A month ago, Apple facilitated a launch occasion where they divulged the new range of iPhones. Towards the end of October, Apple once more propelled a couple of new items to add to its current line of customer gadgets. One of the items that were propelled in Apple’s New York Event, on October 30, was the all-new Mac mini. The old Mac mini conveyed a similar look since 2014, which was prodded to be revived when Apple declared the new specs amid a year ago’s WWDC. The new Mac mini was unveiled alongside the newly refreshed MacBook Air and the all-new iPad Pro models.
The new Mac mini holds up to 6-core processors to deliver five times better performance than the previous generation Mac mini. Offering memory capacity of up to 64GB RAM in some parts of the world, the device features all-flash storage. Apple has included the same T2 Security Chip in the Mac mini as they have incorporated into the new MacBook Air. This Apple T2 chip will provide on-the-fly data encryption to all your private and public documents so that you don’t lose anything at the hands of the intruders.
The Mac mini 2018 is powered by either a quad-core or a hexa-core 8th Generation Intel Core processors, as per your choice to choose between the core designs. The processor offers Turbo Boost speed of up to 4.6GHz which will definitely add to the performance of the Mac mini and offer much more capabilities than its predecessors. The RAM options go up to 64GB with clock speeds up to 2666MHz in other countries, while India is stuck at only 8GB RAM variant. The storage options in other countries will be available up till 2TB of SSD, while India gets only 128GB and 256GB SSD storage options.
Just like the MacBook Air 2018, the Apple T2 Security Chip included in the Mac mini 2018 will feature a controller for SSD to encrypt all the important data within the device, along with capabilities to HEVC video transcoding, which is touted to be 30 times faster than the previous generation Mac minis. This time around, the Mac mini is loaded with several I/O ports including four Thunderbolt 3 USB Type-C v3.1 ports (that’s too much), two USB Type-A v3.0 ports, one HDMI 2.0 port, Gigabit Ethernet port with a 10GB Ethernet in few countries, and a regular 3.5mm audio jack. The extensive range of Thunderbolt ports present in the new Mac mini will support up to 4K and 5K displays.
There will be two storage options of the Mac mini to be available in India, both in a single colour variant – Apple’s favourite Space Gray colour. The base model of the Mac mini is priced at Rs 75,900 in India, featuring a quad-core 8th Generation Intel Core i3 processor clocked at 3.6GHz, 8GB of RAM, paired with 128GB of SSD storage. The other variant that will be made available in India costs $1,099 in the US (roughly Rs 80,300). It packs a hexa-core 8th Generation Intel Core i5 processor clocked at 3.0GHz with Turbo Boost up to 4.1GHz, 8GB of RAM clocked at 2666MHz, and 256GB of SSD storage. The Indian price of the expensive variant has been set at Rs 1,05,900. The new Mac mini models all feature Intel UHD Graphics 630, supporting up to 3 displays. Weighing in at 1.3kgs, connectivity options on the new Mac mini box include Wi-Fi 802.11ac and Bluetooth 5.0.
Finishing up, the new Mac mini has been listed at a starting price of USD 799, which roughly translated to Rs 58,800 in India. But it has been priced at Rs 75,900 here, just like all the Apple products which are heavily priced in India. The Mac mini 2018 is available for pre-orders in the US starting October 30. Though the sales will start on the similar date when the new MacBook Air will go on sale, that is November 7. Of all the products launched at the Apple’s October Event, both the Mac mini and the MacBook Air are touted to be the first of their kinds to be completely made out of 100 percent aluminium, which is genuinely recycled, giving them a smaller carbon footprint. The recycled aluminium calls in for nearly 50 percent less carbon generation than the previous gen MacBook Air and the Mac mini. Also, all the new Mac mini models and the MacBook Air features a new cooling technology system which allows a better air flow that has ever been used in any other product by any other company.
It is doubtful whether Apple will be introducing the 1TB or 2TB of SSD storage variants of the Mac mini 2018 in India, along with the higher Intel Core processors, and higher RAM options than the standard 8GB RAM, given that certain nations will get to see up to 64GB of RAM clocked at 2666MHz and up to 2TB of SSD storage.
Apple Mac mini Quick Specifications
| Processor | 3.6GHz 4-core Intel Core i3; 3.0GHz 6-core Intel Core i5 |
| Memory | 8GB of DDR4 RAM, clocked at 2666MHz |
| Storage (SSD) | 128GB, 256GB |
| Graphics | Intel UHD Graphics 630 |
| Price | Rs 75,900 (128GB), Rs 1,05,900 (256GB) |
