M2 Pro Mac Mini Review: Game Changer!

Love hearing you speak about the "normal user" instead of just video export speeds and other creator uses. This seems like a great deal for those who need an Apple product for classes / etc.

I normally clown on Apple products but this is super impressive. Powerful, well priced, portable, recycled materials, and the ability to select your own peripherals. Great upload

One of the first apple products in years that makes actual sense for regular costumers

The reason for my appreciation of this individual is his consistent delivery of high-quality content. He never fails to meet our expectations.

After watching so many of your videos over the years, today I realize ten years ago I watched your series on fastest Mini, which I eventually replicated. Come 2023 and I'm still using that 2012 Mini with 16GB RAM and 1TB SSD; still holding up, but guess why I'm watching today's video hahaha... Cheers

Your Fastest Man Mini (2012) video was the first piece of content which, brought you and your channel to my attention. I replicated the project a year later but subscribed right away. Just want to say thank you for creating and sharing great tech content for over a decade. Wishing you and your team many more years in this space, peace!

M1/M2 mac mini are the first apple computers in a looooong time which I would actually consider owning. It's really hard to argue against it as a portable workstation. Almost everywhere I go I can probably find a monitor, and bring a keyboard/mouse along, and for the money I save over speccing out an ultrabook I can probably throw in a luggable screen for coffee shop use too. Also asahi has been making huge strides forwards. Watching with interest.

It's crazy the number of options we have these days! We used the "trash can" Mac Pro at my old videography job -- this would KILL now!

I've had my M1 Mac Mini for a couple of years now and it has been incredible. I run Zwift on it (a cycling game/simulator) that is notoriously taxing on hardware, a bit of video and photo editing and other normal stuff. I was able to pair it with a keyboard and mouse I actually like and a 32" display (1080p resolution). The end result is an easy to use and comfortable set up that is always ready to go. Obviously you could go with a 4k display and a name brand keyboard to make it even nicer but I think my whole set up was less than $1000. Plus if something gets damaged it doesn't necessarily take down the entire system (like when a dog threw his chew toy into my mac book screen in 2009.

This is my first Mac ever Was going to buy the M1 a year and a half ago and then heard rumors the M2 was right around the corner. After holding off for a year and a half I finally got this one. So excited.

The M2 Pro Mac Mini is a game changer! It's powerful, sleek and perfect for both work and play. The upgrade to the M2 chip makes a significant difference in performance and the compact design makes it easy to take on the go. Overall, a fantastic device that I highly recommend. Thanks, Marques.

The speed of improvement and performance-affordability always fascinates me every time I think about it. Think back like 10 years ago, something like a HD video recording or a terabyte of storage was something incredibly impressive and expensive, while nowadays you wouldn’t even be impressed by a camera with 4K recordings because tech got so affordable. Truly an amazing era to live in!

I was a big fan of the 2012 Mac Mini which if I remember correctly was the only upgradable Mac Mini available and at the time, it was a killer machine with its Intel i7 and maxed out ram, etc. I still run that machine in my basement for basically just web surfing and light video editing and it still eats up whatever task I throw at it. It's definitely an overlooked product and now with everything that I learned from this video about the new product lineup.... I might be putting my 2021 16" MacBook Pro in the backseat to make room for a maxed out Mini. Thanks for the great video!

I’ve used an M1 Mac Mini for the past couple years now and it’s been a blast. I love that they’ve upgraded it to M2 and it’s cheaper! And yeah, I don’t have to upgrade my monitor and keyboard every time I get a new one. It’s become my favorite Apple product (favorite computer even) after my iPad which I use alongside the Mac Mini every day.

This video has got me absolutely convinced to get one of these. I'm on a 2015 Mac Air and I've been wanting to upgrade since the M1 chips came out but they were just a little over the edge for me in terms of price. This fits right in. Thanks Marques!

Dang... The size of that makes me want one for the portability and space saving, but I'm personally not a Mac user. I do hope we get some PC equivalents in this size and price range (assuming it doesn't exist already, which it certainly might and I just don't know about it)

If you spec out a Pro mini with comparable RAM, SSD, and ethernet it is about the price of the M1 Max Studio. It will be interesting to see what happens to the pricing once the M2 (or M3 studio is released). It is the Apple way to ladder/tier their prices but these two items actually seem TOO close once the generation gap is closed.

From a almost-ignored back trail in the Apple Mac line, to an actual important upper-mid level performer. Very cool!

Hi! I primarily use After Effects for rigging and animating many layers, sometimes high res. As much as shorter render times are a blessing I am more concerned about viewport playback and timeline scrubbing, so I can manually view my animations. I was considering the Mac Mini M2 Pro, with upgraded processor, 32GB memory and possibly a 4TB SSD. With these added costs would I be better purchasing the base Mac Studio, which still costs a lot more?

Marques is the kind of guy who’ll subtly show you how dope he is with his little action figure while doing a dope tech review. Well done!

Just got the MBP M2 and it is insane. Love the Mac Mini too! Great review as always!

Definitely appreciate the review! You mentioned GPU and I’m looking to get into Photoshop and video animation in the near future. I won’t be tackling any extremely huge projects as I’ll be learning but obvi the more I learn the more I’ll do. Trying to decide if I should just skip this and get the Studio or would this do for a while. That said, how do you think the GPU on this holds up in the aforementioned scenario?

I have had quite good experience over the years with Dell monitors on Macs, specifically the U (ultrasharp) line. I am currently running one Dell U2717 and one U2414 on a 2014 Mac Mini each, and I am quite happy. I will upgrade one of the Mac Minis to the 2023 M2 Pro Mac Mini.

It's absolutely insane at a really good price.

The Mac Mini has been the biggest sleeper in Apple's lineup for a while, great to see them continue to invest in updates to it and I'll keep recommending it to family as well who like using Mac OS, but aren't doing the kind of work requiring a $2,000 Macbook.

This man’s ability to make incredibly technical & complex subjects easily digestible without diluting the excitement of the products he’s reviewing makes him an absolute GEM of a creator. A once in a lifetime talent. Salute, Marques. 🫡

I'm still using my Mac mini M1 base model and it runs smoothly. I recommend the model I have for students or home use. The only complaint is the few ports, but most of my stuff is wireless now so I just end up using 1 of the thunderbolts and 1 of the usb ports for my camera.

Great info presented at a nice calming steady pace, highlighting not just the features and benefits but also which options in the range are the best value for money. One of the best presentations we have come across for a long time.

Your reviews are my favorites, and there are SO many to choose from. Your presentation is honest, thorough, clearly spoken and easy to listen to. I have a 2016 MB Pro and seldom use it - no need to upgrade. I have a top tier iMac with 40 gigs of RAM. I am a Realtor and photographer and need a great screen, hence the Macs. Mac mini looks great, but I'd love more than a 27" screen with hi-res and great color. 5K for the Apple 32" and 1K for the stand would be great, but . . . that's a lot of money. Thanks for another great review!

I love how this video addresses different points of views in terms of its users, It dosen't just talk about exporting or importing videos as a creator. + Marques if your reading this man you've really inspired me to push myself and try to make the best youtube videos I can. Keep it up bro!

Another shockingly concise and to the point review man, thank you for continuing to improve the channel with good and useful content every single day, just love it ❤️

Really love the way you discussed how to think about the line up and navigating from what you might have today, and which option you choose to upgrade to. Personally I don’t have a great screen set up as I have old iMac so I think I’m going to go to the laptop route. 🙏🏾

Almost a whole year after I purchased my Mac Studio on pre-order day last year and hearing rumors about Mac Studio possibly not being a supported computer anymore by Apple. This Mac Mini is 🔥for the price and small form factor compared to the Mac Studio as well.

If this is the entry level mac mini, I can't wait to see whats to come with the mac pro... I think my current video editing rig can go home as a beefy gaming rig and the mac mini will be the new office computer.

A most excellent revue.. I have an iMac M1 and have been a little disappointed with it.. more to do with the smaller screen size. I've previously had four 27" Intel Macs and loved the screen size. I've been with Apple since 1991, Mac OS 6.0. I was sorry to see the newer M1 iMac's with a smaller 24" screen. This new Mac mini with the M2 chip looks good, and you can buy whatever monitor size you want. An excellent revue from someone who knows there Apples.. My old favourite was the Apple Cube.. should have kept it..

My last Mac was a 5th gen i5 MacMini and I'm definitely buying a M2 model, insane deal.

I don't know how MKBHD does it, but his videos are never boring. He knows exactly what I want to hear and exactly how to say it. Pure genius!

Dude, thanks for the sustainability notes! I love following tech, but find sometimes balancing my interest in the space with the business always pushing for a new phone every year leaves a weird taste in my mouth

Imagine if apple made a motherboard capable of having two M2 ULTRAs and idk like a whole ass thing where you could use it as a server and it'd have a modified debian that you could install on it and use it as a server I'll just say it if they tried they'd turn into the biggest server provider with those incredible power usages these chips have damn.

I got 2 of these. I got the M1 a bunch of months ago when Costco had a sale, and now just got an M2 with another Costco sale. They are definitely the fasted CPUs in my house and I've had a few gaming PCs between me and my son. I always buy a USB Type C SanDisk SSD for extra storage. I swing my Photos and some larger apps to that storage to keep the main OS drive at max space. And with a nice 2K or 1440 or more monitor, you can beat these.

I am always impressed with your analyses and recommendations. They get to the point and have sensible justification. Keep it up. Many thanks.

I love this Mac mini! I already have an external keyboard and mouse for my 2017 MacBook Pro (which is aging significantly). If I got this plus a monitor, I would have a way faster computer and then I could turn my iPad into my “laptop” if I need a portable setup. I’m glad Apple has decided to revamp the Mac mini because it’s actually a sensible option.

I’ve never daily driven a Mac, but this Mac mini is really enticing. It actually seems like a good value proposition from Apple.

I had a Late-2014 Intel Mac Mini that I used for work for many years, and a couple of months after the M1 Mac Mini came out I upgraded. I still have it, of course - use it every day. And back then for $699 it was the best bang for the buck, computing-wise. (Although I did upgrade the RAM from 8GB to 16BB, so I paid $899 for mine). Now at $599 with an even *better* CPU? It's even *MORE* of a bang for the buck! I might upgrade just because I can get 10Gb Ethernet for $100. Sure would be nice to be able to talk to my NAS at 10Gb instead of 1Gb.

I just had to comment - I bought a Mac Mini as a refurbished in 2012. It was actually a 2011 model which hasn't had support since 2017. It's the only computer I own. You've convinced me to finally go to the M2 soon. I just don't know how to transfer the old, out-dated files and programs from my old 2011 mini to the new one (when I get it). Great review.

It looks like a very interesting offer . If you expand Mac mini’s SSD storage a lot pricier unfortunately.

makes a setup look so clean! What a powerful little machine!

I think that the higher refresh rate for displays is also great, but unfortunately, that’s only for M2 pro.

4:43 MKBHD’s performance per dollar ‘dumb Apple chart’ is priceless 😂

I still got a late 2012 Mac Mini i7 being used as a Jellyfin/Plex/Kavita server with ~65TB of content. Upgraded the ram from 4GB to 16GB and no issues to speak of in the 10+ years that I've had it. I'm glad to hear that the base product still offers so much value but the lack of DIY upgrades is a bummer. Two steps forward one step back is the Apple way.

Can’t wait to get one! I’ve never had a Mac computer. The mini fits what I need. That price point is very attractive!

It would be great to see a deep dive that compares two possible buys for an “average” user: 14” MacBook Pro for $2k-2,500 vs M2 Pro Mini + MacBook Air or iPad for similar total expenditure.

You speaking more about normal users and actually explicitly making recommendations for students and so forth, it adds the value that I have been feeling like most reviewers lack, and what you sometimes also lack lately. Like we get it, you work with 8k and staff so obviously things like that should impress you, but the percentage of your viewers who care about that, even understands or can even watch it in their own device, it is so small that at no point should it ever become the main focus of your video. I truly appreciate this balanced review, and it has been a minute since I got this feeling. Lol funny part is that I am a software engineer intern at a FAANG company, so personally I do understand the very technical aspects and so forth, but as a long time subscriber, I think your value proposal is mainly in your balanced review, and not in catering for a niché. That's just my take.

One of the best out there when you do these reviews and providing “ideas” and “options”. Appreciate the hard work.

My base model M1 Pro MBP 14” is honestly so ridiculously good for my workflow as a data scientist and developer, even though it’s technically a binned-down SKU at only 8 cores. I’m really impressed with how much Apple improved the architecture on the pro end for what would normally be a very incremental upgrade. It makes me excited for what’s to come in the third generation, which may be enough of a gap to justify an upgrade from M1 Pro, particularly if the rumors about a 3nm manufacturing process are true

One thing that came to my mind instantly is that the base Mini is a very good deal if u have a gaming Windows PC but want to work on a Mac. The quality monitor(s) are already there. It also uses so little power it can be a home server at the same time - buy the version with more ram, plug in an external drive if you need it, install a Linux VM, boom done

This will be killer for offices and schools at that price point. Dell SFF has dominated the corporate office space scene. That might change with how much more powerful the base mac mini is for the same price.

Man, I loved your "fastest Mac Mini in the world"-project back in the days. This was one of my favorites!

I know these are pretty great, along with the new Macbook Pro M2 max, but like you were saying about desktops, i'd love to be able to have a workspace where my monitor and mini would live, and if i bring my macbook to it, all performance is connected and boosted.

It's honestly insane how powerful these machines are. I've been using an 8GB M1 for a long while now for video editing, and I haven't had to create any proxies at all for anything. Not my 5k 422 10 bit 400Mbps footage, not my multicam videos, nothing. I'm for sure going to upgrade when the Ultra comes out, but for now, I'm pretty good. Really surprised by how much power these things pack TBH

Always love your reviews, Marques! I'm one of those still working on an intel Mac (21.5", 2019, 1tb, 32gb ram) and am thinking about an upgrade. My side hustle is video editing, and I'm a FCP enthusiast. I was thinking about upgrading to the Mac Studio, but now I'm not sure after watching your review of the mini. What's the diff between those two, and for video editing, which would you recommend?

These Apple silicon chips are still blowing my mind in the performance per dollar ratio. I'm a photographer and my 2020 M1 with 16GB RAM is still blowing through my workload at an amazing pace for the price, and I'm sure this new Mac Mini would too.

I've had the M1 mini with 16gb ram and 1tb ssd for maybe a year now which i don't think is a long time at all but i really want the m2 pro...i was always hoping that apple would continue to pack more power into the mac mini and they totally are. i want one so bad.

I have been waiting for the Mac "Mini" Studio to come out with the M2 Ultra mainly cause I want to future-proof myself. But now I'm thinking maybe this M2 Mac Mini is more than enough. The Mac Mini M2 fully loaded for me is $2600 vs the Mac Studio fully loaded was like $6700. I'm having a hard time justifying the $4100 difference. Why does the Mac Studio cost so much?

Love the camera shake shots. I've been using a gimbal but I love the camera shake. Theirs something aesthetic about them

Love how you mentioned compile times as a use case! It can make such a workflow difference (probably even more than rendering) if the chip is able to render a new live view immediately. 4:30

I have the M1 version of it. It’s just awesome. Never ever failed, i use it for graphic design, light video work and music production.

Very through and thoughtful Mac Mini M2 review. Thanks for the great work, MKBHD! :)

Nice! I just purchased the M2 Pro 12 core with 32GB RAM & 1TB SSD. I'm so psyched to edit on this machine. I have been using my Late 2012 iMac i7 Intel for 9 years now and I'm soooooo looking forward to more power and smooth sailing across my 4k footage.

Hey, just wanted to tell you that Geekbench is not very representative of cross architecture performance between x86 and ARM (even when not accounting for major OS and driver differences). Since those are two different instruction sets there are certain applications where one outperforms the other only due to being more specialized for a particular use case. Sometimes having a certain specialized instruction is an advantage if it fits the current work load. On the other hand being less specialized reduces overall complexity and hence can be advantageous for simple operations. So technically it is impossible for an ideal synthetic benchmark to exist between those two platforms. In my opinion Geekbench has a tendency to favor ARM systems over x86 which doesn't necessarily reflect in other benchmarks or real performance. I'm not trying to discredit the insane performance of Apple ARM here, but Geekbench overexaggerates this difference. Modern x86 mobile processors especially from AMD offer very similar performance if not higher in some cases (although this is not easy to compare). Hence it would be best to compare those machines in more real world use cases against each other since this directly reflects how the actual machine will perform for the user.

Thanks for the concise review touching on the right things for people who aren't necessarily (recovered) gaming addicts or plasma flow calculation professionals.

Still killing it with my 2020 MacBook Air M1. It's still the best laptop/computer I have ever owned and is still blowing my mind to this day. I can't imagine having anything faster, and yet, here we are. Love your content MKBHD!

This is great to hear from you. I have away liked the the mac mini and always thought they should have done more with it. I have had 3 previously. Held off from buying the new ones for now. and you can hookit up with a great non mac monitor. currently have a 27" iMac and not impressed with it. Line down the screen after 28 montths and now keeps cchuting down for no reason....

It’s hard to image how fast these m2 pro’s are, I’m still using base model m1 macbook air for my graphic design studies and have’t had any problems with it’s performance

Thanks for great review. The worlds fastest Mac mini is one the earliest videos of your I remember. So already before you mentioned it I had memories of that. :) The new M2 base Mac Mini is clearly one of the best tech deals imo.

How about the SSD speed on the base model (256Gb) ? It seems to be a problematic point on this Mac mini as presented on Max Tech's review. Thanks for the nice video as usual. Cheers from France 👍

Great review and I'm glad you pointed out sustainability, as this is more important to us all in the long run than anything else. The main benefit of an external display is choice and longevity. Monitors often last through multiple upgrade cycles, and display features have plateaued enough for everyday, non-HDR use-cases that there's little reason to buy a device with an integrated display (unless portability is a hard requirement). Having no display also makes future upgrades more affordable (not to mention better serviceability since the display can be replaced or repaired instantly, to keep people working). To a certain extent, the Mini invalidates many laptop purchases, the iMac's existence, and even the Studio for many users. This is a good thing, because every company should produce products that are so good they disrupt their own ecosystem.

This was really helpful! Thank you for sharing your thoughts. As other have stated in the comments, showing recommended screens and using iPads as screen would be a great video. I’m looking to use my iPad Pro 11inch as a screen with keyboard, Magic Mouse and pencil. Would love to see a walkthrough of that setup for someone working from home.

PERFECT AND clearly said, Well done. I got an M1 Max refurb for the time being and will wait for the m3 if I ever do need to upgrade in the future .saved myself over £1000

I reached that point where i'm more interested in seeing the intro the team has come up for the video than the video itself . That being said , the video is also dope as usual . Also liking the mini marques hehe

Nice review. You always do cool reviews man. The only gripe I have is that I heard that Apple held back on soldering their ssds so that the data rate does not go as fast as it could.

Can’t wait to see the M2 Studio and what that can do.

I love the SFF of the mac mini, it's honestly a perfect computer hardware wise. Not a macOs fan but its genuinely the way to go for budget performance.

Excellent video as always. I had just looked at these and was wondering about them, so I’m glad you gave us the rundown on it.

Great video. Love how you explain things in detail.

Nice to see the Mac mini going back to its roots. The affordable machine. Me like.

I bought a Mac Studio a few months back and it's been outstanding. I wonder how this M2 Pro Mac Mini holds up to the current baseline Mac Studio?

Which would you guys recommend for faster editing time (if money isn't an issue) - fully boosted Mac Mini or fully boosted 14" MacBook Pro? If the MacBook is faster then it’s a no brainer for me since it’s portable. But I’m willing to sacrifice portability for faster editing times. Just don’t wanna go over $4k.

The Garage became Apple Park in the most poetic way. Apple's return to using it's own Silicon is probably the smoothest "slipstream overtake" of all time. A beautiful homecoming.

Ok, now we need a video on the best $600 display options for the Mac Mini. 😊

Nice to know I'll have something great to upgrade to when my 2017 iMac finally starts showing its age. (Guessing later this year when it likely won't be supported by the new MacOS... so dumb, should be at least one more year. Hope I'm wrong.) Also, I'm probably gonna hold out until Apple gets a little more serious about 120hz, both in their software and large displays. By then I think I'll feel like I've had a good enough run with my trusty iMac... meh, I could probably run this thing another 4 years ha. EDIT: Heck, if I make 4 more years with this iMac (say about Dec 31st 2026), I may as well push it to summer 2027 so I can say I've used it a full decade! Then the upgrade I go with will be that much sweeter! BTW, its specced out, so it won't be quite as painful as trying to run some slow base model 2014 iMac through to 2024 would be. Yes... I'm actually kind of excited now to see how long this guy can hold out. Apple would make it A LOT easier if they would give me just one more major update this fall (not just security stuff).

I received my Mac mini yesterday afternoon. It's SUPER QUIET. Which is the main thing I wanted in a new Mac (of some kind). Everything was going on smashingly at first. Then I did a huge update that was needed. After that, my old wireless / bluetooth Apple Mouse would no longer work. Thanking I have more than one keyboard/mouse combo in my office. I still can't get the blue-tooth adapter to work with the mouse it came with, but I'll keep trying. Thank You for this video. My new Mac mini cost about the same as my 2006 Mac Pro. It's so SNAPPY! I've got a couple of external G-Drives plugged into it, and they're doing FANTASTICALLY. Ventura (the most current version, I gather), is very clean, and very very nice. Thanks for the recommendation. Your video showed me the way!

I am going to get the base 599 one as my desktop replacement. I already have a decent 32 inch monitor that I will continue to use. I recently got a ps5 so no need for my desktop for gaming anymore lol. I feel like this is all I ever will need in a computer.

I had an old Mac mini from 2009, in early 2022 I bought a 2020 iMac (intel) with the 27” 5K display. I really wanted to get a M1 iMac but apple discontinued the 27” so I went with the older intel model. I’m pretty happy with it though just a few months after buying it I had to get the fan replaced under warranty.

I wish you’d talk about the TBW on Apple Silicon SSDs. My M1 MBA had 70 TB written in 2 months. I figured it was an anomaly so I bought an M2 MBA, and it already has 7 TB written in 1 week. How long will these drives last?

Love the review as always! The Mac Mini seems like the solid move for me. I have a intel core i5 MacBook Air that gets cooked on basic things. I already have the monitor since I'm on ps5 so this would be a perfect upgrade for the price

Absolutely love my M1 Mac mini with upgraded 16gb RAM !

those m2 mac minis are going to be amazing value if you can get them certified refurbished, as well.

What non-apple monitor would work well with the M2 mac mini pro? I am a graphic and UI/UX designer. Colour calibrated one is very important.

I’m tempted to go fora M2 Pro even though I’ve been happy with my M1 mini. I’d spec it out a bit and be done with it for years. Really, for most home users, it’s more than enough.