Apple doesn't make low-end devices.
We can do this all day.
Well, yes? We aren't that much faster since 2010 if you had true top end then and true low end now.
But since talking Macs and Chromebooks, let pull up those:
- Geekbench MacBook Pro 2010 15": 2.66GHz Intel Core i7 (i7-620M): 457 single, 972 multi
- https://www.ebay.com/itm/304426589491?hash=item46e13d1d33:g:...
And a currently shipping Chromebook, when sorting price low to high:
- HP 4BS38UA HP Chromebook 14 IPS HD (1366x768) Intel Celeron N3350: 288 single, 523 multi
- https://www.amazon.com/HP-Chromebook-1366x768-Bluetooth-14-c...
In this case, the 2010 Mac smokes the Chromebook. To be fair, that model became available in 2018.
So, something current?
Acer Chromebooks w/ Intel Celeron N4020 have pretty bad benchmarks (~320-460 single, ~320-500 multi) but the CPU itself rates better:
- Celeron N4020 benchmark: 427 single, 750 multi
That's in currently shipping gear, like this HP introduced fall 2021:
https://www.amazon.com/HP-Chromebook-Micro-Edge-Portable-14a...
Given these scores are comparing 2010 laptops with 2021 laptops, and the 2010 laptop wins (and can be bought at around the same price!), certainly if comparing a 15 year old workstation with cheapest available machine today, yes, the 15 year old Dell will exceed the performance of at least some new machines.
Note:
- Xeon in Mac Pro in 2010 rated 611 single, 6280 multi
By comparison, in 2008 Mac Pro workstation:
- Intel Xeon E5462 2800 MHz (8 cores) rated 420 single and 2540 multi
Dell workstations at that time supported 5400 series Xeons.
https://browser.geekbench.com/v5/cpu/search?q=m1+Mac+mini
The Air gets 1744 and 7711.
https://browser.geekbench.com/v5/cpu/search?utf8=%E2%9C%93&q...
So no, by your own ranting the M1 mini is not a low-end desktop easily matched by free 15-year-old hardware.
Sharing research is ranting? Anyway, post I replied to asked:
> "Do you think a 15 year old Dell is going to match the performance of any new machine?"
Interesting proposition!
So I responded to "any new machine" using the earlier Chromebooks as the baseline.
Does a low end desktop trounce the previous generation Macbook Pro?
It is going to be extremely limited in what it can do.
In that case the iPad at $329 becomes a legitimate competitor and it includes a screen.
https://www.ecs.com.tw/en/Product/LIVA/LIVA_Q3_Plus/specific...
It's literally Apple's entry-level desktop machine.
The fact that there are even lower-end options doesn't mean that that it isn't a low-end machine. It is a very large spectrum, from a Raspberry Pi on one end to dual-cpu 2x64-core Threadrippers with gigabytes of RAM on the other. The Mac Mini is certainly on the lower end of this spectrum.
There's a very large spectrum, yes. Apple's least expensive system is maybe near the bottom of middle tier with no options but can be ordered in a configuration pushing $2000. Their most expensive machines are near the top of the middle tier or the bottom of the top tier. I think you meant to mention terabytes of RAM for the high end rather than gigabytes. I think of things like the Talos II as top-end workstations - something that starts around $9k and can easily be configured to close in on $40k for a single desktop workstation.
None of this suggests that because Apple doesn't sell a less expensive machine that they cater a product to the low end. They actually, truth be told, sell a less expensive machine that the Mini, because the Air includes a screen, keyboard, pointing device, and battery in its price. If you compare an M1 Air to the low end of laptops and other mid-tier laptops, you'll see it's closer to mid-tier than low-end in pretty much every way.