Microsoft built its own Mac Mini. The “Project Volterra”, which Microsoft showed as part of Build 2022, will be launched as a Windows Dev Kit 2023 and you can buy it. It’s actually only intended for developers, but in theory it’s a powerful ARM PC with lots of memory and RAM at an attractive price. A real Mac mini alternative with Windows 11.

Microsoft

Microsoft sells Windows Dev Kit 2023 for 699 euros

The Mac Mini from Apple with the M1 processor actually has no competition. Rarely has there been such a compact and powerful computer for so little money – especially not with Windows as the operating system. This continues to apply to end customers, while developers are now entering Buy Windows Dev Kit 2023 for 699 euros which, like the Mac Min, is equipped with an ARM processor (look at Microsoft).

The Windows Dev Kit 2023 has many connections. (Image source: Microsoft)

The equipment of the Windows Dev Kit 2023 is impressive. It’s the latest Snapdragon 8cx Gen 3 from Qualcomm installed, which is accompanied by an NPU that supports machine learning. The internal memory is a whopping 512 GB and 32 GB of RAM are also installed. There are also many connections, WLAN 6, WiFi 5.1 and a plastic housing that consists of 20 percent recycled ocean plastic. Windows 11 Pro is pre-installed as the operating system. Microsoft also wants to better adapt its own apps so that they run optimally on the ARM architecture. With the emulation, you can also use all other apps normally.

Windows Dev Kit 2023 presented in the video:

Windows Dev Kit 2023: Mac Mini presented by Microsoft

Is this a Mac mini alternative with Windows 11?

In theory, anyone could buy the Windows Dev Kit 2023 and use it as a normal Windows 11 PC. Whether it will match the performance of a Mac Mini with M1 is hard to say. The Qualcomm CPUs have not been able to keep up with Apple so far and probably won’t be able to do so in this version either. Microsoft’s goal is to attract more developers to ARM software. If that works, there could no longer be just a Surface Pro 9 5G with ARM architecture, but perhaps actually a Mac mini alternative for end customers. This device is aimed at developers and end customers who are keen to experiment.