I’ve received a review sample of the LattePanda IOTA single-board computer (SBC) from DFRobot. It is a compact, palm-sized SBC powered by an Intel Processor N150 quad-core Twin Lake CPU, and featuring 8 GB of LPDDR5 RAM and 64 GB of onboard eMMC storage. It also integrates a Raspberry Pi RP2040 co-processor for handling I/O operations, providing greater flexibility for embedded and automation applications. LattePanda IOTA unboxing The parcel was shipped from China and arrived safely in a standard cardboard box. Inside were several smaller boxes containing the following components, with foam padding that was slightly loose but still provided adequate protection. All components arrived in good condition. I received a total of seven items from DFRobot, which are listed below. LattePanda IOTA (8GB RAM, 64GB eMMC flash) Smart UPS Expansion Board: A plug-and-play UPS module for the LattePanda IOTA that provides stable, continuous power with intelligent management and supports […]
Raspberry Pi 500+ mechanical keyboard PC review with Raspberry Pi OS “Trixie”
Today, we’ll review the Raspberry Pi 500+ mechanical keyboard PC using the recently released Raspberry Pi OS “Trixie” based on Debian 13. It’s quite similar to the earlier Raspberry Pi 500 keyboard PC, but comes with more memory (16GB vs 8GB), a 256GB NVMe SSD, and a proper mechanical keyboard with replaceable caps and RGB LED lighting, so we’ll focus on these aspects during our tests, after going through the usual unboxing and teardown process. Raspberry Pi 500+ unboxing We received an early prototype of the Raspberry Pi 500+ keyboard PC with a UK layout, white design in a retail package. The bottom side of the package includes a list of features and confirmation that it’s indeed a UK layout keyboard. Not ideal for Thai users (we usually rely on the US layout), but that was probably the only layout available when Raspberry Pi sent us a sample in mid-September. […]
Beelink EQi13 Pro Review – Part 3: Ubuntu 24.04 on an Intel Core i5-13500H mini PC
We’ve already checked out the hardware of the Beelink EQi13 Pro in the first part of the review, and followed up with a detailed review of the Intel Core i5-13500H mini PC running Windows 11 Pro. We’ve now taken the time to test the Beelink EQi13 Pro with Ubuntu 24.04 to find out how well (or not) it performs on Linux. We will specifically report our experience testing features, running benchmarks, checking out the SSD and USB ports, evaluating Gigabit Ethernet and WiFi 6 networking performance, and finally stress testing the mini PC, before measuring the fan noise and power consumption of the mini PC under Linux. Ubuntu 24.04 installation Since the plan is to install Ubuntu 24.04 LTS alongside Windows 11 in a dual-boot configuration, we shrank the Windows 11 partition to about half its size before inserting a USB drive prepared with the Ubuntu 24.04 ISO to start […]
Beelink EQi13 Pro Review – Part 2: A mid-range Intel Core i5-13500H mini PC tested with Windows 11 Pro
We’ve already checked out the specifications, gone through an unboxing and a teardown, and booted the Beelink EQi13 Pro mini PC to Windows 11 Pro in the first part of the review. Since then, we’ve had more time to test the Intel Core i5-13500H 12-core/16-thread Raptor Lake mini PC with Windows 11 Pro in detail. So we’ll now report our experience with features testing, benchmarks, Ethernet and WiFi performance evaluation, 4K and 8K YouTube video playback, and measurements of fan noise and power consumption for the Beelink EQi13 Pro mid-range mini PC. Software overview and features testing After performing all updates, the System->About window confirms the Beelink EQi13 Pro is equipped with an Intel Core i5-13500H CPU with 32GB RAM running Windows 11 Pro version 24H2, build 26100.2033. HWiNFO 64 utility provides more information about the Intel Core i5-13500H 12-core (4P+E) /16-thread (8P+8E) Raptor Lake-H processor, the AZW BQ motherboard, […]
AAEON NV8600-Nano AI Developer Kit Review – Part 2: Benchmarks, features testing, AI demos with Nx Meta
In the first part of the review, I had a look at the hardware of the NV8600-Nano AI developer Kit featuring an NVIDIA Jetson Orin Nano 8GB module, booted it to Ubuntu 22.04, checked some system information, and made sure both the USB camera and Raspberry Pi Camera Module 2 (MIPI CSI) module worked fine.
I’ve now spent much more time with the Edge AI devkit, and report my experience in the second part of the review with some benchmarks, key features testing, and AI vision demos using Network Optix Nx Meta IP video management platform with the provided USB camera and an ONVIF-capable network camera.
GEEKOM Mini IT12 2025 Edition Review – Part 3: Ubuntu 24.04 on an Intel Core i7-1280P mini PC
We’ve already checked out GEEKOM Mini IT12 2025 Edition mini PC’s hardware with an unboxing and a teardown, and tested the Intel Core i7-1280P mini PC with Windows 11 Pro in detail in the second part of the review. We’ve now had time to test the Mini IT12 2025 Edition mini PC with Ubuntu 24.04, so we’ll report our experience with Linux in the third part of the review. We’ll specifically go through system information, test key features, benchmark the system and compare it against the earlier Mini IT12 “2023 Edition” powered by an Intel Core i7-12650H processor, because checking out storage and USB performance, WiFi 6 and 2.5GbE network performance, stress testing the mini PC, and finally measuring fan noise and power consumption. Ubuntu 24.04 installation We decided to install Ubuntu 24.04 LTS alongside Windows 11 in a dual-boot configuration, so we resized the Windows 11 partition by about […]
GEEKOM Mini IT12 2025 Edition mini PC review – Part 2: Windows 11 Pro features testing, benchmarks, power consumption
We have already checked out the hardware of the GEEKOM Mini IT12 2025 Edition mini PC with an unboxing and a teardown in the first part of the review. The new model still relies on a 12th Intel processor, and simply replaced the 10-core Intel Core i7-12650H by a more powerful 14-core Intel Core i7-1280P processor still coupled with 32GB of DDR4 RAM and a 1TB M.2 SSD, although the brands and models of the RAM, storage, and wireless modules have changed. In the second part of the review, we will be testing the GEEKOM Mini IT12 2025 Edition mini PC with the pre-installed Windows 11 Pro in detail, notably testing most features and running benchmarks before comparing it to the (2023 Edition) Mini IT12 mini PC with an Intel Core i7-12650H processor. We’ll also test 2.5GbE and WiFi 6 networking, cooling performance, and finally measure fan noise and power […]
Pironman 5 Max Review – A fancy Raspberry Pi 5 Tower PC enclosure with dual M.2 PCI sockets for SSD and/or AI accelerator
SunFounder has sent me a review sample of the Pironman 5 Max Tower PC case for the Raspberry Pi 5 SBC. We had already reviewed the Pironman 5 last year, but the new Max model has various improvements, including a sleeker design made of black aluminum and semi-transparent black acrylic panels, a dual NVMe PiP expansion board for two M.2 NVMe SSDs (optionally in RAID 0/1 configuration), or one NVMe SSD and one AI accelerator module, a Tap-to-Wake feature for the OLED information display, and programmable RGB LEDs for the two fans. So the Pironman 5 Max deserves another review of its own. I’ll be doing an unboxing, going through the assembly instructions and software installation, before testing the new features, and finally, the cooling efficiency of the solution. Pironman 5 Max unboxing I received the Pironman 5 Max in its retail package along with a Raspberry Pi AI Kit […]


