The Mac mini was last updated more than a year and a half ago, so we were hoping for something special.

What we got was a minor spec bump on top of a hike in price, with the cost of Apple's cheapest Mac jumping up a hundred pounds. Serves us right for having high expectations, perhaps.

But, let's look at the good stuff. While the appearance of the case hasn't changed at all, there have been some changes around the back. It has spawned another USB port – taking the total to five.

While it's always nice to have more connectivity, we can't help but complain about the practicality of having so many ports stuffed so close together. Plug in a TV tuner and you could easily block the ports either side.

Still, griping about getting more USB ports is a bit like complaining that eating five ice creams gives you a sore tummy; fair, but who doesn't like more ice-cream?

Ports and pixels

We still have FireWire, at least. It's the newer 800 variant and although it's fast, you'll have to buy adaptors or entirely new cables if you have peripherals that use the 6-pin FireWire 400 connector or even DV cameras using 4-pin plugs.

The big news is with the video ports. The single full-sized DVI-I port has been replaced with both a Mini- DVI port and one of the new Mini DisplayPorts.

There's still no HDMI for one-cable connection to modern TVs, which makes the mini less ideal for use as a media centre, but we like having two outputs since it means that the Mac mini can now power two displays at the same time.

The maximum supported resolution of the Mini-DVI port is 1920x1200pixels – you get a full-size DVI adaptor in the box, but you'll need to buy the £15 VGA adaptor if your monitor doesn't have DVI inputs.

But with the £68 Mini DisplayPort to Dual-Link DVI Adaptor, you can power a monitor up to a gigantic 2,560x1,600pixels.

Some are concerned about the HDCP anti-counterfeiting measures with the Mini DisplayPort, which is something that will only really affect you if you try to play HD material pirated directly from official sources; with no Blu-ray support, we're talking about HD movies from the iTunes Store.

This lush video experience is, in part, thanks to the mini's hardware upgrade; gone is the that'll-about-do GMA 950 from the previous Intel minis, and in comes the GeForce 9400M. It's still an integrated chipset but it's still an option for non-hardcore gamers.

Not so mini price

The bad news is the price. With the base model clocking in at £499 (with a fairly titchy hard disk and a paltry amount of RAM) and the top-end model costing £649, the mini seems like a weird anomaly in Apple's line-up.

It's unlikely to do its job of enticing switchers – who could buy, say, Dell's Studio Hybrid with better specs, HDMI and an 18.5-inch display for the same £499 of the base Mac mini – and it's not meaty enough to entice ardent Mac fans.

But, the price looks right compared to the US, so we may have our relatively weak currency to blame.

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