Top 5 Reasons the M1 Mac Mini is not for you in 2021

Before you watch this video, I already made another one about the Top 5 Reasons the M1 Mac Mini is amazing : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=szm-AzJCFrA&t=58s

Here are the Chapters :

00:00 Intro
00:42 Reason 1 [ M1 Native Apps ]
01:40 Reason 2 [ External Displays & Ports ]
02:40 Reason 3 [ Connectivity Issues ]
03:38 Reason 4 [ No E-GPU ]
04:29 Reason 5 [ M1X Space Grey Coming ]

Hi guys today we will talk about the Top 5 reasons why the M1 Mac Mini is not for you in 2021.

## Reason 1 [ M1 Native Apps ]

Like I mentioned in my M1 Macbook Air video, there are around 370 native m1 apps, it's nothing compared to the number of Intel compatible programs out there. You can still run non native apps using Rosetta 2. The problem with it is that their first launch can take a long time and they can behave weirdly and cause random freezing. Some apps might also seem like they are working at first glance but they can crash if they rely on some low-level APIs.

For instance if you are Video editing using Final Cut or Premiere there are a lot of plugins that are still not compatible with the M1.

Adobe apps for example are still Beta for native M1 support except Lightroom. So if you are a creative cloud user you might wanna wait it out.

Keep in mind that the M1 Mac Mini is a first generation product and those tend to come with few issues and compromises.

## Reason 2 [ External Displays & Ports ]

Despite offering superior performance to Intel Macs, one of the major issues with M1 Macs is their limited external display support. On paper, the M1 Mac Mini can support the 6K Pro Display XDR but that’s about it. They can only support one external monitor at any given time. This is a weird limitation and one that’s bound to be a major problem for power users. Thankfully, there are some not so simple workarounds to this limitation via which you can use up to six displays on their M1 Macs.

Many users also complained about display resolution issues on M1 Macs. The problem mostly occurs when the Mac was connected to Ultrawide displays. It seems like M1 Mac is yet to support certain specific display resolution

There is also less port selection than previous Mac Minis, notably 2 less Thunderbolt 3 ports and no option for 10GB ethernet.

## Reason 3 [ Connectivity Issues ]

Now before you tell me that Mac Os Big Sur 11.2 fixed all bluetooth issues. Just go and check Twitter and Reddit feed, many users are still experiencing connectivity issues and some users who didn't have the issues before started reporting them.

Me personally, I experienced connection drops with my bluetooth speakers connected to my Mac Mini, I don't have the Airpods Max to test this. It's not very noticeable for me because I don't use my Mac Mini that often, but if it's your main computer those issues can become annyoing. Hopefully Apple will fix the bluetooth issues for all users. It really sucks to be in the affected minority.

[This is also a rare scenario but if you try to factory reset your Mac Mini then it will brick your device. In such cases, you have no option but to take a trip to the nearest Apple service center. ]

## Reason 4 [ No eGPU ]

Macs with the new M1 chip will not work with external GPU. That’s a particularly tricky constraint for the new Mac mini, which is already hamstrung by its memory ceiling and furthermore can’t be used with a more powerful graphics chip and enclosure combo, as some of have done in the past with earlier Mac minis.

The RAM on M1 models is not upgradable — it’s integrated into the system-on-a-chip, so you can’t upgrade an 8GB model with another stick of RAM. You can only max it out to 16GB of the new unified memory.

That may be disappointing to some professional users interested in switching over to the Arm-based Mac mini, considering older Intel-based models can have as much as 32GB of RAM.

## Reason 5 [ M1X Space Grey ]

Why wasn’t the M1 Mac mini launched in Space Grey by Apple? The reason is that this color has always been reserved for high-end versions — and in 2021 one will maybe come again.

If there will be a brand different chassis style is still uncertain. The truth is that in the new M1 Mac mini, there is a lot of empty space that Apple can either remove (with a smaller case, think of Apple TV size) or fill it with extra hardware (such as four instead of two Thunderbolt 3 ports) and improved active cooling to help improve performance of extra cores.

Probably this new Mac Mini will come with eGPU support since professionals and high end users do need them for heavy workloads.

So that's it for the 5 reasons the M1 Mac Mini might not be for you. My full review and comparison with the M1 Mac mini as well as my Hackintosh is coming soon. Don't forget to watch my previous video of Top 5 reasons why the Mac Mini is awesome.

Thanks for watching and see you guys in the next one ;)