'ZDNET Recommends': What exactly does it mean?
ZDNET's recommendations are based on many hours of testing, research, and comparison shopping. We gather data from the best available sources, including vendor and retailer listings as well as other relevant and independent reviews sites. And we pore over customer reviews to find out what matters to real people who already own and use the products and services we’re assessing.
When you click through from our site to a retailer and buy a product or service, we may earn affiliate commissions. This helps support our work, but does not affect what we cover or how, and it does not affect the price you pay. Neither ZDNET nor the author are compensated for these independent reviews. Indeed, we follow strict guidelines that ensure our editorial content is never influenced by advertisers.
ZDNET's editorial team writes on behalf of you, our reader. Our goal is to deliver the most accurate information and the most knowledgeable advice possible in order to help you make smarter buying decisions on tech gear and a wide array of products and services. Our editors thoroughly review and fact-check every article to ensure that our content meets the highest standards. If we have made an error or published misleading information, we will correct or clarify the article. If you see inaccuracies in our content, please report the mistake via this form.
Apple's new Mac Mini with M2 chip is faster, more capable, and somehow cheaper
Apple today unveiled its newest line of Mac computers, including the Mac Mini and MacBook Pros, all of which are now equipped with the company's snappier M2 and M2 Pro chipsets.
More: How to preorder Apple's new Macs and ultimately skip the line
Hot off the press, the M2-equipped Mac Mini is said to offer up to 50 percent faster speeds in services like Adobe Photoshop compared to its two-year-old M1 predecessor, and up to 35 percent faster gameplay in titles like Resident Evil Village. Basically, you're getting a more capable compact desktop PC this time around -- and for a starting price of $599.
That's right, the M2 Mac Mini, though clearly faster and more performant than its $699 predecessor, is being sold for $100 less right off the gate. Starting today you can preorder from the following configurations:
- Mac Mini with M2 chip, 8GB of RAM, 256GB of SSD, and two Thunderbolt 4 ports for $599
- Mac Mini with M2 chip, 8GB of RAM, 512GB of SSD, and two Thunderbolt 4 ports for $799
- Mac Mini with M2 Pro chip, 16GB of RAM, 512GB of SSD, and four Thunderbolt 4 ports for $1,299
Should you be adventurous and opt for the fully specced-out Mac Mini, it'll come with the M2 Pro chip with 12-core CPU, 19-core GPU, 8TB of SSD, 10 Gigabit Ethernet, and set you back $4,099.
No matter which model you buy, the Mac Mini will come with two additional USB-A ports, an HDMI port, Gigabit Ethernet support, a headphone jack, and in Silver. There's no Space Gray this time around. And thanks to the new M2 chip, the Macs can support up to two displays at a time, with the M2 Pro capable of extending to a full-on 8K monitor, a first for any Mac computer.
The new Mac Mini is available for preorder today, with open sales starting on Tuesday, January 24.
Also: This $75 dock turns your Mac Mini into a Mac Studio (sort of)