Review: The M1 Mac Mini for the Non-Content Creator

I have had an M1 Mac Mini stashed away in my cart for a few months now, but I was always hesitant to pull the trigger. Since they launched late last year, the hype around Apple’s M1 chip has been insane. The tech community can never agree on anything, but they were all astonished by that little processor. For me, the hesitancy always came from watching YouTube videos that covered the M1. While every video was praising it, at some point they all went into detail about how the M1 Mac Mini was able to render 4K footage.

That’s cool and all but what if I’m not a tech YouTuber?

That was the issue. If you’re not making videos, editing photos, or creating music, is the M1 Mac Mini all that appealing? That is all that I needed to know, and nobody had an answer for that.

So, that’s what I’m wanting you to be able to take away from my review of the M1 Mac Mini. If your situation is like mine: Not a die-hard Mac user, not a content creator, and not a student, is this powerful little box right for your day-to-day usage?

Is it really that fast?

The M1 doesn’t disappoint. Thus far, it truly has been able to handle everything that I have thrown at it. I will have Chrome opened up with a dozen tabs going, I’ll have Spotify playing in the background, I’ll have Photoshop and Steam idle in the background, and the Mac Mini never bats an eye. Even resource-intense programs like Adobe that aren’t utilizing the M1 chip are a pleasure to deal with. One of my big nerdy hobbies is creating uniforms and attires in NBA 2K and WWE 2K19. Finding resource material, editing that with Photoshop, and then uploading that over into 2K is a process that takes little more than 2-3 minutes for me on the M1.

Even if you’re not a content creator, the M1 Mac Mini’s ability to handle your needs makes it very appealing. Whether I’m coding, writing, checking emails, or making Zoom calls, the M1 has made my everyday life so much easier.

Can you game on it?

Let’s be honest here: You’re not looking to buy a Mac if gaming is your focus. That’s never been the case and the M1 processor doesn’t change that.  However, for a machine that starts at $599, it’s capable of a lot more than you would think.

Titles such as Fortnite, World of Warcraft, Borderlands, and Hades all work phenomenally on the Mac Mini. With the Apple M1 being so new, a lot of these games aren’t ported over directly. Instead, the Mac M1’s uses Rosetta to emulate the games. Your mileage will vary, but if you go into it with realistic expectations then you might find yourself pleasantly surprised. I was able to play City Skylines on its highest settings, and that’s something that my old gaming PC wasn’t even capable of. For more information on the playable games—and what the overall experience is like—I recommend checking out AppleSiliconGames.com.

Note: I haven’t tried out Parrals just yet as the M1 version of it is still in trial, so I can’t speak on behalf of how PC games play on it. I really miss playing TEW 2020, though. 

What about these Bluetooth issues?

The only negative that all of these YouTube videos would mention in regards to the M1 Mac Mini was the reliability of the Bluetooth. If you’re using a wireless keyboard, speakers, mouse, or headphones, tech reviewers cautioned that you may run into issues. As someone that just recently went from Team Wired to Team Wireless, that was something that scared me off too. However, whether it was fixed on Apple’s end or whether I have good luck, I haven’t had any of those problems. I’m using a Logitech K380 keyboard, an MX Master 3 mouse, and a pair of Sony WH-1000XM4 headphones for both work and pleasure daily and it’s been mostly trouble-free. When I wake my Mac up and enter my password, I will get an incorrect password error on that first attempt as the Bluetooth is probably not connecting until after my first keystroke, but that’s honestly the only issue that I have had. (Note: That does happen every single time, though. It’s a bit annoying.)

Conclusion

Let’s wrap this puppy up by making it very clear that the M1 Mac Mini isn’t this “must-have” device that you need to dump your current computer for to get. It’s very good—and I highly recommend it—but don’t let the hype get to you. However, if you’re in the market for a new computer and gaming isn’t necessarily something that is important to you, I think that the M1 Mac Mini would be a great choice. My only word of caution would be that you should probably pay the extra $100 for the 16 GB’s of RAM version over the standard 8 GB—if for no other reason than to help yourself future-proof it a little more.

Other than that, for the price and the speed, it’s a fantastic little computer and will only get better as more companies start to release M1-versions of their programs.