It's fast., quiet, and cool to the touch (I've never heard a fan come on).I've owned a number of Macs since the original Mac SE and this one has quickly become my favorite. I like the Mini's form factor and its ability to use existing monitors and keyboards. I also find that it's faster, quieter, and cooler than the 2014 Mac mini that I also have in the house. I've also had no compatibility problems with software and hardware. It's successfully driving a LG 34" Ultrawide monitor at 3440x1440 resolution with a USB-C cable.Others have complained about the lack of ports on the Mini, but quite honestly with a USB hub you should be able to connect as many devices you want to the Mini. I have 2 USB hard drives, a USB webcam, a USB microphone, a USB selfie-light and an Apple USB-lightning connector for iPhone/iPad/Apple keyboard. No problems.The 8GB RAM/256GB SSD of memory is sufficient for what I do (browsing, MS Word/Excel/Powerpoint), music, video playing, light photo editing and some light development work). I've hooked up an external hard drive so I can offload data that I really don't need to be on the SSD (music and photos).Two caveats to anyone that is looking to purchase this (or any Apple Silicon based Mac):1) Make sure you do not need to run Windows or Linux either through VMWare Fusion/Parallels or Boot Camp. While Rosetta 2 will allow you to use Mac applications that run on Intel Macs, it will not let you run Intel-based Linux or Windows operating systems (either via BootCamp or VMWare Fusion/Parallels). Look to one of the remaining Intel-based Macs if you need this capability.2) Get the memory and disk configuration you want at purchase time - especially memory. Neither are user upgradeable. You have a bit more flexibility with storage since the system does have Thunderbolt and USB ports.