windows 11 News - Page 3 of 57 - CNX Software

June 2, 2026June 3, 2026 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 8 Comments

ASUS Ascent QN10 mini PC is powered by Qualcomm Snapdragon X2 Elite 18-core Armv9 processor

ASUS Ascent QN10 is the first mini PC powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon X2 Elite 18-core Armv9 processor with 80 TOPS of AI performance for Windows CoPilot+ PCs. The powerful Arm computer ships with up to 32GB LPDDR5 memory and a 512GB to 2TB NVMe SSD. It supports up to four video outputs through one HDMI and three USB4 (40 Gbps) ports, and offers 2.5GbE and WiFi 7 networking, an audio jack, and a few extra USB 3.2/2.0 ports. ASUS Ascent QN10 specifications: SoC – Qualcomm Snapdragon X2 Elite (Glymur 8480B / X2E-88-100) CPU – 18x Armv9 cores with 12 Prime cores up to 4.7 GHz (single/dual core) / 4.0 GHz (multicore), and 6 Performance cores up to 3.4 GHz GPU – Adreno X2-90 @ 1.70 GHz with support for DirectX 12.2 Ultimate, Vulkan 1.4, OpenCL 3.0 VPU Encode: HEVC, AVC: Dual 8K UHD @ 30 FPS, AV1: 8K UHD […]

May 29, 2026 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 11 Comments

Qualcomm Snapdragon C to power cheaper, entry-level Arm Windows laptops selling for $300 and up

The Qualcomm Snapdragon C (Compute) Arm SoC is designed for entry-level Arm Windows laptops, or “mobile PCs” in marketing speak, with prices starting at $300, which should compete against entry-level laptops using Intel Alder Lake-N or Twin Lake processors. The company didn’t provide many technical details, but we do know the Snapdragon C comes with an NPU for AI acceleration, and said it’s based on Kryo mobile cores rather than the more recent Oryon cores at a media event. Qualcomm still promises all-day battery life, smooth web browsing, video streaming, and productivity for students, families, and small businesses. I’m not sure what kind of announcement that is, as Qualcomm didn’t provide any specifications. However, they did mention Acer, HP, and Lenovo will offer Snapdragon C laptops, and we have some specifications for the upcoming Acer Aspire Go 15 (AG15-Q31P). SoC – Qualcomm Snapdragon C CPU – Unknown number of Kryo […]

May 27, 2026 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 4 Comments

ODROID-H5 SBC Review – Part 1: Unboxing, Type1 case assembly, and first boot

ODROID H5 Review Type 1 case Ubuntu 24.04

Hardkernel has sent me a kit with the ODROID-H5 10GbE SBC for review. In addition to the Intel Core i3-300 board itself, the kit also comes with an ODROID-H5 Type-1 case, an M.2 card for a second 10 Gbps Ethernet port, and other accessories. I’ll start the review with an unboxing, my experience assembling the kit, and first boot using an M.2 NVMe SSD with Ubuntu 24.04 and Windows 11 in a dual-boot configuration. In a few weeks, I’ll continue the review after upgrading to Ubuntu 26.04 and perform thorough testing of all features and performance. ODROID-H5 kit unboxing An advantage of the ODROID family is that it’s highly flexible, and you can build your own customized system. For this review, Hardkernel sent me a package with the following items: External LED power button H5 Case Type 1 enclosure ODROID-H5 16GB DDR5 SO-DIMM (Crucial) 15V/4A PSU with US plug adapter […]

May 25, 2026June 14, 2026 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments

Khadas Mind Graphics 2 review – A powerful NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5060 Ti eGPU dock for the Mind 2 mini PC

Earlier this month, I received the Khadas Mind 2 (Intel Core Ultra 7 155H) mini PC with two accessories connecting through the Mind Link (PCIe x8) connector: The Mind xPlay Display and Keyboard combo, and the Mind Graphics 2 dock, adding a range of interfaces and an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5060 Ti GPU with 16GB of VRAM. After going through the specifications, an unboxing, and a partial teardown in the first part of the review, I tested the Mind xPlay using the Mind and Mind 2 mini PCs running Windows 11 and Ubuntu 24.04. I’ve now had time to test the Khadas Mind Graphics 2 dock with the Mind 2 mini PC running Windows 11, so I’ll report my experience with the NVIDIA GPU (3D graphics and AI), and test all features, including 2.5GbE networking, the built-in speakers, microphone array, and so on. A few gremlins and system info When […]

May 20, 2026May 20, 2026 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 24 Comments

ODROID-H5 – A $250 Intel Core i3-N300 SBC with 10GbE networking, four M.2 PCIe slots

Hardkernel ODROID-H5 is an affordable Intel Core i3-N300 octa-core Alder Lake-N SBC providing a 10GbE RJ45 networking jack, and four M.2 PCIe slots for storage, wired/wireless networking, or AI accelerator expansion. It relies on the same SoC as in the earlier ODROID-H4 Ultra SBC, but trades a single PCIe Gen3 x4 M.2 slot and four SATA ports for four M.2 slots, and upgrades from dual 2.5GbE to single 10GbE. It still features four USB ports, but only one USB 3.0 port, and three USB 2.0 ports. ODROID-H5 specifications: SoC- Intel Core i3-N300 CPU – Octa-core “Alder Lake-N” processor @ up to 3.8 GHz (Turbo single-core) or 2.3 GHz (Turbo multi-core) with 6MB cache GPU – 32EU Intel UHD Graphics @ 1.25 GHz TDP: 7W System Memory – Up to 64GB DDR5 4800 MHz SO-DIMM memory Storage Up to 4x 2280 NVMe SSDs via M.2 slots (See Expansion section) eMMC flash […]

May 14, 2026May 14, 2026 by Debashis Das - 1 Comment

DEEPX DX-AIPlayer N97 mini PC combines Intel N97 SoC and 25 TOPS DX-M1 AI accelerator

DEEPX has just launched the DX-AIPlayer, an ultra-compact edge AI mini PC with an Intel Processor “Alder Lake-N” N97 SoC and the company’s DX-M1 M.2 AI accelerator module. The system is designed for real-time vision AI applications in robotics, smart cities, and factory automation. We’ve seen plenty of Alder Lake-N mini PCs like the Jetway B420UADN1, the Avalue EPC-ASL, the AAEON UP 710S, and various others, but the DX-AIPlayer N97 is different as it integrates the DX-M1 module via an M.2 2280 M-Key (PCIe Gen 3 x4) slot. The NPU delivers up to 25 TOPS of INT8 AI performance while consuming only 1 to 5 Watts of power, and features 4GB of dedicated LPDDR5 memory to handle larger workloads and multi-model execution without bottlenecking the host system’s RAM. DEEPX DX-AIPlayer N97 specifications: SoC – Intel Processor N97 quad-core processor up to 3.6 GHz with 6MB cache, 24 EU Intel UHD graphics […]

May 11, 2026 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments

Mind xPlay display and keyboard review using Khadas Mind and Mind 2 mini PCs

Khadas xPlay connected to Crowview USB C display

In this review, I’ll report my experience with the Khadas Mind xPlay display and keyboard using the Mind and Mind 2 mini PCs, as well as a CHUWI CoreBook Air Plus 16 laptop to test it as a standard external display. Using Mind xPlay with the Mind 2 mini PC I received the Mind xPlay with the Mind 2 Meteor Lake mini PC, and I already showed how to connect it and get started in the first part of the review. So I’ll continue the review with it initially. I used the EIZO monitor test website to evaluate the display panel itself. I went through all 13 tests, including dead pixel and gradients tests. The pattern above looks fine too, so I compare the Mind xPlay monitor to the 16-inch display of the ASUS Vivobook 16 to find differences. Both were set to maximum brightness. The xPlay delivers noticeably more […]

May 10, 2026 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 11 Comments

My experience upgrading the BIOS of a Windows 11 mini PC (with BitLocker) in 2026

I don’t always update the BIOS of my system, but when I do, I always make sure to waste several hours doing so. Last time I did that was in 2020, but this happened again when I updated the BIOS for the Khadas Mind 2 to test it with the Mind xPlay display and Mind Graphics 2 dock. Khadas provides the BIOS with instructions to update the Mind 2 mini PC, and it’s supposed to take five minutes, but I ended up wasting two about hours… The first step is to download and extract a zip file (mind-2-bios-v1.07-260122.zip), then start the Flash_BIOS upgrade program, and finally wait for the upgrade to complete. That part went great. No problem, but when the system rebooted, I was greeted by a BitLocker window asking me to enter a recovery key to carry on with the boot process. There’s no way to avoid this, […]