This is the cheapest computer Apple sells

Join us in War Thunder for FREE at playwt.link/lttmac and get an exclusive bonus using our link - thanks for supporting the channel!
Apple updated the Mac Mini with the M2 processor and a $100 price cut. With the lowest price we've seen on a Mac in years, we run it through it's paces to see if this computer is good enough for most people.
Check out the Mac Mini M2: lmg.gg/CCWRa
Buy an Acer 21.5" SB220Q Monitor: geni.us/l0iFhs
Buy a Logitech K380 Bluetooth Keyboard: geni.us/s0M5
Buy a Logitech M720 Triathlon Wireless Mouse: geni.us/F0mW3rK
Check Out the Belkin iPhone Mount for Mac Desktops or Displays: lmg.gg/js62Z
Check Out the MacBook Air M2: lmg.gg/kthZK
Purchases made through some store links may provide some compensation to Linus Media Group.
► GET MERCH: lttstore.com
► LTX 2023 TICKETS AVAILABLE NOW: lmg.gg/ltx23
► GET EXCLUSIVE CONTENT ON FLOATPLANE: lmg.gg/lttfloatplane
► SPONSORS, AFFILIATES, AND PARTNERS: lmg.gg/partners
FOLLOW US ELSEWHERE
---------------------------------------------------
Twitter: / macaddressyt
Instagram: / macaddressyt
Facebook: / macaddresschannel
CHAPTERS
---------------------------------------------------
0:00 Intro
0:44 Upgrades, people, upgrades!
1:22 Meeting an average person
3:10 Setting things up
4:02 Alexis' tries it out
4:51 Here's the bad stuff
5:46 It even plays War Thunder, today's sponsor!
6:18 This thing is pretty good - and competitively priced!
7:14 Revisiting Alexis
10:28 Lessons learned
11:51 Outro

[@macaddress]

Would the cheapest Mac Mini be enough for you? If not, what would you upgrade to? Share your thoughts here in the comments! Check out the Mac Mini M2: lmg.gg/CCWRa Buy an Acer 21.5" SB220Q Monitor: geni.us/l0iFhs Buy a Logitech K380 Bluetooth Keyboard: geni.us/s0M5 Buy a Logitech M720 Triathlon Wireless Mouse: geni.us/F0mW3rK Check Out the Belkin iPhone Mount for Mac Desktops or Displays: lmg.gg/js62Z Check Out the MacBook Air M2: lmg.gg/kthZK Purchases made through some store links may provide some compensation to Linus Media Group.

[@genericscottishchannel1603]

Johnathan did you really just say the price of the setup infront of her after saying you wouldn't tell her the price and for her to not look it up?

[@SomeRandomCanuck]

You should do an Apple Gaming video. CrossPlay vs Parallels. Native support vs Rosetta Apps to get rid of Apple Mouse Acceleration (Linear Mouse) Apple Arcade vs Steam

[@Permafry42108]

I'd upgrade the os to Linux like I have on my m1 Mac mini I got referbished. The memory required for Linux is way lower than macos, leading to a much easier experience for day to day usage. Plus eventually I can use it as a low energy homelab and home server;

[@deleonjunior_]

You said not to look up the price. But then you said the price for the whole setup with her in the room 🤔

[@jaysgood10]

No. Unless you’re just collecting cake recipes.

[@jetpropulsionlabrador3615]

I like how the video took an unexpected turn when she revealed that its gaming ability was her primary concern, but they were able to still create a narrative around that. It seems like that wasn’t their original plan, but they made it work!

[@nyambe]

It was their original plan. Somehow this mac channel loves to hate on mac

[@brandondapro]

@@nyambeThat’s so unfair. They give praise where it’s deserved, and flak where it’s deserved. It’s fair to say Apple is a little creatively bankrupt, the MacBook Pro line and what they’ve done with their own silicon is impressive. Really they just lack on the software side. Nothing in this video was negative though. Is it unfair to say a 600 dollar Mac mini doesn’t have the best performance, but still is a GREAT value???

[@nyambe]

@Jeffry Chen It's deceiving. They know it. It's not the right tool at all and yet. It would be like judging a gaming pc on its airdrop capabilities. it's silly. Oh well, you guys seem to eat it up. That is life

[@nyambe]

@@brandondapro It's misleading. I just hope their PC reviews are not as biased.

[@brandondapro]

@@nyambe What is misleading?

[@DrAnimePhD]

Having been a Mac hater my entire life, my first Mac was a M1 Mac Mini because I was shocked at how cheap it was, and when I used it I was blown away by how absurdly good it was to the point I made the full switch to Mac as my daily driver. I wish I could have a Mac be my only computer, but the lack of games means I have to keep my Windows gaming PC. After Alexis' account I think it's clear the gaming problem of macOS is the one thing preventing mass adoption, and it would probably be a good topic for a future video with Mac Address' take on the gaming on Mac situation even though LTT already did one. Also, give Alexis a Steam Deck.

[@AvWoN]

Honestly true, I would be tempted to switch over to Apple completely if I know I could play Apex and everythingal other Steam game without a worry. That being said, I have come to prefer Windows with a more 'can do anything' experience even if it isn't a ultra unified, polished, smooth experience like it would be with Mac.

[@antsantsantsants]

i had the same experience! today i daily my macbook and keep my old windows computer on the ready for video games

[@RedRingOfDead]

I get what you're saying. Bur a company like apple doesn't deserve my money (in my opinion ofc) with the way they greenwash their shit. Look how good we're doing. But they started the trend of removing Headphone Jack and power adapter. Not because it's more green, no because it means more $$$ in their bank account. As someone who sells their old phones 8 never have a spare brick laying around. Because without the brick it nerfs your resale value. Without the box it's even worse. And their repairability is the major thing i fall over. Self service is a joke, married parts. And no way for your local phone store to fix your damn phone. Nahh mate this is what makes me hate apple. And on a sidenote Samsung(anti root security, and anti non official rom bull) and OnePlus (serialized/married batteries to the Mobo). Companies limit the things you can do with your phone for a longer lifetime. Pretty sure that keeping the phones in use for a longer time reduces ewaste. And they are actively taking that opportunity away from us all. Because we all know the last thing to go bad in your phone is the battery /s

[@ids1024]

Gaming is a factor limiting mass adoption, but it's not the main one. I don't think it's a major consideration for most users. The main factor is still the price. It looks like the cheapest (new) MacBook on Apple's website is still $999 USD. While my impression is that a huge percentage of computer sales these days are Windows laptops or Chromebooks that cost half or a quarter that. It's probably worth spending more to get a better computer if you can (regardless of what it is), and may pay off in terms of longevity. But that isn't necessarily what the average consumer is doing.

[@sevenofzach]

Steam Deck? She specifically said she likes the traditional keyboard and mouse controls for her PC games... Seems a kinda silly option to be plunked back on the desk with that tiny screen. But who knows... Maybe she'd change her mind at that price ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[@shishsquared]

Jonathan you absolutely excel in the pseudo interview style format. More of this please! Excellent work as always

[@paulhorn24]

She didn’t wear different T-Shirts, so the „pseudo“ in „pseudo interview“ is more than correct 😂😂😂 Or did she hadn’t a couple of days with the new Mac mini, bit just one or two hours?

[@2xAA]

@@paulhorn24 Probably did the house shoot in one go, dropped the Mac off a couple days in advance.

[@Neoxon619]

Speaking as someone with a Mid-2014 MacBook Pro, I’m pretty sure even the cheapest of the newest line of Mac Minis would be a huge upgrade for me.

[@ryanhamstra49]

Depends what you want. Part of me wishes I had jumped up to 16 g ram on my base model M1 Air, but if my wife would just close some tabs every so often, it would be fine. Otherwise, I’m super happy with it. Does everything I need and more. My wife uses it for work mainly.

[@JoeCastellon]

I feel your pain. I edited on a 2015 base 13” Macbook Pro up until December last year.

[@stephensonmatthew7]

2014 and 2015 Air user here, both gotten used. I may get an M2 Air soon, despite using it as a desktop, if I need to take it to work, the option is there. I’d buy a Mini eventually, but now isn’t the time.

[@doku367]

MB Pro from 2015 right here. This is legitimately an awful experience day by day now. I can hardly use it for college anymore.

[@ryanhamstra49]

@@stephensonmatthew7 the best part about the air is the battery. 10+ hours of light use is easy to hit

[@niCSanitg]

Most of the Mac channels are focused on Graphic Designers and Content Creators, but what about developer tools? Hopefully you folks can create videos focused on this use case,

[@jjpark98]

Luckily they have a number of employees in the engineering and dev department. I'm sure at some point, they'll call on them to see what mac life is for a developer or an engineer.

[@Beakerbite]

Developer experience will be fine on pretty much any Mac. If your dev needs are intense, well you are going to find you need similar power that content creators need. There's nothing inherently special about developer needs these days. Code editing is trivial for modern machines and the only real complication comes from running the code. But to that, you'll have to be the judge as your written software will have its own performance needs.

[@aravindpallippara1577]

​​@@Beakerbiteunless you want wide software compatibility or want to work with gpu compute, vulcan/cuda/opengl Mac is fine for web development, which is what primarily pays the bills for me, but it's bad for any kind of scientific computing or hpc applications Also macos has the worst of the window management of the desktops i have used Linux is significantly better for development use case by any stretch of imagination

[@heronimus17]

I hope they make videos about that soon! My experience being a dev on a ubuntu linux, it's far easier to move to mac than windows, and I'm considering buying a mac mini (I don't do any hardcore render/compile, so a mini should be enough I think)

[@somhrsh]

This

[@ordelore]

As always, these are excellent videos. I love how these videos are stylistically distinct and I wouldn't know Mac Address is part of LTT unless you told me.

[@rav04o2]

That's very true. Initially, when I learned that they were creating a new channel exclusively about Macs, my first thought was that I was not interested and would never watch it. However, the unique approach, engaging presentation, and high production values have made me love this channel. I am eagerly anticipating the next episode. When Jonathan was hired for this channel, I did not expect much more than another presenter for yet another Mac channel. However, I was incredibly wrong. I cannot imagine this channel surviving without him.

[@smmmokin]

Yup. Jonathan felt like the wrong fit but it's insane how great he is once he found his groove. I hate apple but still watch.

[@MeGaDwarf2008]

The Mac Address videos feel like a TV news kind of a video, which is refreshing, in limited quantities.

[@starmorpheus]

​@@MeGaDwarf2008Emphasis on limited quantities

[@shubith1698]

​@@MeGaDwarf2008 fr

[@bariskaya2008]

The reason you aren’t able to ‘notice’ the ‘slower’ SSD is because only the sequential read and writes have decreased. The random read/writes are actually slightly better than M1 which is what running an OS relies on. Linus himself said pretty much the same thing in his M2 Air review.

[@paulhorn24]

Push this comment to more viewers.

[@adrianosiciliano]

​@C L seethe and cope

[@theJesai]

Nope. When the os needs to use a page file or swap, sequential reads are what matter. And you'll be seeing that a LOT on this mac because the memory pressure will constantly stay pretty high.

[@bariskaya2008]

@@theJesai A lot? I used an M1 Macbook air for a few months with 8gb ram and I can't say I've ever seen more than 200mb swapfile if that. Most of the time I had 2 gigs free simply because all I did was browsers and text editing. Most people Don't do a lot of work on these machines. If you do, you make money using your machine so it's worth investing in a more expensive/upgraded Mac.

[@AaronShenghao]

256GB on a PC is till too small, I would say at least 512 even if you are not using it for games...

[@sigbauer9782]

Jonathan to girl: "Don't look up the price of the product." Also Jonathan, to audience, while girl is on the bed behind him: "This setup costs $800."

[@sahasananth987]

I was also confused about this but I think it’s VO. Either way it was hilarious 😂

[@bubbledoubletrouble]

3:45 This part definitely isn’t VO, but I’m not sure she’s present. EDIT: Note that it cuts from him sitting to standing.

[@macaddress]

Hah! Good catch. That bit at the desk talking about prices was filmed after the interview segments. So her reaction to the price was genuine, we just didn't film chronologically and missed that continuity slip-up.

[@sahasananth987]

@@macaddress 😂 hilarious one tho. Also your reaction to her asking about the price was hilarious that’s the same face I give my family if they upgrade their Apple system 😂

[@logeshr]

Also she is an actor? is she acting? can't tell.

[@amd2800barton]

Two Mac Addresses in 4 days? How did we get so lucky?!

[@plethorum5721]

I really like this interview style that sets Mac address far apart from LTT. From what I remember of how Linus introduced you to viewers back when you started, it seems like something you have experience with. And sit-down interviews with regular people are something that grounds you to reality and away from the studios that most channels confine themselves to

[@JamAncheta]

I love videos like this. They’re sharing their real life experience of other average people not just the tech and specs side of the products

[@TristanBurgener]

I love your videos and how they’re always outside of a normal set

[@MrPicklepod]

I would love if he tried an Android/Windows based ecosystem for a month, like the Arc or Linux challenge on the main channel. Like maybe a Windows computer linked to Pixel 7 Pro, Pixel Buds, Pixel Watch, or the Samsung alternatives. I'd love to see what he likes and doesn't.

[@DrAnimePhD]

He already did that using a Galaxy Tab in his video about iPad competitors, as well as the iPhone SE 3 video.

[@U1TR4F0RCE]

While I don’t know if it would fit the channel I do think a discussion of how MacOS is designed to help you work and a comparison to windows and vanilla gnome could be interesting

[@Freak80MC]

Unrelated but funnily enough I technically use my Windows PC as an non-touch based Android device, because I run an Android emulator on it like 50% of the time. (if anyone is wondering why, I have issues with focusing and concentration, possibly undiagnosed ADHD, and find that Android's UI focuses me more than a desktop browser, which is what I use about 50% of the time on my PC. The other 50% is spent gaming which I would rather not do in Android lol)

[@TheEviltaco666]

It’s called “Mac” address Also windows has an ecosystem? Lololol

[@paulhorn24]

@@U1TR4F0RCE There are some people whose old iMacs (the one with the black plastic back) were to replaced (one had its hard disk drive fail and the SSD replacement survived just some years). Mainly because Apple stopped the OS and software updates. At that time, buying a new iMac was no option, so we put together some simple Windows PCs and some spare displays from office sales. We installed Zorin OS because at that time it was the Linux distro which was closest to OS X / macOS. All former Mac users were able to use these „fake“ Macs although they missed their old iMacs a lot. The new Mac mini with the M2 SoC will be the next computer they buy, although Zorin OS version 16 is really really good. And for all the other Linux distros, there are some good Themes which look and feel a lot like macOS Ventura or Monterey or Big Sur (there are themes for each recent macOS).

[@DavidWegley]

I really like how Jonathan does these videos. It’s a lot more like a informational narrative rather than “doing tech stuff and wacky hijinks ensue” type videos. Not there is anything wrong with either but I appreciate the thoughtfulness and work that goes into this type of video. Keep up the great work team!

[@savagemadman2054]

MacOS Catalina (and beyond) have destroyed the Mac gaming library. More than half the titles in my Steam library would stop working. I picked up an off lease 2018 Mini with the i7, 64GB RAM, 1TB SSD and 10GbE off eBay a little over a year ago for about $900 CAD. Paired it with a Blackmagic Radeon 580 eGPU from Craigslist for the bargain basement price of about $200 - after a very confusing trip in a winter storm to "The (not so) Amazing Brentwood". Still works with Mojave, though the eGPU is a bit finicky and hates going to sleep. I find myself using my old trashcan Mac Pro more by virtue of the fact that it always just seems to work.

[@ChristopherChapelle]

I really enjoy this channel. As a windows/android user who’s only started using any apple products in the past two years or so, I find a lot of my feelings reflected in the videos uploaded here. I also like that even though it would be easy to make this just a review channel, the content always seeks to answer a particular question or come at the subject manner from an interesting angle. As a viewer, I couldn’t be happier with the work that Jonathan and the rest of the Mac Address team have done

[@TheDirge69]

i really think 16gb and 1TB should be the baseline for new PC's in 2023.

[@Heartlesslink100]

I totally agree. It annoys me to see "gaming computers" still with 16gb of RAM. 16gb should be baseline for typical computers and 32gb of gaming machines.

[@jondonnelly4831]

​@@Heartlesslink100 u can game perfectly fine on 16. Just dont have 100 tabs open.

[@JohnSmith-pn2vl]

@@Heartlesslink100 you can game perfectly fine on 8gb ona regular computer and 1tb would be a waste, you can pick 1tb and 16gb tho, so whats the problem? ah i know, you want the 1tb and 16gb for the price of the 8gb 250gb machine, yea, not gonna happen

[@bradhaines3142]

​@@JohnSmith-pn2vl but you cant game fine with 8gb, some games straight up dont work with that little. 16 is the least, 32 is nice 64 is for pros

[@jordanjack4629]

1TB base is absurd and a waste of money for a manufacturer. Most people, and I mean an overwhelming majority, do everything in their browser. This is not a gaming computer. There is zero reason for the base level Mac mini to have 16GB of RAM. I also don't think 256GB is terrible for a base, but the extra $200 to go up to 512GB is too much. $100 should be more acceptable. And the M2 Pro model comes with 16GB and 512GB base, which are decent specs for a majority of people, just the price is a little high.

[@JoeNokers]

As a person wholly invested in the PC ecosystem with a tower I built myself whilst I would never buy a mac of any kind myself, This is the first apple desktop device I would potentially recommend to a friend who had a suitable use case. For the price its actually a great computer.

[@bobdoets]

the quality of this production is really nice!. love the storytelling and the editing and the cinematography!

[@trashpandatee]

I like these types of videos where you get external 'random joe schmoe' interviews. it's nice to see new faces on camera, especially ones who may not necessarily be associated with LMG/MA as a company.

[@bandito241]

Talking about spending $3K on a Apple computer. “Do you think that’s powerful?” “No but that’s Apple” 😂😂😂

[@MJ-xt1ce]

mac address is an absolutely wonderful KZbin channel. I want you and your whole team to know that the quality and detail in every aspect of making a video work does not go unnoticed! these remind me of how great the early casey neistat videos used to made me feel. beautiful stuff

[@Ecker00]

Very interesting way to present new and unique perspective, which is almost impossible to find in this format, wonderful work! The unexpected turn made is so much better.

[@boulusabujoudom459]

I really liked the approach that you've taken for this video. Great content!

[@acubley]

I'm really thinking of getting a M2 to be my house server. The way it sips power and transcode capabilities make it compelling.

[@BeroOgden]

At the time we bought our M1 mini, we only upgrade the ram to 16GB. Half the reason we bought it was my wife needed a computer, she was perviously a mac user, and this was the peak of the pc parts price gouging epidemic of a couple years ago; so it just made sense at the time. Would buy one again in a heartbeat for her use case if we needed to. I got a M1 Pro Macbook Pro myself since i tend to be more mobile oriented for general computing and i can conveniently share it with my wife. We both also use iPhones etc. I still have a PC at home for games as well so it's not like have I have to choose one machine to do everything.

[@MrRez808]

Your videos are always so well produced.

[@Lampomaniac]

This was a great video! Loved it :)

[@Sasoon2006]

Imagine that they kept Mac Mini last years price (100$ more), but that base model has 16GB/512GB, it would sell like hotcakes.

[@Pootleflump]

It's already selling like hotcakes

[@Shirtagency]

The new CPUs are amazing if you don't game. still rocking my M1 air and its my daily go to. Love the videos.

[@The-Drone-Hobbyist]

I have a M1 Pro and it's still amazing

[@jondonnelly4831]

Plays wow game, its all i need.

[@SchmakerSchmoo]

The unfortunate thing about the state of gaming on Mac is that all of the M1 machines are actually quite capable of light gaming. The M1 GPU is roughly equivalent to a laptop 1650 - which obviously isn't amazing, but also capable of running pretty much every game at low/medium settings at a playable framerate. If Apple actually put some effort into getting games onto their platform things would be much better. Look at how many games Stadia was able to offer despite having zero marketshare and being canceled pretty quickly.

[@Oscar_Myk]

if you don't game why do you need amazing CPUs? In the consumer space on mobile, laptop and desktop the main driver of performance is gaming.

[@milkyy4168]

@@SchmakerSchmoo Actually I think the m1 pro is more in-line with the 1650 if geekbench scores are to be believed, but that doesn’t detract from the fact that all apple silicon macs have a faster gpu than an xbox one/ps4. It is absolutely possible to run games, it’s just mainly the lack of bootcamp holding it back I guess. I wouldn’t expect apple to hammer in on gaming since it’s not their primary focus for macs.

[@silenceddd]

This was an incredible watch. The writing and production quality is top notch.

[@vjo03]

I love the style of the videos on this channel! It just makes it so much more interesting. And I don't even have a Mac

[@The-Drone-Hobbyist]

I haven't used it before but if I want a Desktop mac I will definitely start with this. Thank for the video and keep up the great work!

[@jjpark98]

If you're going for the ULTIMATE cheapest option, yeah a mac mini will still blow many similar devices out of the water. BUT if you REALLY can afford it, I suggest getting the lowest model Macbook Air as you can use it in clamshell mode (having the lid closed and connected to power and a monitor) and you can use it like a desktop computer with the same M2 performance. The great thing about this is that you can also just use it as a laptop and take it around with you. It's powerful enough to do both. I have a macbook pro 16" and do the same. It's very nice peace of mind for me to know that I can use my macbook pro as either a desktop or just take it with me as a laptop.

[@The-Drone-Hobbyist]

@@jjpark98 Never thought of that. I have a MacBook Pro 13" and it works great. Instead of spending more on that it could be a great idea. Thanks

[@DrAnimePhD]

Definitely get one. The M1 Mac Mini was my first Mac and it made macOS my new favorite operating system. I traded it in for a 14 inch Macbook Pro that has pretty much become my computer swiss army knife now

[@The-Drone-Hobbyist]

@@DrAnimePhD oh that’s nice

[@DavidSchertz]

This channel is always great because it’s always honest. No fan boy content.

[@SwordArtUniverse]

Holy Mac Address, Jonathan! Four days between this and the last upload, you guys are rolling! Love it!

[@b127_1]

The new mac mini is a great deal, but it's such a shame the storage and ram upgrades are so expensive. My friend just added a 1tb ssd to his laptop for 50 dollars and it's made a massive difference for him. Apple might use higher quality components than bargain basement, but $400?? Cmon. Thats dumb.

[@Skullet]

You can add that same 1tb ssd to the Mac Mini, just buy an external drive enclosure for about £20. I have a 2014 Mac Mini with a mechanical drive but I run the OS from an external ssd and use the mechanical drive for TimeMachine backups.

[@fmlazar]

Apple has always gouged their users this way, even on machines that users could upgrade themselves.

[@fmlazar]

@@Skullet Keep in mind though that unless you actually use a Thunderbird 4 enclosure you take major performance hits accessing external drives.

[@Pootleflump]

@@Skullet you're gonna need to spend £100+ for a TB4/USB4 enclosure that will realise the potential speeds of the drive. Though, the £20 enclosures are fine if you're not too concerned about speed.

[@bradenplett537]

I purchased a base model M1 Mac Mini back when it was released as replacement for my Mid 2015 15" Macbook Pro, and I would agree with what was said in the video. For everyday web-browsing, video calls, etc. it worked flawlessly and was a huge upgrade from my Macbook Pro. But recently I've been doing more creative work, specifically photo-editing with Lightroom, graphic design with Canva and some video editing with Final Cut Pro. This workflow really started to slow the M1 Mac Mini down and show the limitations of the 8 gb of RAM. I decided to start using my Macbook Pro for the same workflow, and though importing, exporting and rendering all takes a little bit longer, it has felt like the computer is waaaayyy faster because of the 16 gb of RAM and 2 gb of dedicated VRAM. Most of the videos I watched about the M-series processors when they were released said that the 8 gb of RAM would feel like 16 gb of RAM, and that was just flat out wrong! But, luckily the M2 Pro is now in the Mac Mini, and once I'm able to sell my M1, I'll be upgrading and will probably get 32 gb of RAM just to future proof myself!

[@SchmakerSchmoo]

The base M1 or M2 with 16GB of RAM would run circles around the 2015 MBP. Definitely get the M2 Pro if that is what you want, but it sounds like you are mostly memory limited, which doesn't require upgrading all the way to the M2 Pro to solve. The base M2 with 16GB of RAM is very close in performance to the M1 Pro both in CPU and GPU tasks.

[@jonson856]

I am starting to think all those techtubers who said "those 8 gb feel like 16gb" were told by Apple to say this specific line.... I also have the M1 Mac Mini base model, and I dont just feel but I can see (with specific monitoring software) how the 8gb get filled up very fast. And I dont even do any heavy tasks. Just browsing, emails, youtube and such.

[@termisium3706]

This channel has become so good lately. Jonathan provided great content.

[@91Nickson]

I like the Style of Mac Adress videos. Even it is an LMG-Production, it seems totally different. Good work!

[@spitperson69]

The value of Macs really is an entire different game now. I've been using an M1 13" MBP for professional video editing for 2 years now and my only complaint is that I wish I'd gotten more storage (though I use external SSDs for my company's pipeline most of the time anyway.) Performance on this machine I paid $1300 for, though, is still doing better (gaming aside, of course) than the PC I just built for $300 more, and all while having 12+ real hours of battery life and being entirely silent.

[@deepakbhatti155]

i liked how honest she was! however why doesn’t she just get a gaming PC?

[@vadym8713]

I think that it's because she is a student and just don't have money for it, and maybe she don't have a permanent place to live. If you move a lot this makes PC setup an issue

[@bandombeviews6035]

@@vadym8713 Why not get a lower end gaming laptop? She could definitely get away with like a 1650 or a 3050 in one of those < $500 laptops. Tons of students have them these days

[@vadym8713]

@@bandombeviews6035 less than 500!? I think you missed 1 in front of even 2 in case of 3060

[@EstelonAgarwaen]

The documentary stryle of this video just blew my mind! you should do more of this. please. also, it really is a usecase dependent decision to go mac or pc (if you need a unix like OS on a pc, linux is there after all), and i have to say, im glad to have bought an m1 macbook air. it does the things i need a laptop to do, and that it does really well.

[@alexsmith8021]

Video slaps, good job sir!

[@handlealreadytaken]

I actually just got a Mini Pro as a compliment to my gaming pc. Great machine to do everything else while using a tiny amount of power. The amount of heat that my desktop puts off, especially during the summer is pretty bad. As far as specs, 16GB is easy to use as I have found but that’s about as far as I would need to push it.

[@vadym8713]

that's actually a good reason to use Mac, haven't thought about it. But your PC must be good during cold winter times )

[@bubbledoubletrouble]

I’m wondering if she said anything about having to move from a laptop to a desktop. I imagine if she did it was cut for relevancy, but I’d think that would be as or more impactful than anything else for “an average user”. Also, I wonder how well Parallels runs Windows on an M2.

[@awsomewe360]

The way she was filmed using her initial laptop, I would be surprised if she didn't mention it.

[@mbvglider]

There are many people who have been on laptops for their entire adult life and simply do not enjoy using desktops anymore. Imagine going from an Apple keyboard, trackpad, and Retina screen to a bargain 1080p monitor and $40 Logitech keyboard and mouse. She seemed utterly unimpressed by everything. She might have been impressed by a MacBook M2 Air that gets 20 hour battery life, zero fan noise, beautiful design, and an improved keyboard, but we'll never know.

[@AdriaOliSal]

I use Crossover to play Rogue Tower (among a couple other things) and it works flawlesly. I maybe loose a little bit of rought power due to emulation but I was impressed.

[@spitperson69]

The issue with Parallels running Windows is, iirc, it's still gotta run Windows On ARM, which still sucks

[@vadym8713]

@@mbvglider Apple keyboard is not that great, I could live without trackpad but yes, 1080p instead of retina is a hard choice, I have this type of monitor and when I switch from Retina to external screen I think I'm starting to loose my vision, everything is so blurry. BUT if you just use crappy monitor you could get use to that and with Mac mini you don't have that, so no issues

[@itsdeonlol]

Excellent video!

[@StellarAudyssey]

Nice, definitely not a sugar coated review, so appreciate that.

[@seventripple777]

I feel like it would be interesting to see Jonathans' take on using something with the Gnome desktop. I know I've always liked the macos ui, and gnome appeals to many of the same things for me. I wonder if being more used to a unix based os would give him a unique perspective compared to someone who is more of a windows native.

[@SchmakerSchmoo]

The issue with modern Linux has never been the UI, it is the software support. macOS lacks games but most other applications are readily available (Office, Adobe suite, CAD applications, etc.). Many of those same software suites simply are not available natively on linux, which is massive barrier to an "average" user enjoying their experience there.

[@Okand2]

I recently picked up one of these (but with 512gb storage) and it's been great. I just wanted a quiet and power efficient browsing and sysadmin machine instead of running Linux on my loud and warm gaming PC.

[@twitcharchive0]

Why did you go with 512gb storage? Is it required for your work? Asking because I instead just went with the ram upgrage and an external SSD.

[@thomasf.7940]

I love this channel, dare I say probably some of the best content on youtube bar none!!!

[@macbitz]

I have a machine that sits in the corner, receives video files (in an assortment of types) from field engineers, converts them to mp4 files, tags them and moves them to another machine all using shortcut automations. It's a base model M1 Mac Mini and I log into it (via ARD) every once in a while to check for OS updates. It never skips a beat and just does what it does without any fuss.

[@Garrettdx1988]

My only issue is exactly what Jonathan was saying. Once I upgrade to the ram and storage I need, I might as well stick with my PC. I also like playing the occasional game, so there's that

[@15081997flo]

I bought myself a base Macbook Air m2. At first i was kinda worried about only 8gb of ram, but it really doesnt feel as limiting as it does on windows machines. Especially for the Macbook air, applications that i used were more limited by the heat generation and limited gpu power or even the only 256 gb of storage rather than ram. But still kinda sucks with apples pricing. 16gb ram with 512 gb storage would be an almost perfect machine for me, but apples pricing really makes it not worth for me

[@arminoandrigo4599]

I also have the same configuration but im worried about the 8GB ram if its going to perform the same next year or the year after .

[@notseif]

@@arminoandrigo4599 It will be fine. Even now they rely heavily on swap. A couple of memory-hungry webapps eat out all of the ram and more. You can barely feel it tho, and not much will change in a few years. A bigger question will be how long can your ssd survive writing hundreds GBs per day. Then again, in most endurance tests you'll see drives survive multiple times it's TBW, and Apple hopefully uses quality components.

[@Eric-yp5wp]

I’m rocking the M2 Air with 8GB of RAM, but I upgraded to the 10-core chip and the 512 GB SSD. I have yet to find it’s limits with what I do. I’m mostly spreadsheeting, and a little photoshop work on the side as a hobby. Best laptop I’ve ever owned. Although, I came from a 2012 MBP with the i5. I was due for an upgrade.

[@jamiepilkey]

A wonderful video as always! Interview Andy and see how he's using that Mac Studio I won at the Christmas party. People were big mad that I tried using it as a living room computer. 😂

[@Jbesed]

I think the biggest thing that holds me from getting one Mac is the lack of some games I like because MacOS is not compatible and that's something I don't know if it can be solved

[@DrAnimePhD]

If I was to make a suggestion: I would recommend you get a Steam Deck with your Mac, or get a Macbook Air to use as a companion device to your PC. A 256gb Steam Deck + Mac Mini/M1 Macbook Air is less than the majority of prebuilt gaming PCs, and in terms of the Macbook + Steam Deck combo is the ultimate in portability.

[@flamingcheetopuff8434]

playstation and nintendo exist jose.

[@Jbesed]

@@flamingcheetopuff8434 but I like playing with mouse and keyboard and it also cost more ;-;

[@flamingcheetopuff8434]

@@Jbesed pcs cost more than playstation or any gaming console.

[@DrAnimePhD]

@@Jbesed you can use mouse and keyboard with Steam Deck. You could also use the Steam Deck and the Mac for Steam Remote Play

[@ArchusKanzaki]

Hoping for a Mac Mini with Pararel setup video since Windows-on-ARM can now be semi-officially installed on Mac Mini.

[@MrHappy351]

I got an M1 Mac mini about a year ago, it’s completely stock except for 10gb Ethernet. I got an OWC miniStack with a 2TB Pcie Gen4 nvme and an 8tb 3.5” hard drive all connected via thunderbolt 4. My plan was when it was getting too old, I’d have it be a server. But so far it’s been great for video encoding/editing, photography (migrated my photos library to the external nvme) and a place to back up my iOS devices (there’s tutorials on how to get that automatically stored on an external drive). I haven’t been able to get it break a sweat yet, although encoding using handbrake has been slower than I thought, the fans have never been audible. I have a KVM switch that allows me to switch to an Xbox when I want to game, handy now that AOE2 is on Xbox!

[@aayaan1935]

2 Mac address videos in 1 week! I must be dreaming 😂

[@bravonorthyt]

“I’m going to go meet a normal Apple user.” *interviews an actor*

[@Jovianoid]

Holly shit that video was sooo good, I love quality that this channel is producing :)

[@prodigys9823]

Great video I have virtualize the Mac os on a PC but I can see myself buying a Mac mini new or refurbished

[@bandito241]

“How do you upgrade memory” That right there kill the argument of the video 😂😂😂😂 To be fair, 8GB is enough for a person that just wants a macOS computer. Even for work, you can use it, just expect anything to be slower than a $2K or even $4K computer. For the price , the base Mac Mini is way better than a similar price i5 computer (that’s probably the cost of an $800 i5 computer)

[@mrartistimo1530]

It's impressive the value proposition they offer, but the restrictions placed upon MacOS and its' inability to do what I want (e.g. Use external graphics cards for rendering out 3D scenes in path tracers, generally play recreational games, poor by contrast management of multiple monitors), holds it back substantially. It isn't intuitive to me, and I find a lot of the design decisions hurt my ability to just... Work. Whilst Windows isn't great in a lot of aspects, it is a lot more flexible for me, and the freedom to install it on any hardware I want is good enough, whilst Linux is a little too... Needy with my time to make things work. I like my devices to actually feel like they're mine. If I want to use them unconventionally, I should be able to do that. Apple feels like that one car company that sends cease and desist letters if you paint the car a different colour. It's also for that reason that I'll be moving away from the Ipad Pro next time I upgrade, whilst the pencil is nice, there are plenty of android options, and whilst they may not be quite as aesthetically pleasing, I know the pens work just as well, whilst also having a lot more options for my use-cases, including easily using them like a Cintiq if I so please. Makes it very appealing to bring with me if I travel with my laptop.

[@EvanNakagawa]

I have a base M1 Air and love it! The most intense thing I do is some light photo editing in Lightroom, so I've had zero complaints. But then again, I also have a PC for gaming, so I don't feel restricted as much as I would if the Air was my only machine.

[@micheldonais7476]

Great vid! Ty for this, team! Honestly looking to purchase a Mini w/ M2 Pro. I pondered a lot between two base computers, or one M2 Pro. Both are great options. What sold me to the M2 Pro is the base 16/512, as well as the better HDMI and better gaming resiliency for our teens at home. I simply cannot quickly build Unreal Editor on 8 gigabytes of RAM. Even without UE, I cannot put Xcode, basic commodities, and expect to have room at 256G. And, it's more expensive to add up 16G, an external 40Gb USB-C M.2 enclosure, and purchase a M.2 (although I can get sweet 2-4TB 4x4 M2 for really cheap). Small suggestion: consider adding "Building UE5 from source, initial run the editor until the shaders are compiled" in your test benches instead of synthetic benchmarks.

[@jbnelson]

I’m rocking the base M2 Mac mini! I traded in my base M1 Mac mini day 1 for it. Only had to pay $230 for it with instant trade-in credit. I also use photoshop and Final Cut. The fact that it has ProRes media engine is a big game changer. I don’t have any RAM or CPU/GPU issues. I also don’t care about storage size, since I keep all my files in iCloud Drive

[@MrJudgi]

I bought the cheapest iMac and then I realized, that Mac OS isn’t that good for a multi monitor setup

[@mcslender2965]

As good value as the base Mac Minis are, that and how costly it is to upgrade storage/RAM is a deal breaker

[@xvaara]

macOS is great for multi monitor, even excellent! M1/m2 isn’t. Only support for one external display. Pro supports two… and my old intel MacBook maybe four.

[@MrJudgi]

@@xvaara my M2 Mac Mini supports 2 Displays but the way MacOS handels them is just unintuative, why do i need to klick on the window again to select it? why isnt my mous being on there enough? and even without that i have a lot of problems with the way mac os does anything because i need to clock way more to do the simpelest tasks.

[@bentomo]

This is just a testament to how effective it is to get people bought into your ecosystem young. She does a lot of stuff that would be much easier on a PC, but when getting a computer from her family she simply wasn't aware at the time. Different strokes for different folks

[@liamrodgers48]

Respect to the demonslayer wallpaper. 👌

[@iTheftAuto]

Terrific video and explanations of the tradeoffs with new Macs. For me, the combination of M1/M2's memory combo drawbacks, lack of upgradability, and 64-bit-only apps with 10.15 Catalina and above really limit my ability to use modern Macs. I have a 2018 Mini with 10.14 Mojave and that works great for any non-gaming tasks like uni work and . But, since a huge chunk of my PC use is in games, I have a dedicated Win11 rig which is far better for that. The 2011 iMac was the peak of Apple computers for me, an amazing 1440p display for the time (still holds up great today), every spec being upgradable (or multiplied in the case of storage drives) and very repairable, great BootCamp support, and terrific for gaming. I used it as my sole computer for games until 2019 when the GPU went kaput after 7 years of heavy use. A new GPU solved it, and it still works like new. I'm still amazed that the laptop-spec Radeon 6970M 1GB model was able to run so many things so well for so long in that machine.

[@zxcaaq]

This is the best thing ever! I love what you guys did here!

[@Astromanaught]

I liked the documentary style,very different than other ltt or many tech shows

[@YashAtishay]

I happen to have a M1 Mac mini with 8GB of Ram, I use it for video editing. Though I don't use it anymore, someone else in my team does, It's a brilliant computer, very snappy, very fast, The only time I felt I was pushing it to it's limit was when I was editing a TV show which was 7 episodes, about 25-27 mins each and that is where gradually I had to close everything else in the background otherwise I would keep getting out of mercury pop up box thingie

[@Drewiss]

I bought the base Mac mini just for the hell of it. I’ve been using it for light photo editing and some file management. I have been incredibly impressed with it but the video does have some incredibly good points that I can agree with, especially since I own the product

[@sortof3337]

This my fav mac content channel.

[@paritosh-anand]

Completely agree. Go for the RAM and storage upgrade.

[@lucaslahlum6331]

This video was great. I wasn't a fan of the last mac address too much, but this one made up for it.

[@seiji_senpai]

Mac is like a strong buff dude that refuse to lift a pound of potatoes, he can but he just don't want to

[@rydoge21]

Got the base m1 macbook air, and yeah, it’s great. base models are really solid.

[@Wumphenour123]

Planning on getting the M2 pro Mac mini. I have a pc and game on that but doing video and photo editing flows better for me on a Mac. I also prefer logic and Final Cut to premier or ableton

[@jierenzheng7670]

I am really tempted to get one and install Asahi Linux on it, but the GPU driver for now isn't stable state so probably to be a fun project in the future compared to getting those higher end ARM SBCs which gets close to the price.

[@chantzgaming]

I’m still rocking my M1 Mac mini and loving it. Programming on it still feels fast, and I play a ton of games with emulation, as well as the sims 4.

[@clintmiller88]

missed your content man you gotta get more Mac content out we want ittttttt do some iPhone update videos software videos etc...

[@timduncan6750]

Typing this on an M1 Mac Mini. I really like it and it does everything i need. I use it to stream - mostly KZbin, Netflix and Hulu. Also some word processing and picture editing along with general web browsing. I've actually not even needed to install Rosetta as so far everything has been available native which has been the pleasant surprise as I didn't expect all my must-have applications like Firefox and Dropbox to already have native versions when I bought the machine but they did.

[@gamersinghking4167]

The funny thing is, I have a 2018 13 inch MacBook Pro. I haven't really used Apple Silicon Macs, though, so it still feels fine to me.

[@Clydeisms]

I had a MacBook Air M1 for work and recently bought my own 14 inch. The biggest factor in upgrading was the ram. 8 gigs just isn’t enough anymore for anyone but the lightest (or most patient) users

[@JesseLegend149]

I use my mini m1 8gb for garageband, websurfing, microsoft office, managing photos or files whatever and used it for gamecube emulation. As a machine for personal use, it works perfectly fine. But I could imagine it slowing down when doing heavy work.

[@Clydeisms]

@@JesseLegend149 Good point, it is definitely still a great machine and I definitely could have used it for years to come if I was willing to put up with a bit of slowdown.

[@cawright0110]

I appreciate how the writing has changed since the start of the channel, I was afraid we would just get an info dump channel but the framing each video as a story has made them super enjoyable to watch.

[@thehonestman26]

Great video, by the way, but I also think part of the Mac experience is the nicety of using their monitors. I have four monitors in this house, and I don't like using any of them coming from my iMac. I think the mini is great because you can upgrade just the computer portion if you desire, but I would still want to run it on one of their monitors. But maybe that's just me. I don't like matte monitors, which most are.

[@fenixprolive]

I love this channel 😭

[@fox1cake076]

Great video and I agreed with her it's all about what you want to with the hardware. I'm currently on a 8gb m1 Mac and it's been great for video editing and photography work but I would like a bit more ram lol for multtasking lol. I do have a PC for gaming because ..... Mac OS lol

[@piplup10203854]

Alexis using the macbook for playing PTCGO is such a vibe, she gets it lol I love this approach to the apple ecosystem cause I do feel it could help get a better sense of who the audience of these devices are for. I'm in the same boat, I want to play Resident Evil Village but I'm the same way.

[@AverageAspie]

I had to get a macbook pro for school before the m2's came out, and I feel I made a great buy that'll last. m1 max(32 core) 1tb with 32gb ram, ebay preowned but was able to get applecare+ on it in case i'd need to replace the battery or if I break it in 3 years. I would have liked 64gb ram and 2tb but I prolly would never have come close to a good deal like this. And, I probably wouldn't been able to afford a ipad pro with m2 chip(16gb ram) to go along with it, for sidecar/drawing/universal control. I'll just stick to refurbished store and upgrade to 1 or 2yr silicon every 5-6ish years.

[@ryanmerk480]

I bought an iMac a year ago with the M1 and I stayed away from the 8Gb as much as possible. I knew with the photo editing I wanted to do and the multi tasking my fiancé does we needed a model with at least 16Gb. We’ve been happy with it since. I’ve been thinking of getting the Mac mini for my own use we don’t have to share a work station. If I did that I’d definitely opt for more RAM

[@BrianJones-wk8cx]

Interestingly, with normal browsing, work (writing), very light emulation in OpenEmu, and the random tasks I do day-to-day, I don’t notice much of a difference between my 2010 Mac Pro, my 2013 MacBook Pro, and my 14”M1 Pro MacBook Pro. While I love all of the niceties of my latest machine, I felt a bit of buyer remorse when I first set it up. Only when pushing the system a little bit do I notice differences, like with a video encode that took several minutes on the old desktop, took less than 30 seconds on the new laptop. It’s amazing how far we’ve come and yet how far we’ve been for a while now. My workload is super light and I tend to have minimal windows open at once, but I imagine a lot of folks out there might share my experience.

[@blaster1185]

Does MacAdress not know the iPad air 5 exists? It also costs $600, $550 if you're a student. They don't have a video on it, having reviewed the regular iPad that only works with the gen1 pencil. Yet it's been out for over a year.

[@Ashkevron]

I swapped completely to MacOS a couple of years ago. I had a desktop PC that needed a new graphics card for the latest games. I would have needed a new power supply for the new graphics card and was doing most of my gaming on PS4/5 so there seemed no point upgrading the PC. I bought an intel Mac mini which I then upgraded to the M1. I now use the Mac for my main computer with the PS5 for gaming. I'm very happy with the M1 and won't be upgrading until the M3/M4 comes out as it does everything I need it to do right now.

[@ivannedyalkov]

I’m still rocking the base M1 Mini for mobile/web development, design and casual gaming. I would say it’s not only for average users.

[@jazzbuchla8692]

I have a M1 Mac Mini and I am a big fan. It does everything I need to do for work and connect with no issues and for gaming, I am a console gamer but what I dont see talked about very often is I stream games, not play them locally. And with good internet it works amazing. I use PS Remote Play to play my PS5 in my office if my family is using the other TVs and it works very well