On January 11, 2005, then Apple CEO Steve Jobs took to the stage at the Macworld Expo in San Francisco and unveiled the original Mac mini.
At the event, Jobs revealed that Apple finally had an answer to a question he kept hearing from consumers: “Why doesn’t Apple offer a stripped-down Mac that is more affordable?”
Cue the first-generation Mac mini. The entry-level model came with the following specs for a price of $499 / £339 / AU$799:
- 1.25GHz PowerPC G4 processor
- 256MB of 333MHz DDR SDRAM, expandable to 1GB
- 40GB Ultra ATA hard drive
- Combo (DVD-ROM/CD-RW) optical drive
- ATI Radeon 9200 graphics processor with 32MB video memory
- One FireWire 400 and two USB 2.0 ports
- 10/100 BASE-T Ethernet networking and 56K V.92 modem
- Internal support for AirPort Extreme wireless networking and Bluetooth
- DVI or VGA out (adaptor included), composite/S-video out with optional adaptor and
- Built-in speaker and headphone/line out
All of this was packed into an impressively small body that measured 2 x 6.5 x 6.5 inches / 51 x 170 x 170 mm, and was “the most affordable way to enjoy Mac OS X and iLife,” according to Jobs.
One of the reasons Apple was able to keep the price down was because it was, as Jobs announced, “BYODKM” – Bring Your Own Display, Keyboard, and Mouse. It was Apple’s first Mac that didn’t come with a display and peripherals.
Boasting about what a product doesn’t come with is pretty bold, and it was an angle that Apple soon dropped. However, the fact that the Mac mini Jobs showed off in 2005 is remarkably similar to the Mac mini you can buy in 2026 is testament to how Apple nailed its compact computer.
What no one at Apple could have hoped for at the time – and certainly something I never imagined – is that 21 years after the first model launched, the Mac mini is easily the best PC on the market for most people.
Compact killer
While the device that Steve Jobs introduced to the world 21 years ago is unmistakably a Mac mini product, Apple’s diminutive Mac has had several redesigns over the years. In 2010 it got an aluminum unibody design that gave it a sleek and modern look that was so iconic Apple didn’t do much to change it until the Apple Mac mini (M4, 2024), when it kept the unibody design but made the overall size of the PC even smaller, while packing it with powerful components, including the M4 and M4 Pro chips.
The Mac mini also remains the most affordable way to get a Mac, with the latest model launching at $599 / £599 / AU$999, which isn’t a huge increase over the original model.
This is why I recommend the Mac mini to anyone looking for a new desktop PC (unless you want one for gaming – if that’s the case you’ll still want to get a Windows 11 desktop PC with discrete GPU). There really aren’t any Windows 11-based mini PCs that offer the same level of design, build quality and performance for anywhere near the same price.
Looking at our best mini PC buying guide, the closest alternative is the GMKtec NucBox G10 mini PC, which is certainly cheaper than the Mac mini, but doesn’t look quite as nice, and can’t compete power-wise.
There’s also the Geekom A9 Max mini PC, which definitely brings the performance, and the Mac mini-inspired design isn’t too bad (though still not a patch on the original) – but at $999 / £999 it’s almost twice the price of the Mac mini.
Of course, with the Mac mini you’ll be using the macOS operating system, but even if you’ve not used it before it’s not a huge culture shock these days, and you’ll get used to it pretty quickly. And, with Microsoft seemingly breaking Windows 11 with every other update while also cramming in unwanted AI features, swapping operating systems isn’t a bad idea at all.
| Header Cell – Column 0 |
Mac mini M4 |
Mac mini 2005 |
|---|---|---|
|
Price: |
$599 / £599 / AU$999 |
$499 / £339 / AU$799 |
|
CPU: |
Apple M4 (10-core, up to 4.4GHz) |
Apple PowerPC G4 (single-core, 1.25GHz) |
|
Graphics: |
Integrated 10-core GPU |
ATI Radeon 9200 graphics processor (32MB) |
|
RAM: |
16GB unified memory |
256MB of 333MHz DDR SDRAM |
|
Storage: |
256GB SSD |
40GB Ultra ATA hard drive |
|
Ports: |
2x USB-C, 3x Thunderbolt 4 (USB-C), HDMI, 3.5mm headphone jack, Ethernet |
Combo (DVD-ROM/CD-RW) optical drive, 2 x USB 2.0, FireWire 400, DVI, headphone jack, Ethernet |
|
Wireless: |
Wi-Fi 6e (802.11ax), Bluetooth 5.3 |
AirPort Extreme wireless networking and Bluetooth |
|
Weight: |
1.5 lbs (0.67kg) |
2.9 lbs (1.32kg) |
|
Dimensions: |
2 x 5 x 5 inches (50 x 127 x 127mm) |
2 x 6.5 x 6.5 inches (50.8 x 165.1 x 165.1mm) |
I’m no Apple fanboy, but I have to give the company credit for launching a product that in its 21st year continues to beat almost all of its competition – and hopefully we’ll see a new model with the M5 chip sometime soon.
The best computers for all budgets
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matthew.hanson@futurenet.com (Matt Hanson)
