The back-to-school sales are producing some great discounts at the moment and there's a big focus on some of our top-rated tech that can enrich your school days. One such highlight is being able to buy the Apple Mac mini M2 at Best Buy for $499 (was $599).
• See all Apple deals at Best Buy
Already a pretty good price, the $100 discount makes the Mac mini even more irresistible. Its M2 chip is the latest available for the mini model and it’s impressively powerful, all while being wrapped up in a tiny shell which is perfect for fitting into your dorm room.
It ranks highly in our look at the best MacBooks and Macs with our roundup referring to it as “the best Mac you can buy - seriously”. Not bad at all for under $500.
Today's best Mac mini deal
There’s no Mac mini with M3 chip. Instead, your options lie with the Mac mini M2 or waiting for the rumoured Mac mini with an M4 chip. At this price, though, it makes sense to go for it now.
In our Mac mini M2 review, we appreciated its compact design, low price, and powerful performance. It isn’t upgradable which is frustrating and may mean you need to add an external hard drive, but it's hardly noticeable and sits well on your desk or under a TV. It has two Thunderbolt 4 ports, one HDMI port, two USB-A ports, a headphone jack, and an ethernet port, so you’re covered for pretty much anything you wish to plug in.
The Mac mini stays quiet and cool so if you have a small dorm room, it won’t get in the way or feel disruptive. Best of all, it’s far more affordable than a MacBook and the cheapest way to get macOS in your home. Although, of course, it does lack the portability that a MacBook provides.
If portability is crucial, there are MacBook deals around for you to save. In particular, there are some powerful MacBook Pro deals out there in the run-up to studying once more. These could be a better bet if you need to take something with you to class.
