The Apple Mac Mini is 17% off and half the price of a MacBook Air

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The Mac Mini is just as powerful as a MacBook Air at almost half the price. (Apple)
The Mac Mini is just as powerful as a MacBook Air at almost half the price.

Imagine Apple’s product line as an album. There would be some mega-hit singles (like the iPhone, the MacBook and AirPods), but also some products that don’t get as much love. Let’s call these the deep cuts. The Mac Mini is one of those products — it’s incredibly powerful and housed inside a tiny shell that would take up a fraction of your desk space.

Desktop PC’s hold a unique space within the tech market. Some gamers build custom PCs or designers and coders buy top-of-the-line computers and monitors, which is why the Mac Mini is precarious. It’s made for people who want a similar experience to a MacBook. It’s small but powerful enough to complete most tasks without a hiccup. I’ve been personally using a MacBook Air M1 for years, and I’m still able to get light editing done, handle basic tasks and surf the web without any issues. The Mac Mini M2 is on sale for $499, half the price of a MacBook Air M2, which has a retail price of $999. Of course, you’ll need a monitor, keyboard and mouse but you can essentially buy an Apple computer with the same capabilities as one of their most popular laptops for half the price.

Apple Mac Mini

Apple 2023 Mac Mini Desktop Computer

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  • Apple 2023 Mac Mini Desktop Computer $499.00 at Amazon

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4.7-star average rating from 1,272 reviews on Amazon

The Mac Mini is a strong fighter in a compact form. You can choose basic customization options like choosing between the basic M2 chip or the M2 Pro chip, 256 GB or 512 GB storage. The mini also has an HDMI port, Wi-Fi connectivity, Bluetooth, a headphone jack and an ethernet plug. To put this all into context, a Mac Mini should easily be able to run Adobe suite software like Photoshop or other intensive apps without many issues. It’s a minor issue but still something to be aware of: all of the ports are on the back of the computer, and it lacks an SD card slot, which could be frustrating for photographers.

The M2 Mac Mini is currently on sale for $499, about 17% off. It’s a great computer for someone needing a general-purpose desktop PC. It’s not going to be able to compete with the best gaming PCs or the latest M3 MacBook Pro, but it still offers more than solid performance for your day-to-day tasks.

Operating system: MacOS | RAM: 8GB | Storage: 256GB SSD or 512 SSD | Ports: 1x HDMI, 2x Thunderbolt, 2x USB-A, | Weight: 2.6 lbs. | GPU: Apple M2 (10-core) | CPU: Apple M2 (8-core)

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