Apple releases $499 Mac mini **EDIT** Now reviewed by Anand. **EDIT again** BTO Price drops

[Eug]

Half the height of an iPod mini, and very small footprint.

G4 1.25 GHz
256 MB RAM
40 GB HD
DVD-ROM/CD-RW combo drive slot load
Comes with OS X 10.3 Panther and iLife '05
Analogue VGA and DVI
USB 2, Firewire, Ethernet
$499

Higher end 1.4 GHz model with bigger hard drive and more memory for $599.

Pic

Man, this thing is gonna sell like mad.

EDIT:

Anand's review

EDIT2:

The Mac mini's BTO options have changed.

Mostly it's price drops, but the SuperDrive is now 8X. (UJ-835 I'm guessing.)

BlueTooth/Airport Express combo now $99.
1 GB RAM now $325.
80 GB hard drive upgrade now $50.

 

[DEredita]

Ohhhh snap, that's sweet.

- Mike

 

[powerMarkymark]

More linkage please as I am skeptical.

 

[mikecel79]

Eug I was waiting for your post! Every Macworld show your always the first one to post about it.

This thing looks great. Love the form factor too. I've been waiting for something like this. $500 isn't bad for what your getting. Yeah you can get a PC for cheaper but you can't run OSX on a PC. This will let anyone that shied away from Macs because of the price.

The best part is that this will probably drive down the price of older PowerMacs too. Should see the price of the the older dual CPU Powermacs selling on Ebay drop soon.

 

[Eug]

Yeah, and now I feel like an idiot for getting a Power Mac Cube a couple of months back and upgrading it... for $1000ish. If I had known, I would have gotten the $599 1.4 GHz. Well, at least I have a Cube. And my Cube has 1 GB RAM, a 1.7 GHz G4, and a 120 GB hard drive.

6.5" square, and 2" tall and 2.9 lbs

And for those who don't believe:

http://www.apple.com/macmini/

Radeon 9200
Airport Extreme option
Bluetooth option
Up to 80 GB
1.25 GHz or 1.4 GHz
Up to 1 GB RAM
DVI is confirmed <- Supports 23" Cinema Display
SuperDrive option
1 Firewire (powered)
2 USB 2

Maybe I'll get one of these for work.

 

[killershroom]

Umm, no thanks. This and the new iPod aren't worth a second look IMO.

 

[dakels]

For what this is and the target audience, this is agreat new release from apple. I've been wanting to get my parents a mac that is small and simple but didnt want to pay over $1000 for an imac. This is perfect for thier web browsing and email needs and small enough to be in their kitchen or bedroom. This paired with a 15-17" LCD is a great little system. Slot loading CD/DVD drive is a nice touch too. Reminds me alot of the Cube. Remember that? What a great little system, but that had a starting price point of around $1500, not $500.

This thing is so awesome though the size is incredible. 2.5lbs and small enough to hold in one hand. What a great machine for people who just need web and MS office type stuff and want an inobtrusive machine.

Of course this isn't going to attract most people here who can build a PC tower for $400, but it was never meant to attract this audience. No preassembled computer company I can think makes anything like this, not sony, dell, gateway, compaq, hp, etc. and this has a price to easily compete with those brands.

 

[Wahsapa]

a $99/149 ipod and iwork too.

you think they'll sell a lot of these?

 

[killershroom]

Originally posted by: Wahsapa
a $99/149 ipod and iwork too.

you think they'll sell a lot of these?

The iPod doesn't even have a display.

 

[Eug]

Judging by the size of the thing, I'm thinking it has a laptop hard drive. However, it doesn't say either way on the Apple website. I would have guessed that they would have used desktop drives, purely for cost reasons, but I guess not.

 

[Techno]

I'd be interested in getting this for the recording studio i'm setting up. Anyone know if I have to buy the monitor directly from apple or can I use the same monitor I'm using for my PC and get a KVM to switch between them??

 

[powerMarkymark]

Originally posted by: Techno
I'd be interested in getting this for the recording studio i'm setting up. Anyone know if I have to buy the monitor directly from apple or can I use the same monitor I'm using for my PC and get a KVM to switch between them??

KVM should work just fine.

 

[Eug]

It's a standard DVI-I port, so you can use any DVI or VGA monitor.

 

[Dennis Travis]

Techno, You can use any DVI or VGA monitor with it.

 

[Hottie]

Great, and even smaller than my gamecube. I will be getting one if someone make external a Tv tuner for mac, perfect for media centre and PVR.

 

[timswim78]

I am looking forward to seeing Windows knock-offs of this. It would be sweet to have Windows machine of that size.

I am not knocking MAC's. I just prefer Windows.

 

[mikecel79]

Originally posted by: killershroom

Originally posted by: Wahsapa
a $99/149 ipod and iwork too.

you think they'll sell a lot of these?

The iPod doesn't even have a display.

Yeah that is a real bummer. I was hoping for a flash memory based iPod mini. Give it 1GB and sell it for $149. They would sell a ton of them. Even more if you could expand it with CF cards.

 

[Eug]

Size comparison of the Mac mini vs. a traditional tower. (Animated .gif)

 

[boyRacer]

that's hot. :heart:

I think i'll go sell everything and get one of those so I have an excuse for people who want me to fix their PCs.

 

[Budmantom]

nice

 

[Looney]

For $500, i'll rather get a low end Windows notebook. Although for a few hundred more, you can get the 1.4g version with 1gb of ram and 80gb hdd, which does look tempting.

 

[Childs]

Man...the store is slammed. Can't even place an order....server times out when you verify.

 

[Dennis Travis]

Childs, same here. Got to the Mini page but can't get to where you order.

 

[ohnnyj]

iPod Shuffle? Man, what a disappointment. It would be better to have a mini LCD so you can control more things.

 

[Eug]

I can't even get to the order page. Good thing too, or I would have probably ordered one for work, even though I don't absolutely need one. Maybe I'll wait until next month.

BTW, this thing apparently does have a quiet fan, but I don't see mention of it on the US site.

The other problem is memory. It is NOT user upgradable. You either have to pay Apple's prices for RAM, or else pay a technician to install it. It might be a good idea to wait for third party resellers to offer their free memory or cheap memory deals with this. If you install it yourself, you void the warranty.