M2 Pro Mac Mini Long Term Review: God Like Speed In An Atomic Sized Body

This is the long term review of Mac Mini M2 Pro. This is arguably the most value you can get right now with any Mac product. In this review we cover my honest experience with M2 Pro Mac Mini. There are some things to consider when buying this machine and you learn all about them in this brief video.
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[@SoulOfTech]

What are your thoughts on the new M2 Pro Mac Mini?

[@willm5032]

I'm apprehensive about their lack of upgradability and user repariability but I'm planning on an m2 pro mini for a work from home graphic design machine to replace my current machine (a very hacked mac pro 3,1). I'd lean towards a PC for an all rounder/futureproofed/upgradable option but my industry is very apple centric and, I don't think the price/performance/form factor can be matched yet. Defintely a mini, with more ram, 512gb storage and an external drive/dock is the way to go.

[@GNXClone]

I upgraded from a 2017 MacBook Pro and the difference is astounding. I'm a developer, I mostly use IntelliJ with several editors open at a time. I also have many web tabs open in Chrome. When I would run our massive unit test suite on the MacBook Pro, it would take about 20 to 25 minutes to complete, with the fans spinning like crazy. Now with the M2, it's completely silent, barley even warm to the touch, and the same unit test suite completes in under 2 minutes! I have the M2 Pro 12-core, 32GB RAM, 1TB SSD with an external 2TB SSD. The external SSD is nearly as fast in the internal SSD.

[@davidbailey9464]

The M2 Pro Mac Mini I own. I have the regular $1299.99 model. It's great, it's fast. Mac software always works better as well such as time machine backups. No windows software compares to it. Also iMovie and photo booth. There so easy to use. Nothing comparable as easy to use on windows at all.

[@alannagorny2511]

I feel like this review is highly underrated! The editing and camerawork is amazing, and it really surprised me when I saw the amount of views etc. I really enjoyed this one, keep going :)

[@SoulOfTech]

Wow, thank you! It’s always nice to hear kind feedback like yours 😊

[@abdullahahsan4735]

Thanks for the great review, really cleared up a lot things for me!

[@SoulOfTech]

Glad it was helpful!

[@adinakhan8866]

Haha I love the intro!!! Great quality video as always 🙌🏾

[@SoulOfTech]

Thank you!! 😁

[@SergiuSalcau00]

Very good and needed review, highly underrated, every huge youtuber is not interested in lookin at things that matter for more types of users

[@SoulOfTech]

Glad it was helpful!

[@carltone]

PC user since they first came out . Apple II as a hobby. Software developer hobbiest. My 15 yr old win7 with a ssd upgrade 5 yrs ago was coming to end of life. Sitting on the fence for a MINI PC or Mac mini. As I researched it became obvious intermittent problems with mini PC’s. MAC MINI should have more ram and SSD as not upgradeable. Ended up with an MINI M2 pro. Just wow. I knew I was in for a speed improvement shock but WOW 11:40 blows me away.

[@P553guru]

Very good review, I purchased almost the same configuration and am loving it so far

[@SoulOfTech]

Thanks for watching!

[@nigel_the_director]

I'll 1 Up you .... I got one of these exact machines earlier this year, Just finished a 5 part mini series shot on RED (R3D) in 5K , used an outboard 12TB NVME enclosure via Tbolt. edited in FCPX, I have no idea what I would have done without this machine ...... it only topped out when I was exporting the final episode. started getting RAM issues .... a simple restart of FCP solved the issue ..... but this machine a bargain as you said .. ill be using it for a while till the M3 Ultras are out and I can get lots of Ram with them .... great great machine.

[@vovasurkov]

Hi, what about problems with external monitor, Mac rumors and led stains say about temporal dithering problems and so on?

[@pestoman]

hahaha Apprentice level acting at the start there! you're fun :)

[@SoulOfTech]

That’s more credit than I deserve for my acting haha, thank you 🙏🏼

[@CC.cinematics]

What about effects like noise reduction

[@transitengineer]

Thank you, for an excellent “real world” review of the M2 Pro “Mac mini”. The base model of the “Mac Studio” and the M2 Pro “Mac mini” are kind of in the market for the same user. To me, it just depends on your personal preference which, for myself is the Pro “Mac mini”. The “Mac Studio” is to high to fit under some of my monitors and, I just do not care for the design of the “Mac Studio” verses the “Mac mini” design which, I love (smile…smile).

[@SoulOfTech]

Thanks for sharing your thoughts! I totally agree about the design part, love the design of the current mini. Hope you'll stick around!

[@SergiuSalcau00]

Well the mac mini has the newer chip more useful capabilities for monitors thanks to the hdmi and should be more future proof especially if you consider the two options just now as i am.

[@GrandMufti123]

Just love the size of the unit!

[@SoulOfTech]

A tank in a ant body

[@cfwong1d300s]

creative intro and good content, just the audio is slightly low, I have to turn it up quite a lot.

[@SoulOfTech]

Sorry about that, Ill be sure to account for that in future vidoes. Thanks for watching, Im glad you enjoyed the content and hope you'll stick around!

[@akin242002]

M1/M2 Mac mini is the best mini PC for video editors and those who own an iphone. Miniforum UM690 is the best for gaming. Intel Nuc for every other person working from home and uses Samsung or Android phone.

[@jeysmoothies]

What configuration would you recommend for someone that does graphic design? With the main apps that the person uses being adobe illustrator & photoshop.

[@SoulOfTech]

I currently use FCXP and Photoshop and honestly the 10C/16GPU M2 Pro is more than sufficient. I would however strongly advice getting 32GB of Ram. You would be surprised at how fast Photoshop eats up the base 16GB ram.

[@mustafasfotography6736]

16gb or 32gb of m2 pro mac mini for 30mins of 4k exports, please help I’m confused.

[@SoulOfTech]

You want 32GB, if you get just 16gb it will cause HDD swapping and slow render time a little.

[@epcalderhead]

In my testing exporting 4k videos out of the Mac Mini Pro it's are not a real improvement in terms of time compared to the base M2 or even the M1 Mac Mini. Roughly equal time. Then Base Mac Studio cuts that time in half in my export tests. Time for a 15 min 4k Apple export to h.264 as follows -- Base Studio 4:58, M2 Mini Pro Base 9:29, M2 8/256 10:09, M1 8/256 10:25 and my 2015 iMac could export this in 13:03. Gains seems to come from rendering, optimizing or creating proxy files compared to my ancient iMac. In retrospect my iMac has been a hell of a computer. Not as jazzed as I was at first in upgrading. Maybe I'll wait for refurb M2's to make their way to the Apple Store or wait for an M2 Studio.

[@JJ-fq3dh]

I have a m1 16 inch pro, 32g 1tb, for 18 months, ,used in clamshell mode, its on 24/7 running tasks , decided getting m2 pro mini 12 core , 32g, 1tb since I wanted a non laptop for 24/7 use and use the laptop just for travel . Work flow is building apps, multiple emulators , compiling, recompiling, running parallels Windows11, Linux. Zero video editing. Bottom line , i see no real difference in my work flow between M1 Pro and M2 MAC Mini Pro, . If i had it to do over, would have bought M1 studio with 64g and 1tb more ram, much better cooling. The M2 pro mini also gets hot, hotter than my M1 Pro 16 inch. Why you might want to consider 1TB vs 512 other than the usual storage and speeds always mentioned. The OS writes a lot daily to the disk, so depending whats going on with space and swaps , and whatever , you only get so many writes with an SSD so the 1TB should last twice as long as a 512, its probably a minor point , guess it depends on how long you expect to keep the unit. New M2 problem, both my machines running ventura 13.3. The M1 works perfect with my printer, M2 connects and just hangs, reloaded drivers etc etc, apple support says talk to the printer manufacturer why is does not work with M2 , useless 😑

[@kevinstellar434]

Can you review the 2022 Asus A15 (Ryzen 7 6800H)?

[@accentontheoff]

Hi, any thoughts on music production?

[@SoulOfTech]

Great question! Sadly I dont have much real world experince with music prod with this machine so cannot say :(

[@accentontheoff]

@@SoulOfTech Ok thanks for the reply.

[@LucienSabre]

What exactly is a frame drop? I’ve heard it mentioned by several tech youtubers, and I (hopefully) think I gathered more or less what it is - when you lose fractions of the footage replay during editing or something like that? - but I don’t know if I’m right or if there’s more to it. Anyway. I love the Mac Mini. 💗 I’ve put it in my Amazon cart a couple of times, but I’ve always stopped myself before ordering….mostly because it would be a pure whim purchase, there is nothing that would justify it…especially since I just got the MacBook Air M2 base model last January (two months ago) that already works great for what I do - that doesn’t include video-editing. Not to mention that, since my budget is tight at the moment, I’d have to go with the *M1* Mac Mini…and I’m not sure it’s worth it.

[@SoulOfTech]

Frame drops in the context of video editing basically is when playback during live editing is choppy or skips entire frames. This usually happens where there is not memory (RAM) or when the processor cannot keep up with the complex layers footage and starts the throttle performance. Usually its a mix of both things that causes this to happen. Also to your other remark if you have a more basic use case the M1 Mac mini is still a total beast even in 2023!

[@LucienSabre]

@@SoulOfTech Thank you so much for explaining. :) I thought frame drop had something to do with the video playback/replay during editing, but I wasn’t sure. My needs are indeed pretty basic (the “heavier” thing I do is beginner-level graphic work in Photoshop and Pixelmator Pro, otherwise it’s just the classical email, streaming, browsing, etc.)….so it’s very good to hear I can go (and do well) with the Mac Mini M1 and don’t have to splurge the extra 200-250 Euros for the Mini M2. Thank you for that as well. :)

[@ArthropodSpidey]

​@@LucienSabre Frame drop is a pretty common term in tech, even in gaming. I'm actually really surprised that you haven't heard or experienced it before.

[@LucienSabre]

@@ArthropodSpidey Considering I don’t do neither video-editing nor gaming…no, it’s not surprising that I haven’t experienced frame drop - whereas, as I stated right at the beginning of my top comment, I HAVE HEARD about it.

[@SoulOfTech]

@@LucienSabre no worries glad I could help clarify that, as always thank you for watching and commenting:)

[@Kjaywest]

I use an M1 MacBook Air & love it, but I would like the new M2 Pro MacBook Pro because I'm using a W11 laptop & I keep returning them because they suck & I don't like them. Battery life is trash & they are too heavy. Also all the good laptops with power & gaming laptops. I thought I wanted a gaming laptop & found out that I don't really care that much & don't use it.

[@stephenvalente3296]

8k video that no-one can essentially watch. Even 4k take up is sluggish at best in the consumer market I’d bet. In essence the Mac Mini Pro M2 will be more than fine for the majority of people who use it in reality. Shame the upgrade prices are so extortionate, as I bet more people would spec higher if they were at least 50% lower. I’d love an M2 or M3 Studio if Apple ever make one, but they will no doubt come up with some nonsense excuse to hike the price or cease upgrades in the hope more people can be squeezed into buying a new Mac Pro M-something whenever they deem us worthy 😮 Getting a Mini Pro M2 would also work well at home, as given it looks the same as my old 2012 Mini, won’t look as though as bought any new hardware! 😀

[@SoulOfTech]

Thanks for sharing your take on it, some good points for sure!

[@frazerweb]

Mac mini computers seem to fall in value faster than laptops when used. Already seeing M1 mac mini machines going really cheap, so an M2 pro used in a year, could sell for around £800, which is a great price. I've always preferred laptops so never have owned one.

[@ggproductions7078]

Fair revue, though I would say that of course you wouldn't notice the difference in speeds, you aren't experiencing them! I have the base studio but I only use the internal for programmes, I have three TB enclosures with 2tb NVMEs in there, two are in a RAID 0 and I have around 4500-5000 read and writes on the BM speed check and around 2600 on the individual TB drive that also has a 2tb and believe me when I say I do notice the difference when transferring files, though you could argue that if you are transferring 250gb does that extra 5-10 mins matter compared to the hour that is used to take in the old days, maybe, maybe not, but it's still pretty rubbish for the new product to have worse performance in any area. Where I do 100% agree is the headphone placement, I have come back to Apple after years on a PC and my question is Why Apple? Why?Is it a deliberate policy to make us want to use Bluetooth stuff? You can't really do sound work with blue tooth, come on!!! You will be telling me next that you will put the charging port for your mouse underneath it??!! I don't use an apple mouse and I have an external amp so it doesn't bother me hugely but if I didn't already have them I would be proper pissed having to have a cable wobbling around everywhere. Anyway, thanks for your work, nice job.

[@SoulOfTech]

Thanks for sharing your expeirnce in such detail! I 100% agree that SSD speeds matter when dealing with large chunks of data at a time and also I don't think Apple should be excused for cutting edges on their already costly devices. With that said I guess another way to look at it is that if you have capacity of 500gb or less you can only really store or move so much data to begin with which makes faster speeds less of a factor overall. The headphone placement is very awkward and a huge design flaw that in typical apple fashion is ignored. Thank you so much for watching this review, hope you'll stick around!

[@ggproductions7078]

@@SoulOfTech that is very true and a very good point, though it does seem to assume that it would stay there which to be honest it probably wouldn't. I imagine when most people have finished working on whatever it might be that is that size they would dump it off somewhere else. Though to be fair I am talking from a production viewpoint which is likely what anyone using a macmini pro might be doing, or just have lots of cash and they really fancy the step up. As we can say about everything, it depends on your use cash and budget. I look forward to your next content, have a great day.

[@ggproductions7078]

use case, not cash, though, well, you know

[@sebluketravis2438]

0:35 how can you have so many chins but still be slim, it's strange physiology isn't it.

[@SoulOfTech]

That's a great observation! It's worth noting I was about 30 lbs heavier several months ago and have been slowly losing weight since, not an expert on body scinece but perhaps chin fat is more stubborn and takes longer to rub off?

[@andre1987eph]

Dude

[@ArthropodSpidey]

I would go for the M1 Max Mac Studio but I find the design to be unattractive and very un-Apple. They just essentially made the Mac Mini obese.

[@joeMW284]

At least you can replace the SSD module in the studio when it inevitably dies. The mini will be going in the trash when that day comes.

[@ArthropodSpidey]

@@joeMW284 except you cannot and that's a false statement. apple doesn't allow you to replace it and macos won't recognize it. Maybe you should stop getting your tech news from homeless people.

[@accentontheoff]

@@joeMW284 You can? How?

[@joeMW284]

@@accentontheoff search it on KZbin. The studio has removable storage. You need to use apple modules because unlike nvme, the SSD controller lives on the motherboard. Because of that you'll never be able to upgrade the capacity, but at least you can replace it if it dies.

[@accentontheoff]

@@joeMW284 Will do thanks.

[@bomar920]

If you like stable diffusion stay away from mac

[@LightShadow]

Metal casings were never as expensive as they are when incorporated in products like Apple's ones. I really do pity people who buy them.

[@rodolfocavalcante5517]

Shut

[@utkarsh1874]

cringe

[@NeverDoubtMe23]

God speed? 😂😂 Even Apple admitted the M2 would be inferior to Intel and AMD as far as processing speed. Good try, but can we keep the fanboyism to a minimum?

[@SoulOfTech]

Thanks for watching and commenting! While my intention wasn't really a comparison to Intel or AMD if what you say is true its a win either way as Im game for fast processors no matter where they come from :)

[@moto-rambler]

A desktop computer in 2023 with 2 USB ports? After I plug in my preferred USB keyboard and USB mouse I'm left with uhhh zero USB ports. Well done Apple. 🤦

[@SoulOfTech]

Im assuming you mean 2 usb-a ports? I can see that being a limitation but you can always utilize the extra type-c ports!

[@moto-rambler]

@@SoulOfTech only reason why I don't have a M2 mini