Mekotronics is known for its unusual Rockchip devices, and the R57-5S is a Rockchip RK3576 mini PC for kiosks and digital signage applications with a built-in, inclined 5-inch touchscreen display. The system ships with up to 16GB LPDDR5, up to 128GB eMMC flash, or up to 1TB UFS flash. It also features an M.2 socket for storage or an AI accelerator, HDMI 2.1 and USB-C DP video outputs, a 4K-capable HDMI input port, dual GbE, WiFi 5 and Bluetooth 5.1, optional 4G LTE, a few USB ports, and a terminal block with RS232 and RS485 interfaces. MekotronicsR57-5S specifications: SoC – Rockchip RK3576 CPU 4x Cortex-A72 cores @ 2.2GHz, 4x Cortex-A53 cores @ 1.8GHz Arm Cortex-M0 MCU at 400MHz GPU – ARM Mali-G52 MC3 GPU with support for OpenGL ES 1.1, 2.0 and 3.2, OpenCL up to 2.0 and Vulkan 1.1 NPU – 6 TOPS (INT8) AI accelerator with support for […]
GEEKOM A5 Pro 2026 Edition Review – Part 3: Ubuntu 25.10 on an AMD Ryzen 5 7530U mini PC
After checking out the hardware with an unboxing and a teardown of the GEEKOM A5 Pro 2026 Edition mini PC, and testing it with the pre-installed Windows 11 Pro OS in the second part of the review, we will now report our experience with Ubuntu 25.10 to show how the AMD Ryzen 5 7530U mini PC performs under Linux. The Ubuntu 25.10 review includes an overview of the system, benchmarks, storage and networking (2.5GbE and WiFi 6) performance testing, and measurements of CPU temperature under stress, fan noise levels, and power consumption of the mini PC under various workloads. Ubuntu 25.10 installation We decided to install Ubuntu 25.10 in dual boot configuration alongside Windows 11. To do so, we first shrank the Windows partition (C:) to roughly half its original size, before inserting a USB drive with the Ubuntu 25.10 ISO to carry on with the installation. The installation proceeded […]
GEEKOM A5 Pro 2026 Edition Review – Part 2: An AMD Ryzen 5 7530U mini PC tested with Windows 11 Pro
After checking out the hardware of the GEEKOM A5 Pro 2026 Edition mini PC with an unboxing and a teardown in the first part of the review, we’ve now had time to test the AMD Ryzen 5 7530U mini PC with Windows 11 Pro. We will report our experience by providing an overview of the software, testing features, running benchmarks such as PCMark 10, 3DMark, PassMark PerformanceTest 11, Cinebench R23, and Unigine Heaven Benchmark 4.0, testing 2.5GbE and WiFi 6 networking performance, evaluating the cooling system, and measuring fan noise levels and power consumption. Software overview and features testing The System > About window confirms that we have an “A5_Pro” mini PC powered by a 2.0 GHz (base frequency) AMD Ryzen 5 7530U processor with 16 GB of RAM, and 954 GB of storage. The mini PC runs Windows 11 Pro 64-bit version 25H2 build 26200.7840. HWiNFO 64 gives us […]
CHUWI CoreBook Air Plus 16 review – Part 3: Ubuntu 25.10 on a mid-range AMD Ryzen 5 6600H laptop
We’ve already checked CHUWI CoreBook Air Plus 16 hardware in the first part of the review, before testing the AMD Ryzen 5 6600H laptop with Windows 11 Pro, and today I’ll report my experience using the CoreBook Air Plus 16 laptop with Linux using Ubuntu 25.10 distribution. The Ubuntu review will include system information, benchmarks, YouTube 4K and 8K video playback, feature testing, storage and WiFi 6 performance, and measurement of fan noise and power consumption/battery life. Ubuntu 26.04 vs Ubuntu 25.10 installation The initial plan was to install Ubuntu 26.04 (daily image) on the laptop in dual boot configuration with Windows 11 Pro. So I resized the Windows partition in Disk Management to leave a 125GB partition for Ubuntu. I downloaded a daily Ubuntu 26.04 ISO (February 28, 2026), and created a startup disk on my Ubuntu 24.04 laptop using an 8GB USB flash drive. I plugged the USB […]
CHUWI CoreBook Air Plus 16 review – Part 2: An AMD Ryzen 5 6600H-powered, mid-range laptop tested with Windows 11 Pro
I’ve already checked out the hardware of the CHUWI CoreBook Air Plus 16 laptop in the first part of the review, so today, I’ll report my experience using the AMD Ryzen 5 6600H laptop with the pre-installed Windows 11 Pro operating system. We’ll start with a software overview and a test of key features, followed by benchmarking, evaluation of WiFi 6 performance, and measurement of fan noise, power consumption, and battery life. Software Overview and Features Testing The CoreBook Air Plus 16 ships with Windows 11 Pro 64-bit 24H2 operating system, upgraded to the 25H2 version after running Windows updates. The System->About window confirms we have a CoreBook Air Plus laptop powered by a 3.3 GHz (base frequency) AMD Ryzen 5 6600H processor with Radeon graphics paired with 16GB of RAM and 447GB of storage. None of the mini PCs and laptops we’ve reviewed in the past come with Microsoft […]
ASRock Industrial NUC(S) Ultra 300 BOX Series is powered by Intel Core Ultra 5 325 or Ultra 7 358H “Panther Lake” SoC
ASRock Industrial NUC(S) Ultra 300 BOX Series are powered by the Intel Core Ultra Series 3 “Panther Lake” SoC family, delivering up to 180 TOPS of AI performance. The NUC Ultra 300 BOX Series (117.5 x 110.0 x 49mm) integrates two 2.5GbE RJ45 jacks and three USB 3.0 ports, while the slimmer NUCS Ultra 300 BOX Series (117.5 x 110.0 x 38mm) comes with one 2.5GbE RJ45 jack and four USB 3.0 ports. They support DDR5 7200 MHz memory and M.2 NVMe (PCIe Gen5/Gen4) SSD storage, and offer four display interfaces up to 8K resolutions, WiFi 7 wireless connectivity, and more. The industrial mini PCs were first unveiled at CES 2026, but the press release lacked details, and I was unable to find extra information at the time. We now have more details with four SKUs available: the Intel Core Ultra 5 325-based NUC BOX-325 and NUCS BOX-325, and the […]
AMD Kintex UltraScale+ Gen 2 mid-range FPGA family to be available until at least 2045
AMD Kintex UltraScale+ Gen 2 is a mid-range FPGA family designed for the broadcast, test, industrial, and medical markets, which provides an update to the Spartan UltraScale+ FPGA family introduced in 2024, and promises availability until at least 2045. Key features include high-speed transceivers and PCIe Gen4 for support of 4K AV-over-IP, multi-stream capture, and frame-accurate transport, increased memory bandwidth for semiconductor test and inspection systems, and advanced imaging and real-time control for machine vision, industrial automation, medical imaging, and robotic systems. AMD Kintec UltraScale+ Gen2 key features AMD says the Kintex UltraScale+ Gen 2 devices deliver up to 5x increase in memory bandwidth when comparing the AMD Kintex UltraScale+ Gen 2 XC2KU040P and XC2KU050P FPGAs to the previous generation Kintex UltraScale+ FPGA, and up to 2x higher channel density per PCIe interface compared to the Altera Agilex A5EC065A FPGA. The company further states that compared to “competing platforms”, the family delivers […]
UP Xtreme PTL Edge – Intel Core Ultra X5 338H/X7 358H Panther Lake AI mini PC features 40-pin GPIO header, RS232/RS485 COM ports
AAEON UP Xtreme PTL Edge is an upcoming Panther Lake AI Mini PC powered by either an Intel Core Ultra 5 338H or Core Ultra X7 358H with up to 180 TOPS of AI performance, and offering industrial features such as a 40-pin GPIO header, two RS-232/422/485 COM ports, and a wide 19 to 36V DC input range. Other highlights include support for up to 128GB DDR5 SO-DIMM memory, up to four 8K displays through two HDMI 2.1 ports and two DisplayPort 2.1 video outputs, two USB4 Type-C ports, two USB 3.2 Type-A ports, dual 2.5GbE, optional WiFi and Bluetooth, and more. UP Xtreme PTL Edge specifications: Intel Core Ultra Series 3 Panther Lake SoC (one or the other) Intel Core Ultra X7 Processor 358H CPU – 16-core (4P + 8E + 4LPE) @ 1.9/1.5/1.5 GHz Base frequency, 4.8/3.5/3.5 GHz Turbo frequency Cache – 18 MB Intel Smart Cache GPU […]
