The main reason to get a Mac is so that you can use Mac-only software. External drives losing power or being disconnected in the wrong manner may cause file or data corruption. You do not want to work off your external drive and have the power cut off suddenly on those dongles. I've tried using USB-C dongle adapters but those may not detect external SSD and don't provide enough power to spin-up external hard drives. These are the ports on the Caldigit TS3 Plus: The Thunderbolt dock I'm using is the Caldigit TS3 Plus which I bought secondhand (yeah, I'm into saving money). I highly recommend you get a Thunderbolt dock instead of those USB-C dongle adapter which may not work consistently. Gigabit Ethernet port (configurable to 10Gb Ethernet)ĭue to the limited port options, chances are you'll need some sort of dock or adapter.2x Thunderbolt 3 (up to 40 Gbps)/USB 4 (up to 40 Gbps).Even my Logitech mouse is taller than the Mac Mini. The compact design of the Mac Mini makes it easy to put this anywhere. The Apple wireless keyboard and Magic Trackpad 2 shown above are just backup. They perform flawlessly with MacOS and are worth the money. The price does not include keyboard and mouse.īy the way, if you want a good keyboard and mouse, consider the Logitech K780 wireless keyboard and Logitech M720 wireless mouse which is what I actually use. And it still comes with the standard 1-year Apple warranty with the option to purchase additional 2-years warranty coverage with AppleCare+ (S$128). So I saved 15% (~S$280) with the refurbished unit compared to the retail price of S$1879 (US$1,299). Apple M1 chip with 8‑core CPU, 8‑core GPU and 16‑core Neural Engine.The refurbished model I bought was priced at S$1,599 (US$1,199) and comes with these specs:

I did not buy the new Mac Mini at launch for two reasons: I wanted to wait for more apps to be re-written to run natively on the M1 processor, and I wanted to save money by buying a refurbished model (15% off retail price). The Mac Mini 2020 was released in November 2020. There will be some comparison to the Mac Mini 2018 (6x 3.2Ghz) that I've been using prior to the upgrade to the new M1 Mac Mini. This review is from the perspective of a visual content creator, someone who's into digital art, graphic design, edits photos and 4K videos.

Adobe illustrator apple m1