When Apple first launched the Macintosh, it created a new sort of “Lunchbox” form factor that was relatively portable and very, very cool. Reminiscent of that is this neat portable Macintosh Mini, created by [Scott Yu-Jan].
[Scott] has created something along these lines before—putting an iPad dock on top of a Macintosh Studio to create a look vaguely reminiscent of the very first Macintosh computers. However, that build wasn’t portable—it wasn’t practical to build such a thing around the Macintosh Studio. In contrast, the Mac Mini is a lithe, lightweight thing that barely sups power—it’s much more suitable for a “luggable” computer.
The build relies on a 3D printed enclosure that wraps around the Mac Mini like a glove. Inside, there’s a chunky 20,800 mAh power bank with enough juice to run the computer for over three hours. Just like the original Mac, there’s a handle on top, too. The build’s main screen is actually an iPad Mini, hooked up to the Mac Mini. If you want to use it separately, it can be popped out just by pushing it via a cutout in the bottom of the enclosure.
[Scott] notes that it’s cool, but not exactly practical—it weighs seven pounds, mostly due to the weight of the heavy power bank. We’ve featured [Scott’s] stylish builds before, too, like this nice iPhone dock.
Yeah well considering that it’s less than half of the weight of the Macintosh it takes after, I think you could find someone in the (imaginary retro future) 80s to take you up on this offer.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Macintosh_Plus
It kinda blows my mind that there are people who can stand to use 10″ screen as their main one. Here I am using a 43″ TV as my monitor. And a 23″ monitor on an arm as my secondary
Reminds me of the days when I used a 10″ atom netbook running xp to type out notes in college. I had a 15″ laptop but it was bulky and heavy so I chose to leave it at the dorm. I now work out of a 14″ ultralight and even then I wish it were a bit bigger.
I’ve discovered that the smallest 1920×1080 display I can use comfortably at 100% scaling is 17.3 inches.
I use my 14″ FHD laptop at 125% scaling only because 150% scaling yields a miserable effective resolution of 1280×720. That’s less pixels than the 1366×768 (WXGA) screens that bottom-tier laptops have.
it blows my mind that there are people that can stand to use a TV as their main monitor, I have never found any TV that gives a comparable picture to a proper computer monitor … theres a reason you can buy a 99$ 43 inch tv at any walmart and densely packed high resolution graphics aint one of them
I feel the same now, but in college I could work for hours on a laptop, and it would actually be useful sometimes if I still had that ability. My productivity is basically zero when I’m away from my desk.
Not that a portable desktop PC is the answer to either problem, of course. But it’s a handsome build.
Cute and clever. I wonder how much efficiency would be gained by avoiding the DC -> AC -> DC power chain. My guess is he could get ~25% longer runtime by just stepping the DC voltage.
What about a Bondi Blue iMac version?