There is so much to love about mini PCs. These tiny little boxes pack all the capabilities that used to require a bulky desktop tower. I want one, I really do—I’ve just never had a practical need.
Even Tiny Desktops Aren’t Mobile Enough
I’ve only owned a desktop computer for a few years of my life. I was in high school, and it wasn’t that big a deal that I had to be in one place to get online. I didn’t have a car to go anywhere, and we had dial-up internet anyway. It was a different time. But once I got my first laptop and access to Wi-Fi, it became hard to imagine limiting my computing to just one spot.
I feel this way still, even though I’ve worked from home my entire career. For most of those years, I didn’t have a dedicated home office. I’ve gone periods with small desks I could not imagine covering up with a desktop monitor. I’ve worked from kitchen tables, sofas, and beds. I have a home office now, but my wife and I share it, and I regularly let them have the room during meetings.
I’ve also been the primary caretaker parent during our kids’ early years. Sometimes the quiet moments I have to write are in my car as I wait in the pick-up line. A desktop, even a tiny one, just feels like a giant limitation.
A Laptop Can Do the Same Thing
What can a desktop do that a laptop can’t? For a writer, not much. Unless you require intense processing power, the other big benefit of a desktop PC is upgradeability. But we’re talking about mini PCs here, and they have neither of those advantages. Mini PCs use smaller laptop components, and you typically can’t swap out the motherboard or graphics card. Your upgrades are limited to storage and RAM, just like on a laptop.
Desktops can be more comfortable to work at, so there’s that. Having a monitor at eye level and a keyboard further from the screen is better for posture, but that can be achieved by using a laptop. Alaptop with a dock is effectively a mini PC, only you can take it with you when you’re done at your desk.
A mini PC looks sleeker, and it can quietly sit there always on, but to own one I would still need a laptop. At that point, why not stick with the computer I already have or take the money I would spend on two devices and consolidate it to afford one good one?
I Don’t Actually Need a Home Server or a Streaming Box
For years, I wanted a mini PC just to build my own home server. Rather than uploading files to the cloud, I could keep them in my home while still syncing them wirelessly.
I triedsetting up Nextcloud, but there were so many tiny administrative hassles to learn just to implement a solution that was ultimately more complex than I needed. I don’t use Google Docs or Google Photos as it is, so I don’t actually need open source alternatives to those—and there areencrypted Google Photos alternatives like EnteI trust for when I do.
I had slightly better luck withOpenMediaVault, which I got up and running as aSamba box for file-sharing. But since I was the only one using it, the slower transfer speeds actually made the experience feel like a downgrade from just using an external SSD.
We didn’t have a TV for years, but now that we do, I find the built-in software to be good enough that I see little point tobuilding my own home theater PC. I don’t have enough media for a Plex server, as tempting as that sounds, and I suspect thatPlex would have its own administrative headachesthat I just don’t have time for.
I Don’t Want to Game at My Desk
I’m not a PC gamer. Aside from a few years in high school when it felt was novel, I’ve never felt drawn to the idea of gaming in the same place where I work. Plus, a PC and mouse still feel like work peripherals more than gaming ones to me. So even though there are mini PCs that now serve as a cheap way to get into PC gaming, I’ve passed on those. The biggest temptation I felt was to build my PC to stream gamesvia Steam Link or Moonlight, but it was cheaper to just use NVIDIA GeForceNOW, andI likely ended up with a better experience.
I’m not a console gamer either. I don’t have the luxury of taking over the living room whenever I want to play. That’s a shared space. So turning a mini PC into a game console is out, too.
I love mini PCs. I like that they often use very little energy. I like the ability to mount them to the back of a monitor like a more upgradeable iMac. They’re one of those most versatile be-what-you-want-them-to-be devices that exist.
Yet I can’t justify buying one. These days I can’t even justify a personal need for a laptop either, not since buying a Samsung Galaxy Z Fold. I find this foldable phone’s large internal screen and Samsung DeX to beall the PC I need. Why own a separate desktop, laptop, and phone when the latter is able to be all three?
Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 6
The Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 6 is a foldable smartphone that combines the functionality of a tablet with the convenience of a phone. It features a large, flexible internal screen that automatically picks up where you left off on the cover display.
