Apple Mac Mini M1 review

It may look the same as any other Mac Mini, but the new Mac Mini M1 is a very different beast within

Mac Mini M1
(Image: © Apple)

Digital Camera World Verdict

If you're after a small-form-factor computer that performs superbly, runs almost silently and exudes quality, the new Mac Mini M1 is a terrific buy. It also represents excellent value for money, but you should give serious consideration to paying extra for the 16GB RAM upgrade at purchase to ensure the slick performance doesn't hit a roadblock when working with memory-intensive image or video editing apps. But even with the extra memory expense, the overall system cost is reasonable given how accomplished the Mini M1 is.

Pros

  • +

    Stunning performance

  • +

    Ultra-quiet

  • +

    Reasonable cost for such high speed

Cons

  • -

    Only configurable to max 16GB memory

  • -

    Fewer Thunderbolt ports than before

  • -

    Few fully compatible apps at present

Why you can trust Digital Camera World Our expert reviewers spend hours testing and comparing products and services so you can choose the best for you. Find out how we test.

We rated the previous Apple Mac Mini as the very best desktop computer for photo editing, thanks to its unobtrusive size and excellent performance. The new Mac Mini M1 looks set to be even better.

It lines up alongside the MacBook Air M1 and MacBook Pro M1 as the third Mac to feature Apple's famed new M1 System on a Chip (SoC). In a departure from previous Mac Minis, the M1 ditches Intel processors in favor of Apple's first in-house designed SoC designed specifically for use in Macs.

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Header Cell - Column 0 Mac Mini M1
GeekBench 5 Single-core CPU score1741
GeekBench 5 Multi-core CPU score7611
Cinebench R237805

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Ben Andrews

Ben is the Imaging Labs manager, responsible for all the testing on Digital Camera World and across the entire photography portfolio at Future. Whether he's in the lab testing the sharpness of new lenses, the resolution of the latest image sensors, the zoom range of monster bridge cameras or even the latest camera phones, Ben is our go-to guy for technical insight. He's also the team's man-at-arms when it comes to camera bags, filters, memory cards, and all manner of camera accessories – his lab is a bit like the Batcave of photography! With years of experience trialling and testing kit, he's a human encyclopedia of benchmarks when it comes to recommending the best buys.