# The 2018 Mac Mini

DevFeed: [The 2018 Mac Mini](<https://devfeed.tech/articles/the-2018-mac-mini-38579.md>)

Original publisher: [Read original article](<https://marco.org/2018/11/06/mac-mini-2018-review>)

Author: Marco Arment

Published: 2018-11-06T11:01:39Z

Content type: opinion

Language: en

Sources: [Marco.org](<https://devfeed.tech/sources/marco-org.md>)

Topics: [Mac Mini](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/mac-mini.md>), [cpu](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/cpu.md>)

Tags: [apple](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/apple.md>), [mac-mini](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/mac-mini.md>), [nas](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/nas.md>), [performance](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/performance.md>), [plex](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/plex.md>), [processor](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/processor.md>), [server](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/server.md>), [ssd](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/ssd.md>)

## AI overview

A review of the 2018 Mac Mini finds that it preserves the previous model's size, versatility, and broad selection of ports while improving performance and modernizing its architecture. The review also notes that the higher starting price makes it an expensive product.

## Source excerpt

Watch the video review I hardly ever think about my Mac Mini, but it serves a vital role for my family as our home-theater mixer, Plex server, ScanSnap server, Apple Photos backup, and Backblaze host for our NAS.1 Almost every port on the back is in use, and it runs 24/7, reliably, in total silence. Until last week, I thought it would be the last Mac Mini that Apple ever made. And when rumors started swirling about an imminent Mac Mini update, I assumed the worst: if it came at all, it would be a tiny box with a slow, ultra-low-power processor and almost zero ports, optimizing for small size instead of versatility. I don't think this was an unreasonable fear after the 2014 Mac Mini update, which made many key aspects much worse without making anything much better. It seemed clear then, and for the following four years that it went without an update, that Apple held the Mac Mini and its customers in very low regard. Not anymore. The 2018 Mac Mini is real, and it's spectacular. It makes almost nothing worse and almost everything better, finally bringing the Mac Mini into the modern age. Ports! Glorious ports! Number one -- and this is a big one these days, especially for this product -- is that it's not any less useful or versatile than the outgoing Mac Mini, including the generous assortment of ports. If the previous one served a role for you, the new one can probably do it just as well, and probably better and faster, with minimal donglage.2 It's the same size as the old one, which is the right tradeoff. I know zero Mac Mini owners who really need it to get smaller, and many who don't want it to get fewer ports or worse performance. The point of the Mac Mini is to be as versatile as possible, addressing lots of diverse and edge-case needs that the other Macs can't with their vastly different form factors and more opinionated designs. The Mac Mini needs to be a utility product, not a design statement. (Although, even as someone tired of space-gray everything, I have to