The latest version released in 2011 of MAC mini is similar to its predecessor of 2010, but is low in cost, as compared to the old one. The 2011 MAC mini is an absolute epic with a well-engineered sleek design, forward looking and powerful enough to impress anyone. It is a high-performing machine with a Core i5 processor, huge selection of connectivity options with Thunderbolt, aluminium casing and exceptionally high-quality graphics. All this comes at a reasonable price of just £699.
Thunderbolt and Lightening
The MAC mini 2011 is available in two distinct models. The cheaper one among these two models starts at £529. It has a fantastic 2.3 GHz Intel Core i5 processor, as compared to the 2010 model, which had a 2.0 GHz dual core processor. Further, it has a 2GB of RAM, 500 GB of Hard disk with 5400 rpm and has an excellent integrated Graphics card by Intel HD 300. 288MB of the main memory (RAM) is shared by this graphics processor.
The other MAC mini model for £699 has a 2.5 GHz processor, 4GB of RAM and an AMD Radeon HD 6630M discrete graphics processor enabled with a dedicated memory of 256MB.
Both the above models have a Thunderbolt port, which supports both data connections and video having resolutions of 1600 * 2560 pixels. Further, they also support the mini DisplayPort displays.
CD Drive
This MAC mini might be a setback for those users who still use CD or DVD, as this machine has not got a CD/DVD drive. A lot of people think what can be the reason behind omission of the CD/DVD optical drive from the MAC mini. Well, the best answer is that omitting the CD or DVD optical drive cuts Apple’s cost, both in the shipping as well as in production. The MAC mini 2011 is about 300g lighter than the 2010 version. CDs and DVDs are usually used for watching movies and for that, Apple has the solution for downloading movies from iTunes.
Apple probably looks at the CD/DVD drive as the floppy drive of yesteryears, which is obsolete now. It is mainly because of the rapid advancement of technology, the optical drive has been overtaken by the broadband internet, USB drives and other technological advancements. The different features of Apple like the iTunes, iCloud, Lion’s electronic distribution, Lion recovery, CD or DVD sharing, Target Disk Mode, ripping movies gives a great substitute for a CD/DVD optical drive.
Maybe, some people might consider the omission of the CD drive as a huge setback, but on the other side, MAC mini 2011 has an excellent 2.5 GHz processor with huge performance gains. In the processor performance test, the 2.5 GHz Core i5 processor is almost twice the speed of the 2010 2.4GHz Core 2 duo machine. Therefore, it is an excellent machine at an affordable cost.
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