with. Also, some Thunderbolt 3-compatible peripherals
support daisy-chaining, so you aren’t necessarily going
to feel a pinch when you have more than two devices,
depending on what they are. But if you have, say, a host
of Thunderbolt 3 portable drives that would only
terminate a chain, then you may want to tread carefully.
As for display connectivity, you get support for up to
two panels at a time, one on Thunderbolt and one on
HDMI. The HDMI port supports a monitor with native
resolution up to 4K and up to a 60Hz refresh rate. (No
joy for high-refresh-rate gaming on this port, but that’s
okay; the M1’s onboard graphics cores, though able
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The two Thunderbolt ports work with Thunderbolt-
interface display panels, as well as with monitors
supporting DisplayPort over USB-C (as well as VGA or
DVI, with appropriate adapters). You can connect up to
a 6K panel to one of these ports, which includes Apple’s
exceptional ProDisplay XDR, though that elite panel
would be an odd pairing with an under-$1,000 system.
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the Mac mini, we do wish that Apple would relent on
the stark chassis minimalism and give us a USB port up
front (even if just a petite USB Type-C). As is, we’re
forever fumbling around back to pop in or disengage an
external drive or a USB key.
Another factor is the wireless connectivity, which
includes Bluetooth 5.0 and ticked-up-for-2020 Wi-Fi 6.
Bear in mind that unless you’re using a Bluetooth
mouse and keyboard (like the Apple Magic Mouse 2 and
Magic Keyboard supplied with our review sample, but
are extra-cost options), you’ll want to budget a USB
port or two for wireless or RF dongles, or wired
For display
connectivity,
you get support
for up to two
panels at a
time, one on
Thunderbolt
and one
on HDMI.