The little Mac that goes a long way
Apple's latest personal computer is a tiny powerhouse that packs a punch.
The Mac mini from Apple is called the Mac mini for a good reason. It’s the smallest Mac money can buy, roughly the size of a lunchbox, for someone with very modest lunch plans.
You can easily hold it in the palm of your hand, and yet it’s a fully-fledged desktop computer, powered by the latest in the line of Apple’s blazingly-fast M-series silicon chips.
Well, not quite fully-fledged. You have to do some fledging yourself, by adding your own monitor and input devices (keyboard, mouse, and/or trackpad), along with an external mic and webcam for conference calls.
Even so, you can build a modular Mac mini system for a whole lot less than it would cost to buy an all-in-one iMac.
This makes the Mac mini the most affordable way into the Mac ecosystem, but there’s nothing entry-level about the way it performs.
With the M4 chip at its core, the Mac mini feels less like a “budget Mac”, and more like a precision tool for anyone who wants desktop power without the desktop drama.
Once it’s plugged in, along with the necessary components, the mini boots up in an instant. Aside from the familiar Mac startup chime, it’s completely silent in operation.
While the mini does have a fan, you're only ever likely to hear a faint whir when you put the processor under extreme pressure, for instance while editing a large 4K video project.
Even then, the mini will soldier on calmly, without interrupting any other tasks you may have running in the background.
The base-model Mac mini M4 comes with 16 GB of RAM as standard, more than enough to handle multimedia editing, remote meetings, streaming, coding, AI tasks, and multiple open browser tabs, with snappy power and grace.
It's a small enough machine to tuck away behind a monitor or mount beneath a desk, but it's hard to see why anyone would want to do that, given the mini's minimalistic beauty and classic Apple design.
It's also easier to use the mini in plain view, thanks to its generous spread of ports, including USB-C/Thunderbolt 4, HDMI, Ethernet, and even a headphone jack for analog audio.
This means you can plug in everything from external drives to 4K monitors to a router to audio interfaces with ease.
There’s something liberating about the plug-and-play modularity of the Mac mini. Instead of dictating your home or office setup, it invites you to create it.
You can use the mini with a single monitor, or hook it up to a dual-display workstation. You can pair it with Apple’s Magic accessories, or with a mechanical keyboard that clacks like a typewriter from 1982.
If you already have some of those tools lying around, the cost savings are compelling. For Windows switchers, the Mac mini is a particularly appealing on-ramp, giving all the benefits of the Mac ecosystem without the full Apple desktop price tag.
It’s true that the Mac mini M4 isn’t for everyone. It's not an on-the-go portable machine, like a MacBook. It's not a plug-in and go machine, like an iMac.
But if you want power, flexibility, and value, all wrapped in a quiet little brushed-aluminium box, then the Mac mini is a beautiful and satisfying reminder that less sometimes really can be more.
The Mac mini M4 base model, with 16 GB of RAM and 256 GB of SSD storage, is available for just under R14,000 from iStore or Takealot. Subject to availability.
The little Mac that goes a long way
Apple's latest personal computer is a tiny powerhouse that packs a punch.
The Mac mini from Apple is called the Mac mini for a good reason. It’s the smallest Mac money can buy, roughly the size of a lunchbox, for someone with very modest lunch plans.
You can easily hold it in the palm of your hand, and yet it’s a fully-fledged desktop computer, powered by the latest in the line of Apple’s blazingly-fast M-series silicon chips.
Well, not quite fully-fledged. You have to do some fledging yourself, by adding your own monitor and input devices (keyboard, mouse, and/or trackpad), along with an external mic and webcam for conference calls.
Even so, you can build a modular Mac mini system for a whole lot less than it would cost to buy an all-in-one iMac.
This makes the Mac mini the most affordable way into the Mac ecosystem, but there’s nothing entry-level about the way it performs.
With the M4 chip at its core, the Mac mini feels less like a “budget Mac”, and more like a precision tool for anyone who wants desktop power without the desktop drama.
Once it’s plugged in, along with the necessary components, the mini boots up in an instant. Aside from the familiar Mac startup chime, it’s completely silent in operation.
While the mini does have a fan, you're only ever likely to hear a faint whir when you put the processor under extreme pressure, for instance while editing a large 4K video project.
Even then, the mini will soldier on calmly, without interrupting any other tasks you may have running in the background.
The base-model Mac mini M4 comes with 16 GB of RAM as standard, more than enough to handle multimedia editing, remote meetings, streaming, coding, AI tasks, and multiple open browser tabs, with snappy power and grace.
It's a small enough machine to tuck away behind a monitor or mount beneath a desk, but it's hard to see why anyone would want to do that, given the mini's minimalistic beauty and classic Apple design.
It's also easier to use the mini in plain view, thanks to its generous spread of ports, including USB-C/Thunderbolt 4, HDMI, Ethernet, and even a headphone jack for analog audio.
This means you can plug in everything from external drives to 4K monitors to a router to audio interfaces with ease.
There’s something liberating about the plug-and-play modularity of the Mac mini. Instead of dictating your home or office setup, it invites you to create it.
You can use the mini with a single monitor, or hook it up to a dual-display workstation. You can pair it with Apple’s Magic accessories, or with a mechanical keyboard that clacks like a typewriter from 1982.
If you already have some of those tools lying around, the cost savings are compelling. For Windows switchers, the Mac mini is a particularly appealing on-ramp, giving all the benefits of the Mac ecosystem without the full Apple desktop price tag.
It’s true that the Mac mini M4 isn’t for everyone. It's not an on-the-go portable machine, like a MacBook. It's not a plug-in and go machine, like an iMac.
But if you want power, flexibility, and value, all wrapped in a quiet little brushed-aluminium box, then the Mac mini is a beautiful and satisfying reminder that less sometimes really can be more.
The Mac mini M4 base model, with 16 GB of RAM and 256 GB of SSD storage, is available for just under R14,000 from iStore or Takealot. Subject to availability.
The little Mac that goes a long way
Apple's latest personal computer is a tiny powerhouse that packs a punch.
The Mac mini from Apple is called the Mac mini for a good reason. It’s the smallest Mac money can buy, roughly the size of a lunchbox, for someone with very modest lunch plans.
You can easily hold it in the palm of your hand, and yet it’s a fully-fledged desktop computer, powered by the latest in the line of Apple’s blazingly-fast M-series silicon chips.
Well, not quite fully-fledged. You have to do some fledging yourself, by adding your own monitor and input devices (keyboard, mouse, and/or trackpad), along with an external mic and webcam for conference calls.
Even so, you can build a modular Mac mini system for a whole lot less than it would cost to buy an all-in-one iMac.
This makes the Mac mini the most affordable way into the Mac ecosystem, but there’s nothing entry-level about the way it performs.
With the M4 chip at its core, the Mac mini feels less like a “budget Mac”, and more like a precision tool for anyone who wants desktop power without the desktop drama.
Once it’s plugged in, along with the necessary components, the mini boots up in an instant. Aside from the familiar Mac startup chime, it’s completely silent in operation.
While the mini does have a fan, you're only ever likely to hear a faint whir when you put the processor under extreme pressure, for instance while editing a large 4K video project.
Even then, the mini will soldier on calmly, without interrupting any other tasks you may have running in the background.
The base-model Mac mini M4 comes with 16 GB of RAM as standard, more than enough to handle multimedia editing, remote meetings, streaming, coding, AI tasks, and multiple open browser tabs, with snappy power and grace.
It's a small enough machine to tuck away behind a monitor or mount beneath a desk, but it's hard to see why anyone would want to do that, given the mini's minimalistic beauty and classic Apple design.
It's also easier to use the mini in plain view, thanks to its generous spread of ports, including USB-C/Thunderbolt 4, HDMI, Ethernet, and even a headphone jack for analog audio.
This means you can plug in everything from external drives to 4K monitors to a router to audio interfaces with ease.
There’s something liberating about the plug-and-play modularity of the Mac mini. Instead of dictating your home or office setup, it invites you to create it.
You can use the mini with a single monitor, or hook it up to a dual-display workstation. You can pair it with Apple’s Magic accessories, or with a mechanical keyboard that clacks like a typewriter from 1982.
If you already have some of those tools lying around, the cost savings are compelling. For Windows switchers, the Mac mini is a particularly appealing on-ramp, giving all the benefits of the Mac ecosystem without the full Apple desktop price tag.
It’s true that the Mac mini M4 isn’t for everyone. It's not an on-the-go portable machine, like a MacBook. It's not a plug-in and go machine, like an iMac.
But if you want power, flexibility, and value, all wrapped in a quiet little brushed-aluminium box, then the Mac mini is a beautiful and satisfying reminder that less sometimes really can be more.