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Get a Budget Friendly Mac Experience and All Your Favorite Legacy Ports With the Apple Mac mini (2015)

While you can get your fix of Thunderbolt 3 connectivity through newer Apple Mac's like the Apple 15" MacBook Pro (Late 2016) and Touch Bar version of the Apple 13" MacBook Pro (Late 2016), they don't come affordable to many. Fortunately Apple fans can opt for the more budget Apple Mac mini (2015) which is a highly portable mini desktop PC. This ultra small form factor computer offers quite a number of wired interface ports but instead of Thunderbolt 3, it only supports Thunderbolt 2 technology.

Just plug in a display, keyboard, and mouse to the Apple Mac mini (2015) to build a typical desktop environment suitable for home or office use. The Apple Mac mini (2015) has two Thunderbolt 2 (20 Gb/s) ports to connect to dual high resolution displays or daisy chain other Thunderbolt peripherals.

We received our Apple Mac mini (2015) in standard Apple packaging that is very premium looking as expected of Apple. The 15-inch model that we bought comes with 2.8GHz fourth-generation Intel Core i5 processor, Intel Iris graphics, 1TB Fusion Drive storage and 8GB of 1600MHz LPDDR3 memory.

Opening up the Apple Mac mini (2015) box reveals a familiar packaging layout seen on other Mac computers.

Underneath the Apple Mac mini (2015) you will find user documentation and a power cord to connect the Mac mini to an external power supply for charging.

Style-wise the Apple Mac mini (2015) has the premium look and feel of Apple which comes in a protective smooth aluminum casing.

Apple packs a surprising number of ports on the side of its Apple Mac mini (2015). In addition to the two Thunderbolt 2 ports, you also get one Gigabit Ethernet port, one HDMI port to connect to a 4K@30hz or another supported high resolution display, four USB 3.1 Gen 1 (5 Gb/s) ports, one SDXC card slot, one audio in port and one 3.5mm headphone jack. 

Note all USB ports are USB Type-A based. Unlike Thunderbolt 3 which uses USB Type-C, Thunderbolt 2 uses a mini DisplayPort connector.

The Apple Mac mini (2015) has a sleep indicator light which is also commonly found in many Apple Mac's. The indicator will light up once you press the power button which will also indicate the different states of the PC when in use. 

The Apple Mac mini (2015) is an affordable way to experience the Apple platform on a Thunderbolt 2-enabled compact PC. It is especially useful for casual or professional users and even gamers that have a lot of peripherals and want to use multiple displays.