The release of a new Mac always generates excitement and the M2 Mac Mini is no exception. Among the MacBook Pros, MacBook Airs, and Mac Studio, it stands out for its impressive performance at a great price, making it appealing to everyday users, musicians, and creators like me. As a beginner creator, I use the base model M2 Mac Mini for video editing, various tasks, and some light gaming. In this review, I’ll share what I love about it and mention a few potential drawbacks.

M2 Mac Mini is a sleek, compact, and lightweight device that I find beautiful. Although some may want a design update, as a first-time user, I really appreciate its current look. Weighing around 545 grams, it’s portable and fits easily into any bag, ready to connect to a monitor. Its versatility allows it to sit neatly on my Grovemade stand, inside it, or vertically in a Mac Mini dock, making it suitable for various setups. While I miss the space gray option, the silver finish remains elegant and minimal.

M2 Mac Mini Review: front led — Front LED

Mac Mini has a simple front, with just a small white LED indicating if it’s on. At the back, it offers more: a power button, Ethernet port, two Thunderbolt ports, an HDMI port, two USB-A ports, and a headphone jack. One standout feature is its built-in fan, though in all my testing, it’s been so quiet I haven’t heard it turn on, which is a great sign.

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Performance

I’m not too concerned with synthetic benchmarks like Cinebench, but I do want to focus on real-world performance for my use case. While many great channels cover benchmarks, I’m more interested in how the base model M2 Mac Mini performs for me as a creator, professional, and gamer.

To get to the point—it handles everything incredibly well. Starting with my creative work, as a smaller YouTuber, my projects aren’t too complex. In fact, even my M1 iMac easily handles my 4K timelines.

The native Apple chips are legit just super powerful and efficient. That said, the M2 chip proves to be spectacular with my timelines, and I see completely zero skipped frames or jitteriness when scrubbing through and cutting through my 4K footage.

Again, I don’t have a bunch of layers or anything like that, but seriously, for anybody who’s thinking about starting a creator’s path, this is definitely an easy pick. All less demanding creator stuff, like voiceovers, audio recording, and photo editing, are all also a breeze. For my voiceovers, I like to use a free program called Audacity, and I edit all my photos in Adobe Lightroom.

Gaming

Since I am a gamer, I do want to bring it up. Trust me, I know Macs aren’t meant for gaming, but I’m trash at games. And if I’m talking about all the things I do on here, that includes some casual gaming. Some of the games I do play occasionally are either Diablo 3 or Sims 4, both of which are natively available on Mac.

The pickings are rather slim either way, but these run exceptionally well. I’m playing Diablo 3 here on my studio display, which is at a 5k resolution, so it’s even more wild that it pumps out a solid 5K at 60fps no problem. Sims 4, as well, is a more processor-intensive game, and it has zero issues and runs remarkably well. My sim is absolutely beautiful too. Clearly, I’ve peaked in video games. I dig Mac overall as a platform. I do simply wish gaming was more of a focus for them. I could only dream.

And it goes without saying, everything else on here is simply a breeze. I know macOS is a very mature operating system and a lot of people haven’t really tried it out yet, but for me, the continuity between iPhone, iPad, and Mac is just so seamlessly integrated, it’ll always be my preferred platform. I’m still working on my accounting designation in the evenings as well.

Final Thought

It goes without saying that all the web browsing, spreadsheets, and word processing are handled with ease. In terms of overall performance, this Mac Mini is definitely an incredible choice. It’s versatile, powerful, tiny, and minimal.

However, the primary bottleneck here at the base model is just how little storage you get – 256 gigs at the base model simply isn’t enough, even for the most basic of workflows.

For myself, I’ll be installing an SSD into my dock to expand this, since not having enough storage would be my only regret. In terms of overall value, though, for just about any starter creative, or frankly anyone who wants to dive into Mac OS for the first time or returning, this is definitely a great budget option, especially since you can pair any monitor with it.