Apple or Samsung: Which device should be your daily driver?

Mini-Mum Fuss

The compact square Mac mini handles basic tasks and more with aplomb

Laptops are convenient to tote around, but a huge audience swears by desktops. While Apple offers a wide range of all-in-one desktops— iMacs, with a starting price of Rs 1,24,990—it’s the Mac mini that brings the power of the Mac operating system and Apple’s processor-making chops at a relatively lower cost, and in a compact plug-and-play format. In the box you find the square-shaped Mac Mini and just the power cable. You’ll need to connect this to your choice of keyboard, mouse and display—you can even connect this to your TV! Do note that if you’re setting it up for the first time with non-Apple accessories, you need to use a wired keyboard and mouse. Besides the keyboard, display and mouse, you might want to invest in quality speakers (the built-in speaker is average at best) and a webcam (if you’re into video calling). And you’re set.

This Mac Mini has a small footprint and can be tucked away easily. You can even carry it around if you want. All its ports are at the rear: the power button and port, two Thunderbolt 4 USB-C ports, two USB-A ports, an HDMI port, a 10-gigabit ethernet port and a 3.5-mm headphone jack along with vents for cooling. A caveat: having all the ports at the rear can be cumbersome if you switch between external hard drives often.

If you’re logging into Mac OS for the first time, just follow the instructions and you’ll be good to go in minutes. But if you are switching from an existing Mac, it might take a bit longer to transfer your data. At the heart of the Mac mini is Apple’s M2 chip with an 8-core CPU and 10-core GPU, and with a 16-core Neural Engine; the M2 is in no way inferior to Intel’s processors in terms of performance. It’s great for daily usage as it handles with aplomb tasks such as documentation and presentations, browsing the web, video calls, basic image and video editing, gaming and coding. But if you’re looking to render and edit videos over extended periods, consider picking its powerful sibling, which has the more powerful M2 Pro processor and additional ports. Also, if you’re not saving your files to external drives or a network drive, consider investing in as much internal storage as you can.

If you are shifting to a Mac from Windows, you’ll need to invest in compatible software. That said, Apple has a very capable free office suite, while its free video editing software called iMovies is good for basic video editing. Overall, the Mac Mini is an affordable system for home or office use that does not compromise on efficiency, power or space.

Available on: apple.com/in

Specs 7.75x7.75x1.41 inch; 1.18kg; macOS Ventura; Apple M2 Chip; 8GB unified memory; 256GB storage; support for two displays; 3.5mm port; two Type-C Thunderbolt 4 ports; one HDMI port; two Type-A USB ports;, Ethernet; Wi-Fi 6E, Bluetooth 5.3

Style & Substance

Samsung’s latest convertible is a very capable system, and a looker to boot

Samsung was missing from the notebook space in India for nearly a decade. But the Korean tech giant, known for its Galaxy smartphones, monitors and TVs, came back last year—and it wants a chunk of the pie. And the Galaxy Book3 Pro 360 is one of the weapons in its arsenal.

Boasting a premium aluminium body with a solid build, it has a 16-inch touch display, a full-sized keyboard, and a hinge that turns 360 degrees. It also comes with a stylus (S-Pen) that’s great for sketching, making notes and more.

The notebook is easy on the eyes with its AMOLED screen. I loved the keyboard and didn’t miss a beat while switching from the MacBook Pro; on other laptops it results in typos. The touchpad, while responsive, is more towards the left, so I ended up right-clicking the touchpad more often than not. Connectivity is also fast.

Under the hood is the 13th Gen Intel i7 processor (with no dedicated graphics cards, the laptop relies on the Intel Iris Xe chip) with 16GB RAM running Windows 11 Home that delivers solid performance for everyday computing. From gaming to streaming and browsing to video editing—the laptop easily handles it all. The convertible’s X-factor is the S-Pen’s functionality and ‘Galaxy Book Experience’. The bundled S-Pen magnetically attaches to the lid of the laptop, but be cautious if you’re carrying it around. The flat, rubberised finish of the S-Pen provides a comfortable grip, while I liked the slight friction when writing on the screen, as it properly replicates pen on paper.

Do note that the screen wobbles a bit when scribbling on it in laptop mode; switching to tablet mode to scribble or sketch using the S-Pen is a better option. Samsung is also building on what Apple has mastered—seamless sharing between devices in its ecosystem. There are some pre-installed Samsung apps, but the dedicated ‘Galaxy Book Experience’ window brings all of this under one hood and is accessible with a tap on the taskbar. This includes Quick Share for wirelessly sharing photos, docs and more; syncing Samsung notes across devices; Quick Search for searching files, folders, documents and more on the laptop; Smart Things, Samsung Pass and more—all of it accessible by logging into your Samsung account.

Topping all of this up is the 76Wh battery that lasts for around 12 hours on a single charge. And unlike the traditional bulky brick-chargers, this one comes with a slightly bigger adapter and a Type C cable. With the Galaxy Book3 Pro 360, Samsung has built on its strengths—stunning hardware in a lightweight body, a striking display, performance to handle workloads, and the S-Pen functionality.

Available on: samsung.com/in

Specs 16-inch AMOLED display (2,880 x 1,800) at 120Hz; S-Pen; 13th Gen Intel Core i7 processor; 16GB RAM; 1TB storage, Bluetooth 5.1; WiFi 6E; one HDMI port; two Thunderbolt 4 ports; one USB port; microSD card reader, 76Wh battery, 65W USB Type-C adapter, 355.4x252.2x12.8 mm, 1.66kg