New Mac Minis: Still too expensive
The new Mac Mini starts at $599--the same as the old Mac Mini.
(Credit: Apple)First off, an admission: I've always wanted a Mac Mini. Sort of like I've always wanted a Mini Cooper convertible. But then I take a look at the price tag and it always seems too expensive. Call me cheap, but when you're at $600 (for the entry-level Mini) you start to ask yourself: what can I get for a few hundred bucks more--aside from the step-up $799 Mac Mini?
The answer is always a laptop. Now, the Mac Mini, of course, is basically a laptop without the screen. It uses laptop components. This new base system features a new 2GHz Core 2 Duo processor, the same 1GB of RAM, and a larger 120GB hard drive (see Rich Brown's full post here).
The step-up model doubles the RAM and includes a 320GB drive (you really don't get $200 worth of extras for your $200, do you?). Nvidia's MCP79 chipset drives both new Mac Minis; that translates into the Nvidia GeForce 9400M graphics chip driving its display. A nice upgrade from the old model, to be sure, but it would be a lot nicer if Apple had a configuration that started at $399, not $599.
I know what so many of you are about to tell me. Apple doesn't bother with low-margin products. It just wouldn't do a $399 Mac Mini. That's why it's raking it in while other PC makers are having an awfully hard time these days. I understand. I get it. But that doesn't mean I can't ask for a $399 Mac Mini. And it isn't like the Mini was flying off the shelves at $599 before, so why should it fly off them now?
Again, call me cheap. But I want a new $399 Mac Mini--and I'd put an order in for one right now if it existed. Anybody agree?
Hunkered down in New York City, Executive Editor David Carnoy covers the gamut of gadgets and writes his Fully Equipped column, which carries the tag line "The electronics you lust for." He's also the author of "Knife Music," a novel. E-mail David. Follow David on Twitter. 
No way... I still happily plunk along on an old 800 MHz G3 iBook I got for 200 bucks, and it has served me well for years. For $600, they have to offer more.
[CNET editors' note: Prohibited content deleted.]
http://web.archive.org/web/20050113070621/www.apple.com/macmini/
If you're comparing Macs to Macs (apples to apples, if you will), yes you can get a macbook for 999. Even if thats a few hundred more, at those price levels, a "few hundred" represents a 40% cheaper price for the mac mini. Some people just want a desktop.... An elegantly designed, quiet, and reliable desktop that runs leopard.
1) A Macintosh which means you get access to most of the commercially available software that you can get with a Windows based PC
2) An operating system built upon Berkeley's Free BSD which means you have access to the world of unix based woftware
3) The ability to easily dual boot the machine with Windows if you choose to.
So ... $600 plus the price of monitor/keyboard is not too bad. Of course, a Macintosh laptop is better but that is another story.
Don't get me wrong I am a Mac user myself, but am less of one today then I was in 2005, 2001, or even 1992. Apple's monopoly on OS X has been ignored because no one really was buying its products until the iPod and now iPhone became trendy to own.
Even the cute and cuddly Blueberry iMac and iBook were relegated to the Mac faithful and schools. Apple's computer are now well designed Intel machines sporting the same components as PCs. No longer can apple argue it's hardware is superior therefore costs more.
Sure Apple has many great designs that you will pay a price for, but when they are only refreshed every 18 months, and as minimally as possible why buy one? Buy a Power Mac G4 from 5 years ago or a Macbook Pro from last year and they are virtually the same. The design has slightly evolved recently, but where is the innovation Apple claims to be all about. I haven't seen any real innovation from Apple in 5+ years when it comes to it's computers.
You can buy a PC (please calm down Mac users...) with WAY more power and technology, even laptops for the same price as a Mini.
Eventually as with all trends things will come to an end. Apple needs to get real with it's pricing and make it's "moderate" to "high end" computers within reach. Nobody who knows anything about computers would be satisfied with a Mac Mini. Adding 4gb of RAM to you're iMac cost $1000, really Apple? Is that 4gb of RAM made out of platinum or gold? What a joke, and anyone who buys it deserves the price to drop in a month much like the original iPhone.
:)
For the $200, you could get a 4GB RAM kit from Crucial for $65.99 and a 500GB 5400 rpm hard drive for $110 and still come out with some extra money.
And Apple charges $150 to go to 4GB of RAM and $175 to go to a 320GB drive.
I know, I know, all manufacturers charge a premium for upgrades done from the factory, but to charge nearly double seems a bit ludicrous.
This is like the Car&Driver or Road&Track writer who owns and drives his own Porsche, but reviews a Toyota Yaris and tells you he'd buy one if only it had X and Y.
- by st430 March 3, 2009 10:56 AM PST
- The only reason for buying a mac is mac OS.
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Showing 1 of 7 pages (236 Comments)Nothing more.
The hardware parts for all computer makers are all from the same factories.
There is no reason for one computer makers can sell you a laptop for 499 while mac mini with no lcd screen and battery cost more. If you had work in dell, hp, apple before...you know the parts are all the same...just design difference. The same intel cpu , nvidia chip set, samsung memory or motherboard
won't cost more for dell,hp vs apple.
The only reason price is not lower is that apple is more greedy and it figure you have to buy their
hardware to run their O/S...which a lot of people love.