The Truth About the M2 Pro Mac mini

And, yes, I won’t avoid the Bluetooth question!

It’s been a ridiculously busy start to 2023 for Apple. From new chips to new Macs and the resurrection of the big HomePod, I had no idea this was all coming quite so soon.

Without getting too ‘meta’, this has thrown my content calendar completely out of the window. I’m not moaning at all, because it has resulted in a bumper start to the year in terms of views and new subscribers. It just all feels a bit fraught, which is why I’m taking my time getting to know one of the most impressive things I’ve added to my studio in a long time.

That’s right — it’s the M2 Pro Mac mini.

How I’ve been using the M2 Pro Mac mini

I’ve got so much planned for this little desktop powerhouse. At the moment, it resides on the desk that used to house my beloved M1 Mac mini. The latter will, as I promised last year, feature in some kind of giveaway relatively soon (once my diary is a little clearer) but its replacement is already making its presence felt.

I’ve edited the last two videos for my YouTube channel on that computer. It has, therefore, already put in a request to become my main editing workstation while at the studio. But there’s lots more in store for my M2 Pro Mac mini.

It’ll play the central role in my much-talked-about-but-yet-to-materialise music production studio project. Which I promise is going to happen.

When the diary is a little clearer.

I also found myself installing every app I rely on daily, from Fantastical to TickTick. Even Slack has made its way onto the M2 Pro Mac mini. I had originally promised myself that I wouldn’t fill it with so many distractions due to it being purely a production machine, but that didn’t last long.

Today, I’m going to give you my latest thoughts on the M2 Pro Mac mini — starting with the question everyone appears to be asking.

Does the M2 Mac mini have Bluetooth problems?

If you weren’t aware, the M1 Mac mini suffered from awful Bluetooth issues. They didn’t appear to impact everyone, but they were prolific enough to cause a right ol’ stir among my audience.

I experienced it most consistently in my old home studio. It reached the point where I couldn’t wear Bluetooth headphones anywhere near the Mac mini due to weird dropouts and glitches. Certain peripherals — including Apple’s own — would also randomly lose connection or refuse to play ball entirely.

For many people — including, almost, yours truly — it was a dealbreaker.

I’m happy to report that I haven’t experienced any Bluetooth issues so far on the M2 Pro Mac mini.

This doesn’t mean it’s fixed, and I can’t guarantee that you’ll find yourself similarly undisturbed by Bluetooth problems if you buy one — the chassis is identical to the M1 version, after all. However, new Bluetooth tech and, one would assume, slightly reworked gubbins inside that little box may well have resolved the problem.

I’ll keep an eye on it, don’t you worry.

What I love

Firstly, I still love everything about the Mac mini that has always made it so special. It’s still this tiny, innocuous little computer which is weirdly handsome and surprisingly powerful. It’s also priced very keenly and still represents the most cost-effective route into the macOS ecosystem.

The M2 Pro Mac mini simply steps things up several gears.

The single-core performance of these Apple silicon machines is now a given. It is buttery smooth off the bat and will remain so for far longer than the Intel Macs of old. If you’re doing normal computery stuff, this thing absolutely smokes every competing headless desktop on the market.

The multi-core performance of the M2 Pro Mac mini is what’s truly astounding, though. During my rough benchmark tests, this base model machine with a 16-core GPU, 16GB of unified memory, and a 512GB SSD beat my £3,700 M1 Max MacBook Pro in a Final Cut Pro render test. More importantly, it feels almost identical to edit on — I’ve received a couple more dropped frame messages than usual, but beyond that, I can fly through a 4K edit at exactly the same speed.

I also love the abundance of Thunderbolt 4 ports on the back. I didn’t realise quite how useful they would be, but the ability to connect all of my external devices and a Satechi hub at the same time is a wonderful thing.

The M2 Pro Mac mini is seriously making me question whether or not it’s worth maxing out my next MacBook Pro purchase come the release of the M3 series chips. That’s how good it is.

What I’m not so keen on

It isn’t all roses in M2 Pro Mac mini land, I’m afraid.

The SSD debacle is now totally unavoidable. If you’re unaware, Apple has changed the configuration of its base storage chips which has resulted in slower read and write performance than the M1 generation.

This was illustrated during my Final Cut Pro test, where the M2 Pro Mac mini completed an export in 4:44 — gaining only 15 seconds on its non-Pro M1 predecessor. I’d expect far more given the increased price and spec of the M2 Pro chip. The standard M2 Mac mini fared even worse — posting an export time that was four seconds slower than the M1 version.

Although imperceptible to many users, that really isn’t the point — Apple has downgraded the base models of the M2 generation Mac mini and I’m now firmly on the side of those who believe this is rather naughty.

I’m also very disappointed we didn’t see the return of the SD card slot on the M2 Pro Mac mini. A front-loading slot like the one on the Mac Studio would have called for champagne, but for it not to have been added to the rear of this creatively inspiring computer is daft.

Oh, and while I’m at it, can we briefly talk about the Mac mini’s internal speaker? Apple’s audio department pulls off some incredible wizardry with its small speaker systems; they always sound far bigger than they should. So, why on earth does the Mac mini still contain a speaker which has, presumably, been acquired from a kid’s walkie-talkie?

Conclusion

The £1,399 I spent on my M2 Pro Mac mini already feels like incredibly good value. It has turned out to be a seriously smart investment for my business which is likely to save future expenditure on a specced-up MacBook Pro I probably no longer need.

The SSD strategy Apple has employed for the M2 generation is a blot on an otherwise pleasant landscape for their cult classic headless desktop. It’s why I must encourage you to spend as much as you can on internal SSD storage if you’re at all worried about the read-and-write performance.

That aside, I can’t recommend the M2 Pro Mac mini highly enough. I’ll be checking in with lots more updates over the coming months, but if you’ve been on the fence about buying one for yourself, it’s time to jump off and open that wallet.

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Originally published at https://markellisreviews.com on February 17, 2023.