So, with this niche in mind, let’s look at the differences between the newest Mac mini and the previous generation. It’s still plenty powerful and you can couple it with Apple peripherals if you like, but you have plenty of other options as well. These factors make the Mac mini the closest thing Apple has to a flexible, low-end device. The Mac mini has also been upgradeable after purchase in the past (more on that in a moment), which is another unique quality when compared to the rest of the Mac lineup. This lowers the price and also makes it more modular.

Purchasers will need to supply their own screen, keyboard, and mouse. Unlike the vast majority of Macs, the Mac mini isn’t an all-in-one product. As such, it might seem like an odd product at first glance.

This means that there’s a good chance you’ve never owned a Mac mini before. The 2018 Mac mini vs the 2020 Mac mini: What’s the difference?Īpple noted during its One More Thing keynote that the majority of Mac buyers are first-time buyers.However, it did not earn a perfect score due to the soldered-down CPU, storage, and ports, impacting repairs and upgrades. The new Mac mini earned its higher repairability score thanks to its straightforward disassembly with no tough adhesive or proprietary pentalobe screws and user-upgradeable RAM. 'This new mini aligns so well with that ideal that we're not surprised it was a 'Pro' title-especially compared to the increasingly closed-off MacBook Pro line.' 'Back in the day, a pro you meant to upgrade, configure, and connect as you pleased,' iFixit's teardown concludes. IFixit awarded the new Mac mini a repairability score of 6/10, with 10 being the easiest to repair, topping the latest Macbook Air, Macbook, MacBook Pro, iMac, and iMac Pro, and trailing only the 2013 Mac Pro. Mac mini includes the Apple T2 security chip, a 3.6GHz quad-core Intel Core i3 processor, Intel UHD Graphics 630, 128GB of flash storage from Toshiba, Intel JHL7540 Thunderbolt 3 controller and Gigabit Ethernet controller from Broadcom.ĭespite the good news about the RAM, the CPU and SSD are soldered to the logic board, so this is not a truly modular Mac mini. To upgrade the RAM, it can be removed by unfastening four Torx screws.

4 was soldered to the logic board, the new Mac mini has user-upgradeable RAM, as discovered earlier this week.Īs seen in older iMacs, the RAM is protected by a perforated shield that allows the memory modules to operate at a high frequency of 2666 MHz without interfering with other device functions, according to iFixit.

Is mac mini 2018 upgradable