The Pros and Cons of the 2011 Mac Mini

The all-new 2011 Mac Mini is here, but before you shell out your hard earned money, it's best to look at the great and not so great features of the all-new Mac Mini.

Good: Hardware Upgrades

Under the hood, the new 2011 Mac Mini is packing some serious hardware and towers over its predecessor in power and speed. The new Mac Mini features a dual-core Intel Core i5 processor (2.5 GHz), 4GB of RAM (expandable to 8GB max), has a 500GB hard drive (5400 rpm), and has powerful graphics with an AMD Radeon HD 6630M GPU (256MB GDDR5 SDRAM). In addition to the Mac Mini's powerful hardware, it also features a thunderbolt port '" for the fastest data transfer imaginable.

Bad: No Optical Drive

While the 2011 Mac Mini is packed with great hardware features, it lacks an optical drive and doesn't support CDs, DVDs, Blu-ray disks, or other popular storage media disks. Disks will soon be a thing of the past, but not yet, and the Mac Mini's lack of an optical drive might be a bit too forward looking. Removing the optical drive from the Mac Mini will strip it of being able to play DVDs or Blu-ray discs, support software discs, and won't be able to support the countless discs that you've likely backed everything up on.

Good: Mac OSX Lion

OS X Lion is Apple's latest desktop operating system and is packed with features that you're sure to like. OS X Lion has over 250 all-new features including multi-touch gestures, full-screen apps, Mission Control, Launchpad, Auto Save and Resume, Lion Server, and much more. Mac OS X Lion offers the latest and greatest that Mac has to offer and is one of the best perks of the all-new 2011 Mac Mini.

Bad: Price

As you can probably imagine, anything carrying the Apple logo will likely also bear a heavy price tag. The new Mac Mini can cost anywhere from $599 to $999, but for what it offers, it's a bit too much. When weighing in all the other factors, and after taking in the price, it's hard to imagine why anyone would opt for the Mac Mini when it's very easy to find better personal computers at a lower price. The 2011 Mac Mini will be great for individuals that need a secondary or entry level Mac PC, but it is very unlikely that it'll make a great primary computer.