Get the new Mac mini for as little as $699

The price tag for the new Mac mini isn’t exactly “mini,” but luckily Amazon is making the price more palatable today by knocking $100 of the price of a couple of configurations. On the low end, you can get the 128GB model with a 3.6GHz quad-core Intel Core i3 processor for $699, down from the normal price of $799. That’s a match of the lowest price we’ve ever seen for this model, and it was last at that price back in December.

That’s a laughable amount of storage space for most people, though, so you may be better served if you get the 256GB 3.0GHz 6-core Intel Core i5 model for $999, down from the retail price of $1,099. This, too, is a match of the lowest price we’ve ever seen on Amazon, but this model has reached this price several times over the last year (with the last matching drop being last month).

Here are a few more stats common to both units:

• Intel UHD graphics 630
• 8GB 2666MHz DDR4
• Four Thunderbolt 3 (USB-C) ports
• One HDMI 2.0 port
• Two USB 3 ports

In our review from last November, we called it a “mighty mite” of a machine—although we emphasized that the processor upgrade is the main difference over earlier models. Here’s how we summed it up at the time:

“Whether you should upgrade from the previous Mac mini is a no-brainer: Do it. If you use apps that can take advantage of multiple cores, you’ll see a huge improvement that’s well worth the cost. Even if you don’t use multi-core apps and use only consumer-level software, you’ll see a marked improvement in speed. You may have to buy a USB hub and a video adapter, but it’s worth it.”