Like many (most?) people here, I was greatly disappointed by the removal of the quad-core i7 option.
However, after looking through some benchmarks and comparing the prices of various Apple configurations, I've adjusted my expectations of what the Mini is for.
Instead of seeing it as something close to a 15-inch Retina MacBook Pro (which it almost was, bar the graphics), if you think of it as screen-less 13-inch rMBP, then it's position and price sort of make more sense.
The mid or top-level Mini with the optional PCIe SSD (& this is important!), is likely to perform as well as the equivalent rMBP at about $600 less (assuming 2.8GHz i5)
Once you factored in the keyboard, mouse & a display, assuming you don't already have these, it's about $200-300 less, which is the "saving" you have for not needing a mobile solution.
Most people are pretty happy with the performance of their mid or high-end rMBP 13, so we'd expect to see the same with the new Mini.
It should be quite a responsive little machine with enough power to do anything people are using their laptops for, provided it's using an SSD.
The previous quad-core models represented exceptionally good value for certain tasks (I use mine as a development workstation and VM server), but undoubtedly eroded some of the iMac or Mac Pro market at the lower end.
It's a pity this good deal has now come to an end, but the current offering isn't awful, just not as good as it used to be.
However, after looking through some benchmarks and comparing the prices of various Apple configurations, I've adjusted my expectations of what the Mini is for.
Instead of seeing it as something close to a 15-inch Retina MacBook Pro (which it almost was, bar the graphics), if you think of it as screen-less 13-inch rMBP, then it's position and price sort of make more sense.
The mid or top-level Mini with the optional PCIe SSD (& this is important!), is likely to perform as well as the equivalent rMBP at about $600 less (assuming 2.8GHz i5)
Once you factored in the keyboard, mouse & a display, assuming you don't already have these, it's about $200-300 less, which is the "saving" you have for not needing a mobile solution.
Most people are pretty happy with the performance of their mid or high-end rMBP 13, so we'd expect to see the same with the new Mini.
It should be quite a responsive little machine with enough power to do anything people are using their laptops for, provided it's using an SSD.
The previous quad-core models represented exceptionally good value for certain tasks (I use mine as a development workstation and VM server), but undoubtedly eroded some of the iMac or Mac Pro market at the lower end.
It's a pity this good deal has now come to an end, but the current offering isn't awful, just not as good as it used to be.
