The most powerful M1 MacBook that Apple never built…
This Frankenstein monster of a laptop basically attaches an iPad Mini onto an M1 Mac Mini, giving you a laptop with more ports and better performance than a MacBook Pro while still being a (theoretically) portable laptop. This laptop is not a notebook. It also features a touchscreen with Apple Pencil input.
YouTuber Scott Yu-Jan hates laptops, as he so thoroughly expresses throughout his video (he even punches a hole through one for emphasis). He argues that laptops may be very powerful but they are not designed to replace sleekness. Even the most top-of-the-line laptop today is still under an inch thick. The purpose of laptops is to be portable and easy-to-carry. Scott believes that a laptop without wires is the best. It should be portable, but it doesn’t necessarily need to be sleek. Scott’s MacMiniBook, or MacBook Mini, is a cleverly crafted solution that proves his point. Sure, it isn’t sleek, but it doesn’t pull punches. With an M1 chip on the inside that lifts well above its weight, Scott’s creation comfortably bridges the gap between the laptop and desktop experience. In fact, parts of the video above were even edited on Scott’s MacGyvered MacBook Mini.
Designer: Scott Yu-Jan
Scott started his experiment by just getting a Mac Mini. He then began to wonder how to get there. But, things took off when, for fun, he placed his iPad Mini on the Mac Mini to see that the two were identical in size. What were the odds, eh?! Apple seems to take nomenclature very seriously.
Once the perfect CPU and Display combo were picked out, it was just a question of merging them together into a rather chunky looking laptop. Scott designed, modeled, and 3D printed his housing in multiple parts, complete with openings for ports and cables, and even a friction hinge that would let you adjust your iPad to any angle you wanted.
Scott’s solution is what the internet would call ‘thicc’. It isn’t elegant by a far stretch, but it’s job isn’t to look elegant, it’s to outperform every laptop out there – a claim that Scott was pretty confident about once his solution was ready.
To run his mad machine, the iPad would have to work as an external display, rather than a tablet. Scott’s app of choice was Duet, using it to create an external screen for his M1 Mac Mini. A USB-C cable both beamed video information to the iPad, while keeping it charged. Scott could still use his Apple Pencil by docking it at the iPad’s upper edge.
Scott’s creation is undeniably bonkers, but it is an incredibly powerful device on paper. The M1 chip handles complex tasks without consuming power or causing the cooling fans to go crazy. Scott demonstrated this by even editing a 2K video on it. However, the Frankenstein MacBook has a few flaws. First, the MacBook doesn’t come with a battery. This means that you will need to be connected to an electrical source in order to use it (unless you are using the iPad). In the second place, Scott said that he is more comfortable with a Magic Keyboard than a keyboard and trackpad. Finally, using the machine takes a little getting used to. First, switch on the Mac Mini, iPad Mini, and Duet separately. While shutting your laptop down, you need to switch the Mac Mini off too, given that closing the lid doesn’t snooze this laptop. Even the webcam placement may bother a few, and finally, the presence of 2 cables that are a permanent fixture may irk a few people… especially the design team at Apple!