Review 65: December 29-2020, at 02:00 pm
M1 Mac mini 2020 
HomePodMini 2020
Hello guys, In this new review article, I’ll review the M1 Mac mini and HomePod mini from Apple! are thes two devices worth buying?😈
Your Coffee and let’s find the answer toghether guys, welcome to OTTO Magazin.
The first one is the Mac mini with the M1 CPU, The second is the HomePod mini. I’ll start with the Mac mini:
Mac mini is the small and cheapest Mac from Apple. And for the first time, it comes with the M1 CPU. I’ve already reviewed the MacBook Pro 13 with the M1 CPU. The size of this device is small with a beautiful design. You can use with any screen, mouse and keyboard.
Apple decided not to the change the design of it, It comes with the same older version’s design, which I already reviewed on my channel.It has a beautiful design. By the way, the device weighs 1.2kg. It is nothing compared to the capabilities and specs this device offers.
The design is a box made from aluminum without any features. It only has an Apple logo on top. The back of the device comes with a number of ports as follows: power port, Ethernet port. 2x Thunderbolt 3 ports with 40Gbps data transfer speeds.
These ports support USB-A 3.1 2nd gen ports, It supports 10Gbps transfer speeds, By the way, these ports are compatible with USB 4.
These ports will be popular soon, There’s also an HDMI 2.0 port, 2 USB-A ports and a headphone jack.There’s also ventilations to cool off the device.
According to the instructions, the device shouldn’t be in a closed compartment. It must we in a well-aired place to provide the best performance. The CPU inside is the M1 with 8 cores, 4 of these cores are for performance.
These cores will provide the best performance. There are another 4 efficiency cores suitable for daily usage. This CPU offers 3x more speed that the CPU in the previous device.
I already reviewed that device on our magazine, The GPU has 8 cores, too. The GPU offers 6x better performance. The CPU comes with a 16 cores NPU and it is 15x faster in machine learning.The device comes with 16GB of RAM. It offers balanced performance between the CPU, GPU and NPU.
This balance is great for apps and smoothness will using it. The onboard storage starts from 256GB up to 2TB. All of these storages are SSD. It supports data transfer data with 3.4Gbps speeds. In Geekbench 5, the CPU scored 1732 points for the single core and 7626 points for multicores.
Here’s where the CPU performance is ranked among other competitors. The device offers satisfactory performance with video, audio editing and designs. But there’s one flaw with the M1 CPU when this video was shot. It is considered a flaw for users who prefer high performance.
It only supports up to 16GB fo RAM. Sometimes, heavy usage require bigger RAM. Some users might consider 16GB RAM to be small for businesses, considering that the Intel version supports up to 64GB RAM.
Some app require more RAM than what the M1 supports. But newer versions will probably support better specs. The device runs macOS Big Sur. It offers high performance and better design. It also offers lots of shortcuts. And most importantly, it offers high security and privacy.
The device supports running iOS apps. They work perfectly.
There will also be apps that will work with the M1 CPU. This means that these apps will offer better performance compared to the Intel version. By the way, apps designed for Intel CPUs will work normally with this device using the Rosetta 2 software. But these apps might have some problems, and its better to wait for a supported version that is built for the M1 CPU.
Mac mini supports WiFi 6 with 1.2Gbps transfer speeds.It also supports bluetooth 5. The prices start from 699 USD.🙊
For sure, you’re watching this device to decide whether you should buy it or not.
Let me summarize the pros for you:😈
💬 it is light and doesn’t occupy a lot of space on your desk. The design is beautiful and elegant, and can be used next to the screen any time you want. You can use the AirDrop feature to send and receive files. It supports high resolution.
The CPU performance is excellent. I expect that there will be a bright future for this CPU. Especially that Apple have invested a lot in it. It is a great choice for office work, in companies and light tasks.
If you notice, the size of the device is small, you can notice the size of the device compares to desktop computer, The device comes with a small size. It reminds me of the Nuke device, but it is a bit bigger. It is a simple device with high capabilities, especially with this size.
But there are things that I wished were better!! 😈
First, there’s a probability that the apps you use are not 100% compatible with the CPU. You should wait to check whether these apps are supported before you decide to buy it.
It also doesn’t support e-GPUs. e-GPUs allow you to increase the GPU performance. It give the GPU a lot of performance boost, e-GPUs are not supported on the Mac mini.
Having 16GB of RAM is not the best options for users, I wished it supported more than that!
If you decided to buy this device, you should know that it won’t occupy a lot of space and will offer excellent performance. It is excellent for surfing the web, editing videos and photos, It also runs iOS apps.
It could be an excellent option for technical support services. It is also suitable for light and medium tasks. The device supports Final Cut Pro.
But if you want a device for heavy duty, then it won’t be the best option.😈
I am excited for a better and more versions of the Mac mini. The Mac mini has always been a small and simple device from Apple. They make the powerful Mac Pro.
Imagine having a M series CPU with the Mac Pro!😍
Let me now discuss the HomePod mini: 😈
It is a small home speaker from Apple. It is the smaller version of the HomePod. It a device Apple released a while ago. The speakers come with a material similar to the one on the HomePod.
But it is smaller in size and rounder. The material is high quality, if feels like if the device fell to the ground it won’t be damaged a lot.
On the top, there’s a touch input surface with volume control buttons. It supports some gestures such as tap once to play/pause. You can summon Siri among other features that I’ll discuss in this review.
The speaker come with a USB-C cable attached to it. The box comes with a 20W charger. You should consider that the wall adapter will be compatible with your market.
I bought this device form spain, so the wall adapter is compatible to the US market. The speaker isn’t yet available in some regions.
Pairing it is very easy, All you have to do is plug it in, And wait until the top screen lights white, bring your phone near to it and a pairing message will appear on your phone just like with AirPods.
Complete the pairing process and the speaker will be ready to use. The speaker supports 360-Degree Audio. It’ll deliver audio from all sides.
And after experimenting with it, it indeed offer powerful loud audio despite its small size. Not only just loud audio, but also clear with balanced bass. You should know that the audio quality depends on the audio from the source. Its quality should be hight, too.
The speaker supports lots of features, And you can use in multiple ways.
First way is to use it through Siri: 😈 You can ask Siri to play certain music from Apple Music, Or you can even use third-party services such as Spotify and others. You can ask Siri to call someone. But you should know the voice commands. You can ask Siri to setup an alarm with the sound coming from the device itself. There are lots of other features. Apple made a website for it.
iPhone and the speaker will know which Siri you’re calling. When you ask Siri, the devices will know which device you’re talking to. It’ll work well. I just noticed that I am activating Siri on your devices, You can pair more than one device at once.
You can enable audio on both of them to have a mini and cheap home studio. You can also control the audio from each one separately.
It’s worth mentioning that Apple have talked a lot with these speaker and Smart Homes support. You can give orders to Siri to turn on/off lights in any room or floor. It also supports other features. For example, it supports Intercom feature.
The second method is by using AirPlay from your iPhone or Mac: 😈
This method has pros and cons at the same time. If you play content from your phone, it’ll be broadcasted on the speaker. But the audio from your devices won’t interfere with it.
For example, if you’re broadcasting duo form your phone to the speaker while watching a video on the Twitter app, the content audio will be broadcasted on the speaker, while the Twitter video’s audio will be played on the iPhone.
Also, when broadcasting from a Mac, there will be a bit of lag while watching Netflix or YouTube videos.
But this issue could be fixed with future updates. You can broadcast the content of your iPhone to the speaker using NFC. Just bring your iPhone near to the speaker, and it’ll ask you whether you want to transfer the audio to it or not.
The speaker costs 99 USD, and comes with black and white colors, and I am not sure when it’ll come to all regions!
Pros:😍
it offers pure audio despite its small size. It works with excellent harmony with iPhones. Also its price is great for such a speaker.
Cons:👿
Siri doesn’t support some languages like Arabic!
Also, there’ll be a bit of lag when broadcasting from a Mac!
Hopefully this issue will be fixed soon!🤤
See you soon in the next reviews.😈💪