M1 Mac Mini VS M1 iMac! Why Pay TWICE As Much?!

seems like another day and another version of the m1 mac computers comes out this time we're comparing the brand new m1 imac to the solid workhorse computer that i've personally loved and used since it was released the m1 mac mini now i do think both of these are two of the best options to get if you are looking at buying an apple computer for your home office but obviously they have some differences so uh what are they let's find out what's up everyone i'm the everyday dad and if i can figure it out you can figure it out before we get started i would like to say thanks to apple for letting me borrow this specific imac for the next couple of weeks i have pre-ordered one myself but it's still like it's almost the release day and mine still hasn't shipped yet so when you see the imac in my videos change from this orange to a silver version you'll know that my sparkling boring personality has finally come through i am i am boring first off let's compare specs features and price points if you've not looked too closely at either of these computers let's say you are some well-adjusted person and you don't spend most of your days constantly pouring over product websites and news media wow that struck a little close to home for me the m1 mac mini is easily one of my favorite computers ever made like i said in the intro i've owned this personally since it was released and everything that you've seen here on the everyday dad in like the last six months has been edited or created on this little beast not only is it powerful but it's fantastically priced the base model option can be had for 699 dollars brand new this comes with the 8 core m1 processor the 8 core integrated gpu 256 gigabytes of storage and eight gigabytes of unified memory you could also get this version for around 589 dollars when they are in stock on the apple refurbished website which i mean that's no kidding probably the best value computer that you're going to find period i don't mean apple computer i mean computer computer you can spec the mac mini out a little bit going up to 16 gigabytes of unified memory a 2 terabyte solid state drive and even now you can go up to 10 gigabit ethernet that top of the line maxed out version will cost 17.99 which that's expensive it's still not that bad of a deal okay let's move over to the imac which is apple's all-in-one version of basically the mac mini the base model comes equipped with the eight core m1 processor the seven core gpu we find in the base model macbook air 256 gigabytes of storage and eight gigabytes of unified memory when you spec this one all the way out you can go up to the same two terabyte solid state drive that same eight core gpu and up to 16 gigabytes of unified memory kind of wish it was 32 since this is a desktop either way all of this comes in at 24.99 but don't don't let the numbers fool you though yes this is 700 more expensive than the mac mini but you can make a very strong argument and i'm probably going to make that argument here in the video that there is more than 700 of value in that price difference because on top of the internals you'll get a 24 inch 4.5 k retina display and a mouse and a keyboard you can also if you want to you can add a trackpad in there as well plus on the higher end options of the imac you'll get ethernet built into the charger but we'll talk more about the physical design later okay so we got the specs out of the way and a lot of the internals really seem similar and that's because they are similar basically the same internals just in an all-in-one in a tiny little computer so we won't go through any serious benchmarks today because they would come out almost identical we won't go through gaming tests or anything like that because again the test would come out almost identical i think the best way we can really dig into and compare these two against each other is to show what each computer provides and what you really have to pay to get the same level of functionality out of the other and i guess the other in that comparison was the mac mini and i want to point out that i use these computers from a youtuber day job as a project manager so i'm not using these as servers nor am i really coding on either of these machines so i can't really give you too much advice from those standpoints because i don't i don't have the knowledge to give that the main way to point out how these are different is to show what each physical computer can do so let's start with the i o the mag mini comes with two usba two usb c thunderbolt 3 ports an ethernet connector an hdmi connection and its power port when it comes to apple products nio this is like a treasure trove of functionality i mean this is we are spoiled for riches in plugs to plug into things on the mac mini i normally don't see this much i o the m1 imac has two different configurations the base model comes with two usb-c thunderbolt 3 ports and that's it for a desktop computer that's pretty anemic on the 1499 and up models you'll also get two extra usbc non-thunderbolt ports and that ethernet connection that's built into the power brick which i think is pretty cool so if you wanted to set up an at-home workstation and you like 24-inch monitors boom the imac easily comes out on top and before you scoff at this display it's actually really good and it looks far better and far bigger than i thought it would i'm using the mac mini and i have a 34 inch ultra wide monitor and when i first heard that the new imax would be 24 inches i did think that was too small and that i would not be happy with this display in the last week of using this however i'm coming to eat those words because this is way bigger than you might initially think maybe it's something to do with the much smaller bezels but it's not that bad and it doesn't seem that small but if you want something a little different or you even want two monitors plugged into the computer at once the mac mini is still the only m1 mac that lets you do that because it has both thunderbolt and an hdmi connection something about the controllers on the motherboards for m1 processors will only allow for one 6k display out through thunderbolt 3 but since the mac mini also has hdmi you can get one 6k and one 4k display i have heard that there are adapters or accessories that will allow you to cheat this a little bit but i haven't used those and i'm only going off what apple gives you standard but that's really the biggest difference between the two right the imac as a computer is really everything you need right in the box whereas the mac mini it doesn't even come with a keyboard or a mouse in that box you get the mac mini and the power cord that's minimalistic youtuber video in computer form but what would it cost to get the same sort of functionality with the mac mini when we build this up into something are we paying less or are we paying more for the imac well we can easily do the math on the keyboard and the mouse because we'll use the apple magic keyboard the apple magic keyboard and the magic mouse together will run you about 200 so that brings us to 19.99 on the highest end of the mac mini and we can get a 24 inch 4k samsung business monitor for about 300 that brings us up to what 22.99 so both are pretty close when we just look at keyboard mouse monitor but there are a few more things that we would need to really round it out the imac also has probably the best built-in speaker system that i've ever heard on a computer i'm not an audiophile and i don't listen to like lossless quality songs but the speakers on here are shockingly good so to make up for that we'll have to buy a set of speakers and not necessarily the cheapest ones we can get if we do want the mac mini to be on par or at parity with this so i personally use the presonus e 3.5 which they're not the best but they sound pretty good so let's add another hundred dollars bringing us up to 23.99 but that's not it the imac also has a 1080p camera built right into the top of the monitor and that camera again is surprisingly good we did some test calls with it the other night and the quality is far better than i'm used to without normally apple sticks us with 720p cameras that i mean they get the job done but it's 20 21 we shouldn't have to accept 720p anymore so a logitech 1080p webcam will run us another hundred dollars bringing us up to 24.99 so to get roughly the same functionality out of the computers it will cost us roughly the same that's just that's just how it's going to go this obviously isn't apples to apples the monitor on the imac is way better than that 4k samsung monitor we found earlier in the video and the imac has a set of darn near magical microphones built into it that do some very impressive background noise reduction in that those tests we ran earlier with the webcam i've got a seriously loud dehumidifier going in my basement at the same time and you can still hear it but at a drastically reduced amount here listen for a second so this is how it sounds with the brand new m1 imac from apple we actually have my dehumidifier going at full blast right over there and so one of the things i want you to pay attention to is how well this does canceling that noise out yeah you can still hear it but if you're in a meeting like in your house there's always noises in your house right so i think one of the big things about the imac that's so good is the camera's fantastic the microphones are great but the microphones are great even when there's noise going on that's pretty darn impressive we don't have it on now i'm looking at the dehumidifier we don't have it turned on right now for the youtube videos we got to make the audio as good as possible here power wise don't expect very many differences again it's the same processor in both the same integrated gpu in both and both of these computers do have active cooling built in but when it comes to the active cooling there is a slight difference between them i've run this mac mini through the ringer it's edited videos done live streams i've played hours of wow classic on it and through all of that i've never once heard the fan on this computer i know it has one because i can see the grill right here and the spec sheet swears to me that this has a fan but it's never once made a peep at me the imac is not the same i haven't ground it into the dust or anything i haven't had it the same amount of time for the mac mini but when we did that video editing video it's not confusing every time we say it when we did that the other day i could absolutely hear the fans running in this computer it wasn't bad or even all that loud i mean seriously did you hear it in the video i seriously doubt it i mean it's not that loud but i do want to mention it here because when two computers are so close to each other in usability and capabilities it's gonna come down to those little things to really make the difference in your purchasing decision but at the end of the day so what right which of these two computers is right for you thankfully this conclusion is way easier to make than the rest of the video if you have a desktop setup already and you want to get into the mac system for the least amount of money that's easy go with the mac mini if you are looking to get a computer that you don't have to think about and just works right out of the box without a single shred of hassle well then you go with the m1 imac because it will absolutely be the easiest way into a computer this year it's well priced reasonably powerful has a great display and is small enough to fit almost anywhere in your house like i said i personally bought one to give to my wife as she needs an all-in-one computer to replace her aging 2015 macbook pro 13 while she finishes her master's degree the best part of this video though is neither of these are a bad choice and either would be a great addition that doesn't break the bank do not overlook the fact that both of these computers have value for days and i don't think you'd have buyer's remorse for either and if you like this video and you are going to seriously consider the imac here is my playlist showing all of the cool stuff that we've done with this computer so far it's i'm very impressed with what they've come up with and i like this way more than i thought i would and you can find that playlist by clicking right here click click click click click click click thanks for watching

Channel: The Everyday Dad

Views: 302,752

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Id: HhdJ2ob6sdw

Length: 10min 58sec (658 seconds)

Published: Fri May 21 2021