The latest Mac Mini comes with upgraded hardware but a few typically Apple kinks. The higher-end model we received would be perfect as a tiny, high performance media center with its great CPU, loads of RAM, GeForce 9400M graphics and OS x, but there's still no Blu-ray for the full experience.

The rear panel thankfully has five 'USB ports (instead of the earlier two) but
the Mini DVI and Mini DisplayPort ,Video outputs aren't common, and you orily get one DVI (digital only) adapter in.' the box. You need an additional adapter for ordinary VGA monitors. You don't get a keyboard, monitor or mouse, and Apple's matching accessories are quite expensive.

Name: Apple Mac Mini.jpg Views: 22 Size: 13.9 KB

On booting into os x, we found the typical animations and flourishes were noticeably choppy. Scaling down the resolution improved things, however normal Web surfing and photo/video manipulation is comfortable enough. Installing Windows 7 is easy, and everything worked perfectly after adding the supplied drivers. We tested performance under Windows 7, and the scores for realworld and synthetic tests put the Mini leagues ahead of Atom-powered nettops of its size.