[fireman15]

For our needs, it works just as well as the old big one and takes up about a third of the real estate.

The other advantage is that they tend to use very little power especially at idle. So, when the one that I am using right now which is serving a website in the background with the monitor off... it is using less than 5 watts.

My next door neighbor has one attached to the back of each of his TVs because he prefers using them over a Roku, FireTV, AppleTV or other device for streaming. . Another friend has a MAC mini which he just loves

[Blurb2350]

Yes, Apple’s Mac Mini is pretty sweet.

[FreedomPoster]

You can thank cell phone chip technology for that. Low power use has been an overarching design goal for longer battery life for a long time, and people have gotten pretty good at it.

[Svartalfiar]

The other advantage is that they tend to use very little power especially at idle. So, when the one that I am using right now which is serving a website in the background with the monitor off... it is using less than 5 watts.

5 W is maybe $6 a year. 20x higher for a laptop is still negligible, esp as that number is 24/7, 365 days. Mini-PCs definitely have use, but it's pretty niche and most general populace would likely be better off with the mobility of a proper laptop.