Apple has finally updated the Mac mini, with the new high-end M2 Pro version replacing an absolutely old Intel model.
It fills an important gap in Apple’s Mac desktop lineup. The M1 Mac mini was cheap and got even cheaper with its M2 upgrade and the Mac Studio is powerful but expensive, starting at $1,999. Then there’s the good iMac for $1,499, which is really just an M1 built into a colorful 24-inch screen.
So if you want a desktop Mac, you were forced to go low-end or high-end. With the M2 Pro Mac mini, there’s finally something in between. It starts at $1,299 for a trimmed down version of the M2 Pro with a 10-core CPU and 16-core GPU. Upgrade to the full M2 Pro with a 12-core CPU and a 19-core GPU, and add a little RAM or storage, and you’ll find yourself spending as much as the $1,999 entry-level Mac Studio.
So who should buy the upgraded M2 Pro Mac mini and who should just buy the entry-level Mac Studio? After using both for the past week, the answer isn’t very clear.
M2 Pro vs M1 Max: It’s Complicated
The $1,599 Mac mini with a full M2 Pro chip often delivers CPU benchmark scores about 15 to 20 percent higher than the M1 Max, thanks to two additional high-efficiency CPU cores and higher clock speeds. But the $1,299 Mac mini has an M2 Pro with the same 10 cores as the M1 Max Mac Studio.
Unless you’re doing the kind of tasks that hammer away at the CPU for minutes while you stare at a progress bar, you’re unlikely to notice the difference. Both machines have such fast storage and memory that everyday tasks – emailing, web browsing, productivity work, photo editing, and even light consumer video editing – feel just as fast and responsive.
The M1 Max in the base model Mac Studio comes with 32 GB of RAM, while the M2 Pro starts with 16 GB. Honestly, 16GB is fine for most things, but if you have a lot of applications to run at once or really big content creation workloads, the extra RAM will make a difference. And if you plan on keeping it for about five years, the extra RAM is nice to have.
When comparing the GPU in the M2 Pro to the M1 Max things get complicated. The M1 Max in the base model Mac Studio has 24 cores, with 32 cores available for an additional $200. The M2 Pro has 16 cores, with 19 cores for an additional $300. The Mac Studio usually outperforms the Mac mini here, because it has 50 percent more cores and double the memory bandwidth.
In other words, for everyday browsing and the like, you probably won’t notice much of a difference with either machine. For sustained intensive CPU usage, the M2 Pro is Mac mini can slightly better than the Mac Studio, but even then only if you spend $300 on a CPU upgrade. There aren’t many tasks where the Neural Engine is the bottleneck, but it’s significantly faster in the M2 Pro, at least on paper.
At the end of the day, I’d even take the entry-level M1 Max with 24 CPU cores and 32GB of RAM over the high-performance M2 Pro, but it comes close.
It’s not just the processor
But there’s more to these machines than the difference in processing power. The Mac Studio is obviously bigger – it’s about 2.5 Mac minis stacked on top of each other. But both machines have the same footprint. They are ordinary small by modern desktop computer standards and almost silently.
In terms of design, I prefer the Mac Studio. The extra height doesn’t bother me…in fact, it’s a great monitor stand for the Studio Display. But it’s the two USB-C ports and SDXC card slot on the front that make me love the Mac Studio. I used them regularly and I immediately missed them on the Mac mini.
Those front ports make the Mac Studio a much more user-friendly design.
Roman Loyola/IDG
The Mac mini has Wi-FI 6E, which may be of interest if you have a Wi-Fi 6E router or are planning to buy one soon, although Wi-Fi 6 on the Mac Studio is by no means slow. The mini also has HDMI 2.1, a serious game changer if you want to connect your Mac to an 8K monitor or a 4K monitor with over 60 Hz.
While the HDMI 2.0 port is a bit of a nuisance on such an expensive computer, it’s the ports on the front that have me leaning towards the Mac Studio. You’ll eventually notice the performance boost of Wi-Fi 6E or in rare cases need an HDMI 2.1 port, but you’ll be using those front USB-C and SDXC slots almost every day.
Apple’s pricing is the problem
If you don’t need to spend more than $1,500, the base model Mac mini with a storage upgrade to 1 TB isn’t bad. It’s a bit overpriced, but it’s still far enough below the Mac Studio price point to be worth it.
But the more you upgrade the Mac mini to match the Mac Studio, the worse the matchup gets. While the Mac Studio’s upgraded 32-core GPU costs $200, you’ll need to add $300 for the full M2 Pro. Add $400 to jump to 32GB of RAM to go with the Studio and you’ve got $1,999. Consider the fact that you have to spend $100 to upgrade the Mac mini’s Gigabit Ethernet port to the 10Gb Ethernet port that comes standard on the Mac Studio, and the Mac mini technically costs more. Oh, and don’t forget those front-facing USB-C ports and SDXC card slot.
So, which would you rather for $1,999: an M2 Pro with 32 GB RAM and a 512 GB SSD, Wi-Fi 6E and HDMI 2, or an M1 Max with 32 GB RAM and a 512 GB SSD, and front-facing Thunderbolt ports and an SDXC card slot? The Mac mini with M2 Pro should really start at $1,099 just like the Intel model it replaced, and of course Apple’s long-standing ridiculous prices for upgraded RAM and storage are also to blame for this.
And then there’s the next generation of the Mac Studio. We haven’t heard much about an upcoming M2 Max M2 Ultra-based Mac Studio, but the M1 version is almost a year old, and with the M2 Max now available in the MacBook Pro, we’re just waiting for a M2 Ultra. Assuming the Mac Studio gets updated this spring with the Mac mini’s HDMI 2.1 and Wi-FI 6E upgrades, and Apple doesn’t raise the price, there’s no reason to buy an upgraded M2 Pro Mac mini. recommended.
But for now, if you’re looking for a Mac desktop that’s a little more powerful than the regular M2 model, grit your teeth and pick up the $1,299 Mac mini, possibly with a 1TB storage upgrade if you spend the $200 can swing around. But if you’re considering upgrading something else — the processor or the RAM — I think most users would be happier and get more bang for their buck with the $1,999 Mac Studio.
