I bought one a few weeks back from the UK refurb store, think it was £589 all in (tax inc) - superb value - I've tried to sell my i7 2020 Mac mini (256gb/8gb) to recover some of the costs and it's not sold (I think a max ceiling price of around £400 is where it's at to be honest, not sure if keeping it a little longer will help like it did with the 2012 i7 model - this is the real downside of M1, intel based Mac's aren't shifting). As for spec's sure If I waited around I probably could've picked up a 16gb model - but they don't appear that often on the refurb channel. Plus with M2/3 around the corner this is a good stop gap for that. Ultimately the one I bought will replace my 2011 Mac Mini Web-server.
I plugged my 55" 4k TV into the HDMI port of my 2012 Quad I7 MacBook Pro, and got a "4 times as big as a 27" iMac" display using a $10 cable. I can alternatively plug the TV into my M1 Air using my $27 port extender to run Monterey, and get 3 USB-A ports, a USB-C port, a SD card reader, and an Ethernet port. Hard to "out cheap" that, unless you don't have old Mac stuff around.
I bought a refurb M1 mini a few months ago, but not the base model - 16gb/1tb, for $1099 - $200 savings. Absolutely indistinguishable from new, an incredible value.
Factory-direct refurbs are generally a really good deal. Years ago, I bought a 1 series Canon directly from Canon and it looked absolutely new. Checked the shutter count and it was less than 300 clicks on a shutter w a mean lifespan of 250,000 clicks. I got that 1 series camera for about 30% less than full price.
Spot on to call out the intended purpose of the Mac Mini being introduced - strategically at the time. It was indeed the SWITCHER solution, specifically intended to motivate Windows folks to easily move to Mac. That was THE purpose of introducing it. And exactly what Jobs said in the announcement. Over time, it took its place as the 'Utility Mac' for tech nerds and the 'entry level Mac' for others. Genius solution from .
The Army and Air Force Exchange service has had these on sale brand new (non refurbished) off and on for between $499 and $599 (currently $549) over the past year or so. Awesome deal at those prices.
@@georgeorwell7776 the storage is way faster, although that’s pretty much the only reason. I would personally get a 500GB ssd in it, then get 1-2TB of hard drive storage in a NAS or something.
@@myrealusername2193 the m1 Mac mini is almost empty inside and apple could have easily added adapters just like in the intel versions to upgrade the storage
I consider myself a Mac mini enthusiast. I have owned almost every Mac mini since the first one and I still have 3 of them running in my office. 2012, 2018, and 2020 m1 I love them all!
I personally feel like the design has aged very well, and I love my Mac Mini… I would absolutely buy one refurbished and maybe go for the 16GB of RAM. I bet you could get an even better deal on a refurb on back market or Amazon. I use an external SSD for storage which works great, can’t go wrong with the Mini.
I watched this video 50 or 60 times and I finally bought it. I was already waiting for a new 14inch MacBook Pro but I had been eyeing the Mac mini for quite some time. First Mac with Apple Silicon and I'm in love with it. I'm less in love with way Apple refurbished works, as I tried to buy it twice from there and both times they called me to tell me that they were out of stock. Not to mention the delivery times here in Spain. Fortunately, I found it on Amazon, new, for 10€ more than the refurbished one Apple was offering (In Spain, Apple sells the base model refurbished one for 679EUR, while new on Amazon is 689EUR). I love the Mac mini so much that I would buy it again, it's such an amazing good deal and value for this price. Thanks Luke!
I was looking for this Mac mini it sold out quickly. So I settled for the 512GB 8GB ram. For $759, still a great price though. Had a full setup with 32” screen, magic keyboard and track pad for under $1100
So, this inspired me to consider the "upgrade" question. I bought an Apple Silicon base model iMac, which I love and have been satisfied with the headroom, etc. during these first few months. Looking at your video caused me to think, Hey, I can get an 8GB of Ram, 250GB of Storage, an additional Apple Silicon Processor, Fan and redundant power supply, not to mention extra ports, in a little box that network connects to my iMac. Use Screen Sharing, File Sharing and ssh to tie them logically together as one would do in an data center -- don't beef up your one box, add additional servers and spread the load. Heck, with Kubernetes or just plain Docker Swarm, I can get my containers to run transparently across the two and if one needs to go in for repair, I have a spare Mac right there (I do have an extra Monitor in my Office. So, my personal upgrade path is solved! Thanks Luke for continuing to stretch reality away from the "down-side" Sally's of the tech world!
I just bought a refurb mac mini about a month ago to replace my Late 2013 Mac Pro and the difference has been night and day. I went with the 16GB 1TB version and just plugged in my 4T thunderbolt drive, never been happier. While everyone else I know is dropping $3k -$4k for the Mac Studio, I've saved a ton of cash going with the Mini. Maybe in a couple years I'll end up replacing it but for now I am very happy. I paid $1,200 for a system that would have cost $1,599.
Even though the Mac Mini is supposed to be the entry point to the Mac world and might make them upgrade to an iMac later on lots of people sick with it as their main computer. It is that good and can make your desk look clean and tidy
I had the very same idea. I have an old 2012 27” iMac in the attic which runs quite fine for the most part but for certain tasks it’s underpowered. So I was thinking of getting an M1 Mac mini and combining it with the iMac running in target display mode since the display of the iMac is still good.
Target display mode doesn’t work with new Macs. The Mac outputting the signal has to be a 2019 MacBook Pro or older. Luke Miami took out the whole logic board and replaced it with a display adapter, basically making it an HDMI monitor
I bought one for work and find myself really pushing it for photo and video editing. I was really worried that I would get buyers remorse but after a few months of having it I really like the capability of it.
I bought the base M1 last year. Love it. Although I wish I had got the memory upgrade and bigger storage. Although I bought a base for it that allowed me to put an extra SSDs in and gave me extra USB ports. Perfect. Does anyone think the Keyboard with touch is worth the upgrade?
As a resident of a developing country in which everyone uses pc I was thinking of the mac like it's first world stuff but after electricity went down to just four hours a day I bought a m1 macbook air and it really changed my life, made it much easier for studying, it gave me the best internet browsing experience I've ever had even with poor internet connection, all of it with minimal sleek design and nearly no interruptions. I'm really satisfied with it.
I got a M1 Mac mini with 512GB storage for my son for about $750 from Costco. That model is currently on sale there until 5/23/22 “While supplies last”. It’s a fantastic computer. I eventually replaced his old keyboard and mouse with an Apple Magic Keyboard with numerical pad and a Apple Magic Trackpad and bought two decent LG 27” 1080P monitors. He loves his setup. Once he gets more into editing pictures and video, I’ll take his M1 Mac mini off his hands and get him an updated Mac mini M2 or Studio. I’ll be using the M1 Mac mini with my 2009 27” iMac (which still runs fine, albeit a bit slow by today’s standards) in Target mode as my monitor. I can attest to buying from Apple’s Refurbished Store. Everything I bought was good as new. I never had any problems with either my eight year old 2014 MacBook Pro or 2014 MacBook Air. I still own both of them. Buy at Apple’s Refurbished Store without question and save yourself some coin. I just checked there after watching Luke’s video and the Mac minis are sold out, but check back weekly as they come back in stock often. Great values can be had there.
I love that you made this. The 2012 Mac Mini was my first Mac and I still have it, along with a few other Macs (by now). It felt like a gamble when I bought it because I didn’t know anyone who had one, but this fully lived past my expectation. Apple owes you some 💵 for this. 👏
I have been running my RUclips channel with the Intel Mac Mini 2018 I5 8400 3ghz base model which I upgraded the memory to 64gb for the majority of my videos. I bought the basic Mac Studio use the LG Ultrafine 5k as an extended monitor and the main display that I use is the Samsung S95B 55" QD-OLED which also is the monitor for choice for the Mac Mini. Backup always think of backup if something happens to your main computer. BTW I have ran 5 cameras on that little Mac Mini using Ecamm Live and it didn't miss a beep. Love your videos.
I would want more unified memory as I hear the 8gb model starts to choke, and a 512gb internal ssd minimum but will use external. I have been looking at these for the past couple of months, but I have been hearing rumors about the new mini with m2 to be possible announced June 6th, 2022. If only for just in case, I’m holding out for that.
Bought a renewed M1 Mac Mini for $510 on Amazon and I love it on my ultrawide monitor! Using my iPad Pro as a second display or as a universal control is also a bonus!!
I agree with your assessment of the M1 Mac Mini's value. I also like it when it's available at that same price at Amazon and Costco for a new unit. Right now, they are all out of stock, but with a little patience, you can get a brand new unit at the same price. I'm a long-time Windows guy, but if I were to buy a new computer right now, it would have to be an M1 Mac Mini at the $500 price point. There's not a better value anywhere that I can find.
I just opened my refurbished M1 Mac mini 1TB, 16GB, two hours ago (about an hour after you posted this video). I was using an iMac Pro 8 core with 64 GB RAM and the upgraded graphics. I grew tired of editing RUclips videos for GAME CLOSET waiting forever for rendering in FCPX. So, it was between the Mini and the Studio. Real world usage with Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator& InDesign was going to be the same between the Mini and the Studio. I was worried and FCPX, until I saw that the extra $1,200 I’d spend on the studio would only save me a couple of minutes. The difference from the iMac Pro was almost an hour. Then, I saved $320 buying the refurb. DUH! She’s a speed demon compared to my iMac Pro. And in a way that makes me sad because she was a beautiful beast when I got her and now she’s not. With all the cuts, transitions, effects, green screen, sound, & music I use on more involved GAME CLOSET videos, an 8 minute clip was taking about 45 minutes to render. Importing the video was an absolute bear! This M1 makes it far, far easier and faster. Thank Heaven!
I just did this about a month ago. I made the transition from PC to mac and I have never been so happy with a Computer purchase. It just works for anything I need. its awesome.
I bought the M1 Mac Mini with 16gb ram and I love it. I've been converting some old lo res videos to HD using Topaz labs AI app. Because of how quiet the Mac mini is, I've been running it non stop overnight, in the room where I sleep. So far I haven't heard the fans run at all. Also the temp has only reached 53 Deg C even when I'm also watching you tube or watching a film at the same time! I've hooked it up to my Samsung 55 TV so it is now the centre of my universe. I have an iMac 2011 which is shockingly noisy in comparison.
I absolutely love my M1 Mac mini, I bought it when I got rid of my 2019 MacBook Pro. This is the best bang for your buck, I also bought mine refurbished it's a steal at $589. Keep up the great videos.
Been using the M1 Mac Mini for 2 years now, basically since it came out, maybe a month after it released with the original M1’s from 2020, still fast as hell, multitask perfectly, even can play games perfectly at full graphics! Sure it’s getting old but honestly not that slow! P.S been a massive Apple guy for years lol
My first Mac mini was a 2005 1.42GHz G4. Bought the server model in 2009. And now I have a Mac Studio. All bought refurbished. Except the Studio which I paid a shit ton of money for. I'm still using the 2009 mini as a media server. These things never die.
I am based in the UK and I am thinking of buying a Mac mini, but the issue I have is Apple have said I would not be able to use a Mac mini with my late 2014 27’’ iMac as it cannot be used as a monitor. How have you managed to get a 2012 iMac to work as a monitor?? If I could get my iMac to work then I would definitely consider a refurbished Mac mini. Excellent and very informative video Luke, thank you for sharing.
Check out his video, but the quick version is that he took out all of the computer parts in the iMac body and just left the display. He then used a third party display converter board that hooks directly to the iMac display ribbon connector and gives you the display ports to plug your Mac mini into
I almost bought a Mac mini, but in the end I went for a blue iMac for the simple reason that I liked how it looked, while the mini would have been hidden away as just another computer... I knew I was paying more for the form, but I was okay with that.
*I am definitely on the edge of moving to Apple - you can thank my wife for that. I am most likely going to get a MacBook (refurbished), get a ports dock and keyboard/mouse setup and be ready to rock.*
Bought a refurbished M1 Mac Mini with 16GB RAM. Brilliant device. Got the 16GB so gaming didn’t lead to caching on the SSD. With the 8GB it did a little bit.
I brought this same machine from Amazon Renewed for just over $500. It is my first Mac. I just got it as something new to play around with. Aside from the occasional Bluetooth stutter. I am enjoying the experience.
My Mac Mini M1 is still the best computer I’ve ever had. Love it. I’d love a better monitor for it, but because it’s not integrated I can get one in the future when I’ve got the money. Superb piece of kit; Apple’s best machine. And I think it’s a good looking little thing!
I really enjoyed this setup since I have the old version, I have a 2011 iMac 27” hooked up as the display for my 2014 Mac mini i7 with dual SSDs. I have been using it since 2018 and it’s a great setup.
I bought the original Mac Mini to use as a developer machine and it served me well for many years. I now have an M1 Mac Mini and it's still a cracking little machine.
The Mini button is currently greyed out on the Apple refurb page. A new base Mini is $699 USD, so getting the $589 refurb only saves you $110, or about a 16% discount. Doesn't seem that great a deal to me, but for those on a tight budget perhaps it is.
Yeah but with the extra $110 you could buy extra storage or spend a little more on a monitor. It may not seem like much but they are cosmetically and functionally no different than the new ones so why pay the extra money.
You list the prices like you’re the one pointing out that it’s $100 cheaper? We know, it was mentioned frequently as the whole point of the video. And yes, most people would be happy with $100 off for the exact same good quality product. And no, the Refurb store doesn’t have stock of every single Apple product every single day. Your whole comment is pretty pointless.
I bought a maxed out 2019 16” MBP. When I say maxed, I’m talking $7,500 maxed. Got it refurbished w/AppleCare for $6,000. So yeah Luke’s right, referb is the way to go if you’re on a tight budget. 😎
I have a refurbished base model M1 Mac Mini and I love it! I play games on it, I stream from it, and I edit video and podcasts with it, best Apple product I’ve ever bought for pure price to power/usability value. To be honest, my last two Apple products have come from the refurbished store and my next iPhone probably will too, I think people forget it exists and that’s a shame because the upgrades on the phones especially are becoming in my view not worth the hype anymore, so buying a previous generation refurbished iPhone, in my view, is a really good way to upgrade but save some money 😊
Thank for your review on the $589 refurbished Mac mini. You convinced me to search for one. So I searched; then I splurged. I just placed an order for the $759 refurbished Mac mini (storage 512GB SSD version). I saved $140. INSANE. I can' wait for delivery day. It will be connected to the 27-inch Studio Display which I already own. Yay!
I would not think twice. The Mac Mini has been my daily runner for the past 8 yrs. I have had three different models and they are more than able to meet my needs. I currently own the new 2020 M1 version and it does not disappoint. In Malaysia, unfortunately, we don't have an Apple Refurbished store. But you can easily buy a preowned online and it is good value.
Original Mini owner here. Still worked a couple of years ago when I last used it and I plan to get it going again for negative scanning. My next Mac will definitely be a Mini; whenever my fussy Retina iMac goes down. It's a shame I can't use that Retina screen with the Mini.
@@matthewnadler7521 Thanks for the suggestion. But that would rely on the iMac being functional, wouldn't it? If it flat out croaks (as my 2010 iMac did), I don't see how it would work.
Yay! - the exact model I have ... er, and yeah, many others. This absolutely IS an incredible price, I sure wish I'd paid that much - heck, as I'm in the UK, it cost me $837 in November 2020 But here I am, with this tiny form factor that replaced and more or less surpassed my 2010 5.1 cheese-grater, in every way but graphics. I have to say, a year and a half on, in no way do I regret getting the base model. I have never required more than 8GB of RAM. I have 4TB of external storage, that cost me a fraction of the price of buying a higher end model. The internal 256gb? - I still have over half of that available, due to reasonably good housekeeping. Everything I've thrown at this little machine, it has done with aplomb. It just _works_ - keeps out of my way, tucked under the desk, set and forget.
Luke almost ALL of the Apple products I purchase are refurbished! They are excellent value - I just bought the M1 MacBook Pro with 16 gm RAM and 1TB SSD for $1450 fro OWC!
I love my Mac Mini. Traded in my 2017 thermal throttling MacBook Pro for one, plus $200 at the Apple Store last summer. Best choice I could have made. That 2017 MacBook was a ticking time bomb and I'm glad I got rid of it.
Love both the Mac Mini (on my third) and anything Apple Refurbished (on my fourth). Combination of the two has gotta rock. I’d do it but it would be my third desktop, not sure which to get rid of. Great review, keep it up.
I love my 2018 Intel Mac Mini. Upgraded to 64 gigs of RAM and an egpu (its onboard graphics are crap) . It runs awfully hot sometimes and the wifi antenna is a bit wonky but removing the bottom plastic cover and putting it in a vertical position helps. Plus this is one of the few Intel macs that are still upgradable to the newest MacOS.
I wonder will Luke wake up one day and realise he cannot leave his apartment as he's surrounded and trapped by all the Apple products he's acquired over the years.
I actually like the current Mac Mini design. I think it looks better than the Studio. I would imagine that if Apple were to put it in a new enclosure, it would cost more money for the new design, tooling, etc. Don't fix something that isn't broken!
@@The_MEMEphis What if you took a Ferrari 250 and stretched it out longer, like a limousine? Would it be the same? What if you took a house, like Falling Water, and made it eight storeys tall? Still the same? Changing the proportions changes the entire look. I have both a Mini and a Studio and I definitely think the Mini looks way better. Fortunately, I didn't buy the Studio for aesthetic purposes.
I almost bought the iMac 2023 but decided to get an Acer Chromebook 516 GE for the specs. I have the 2020 MacBook Air with the M1 and I love it. I'm learning about it all the time as I use it but my go to is the Chromebook which I've used for quite a few years now. I used to be a Windows user from 98 up to 10 and that ended it. Played with Tablets for awhile before happening upon the Chromebook while searching for Tablets. I researched that and figured I'd give it a try so I got HP 11.6" Chromebook G5. Had that for almost 2 years then went to 14" screen, to a 15.6" screen to the final one I have now of a 16" screen. I like Ap ple but I'm not a power user or game player either. The screen on my present Chromebook is very good and the speakers are pretty decent. I think I'm done buying laptops now for quite a while. My present one is an Acer Recertified Chromebook that I got on sale and it's perfect.
Good tip. To me, the Mac Studio looks odd. The proportions are just off somehow, like taking an otherwise-good-looking car and turning it into a stretch limo.
@Luke Miani why can't I get 60hz out of tb3 port out of the mac mini? I cannot get 30hz from my work's laptop either.. researched and this is a thing with apply.. even if you buy the new studio mac, it will not have 60hz from it's ports only the HDMI and with people with dual monitors can't get it done. if you know of a way, can you do a video?
The only problem with the retained form factor is Wi-Fi and Bluetooth reception issues. This is said to be tackled in the mini's next iteration, which I'm hopeful will be the case. I'll then only need to get a new display, and I can retire this 27" iMac after getting its internals blown out from dust, the storage replaced, and set up as a backup machine in case something was to go wrong. I am SEVERELY overdue for a new Mac and better bottom-line performance as an entry-point "pro-sumer" user, plus for the parents to be given an M1 iMac that they won't F UP, knock on wood.
In November last year I bought a base model M1 MacBook Air from Apple Refurbished stock. The Mac was a year old but the battery had zero charge cycles. This was a saving of around 10% off new price. The only difference between this Mac & a new one is the plain white box packaging. Warranty is identical to a new one.
My first new device from Apple is the new M1 Ipad Air. Great decision. My other Apple product is a used 2013 MacBook Pro. Before that my last Apple product was the original Ipod Touch.
Which 5k iMac are you plugging the Mac mini into? I’m interested in doing this but I didn’t know there was a 5k iMac that could be used as an external monitor. Did you have a past video on this?
How did he connect the Mac Mini to a 5K iMac display? And has true 5K output? I had a 5K iMac and sold it because I couldn’t connect another Mac to it and use it as a monitor. Could get 4K via aftermarket adapter that wirelessly sent signals over WiFi. No cable method that I know of?
Silly me bought the Mac mini just before m1 produced, I actually hooked it up to a Toshiba tv 35" flat screen LCD and the image is flawless to the untrained eye... I still love it, rocking an Apple keyboard off my sort of drive damaged desktop mac < I'm very impressed by its capabilities...
picked up a used one for $400! came with box and everything like it was new runs amazing not a sound compared to my old 2011 MacBook pro and it works with my old cinema display with adapter! love it!
I bought the M1 Mac mini base model when it came out and have not had any problems with it at all. I use photoshop and affinity mostly and the 8gb version works fine with external storage,so I would recommend a refurbished version without hesitation. I would probably go with the 16gb version just to future proof it. I don’t do any video editing so I can’t comment on that.
![I bought a huge PILE of 32 MacBooks for cheap. Can I fix them? [Part 1]](/img/1.gif)
Do you think this is as good a value as I do? Plus, check out today's sponsor Flyy: bit.ly/Luke-Flyy
I bought one a few weeks back from the UK refurb store, think it was £589 all in (tax inc) - superb value - I've tried to sell my i7 2020 Mac mini (256gb/8gb) to recover some of the costs and it's not sold (I think a max ceiling price of around £400 is where it's at to be honest, not sure if keeping it a little longer will help like it did with the 2012 i7 model - this is the real downside of M1, intel based Mac's aren't shifting).
As for spec's sure If I waited around I probably could've picked up a 16gb model - but they don't appear that often on the refurb channel. Plus with M2/3 around the corner this is a good stop gap for that. Ultimately the one I bought will replace my 2011 Mac Mini Web-server.
You should do an episoe where people take a mac mini "on the go" with only a iPad using sidecar as a monitor.
put the Mac mini in the DIY Display !!! Give us what apple denies us: The 27 inch Apple Silicon iMac!!!
Costco were selling these at $569 new up until last month, they are OOS atm.
I plugged my 55" 4k TV into the HDMI port of my 2012 Quad I7 MacBook Pro, and got a "4 times as big as a 27" iMac" display using a $10 cable. I can alternatively plug the TV into my M1 Air using my $27 port extender to run Monterey, and get 3 USB-A ports, a USB-C port, a SD card reader, and an Ethernet port. Hard to "out cheap" that, unless you don't have old Mac stuff around.
I bought a refurb M1 mini a few months ago, but not the base model - 16gb/1tb, for $1099 - $200 savings. Absolutely indistinguishable from new, an incredible value.
Actually bought a refurb Mac mini about a month ago. Hooked it up to a Samsung 32” 4K monitor. Perfect setup.
Also bought a Satechi Mac mini stand/hub for more connections. It also has an enclosure for an additional SSD. I put a 2TB drive in it.
What monitor are you using? How do you like it?
@@sh1121 Samsung M7 32”
@@pjbuma13 I absolutely love my Samsung M7 monitor. A perfect duo for my 2019 Intel MacBook Pro. And an even better TV substitute for my college dorm.
@@austinhymel3590 for under $350 it’s hard to beat. Especially since like you said it can double as a TV.
Factory-direct refurbs are generally a really good deal. Years ago, I bought a 1 series Canon directly from Canon and it looked absolutely new. Checked the shutter count and it was less than 300 clicks on a shutter w a mean lifespan of 250,000 clicks. I got that 1 series camera for about 30% less than full price.
Spot on to call out the intended purpose of the Mac Mini being introduced - strategically at the time. It was indeed the SWITCHER solution, specifically intended to motivate Windows folks to easily move to Mac. That was THE purpose of introducing it. And exactly what Jobs said in the announcement. Over time, it took its place as the 'Utility Mac' for tech nerds and the 'entry level Mac' for others. Genius solution from .
Worked on me :)
The Army and Air Force Exchange service has had these on sale brand new (non refurbished) off and on for between $499 and $599 (currently $549) over the past year or so. Awesome deal at those prices.
So much for $589.00 being unheard of and unbeatable.
Do they ship to Canada?
I would splurge and get the upgraded storage and memory. This looks like a great deal though. I’m going to go look at them now.
I get the ram but why more storage, just plug in a sata, a usb stick or a small nas
@@georgeorwell7776 the storage is way faster, although that’s pretty much the only reason. I would personally get a 500GB ssd in it, then get 1-2TB of hard drive storage in a NAS or something.
@@myrealusername2193 the m1 Mac mini is almost empty inside and apple could have easily added adapters just like in the intel versions to upgrade the storage
@@alanmay7929 I wish they would, I have a 2015 MacBook Air 128gb and I replaced the ssd with a 500gb one and I haven’t had any problems.
@@myrealusername2193 cool 👍
The refurb shop is a ok deal, but if you go to another shop like Costco, it sells for the same price as the refurb store, but it's new.
well technically $649 and admittedly for $60 extra, it does seem worth buying new!
I consider myself a Mac mini enthusiast. I have owned almost every Mac mini since the first one and I still have 3 of them running in my office. 2012, 2018, and 2020 m1 I love them all!
You joke but the iPod Shuffle 1st gen was probably my favorite iPod back in the day. Light, compact, simple to use, and a thumb drive.
I have a refurbished m1 Mac mini and I absolutely love it. Such a great value for a desktop.
I personally feel like the design has aged very well, and I love my Mac Mini… I would absolutely buy one refurbished and maybe go for the 16GB of RAM. I bet you could get an even better deal on a refurb on back market or Amazon. I use an external SSD for storage which works great, can’t go wrong with the Mini.
I thought the same with iPad Pro. But the price wasn’t much different between amazon and Apple. And you’ll warranty as if new from Apple
The Amazon Mac Mini M1 Referb sucks - poorly shipped and packaged and arrives in poor condition.
Yes this design is timeless. It is basically just a slab of aluminum. It goes with whatever setup or you can hide it easily.
I bought one for our Church a few months ago, awesome little box. We do ecamm live broadcasts with it, and it doesn't break a sweat.
Great deal. Bought mine new soon as released for home theatre and general family use. Hooked up to a massive tv. Works perfectly, love the mini m1.
I watched this video 50 or 60 times and I finally bought it. I was already waiting for a new 14inch MacBook Pro but I had been eyeing the Mac mini for quite some time. First Mac with Apple Silicon and I'm in love with it. I'm less in love with way Apple refurbished works, as I tried to buy it twice from there and both times they called me to tell me that they were out of stock. Not to mention the delivery times here in Spain. Fortunately, I found it on Amazon, new, for 10€ more than the refurbished one Apple was offering (In Spain, Apple sells the base model refurbished one for 679EUR, while new on Amazon is 689EUR). I love the Mac mini so much that I would buy it again, it's such an amazing good deal and value for this price. Thanks Luke!
I was looking for this Mac mini it sold out quickly. So I settled for the 512GB 8GB ram. For $759, still a great price though. Had a full setup with 32” screen, magic keyboard and track pad for under $1100
So, this inspired me to consider the "upgrade" question. I bought an Apple Silicon base model iMac, which I love and have been satisfied with the headroom, etc. during these first few months. Looking at your video caused me to think, Hey, I can get an 8GB of Ram, 250GB of Storage, an additional Apple Silicon Processor, Fan and redundant power supply, not to mention extra ports, in a little box that network connects to my iMac. Use Screen Sharing, File Sharing and ssh to tie them logically together as one would do in an data center -- don't beef up your one box, add additional servers and spread the load. Heck, with Kubernetes or just plain Docker Swarm, I can get my containers to run transparently across the two and if one needs to go in for repair, I have a spare Mac right there (I do have an extra Monitor in my Office. So, my personal upgrade path is solved! Thanks Luke for continuing to stretch reality away from the "down-side" Sally's of the tech world!
I just bought a refurb mac mini about a month ago to replace my Late 2013 Mac Pro and the difference has been night and day. I went with the 16GB 1TB version and just plugged in my 4T thunderbolt drive, never been happier. While everyone else I know is dropping $3k -$4k for the Mac Studio, I've saved a ton of cash going with the Mini. Maybe in a couple years I'll end up replacing it but for now I am very happy. I paid $1,200 for a system that would have cost $1,599.
9 minutes in and still not a single sentence about configuration.
Would definitely love to see Luke to DIY a M1 5k 27” iMac from this mac mini and iMac
I think he’s done a video combining the m1 Mac mini and a 27” iMac before take a look
@@cjgonzales1900 I think that's a unibody iMac but not 5k iMac......
Even though the Mac Mini is supposed to be the entry point to the Mac world and might make them upgrade to an iMac later on lots of people sick with it as their main computer. It is that good and can make your desk look clean and tidy
I had the very same idea. I have an old 2012 27” iMac in the attic which runs quite fine for the most part but for certain tasks it’s underpowered. So I was thinking of getting an M1 Mac mini and combining it with the iMac running in target display mode since the display of the iMac is still good.
Target display mode doesn’t work with new Macs. The Mac outputting the signal has to be a 2019 MacBook Pro or older. Luke Miami took out the whole logic board and replaced it with a display adapter, basically making it an HDMI monitor
Great title, great concept love these videos Luke
I bought one for work and find myself really pushing it for photo and video editing. I was really worried that I would get buyers remorse but after a few months of having it I really like the capability of it.
I bought the base M1 last year. Love it. Although I wish I had got the memory upgrade and bigger storage. Although I bought a base for it that allowed me to put an extra SSDs in and gave me extra USB ports. Perfect. Does anyone think the Keyboard with touch is worth the upgrade?
Can’t comment on the keyboard (I daily drive an MX Keys) but a 16GB & 512GB upgrade brings it all the way to $1000 🙁
As a resident of a developing country in which everyone uses pc I was thinking of the mac like it's first world stuff but after electricity went down to just four hours a day I bought a m1 macbook air and it really changed my life, made it much easier for studying, it gave me the best internet browsing experience I've ever had even with poor internet connection, all of it with minimal sleek design and nearly no interruptions. I'm really satisfied with it.
I got a M1 Mac mini with 512GB storage for my son for about $750 from Costco. That model is currently on sale there until 5/23/22 “While supplies last”. It’s a fantastic computer.
I eventually replaced his old keyboard and mouse with an Apple Magic Keyboard with numerical pad and a Apple Magic Trackpad and bought two decent LG 27” 1080P monitors. He loves his setup.
Once he gets more into editing pictures and video, I’ll take his M1 Mac mini off his hands and get him an updated Mac mini M2 or Studio. I’ll be using the M1 Mac mini with my 2009 27” iMac (which still runs fine, albeit a bit slow by today’s standards) in Target mode as my monitor.
I can attest to buying from Apple’s Refurbished Store. Everything I bought was good as new. I never had any problems with either my eight year old 2014 MacBook Pro or 2014 MacBook Air. I still own both of them. Buy at Apple’s Refurbished Store without question and save yourself some coin.
I just checked there after watching Luke’s video and the Mac minis are sold out, but check back weekly as they come back in stock often. Great values can be had there.
I love that you made this. The 2012 Mac Mini was my first Mac and I still have it, along with a few other Macs (by now). It felt like a gamble when I bought it because I didn’t know anyone who had one, but this fully lived past my expectation. Apple owes you some 💵 for this. 👏
I have been running my RUclips channel with the Intel Mac Mini 2018 I5 8400 3ghz base model which I upgraded the memory to 64gb for the majority of my videos. I bought the basic Mac Studio use the LG Ultrafine 5k as an extended monitor and the main display that I use is the Samsung S95B 55" QD-OLED which also is the monitor for choice for the Mac Mini. Backup always think of backup if something happens to your main computer. BTW I have ran 5 cameras on that little Mac Mini using Ecamm Live and it didn't miss a beep. Love your videos.
If you live near a Micro Center, you can get a new base model M1 Mac for $549.99. Even better deal than this.
I would want more unified memory as I hear the 8gb model starts to choke, and a 512gb internal ssd minimum but will use external. I have been looking at these for the past couple of months, but I have been hearing rumors about the new mini with m2 to be possible announced June 6th, 2022. If only for just in case, I’m holding out for that.
Bought a renewed M1 Mac Mini for $510 on Amazon and I love it on my ultrawide monitor! Using my iPad Pro as a second display or as a universal control is also a bonus!!
I agree with your assessment of the M1 Mac Mini's value. I also like it when it's available at that same price at Amazon and Costco for a new unit. Right now, they are all out of stock, but with a little patience, you can get a brand new unit at the same price. I'm a long-time Windows guy, but if I were to buy a new computer right now, it would have to be an M1 Mac Mini at the $500 price point. There's not a better value anywhere that I can find.
That is a good price point, however, I went the new upgraded route a month ago. It is quite a great computer.
I just opened my refurbished M1 Mac mini 1TB, 16GB, two hours ago (about an hour after you posted this video). I was using an iMac Pro 8 core with 64 GB RAM and the upgraded graphics. I grew tired of editing RUclips videos for GAME CLOSET waiting forever for rendering in FCPX. So, it was between the Mini and the Studio.
Real world usage with Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator& InDesign was going to be the same between the Mini and the Studio. I was worried and FCPX, until I saw that the extra $1,200 I’d spend on the studio would only save me a couple of minutes. The difference from the iMac Pro was almost an hour. Then, I saved $320 buying the refurb. DUH! She’s a speed demon compared to my iMac Pro. And in a way that makes me sad because she was a beautiful beast when I got her and now she’s not.
With all the cuts, transitions, effects, green screen, sound, & music I use on more involved GAME CLOSET videos, an 8 minute clip was taking about 45 minutes to render. Importing the video was an absolute bear! This M1 makes it far, far easier and faster. Thank Heaven!
I just did this about a month ago. I made the transition from PC to mac and I have never been so happy with a Computer purchase.
It just works for anything I need.
its awesome.
Good video Luke. Yes that is one of the best deals in tech at this time. Good video sir.
Grate video Luke, I've had my refurb Mac Mini 16 gb 256 storage running off an external 1 tb ssd for about a year, its been flawless.
I bought the M1 Mac Mini with 16gb ram and I love it. I've been converting some old lo res videos to HD using Topaz labs AI app.
Because of how quiet the Mac mini is, I've been running it non stop overnight, in the room where I sleep. So far I haven't heard the fans run at all.
Also the temp has only reached 53 Deg C even when I'm also watching you tube or watching a film at the same time! I've hooked it up to my Samsung 55 TV so it is now the centre of my universe. I have an iMac 2011 which is shockingly noisy in comparison.
I absolutely love my M1 Mac mini, I bought it when I got rid of my 2019 MacBook Pro. This is the best bang for your buck, I also bought mine refurbished it's a steal at $589. Keep up the great videos.
Been using the M1 Mac Mini for 2 years now, basically since it came out, maybe a month after it released with the original M1’s from 2020, still fast as hell, multitask perfectly, even can play games perfectly at full graphics! Sure it’s getting old but honestly not that slow! P.S been a massive Apple guy for years lol
My first Mac mini was a 2005 1.42GHz G4. Bought the server model in 2009. And now I have a Mac Studio. All bought refurbished. Except the Studio which I paid a shit ton of money for. I'm still using the 2009 mini as a media server. These things never die.
Consistency of the software of apple is the only reason I am willing to spend much more on apple products.
I love my M1 Mac Mini. I did buy it new and bumped up RAM to 16 GB. I do plan to use it for many years.
I am based in the UK and I am thinking of buying a Mac mini, but the issue I have is Apple have said I would not be able to use a Mac mini with my late 2014 27’’ iMac as it cannot be used as a monitor. How have you managed to get a 2012 iMac to work as a monitor?? If I could get my iMac to work then I would definitely consider a refurbished Mac mini. Excellent and very informative video Luke, thank you for sharing.
Check out his video, but the quick version is that he took out all of the computer parts in the iMac body and just left the display. He then used a third party display converter board that hooks directly to the iMac display ribbon connector and gives you the display ports to plug your Mac mini into
@@ireviewapple4you thank you Donnie L I will check it out.
I almost bought a Mac mini, but in the end I went for a blue iMac for the simple reason that I liked how it looked, while the mini would have been hidden away as just another computer... I knew I was paying more for the form, but I was okay with that.
"I haven't bought any refurbished apple products for a long time, in like 10 years"
- Flash back to 2007 refurbished MacBook video
Does that count? 🧐
@@lukemiani yes
*I am definitely on the edge of moving to Apple - you can thank my wife for that. I am most likely going to get a MacBook (refurbished), get a ports dock and keyboard/mouse setup and be ready to rock.*
Bought a refurbished M1 Mac Mini with 16GB RAM. Brilliant device. Got the 16GB so gaming didn’t lead to caching on the SSD. With the 8GB it did a little bit.
I brought this same machine from Amazon Renewed for just over $500. It is my first Mac. I just got it as something new to play around with. Aside from the occasional Bluetooth stutter. I am enjoying the experience.
I must have missed the video on the display being used here. Do you have the link? A bit confused by this in the video.
That original iPod Shuffle is one of the best sounding iPods they ever developed. The audio converter was really good in that one.
My Mac Mini M1 is still the best computer I’ve ever had. Love it. I’d love a better monitor for it, but because it’s not integrated I can get one in the future when I’ve got the money. Superb piece of kit; Apple’s best machine. And I think it’s a good looking little thing!
I really enjoyed this setup since I have the old version, I have a 2011 iMac 27” hooked up as the display for my 2014 Mac mini i7 with dual SSDs. I have been using it since 2018 and it’s a great setup.
I bought the original Mac Mini to use as a developer machine and it served me well for many years. I now have an M1 Mac Mini and it's still a cracking little machine.
The Mini button is currently greyed out on the Apple refurb page. A new base Mini is $699 USD, so getting the $589 refurb only saves you $110, or about a 16% discount. Doesn't seem that great a deal to me, but for those on a tight budget perhaps it is.
Yeah but with the extra $110 you could buy extra storage or spend a little more on a monitor. It may not seem like much but they are cosmetically and functionally no different than the new ones so why pay the extra money.
You list the prices like you’re the one pointing out that it’s $100 cheaper? We know, it was mentioned frequently as the whole point of the video. And yes, most people would be happy with $100 off for the exact same good quality product. And no, the Refurb store doesn’t have stock of every single Apple product every single day. Your whole comment is pretty pointless.
@@sunthroughtheblinds Yeah, in retrospect, I think you are correct. $110 bucks is $110 bucks.
I bought a maxed out 2019 16” MBP. When I say maxed, I’m talking $7,500 maxed. Got it refurbished w/AppleCare for $6,000. So yeah Luke’s right, referb is the way to go if you’re on a tight budget. 😎
why not 2021 16” MBP?
I have a refurbished base model M1 Mac Mini and I love it! I play games on it, I stream from it, and I edit video and podcasts with it, best Apple product I’ve ever bought for pure price to power/usability value. To be honest, my last two Apple products have come from the refurbished store and my next iPhone probably will too, I think people forget it exists and that’s a shame because the upgrades on the phones especially are becoming in my view not worth the hype anymore, so buying a previous generation refurbished iPhone, in my view, is a really good way to upgrade but save some money 😊
Thank for your review on the $589 refurbished Mac mini. You convinced me to search for one. So I searched; then I splurged. I just placed an order for the $759 refurbished Mac mini (storage 512GB SSD version). I saved $140. INSANE. I can' wait for delivery day. It will be connected to the 27-inch Studio Display which I already own. Yay!
I would not think twice. The Mac Mini has been my daily runner for the past 8 yrs. I have had three different models and they are more than able to meet my needs. I currently own the new 2020 M1 version and it does not disappoint. In Malaysia, unfortunately, we don't have an Apple Refurbished store. But you can easily buy a preowned online and it is good value.
Original Mini owner here. Still worked a couple of years ago when I last used it and I plan to get it going again for negative scanning. My next Mac will definitely be a Mini; whenever my fussy Retina iMac goes down. It's a shame I can't use that Retina screen with the Mini.
look at luna display !
@@matthewnadler7521 Thanks for the suggestion. But that would rely on the iMac being functional, wouldn't it? If it flat out croaks (as my 2010 iMac did), I don't see how it would work.
Please could you review the refurbished MacBook Air M1?
Yay! - the exact model I have ... er, and yeah, many others.
This absolutely IS an incredible price, I sure wish I'd paid that much - heck, as I'm in the UK, it cost me $837 in November 2020
But here I am, with this tiny form factor that replaced and more or less surpassed my 2010 5.1 cheese-grater, in every way but graphics.
I have to say, a year and a half on, in no way do I regret getting the base model.
I have never required more than 8GB of RAM.
I have 4TB of external storage, that cost me a fraction of the price of buying a higher end model.
The internal 256gb? - I still have over half of that available, due to reasonably good housekeeping.
Everything I've thrown at this little machine, it has done with aplomb.
It just _works_ - keeps out of my way, tucked under the desk, set and forget.
when you can, hook up an egpu!
Luke almost ALL of the Apple products I purchase are refurbished! They are excellent value - I just bought the M1 MacBook Pro with 16 gm RAM and 1TB SSD for $1450 fro OWC!
I love my Mac Mini. Traded in my 2017 thermal throttling MacBook Pro for one, plus $200 at the Apple Store last summer. Best choice I could have made. That 2017 MacBook was a ticking time bomb and I'm glad I got rid of it.
Love both the Mac Mini (on my third) and anything Apple Refurbished (on my fourth). Combination of the two has gotta rock. I’d do it but it would be my third desktop, not sure which to get rid of. Great review, keep it up.
My refurb M1 Mac Mini is the best tech purchase I've ever made. Great machine!
3:00 Isn’t the bottom of the Mac Mini supposed to show “Mac Mini” engraved in there?
It was there, the light reflecting made it hard to see.
I love my Mac mini M1, but I was hoping we would get an upgrade by now, with a Pro or Max chip and more memory available.
I spent $690 for a Mac mini with 3 years of AppleCare new. I think it was and is and outstanding value.
3:20 $588 would beat it
I just noticed Luke was showing the old press conference videos on a Powerbook G4. I feel good things inside me right now.
I love my 2018 Intel Mac Mini. Upgraded to 64 gigs of RAM and an egpu (its onboard graphics are crap) . It runs awfully hot sometimes and the wifi antenna is a bit wonky but removing the bottom plastic cover and putting it in a vertical position helps. Plus this is one of the few Intel macs that are still upgradable to the newest MacOS.
I bought my wife a refurbished iMac a few years ago. The only difference I could see was in the packaging. It looked like a brand new Mac
I wonder will Luke wake up one day and realise he cannot leave his apartment as he's surrounded and trapped by all the Apple products he's acquired over the years.
I actually like the current Mac Mini design. I think it looks better than the Studio. I would imagine that if Apple were to put it in a new enclosure, it would cost more money for the new design, tooling, etc. Don't fix something that isn't broken!
Not too much more. They’ve actually kept prices pretty damn close on all their products over the years if you adjust for inflation.
Not to mention the current supply chain issues ontop of that
I think one change they could make is making a variety of colors like the new iMacs. I think the existing design would look great in those colors
how do you like it more than the studio they literally have the same design ones just bigger since it's more powerful
@@The_MEMEphis What if you took a Ferrari 250 and stretched it out longer, like a limousine? Would it be the same? What if you took a house, like Falling Water, and made it eight storeys tall? Still the same? Changing the proportions changes the entire look. I have both a Mini and a Studio and I definitely think the Mini looks way better. Fortunately, I didn't buy the Studio for aesthetic purposes.
I almost bought the iMac 2023 but decided to get an Acer Chromebook 516 GE for the specs. I have the 2020 MacBook Air with the M1 and I love it. I'm learning about it all the time as I use it but my go to is the Chromebook which I've used for quite a few years now. I used to be a Windows user from 98 up to 10 and that ended it. Played with Tablets for awhile before happening upon the Chromebook while searching for Tablets. I researched that and figured I'd give it a try so I got HP 11.6" Chromebook G5. Had that for almost 2 years then went to 14" screen, to a 15.6" screen to the final one I have now of a 16" screen. I like Ap ple but I'm not a power user or game player either. The screen on my present Chromebook is very good and the speakers are pretty decent. I think I'm done buying laptops now for quite a while. My present one is an Acer Recertified Chromebook that I got on sale and it's perfect.
What do you do with all the apple stickers? Also what do you do with all these fixed computers? sell them or donate them to schools?
Good tip. To me, the Mac Studio looks odd. The proportions are just off somehow, like taking an otherwise-good-looking car and turning it into a stretch limo.
the original mac mini was my first mac, never looked back, on a 14" MBP now
@Luke Miani why can't I get 60hz out of tb3 port out of the mac mini? I cannot get 30hz from my work's laptop either.. researched and this is a thing with apply.. even if you buy the new studio mac, it will not have 60hz from it's ports only the HDMI and with people with dual monitors can't get it done. if you know of a way, can you do a video?
Should I upgrade my late 2012 21.5 all in one Mac Or should I get a Mac that has an M1?
The only problem with the retained form factor is Wi-Fi and Bluetooth reception issues. This is said to be tackled in the mini's next iteration, which I'm hopeful will be the case. I'll then only need to get a new display, and I can retire this 27" iMac after getting its internals blown out from dust, the storage replaced, and set up as a backup machine in case something was to go wrong. I am SEVERELY overdue for a new Mac and better bottom-line performance as an entry-point "pro-sumer" user, plus for the parents to be given an M1 iMac that they won't F UP, knock on wood.
I enjoyed this video. Thank you. Have you done a video on the lightest Mac M1 laptop?
Is macbook pro 15 inch late 2013 for $300 with 16 gb ram , 512gb ssd and 2.3 ghz i7 cpu is good or not for app development
In November last year I bought a base model M1 MacBook Air from Apple Refurbished stock. The Mac was a year old but the battery had zero charge cycles. This was a saving of around 10% off new price. The only difference between this Mac & a new one is the plain white box packaging. Warranty is identical to a new one.
"Very old and not very exciting enclosure", we are nuts.
Would go for 16g ram + 10G Ethernet. Powerful, silent and doesn't use much power at full load makes the Mac Mini a beast.
My first new device from Apple is the new M1 Ipad Air. Great decision. My other Apple product is a used 2013 MacBook Pro. Before that my last Apple product was the original Ipod Touch.
Which 5k iMac are you plugging the Mac mini into? I’m interested in doing this but I didn’t know there was a 5k iMac that could be used as an external monitor. Did you have a past video on this?
How did he connect the Mac Mini to a 5K iMac display? And has true 5K output? I had a 5K iMac and sold it because I couldn’t connect another Mac to it and use it as a monitor. Could get 4K via aftermarket adapter that wirelessly sent signals over WiFi. No cable method that I know of?
Luke you've convinced me to spend $1600 I don't have. Thank you sir. 🤣
Isn’t $1200 not far off what an iMac costs for a 4.5k slightly smaller version of this? Pretty close but your version is more fun.
Yes, but Luke‘s setup means you can upgrade the just computer without upgrading the screen, which is much cheaper.
Where did you find this. I checked Apples refurbish website but didn't see any M1 MMs
You are going to make fun of me ... but I still love my iPod shuffle ... the first dedicated MP3 player I ever owned ...
Silly me bought the Mac mini just before m1 produced, I actually hooked it up to a Toshiba tv 35" flat screen LCD and the image is flawless to the untrained eye... I still love it, rocking an Apple keyboard off my sort of drive damaged desktop mac < I'm very impressed by its capabilities...
Look, I’m not gona mess about, but yes you’re going to get my intro and a one minute thirty second ad first.
picked up a used one for $400! came with box and everything like it was new runs amazing not a sound compared to my old 2011 MacBook pro and it works with my old cinema display with adapter! love it!
I bought mine refurb a year ago for the same price but got 16gb ram. surprisingly, my unit had a lot of trash inside the plastic wrapper.
Great timing. Just bought a base Mac mini open box from best buy for $570
I bought the M1 Mac mini base model when it came out and have not had any problems with it at all. I use photoshop and affinity mostly and the 8gb version works fine with external storage,so I would recommend a refurbished version without hesitation. I would probably go with the 16gb version just to future proof it. I don’t do any video editing so I can’t comment on that.