A thinner unibody redesign, unveiled in June 2010, added an HDMI port and was more readily positioned as a home theater device and an alternative to the Apple TV.

The 2018 Mac Mini model had Thunderbolt, an Intel Core i3, i5 or i7 CPU, solid-state storage and replaces most of the data ports with USB-C.

The Mac Mini received generally tepid reviews except for the Apple silicon model, which was praised for its compatibility, performance, processor, price, and power efficiencies, though it drew occasional criticism for its ports, speaker, integrated graphics, non-user-upgradable RAM and storage, and the expensive cost to buy Apple-branded accessories and displays.

[3] It was initially advertised as "BYODKM" (Bring Your Own Display, Keyboard, and Mouse), aiming to expand Apple's market-share of customers using other operating systems such as Microsoft Windows and Linux.

[4] Mac Mini was the company's only consumer computer that shipped without a paired display, keyboard, and mouse since its original release in 2005.

Apple's release of a small form factor computer had been widely speculated upon and requested before the Mac Mini.

[11] The aluminum case, the top and bottom of which is capped with polycarbonate plastic, has an optical drive slot on the front, and the I/O ports and vents for the cooling system on the back.

Some Mac Mini owners used a putty knife or a pizza cutter to open the case to install third-party memory, which could be obtained more cheaply than Apple's offering.

[17] The machine uses 333 MHz DDR SDRAM and has one desktop-sized DIMM slot for RAM, allowing a maximum of 1 gigabyte (GB) of memory, a relatively small amount.

The Mac Mini G4 uses a single 2.5-inch Ultra ATA/100 hard drive that offers a maximum transfer rate of 100 megabytes per second (MB/s).

In June 2010, Apple redesigned the Mac Mini, giving it a more compact, thinner unibody aluminum case that has an internal power supply, an SD card slot,[58] a Core 2 Duo CPU, and a HDMI port for video output that Apple marketed as HDMI 1.4 compliant, replacing the Mini-DVI port of the previous models.

The chassis is a carryover from Mac Minis released between 2010 and 2014, and has the same dimensions, but its color was changed from silver to "space gray", similar to the iMac Pro.

[103] Its internal cooling system has a thermal-based design that according to Apple performs five times more quickly than the best-selling Windows-based desktop computer in its price range.

[108][109] Apple introduced a redesigned Mac Mini in a significantly smaller chassis based on the M4 and M4 Pro chips on October 29, 2024.

Reviews noted it is possible to purchase small computers at the same price with faster CPUs, better graphics cards, more memory, and more storage.

Those at CNET positively identified it as an affordable, quiet, and compact machine, but they disliked the slow hard drive and that it only had two below-expected quantities of USB 2.0 ports.

Ars Technica indicated criticisms on its non-user-upgradable RAM and storage options and the extra expensive fees for additional drives.

Engadget aggregated that critics generally praised the Core Duo transition, connectivity, and the Front Row performance.

Despite this, they found criticisms on the poor video output graphic processing units, small hard drive, and the limited remote controllability and upgrade options.

CNET wrote a positive review on the HDMI output and the near-decent graphics capability, citing criticisms on the limited user upgrade options and the high cost.

CNET wrote positively on its high-quality processor performances, the ports, and the Ethernet configuration; they criticized the non-replaceable integrated graphics and the expensive cost to purchase associated accessories and displays.

Wired praised its relatively low-cost affordability and its integration of Apple Silicon; the latter was assessed as efforts of significant performance and power efficiency enhancements.

[133] Technical writers Samuel Axon (Ars Technica), Chris Welch (The Verge), and Jeremy Laukkonen (Lifewire) all gave high praises.

Axon evaluated a positive grade on its high-quality performance and solid Legacy x86 macOS app compatibilities, citing the RAM and storage installment limitation as his chief element of criticisms.

In addition, he regarded negatively its external GPU incompatibility, low-quality speaker, and that it has fewer USB-C ports than the previous Intel model.

[134][99][135] Due to its similarity, compact volume and functions, the Mac Mini is often used as a home theater PC or as an alternative to the Apple TV.

[136][137] Unlike the Apple TV, the Mac Mini is backward compatible with televisions that have only composite or S-Video inputs.

[139] The addition of a HDMI port on the 2010 Mac Mini simplified connection to high-definition televisions and home theater AV receivers.

The HDMI port supports video resolutions of up to 1080p and eight-channel, 24-bit audio at 192 kHz, and Dolby Surround 5.1 and stereo output.

[147] A few services, such as caching, files, Time Machine, and Web, were moved to the macOS Mojave client but can have limited configuration capability via the Sharing control panel.