Apple Mac Mini MC815LL/A: The Tiny Mighty Mac Mini

Apple's Mac Mini has always been small even when it used to have a front-loading slot optical drive but now with the Apple Mac Mini MC815LL/A it also packs a sizable punch in performance.

Design

Utilizing the same silver look with rounded corners and flat lid, the Apple Mac Mini MC815LL/A looks even smaller and tinier than before due to the fact that it no longer packs an optical drive. At about the size of a larger square DVD case, it is just a bit thicker and takes up very little space. It looks very good with the same black back panel having even more ports than before. The design is very minimalist which suits the Mac Mini just fine.

Features and Specifications

This time around the Apple Mac Mini MC815LL/A comes with a dual-core Intel i5 processor running at 2.3GHz and uses Intel's new and improved HD 3000 integrated graphics. It also manages to pack in 2GB of DDR3 memory and an impressive 500GB hard disk drive. You can get wireless connectivity straight out from the box with it's internal wireless-N antenna and Bluetooth 4.0 support.

Like other Mac products it can “borrow” an optical disc drive from any nearby networked Mac or PC through the OS X Lion function. Connection-wise this Mac mini offers one mini-displayport compatible Thunderbolt port, an RJ-45 Gigabit Ethernet port for wired connections, four USB 2.0 ports, one Firewire 800 port, one HDMI port and an optical digital audio output jack.

It also has a multi-card reader for SD, SDHC and SDXC flash memory cards. In addition to all this, the Mac Mini supports the usual Apple technologies such as TimeCapsule, AirPort base station (for both Extreme and Express) and can use all of the compatible Apple devices.

Performance

Apple's Mac products have always been easy and intuitive to use and the Apple Mac Mini MC815LL/A is no different. The only difference now is that the processor is powerful enough to handle more than just casual games while the HD 3000 integrated graphics is fast enough to handle smooth full HD 1080p video and media.

Thanks to the wireless connectivity and AirPort base station technologies this Mac Mini easily transforms into a wireless multimedia hub, allowing for fast media streaming. It even has a built-in speaker so you can bring about this tiny yet mighty titan about anywhere you go. Just in case anything goes wrong the Mac Mini's OS X Lion operating system can repair or reinstall itself using the Lion recovery function that is just as easy to use as everything else.

Conclusion

Overall, the new and improved Apple Mac Mini MC815LL/A makes an excellent compact computer for the new age of full HD 1080p consumers. The better hardware ensures smoother performance while the new Thunderbolt port adds on even more functionality to an already excellent product which should be great for any type of environment or user.