20. Just doesn’t seem like much of a big deal to me, when 90% of them are going to be connected to a monitor, wireless KB & mouse and WiFi and the occasional USB key or printer.
On what situation do people buy this over a macbook? When they absolutely need an ethernet port?
I already have a screen and keyboard and mouse and a desk and I don’t care about it being portable (so don’t need a battery). So I don’t want to pay for what I already have or don’t need.
Plus I need use those things for the Windows laptop that work gives me when I’m working at home.
If I needed portability, then yeah, sure Macbook makes more sense. But the desktop isn’t dead just yet.
I’m not super bothered about it being smaller, it’s quite small already, although I understand the current gen has a lot of empty space inside the case, so I guess it makes sense to make it smaller and it gives the marketing team something to talk about.
Realistically they could just make this a hybrid model that can be either an entry level Mac or an Apple TV all in one device.
The “Apple Hub”, use it as an Apple TV or use as a lightweight family computer on your existing display. Perfect!
Then sell for $225 with 1TB nvme and 16GB RAM but no display or camera.
Hopefully this will mean competitive pricing once again, since they have the Studio to take care of the pro-sumer market now.
I just hope a well specced Mini doesn’t sell for more than the base model Studio, and still have worse specs.
Just give me 32 gigs of ram, 4 thunderbolt ports, and 10 gig ethernet so my poor i5 Mac Mini can retire. He’s been screaming in pain.
If it’s smaller than the current mini, it’ll likely have a lot less ports. They’ll probably do this to push people to the Studio.
The article said smaller but taller, so I’m thinking Airport-shaped with still plenty of room for ports.
Article said one HDMI, at least 3 USB-C + power. Doesn’t mention Ethernet at all. Does the Apple TV have Ethernet? That looks like the form factor they’re starting from.
