Beelink X55 Review – An Intel Gemini Lake mini PC Tested with Windows 10 and Linux

Beelink X55 board

The Beelink X55 is very similar in style to Intel’s NUC7PJYH NUC reviewed earlier except that it is not a kit but a fully functional Windows mini PC. It is physically small consisting of an approximately 4.5″ by 4” case about 1¾” tall with a front panel that includes the power button and a couple of USB ports and a headphone jack with the rest of the ports including two HDMI (2.0) ones at the rear: The specifications include: The key highlights are that the Beelink X55 comes a 128GB mSATA SSD with pre-installed Windows 10 Home together with 8GB DDR4 RAM (soldered and is non-expandable) and space plus a connector for an SSD. Starting with a quick look at the hardware information shows it is mostly aligned to the specification but see the note below about the memory: As usual I ran my standard set of benchmarking tools to […]

Beelink X45 Mini PC Review with Windows 10 and Ubuntu 16.04/18.04

Beelink X45 Board

The Beelink X45 mini PC is now available, and Lightinthebox.com have provided a unit for review. It is very similar in style to Intel’s latest NUC Windows mini PC, the NUC7CJYSAL reviewed earlier. However it contains an Intel Celeron Processor J4105 SoC which is a quad core processor bursting up to 2.50 GHz together with the Intel UHD Graphics 600 processor that is capable of 4K support at 60Hz. It is physically small consisting of an approximately 4.5″ by 4” case about 1¾” tall with a front panel that includes the power button and a couple of USB ports and a headphone jack with the rest of the ports including two HDMI (2.0) ones at the rear: The specifications include: A key point to note is the Beelink X45 comes with 64GB eMMC with pre-installed Windows 10 Home together with 4GB DDR4 RAM (soldered and is non-expandable) with space and […]

MINIX NEO J50C-4 Mini PC Review – Part 2: Windows 10 Pro

MINIX NEO J50C-4 Wireless Keyboard Mouse

Intel Gemini Lake processors and associated have been products  available for several months, and although I’ve published several Gemini Lake reviews, those were courtesy of Linuxium, which means MINIX NEO J50C-4 is my very first Gemini Lake mini PC. We’ve already looked at the hardware and accessories in MINIX NEO J50C-4 Pentium J5005 Mini PC Review – Part 1: Unboxing, Windows Remote, M.2 SSD, and Teardown, and focused on MINIX NEO W2 remote control in a separate review post.  So in the second part of the review, I’ll focus on my experience with Windows 10 Pro, before likely publishing a third part about Ubuntu / Linux in a few weeks. Initial Setup, BIOS, and Booting MINIX NEO J50C-4 from the M.2 SSD The review will be a little different than usual since I’m on the road, and as a result I did not take all my accessories with me to […]

MINIX NEO W2 PC Remote Control Review in Windows 10 and Ubuntu 18.04

MINIX NEO W2 Backlight Keyboard

MINIX NEO W2 is sold as a Windows 10 remote control with one side acting as an actual remote with shortcuts to useful Windows functions and programs, another side as a keyboard, as well as a motion sensors to use it as an air mouse. I received it with MINIX NEO J50C-4 Windows 10 Pro mini PC, so I tested it today both with Windows 10, and Ubuntu 18.04. Batteries and Backlight I’ve already looked at the package and remote hardware in the NEO post linked above, so let’s get to it by first installing two AAA battery on either side of the keyboard side. A cool feature you’ll immediately noticed is that both sides of the remote control are actually backlight, with Fn and CapsLock key also changing color to red when they are enabled. The backlight is automatically turn off after 4 seconds, but as you can see […]

MINIX NEO J50C-4 Pentium J5005 Mini PC Review – Part 1: Unboxing, Windows Remote, M.2 SSD, and Teardown

MINIX NEO J50C-4 Review

MINIX has just announced a new Windows 10 Pro mini PC with MINIX NEO J50C-4 mini PC that just looks like their previous models like MINIX NEO N42C-4, except it comes with a Pentium Silver J5005 “Gemini Lake” processor. The company sent me a sample together with some accessories, and it will be interesting to see how it performs. But before I’ll go through the specifications, checking the devices and some extra accessories namely NEO W2 windows remote control, and an M.2 SSD pre-loaded with Windows 10 Pro. Finally, I’ll have a look at the internals in the first part of this review. MINIX NEO J50C-4 Specifications SoC – Intel Pentium Silver J5005 quad core “Gemini Lake” processor @ 1.50 / 2.80 GHz with 18 EU Intel UHD Graphics 605 (10W TDP) System Memory – 4GB DDR4 upgradable to 16GB via 2x SO-DIMM slots Storage – 32GB eMMC 5.1 flash, […]

Lenovo Yoga C630 WOS Laptop Comes with Qualcomm Snapdragon 850 SoC, up to 8GB RAM & 256GB UFS Storage

The first Windows 10 based Arm laptops, also referred to as always-on always connected mobile PC’s, were launched last year with Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 processor, LTE connectivity and promises of 20+ hours of battery life. The laptops did deliver on the last two features, but most reviewers found the devices – such as HP Envy X2 or ASUS Novago TP370 – to be pretty sluggish considering the price you’d paid for them. But Qualcomm did not stand still and announced Snapdragon 850 processor in June, with 30% better system performance, nearly three times faster AI performance, faster LTE connectivity, and a battery life of over 25 hours. So we just had to wait for products announcements, and the first Snapdragon 850 laptop is Lenovo Yoga C630 WOS (Windows on Snapdragon) that comes with 4 or 8GB RAM, 128 or 256GB internal storage, and hopefully provides a smoother user experience, maybe […]

Tranquil PC’s AMD Ryzen Embedded Mini PC Supports Up to 4 Displays

AMD Ryzen Embedded Mini PC

AMD Ryzen Embedded V1000 processor family was introduced  last February, but if you’d wanted to buy a Ryzen Embedded mini PC today, you’ struggle to do so at least for a retail model. One option is to get an UDOO Bolt V3/V8 development board together its metal case and assemble the mini PC yourself.  The solution was launched on Kickstarter however, and will only start shipping in December 2018 if everything goes according to plans. If you’d rather get a Ryzen Embedded mini PC a little earlier,  Tranquil PC’s Mini Multi display PC may be an option with a choice of three Ryzen embedded V1000 processors, a fanless design, and support for up to 4 independent displays. Transquil PC’s mini multi-display PC Basic/Advanced/Advanced+ specifications: SoC Basic – AMD Ryzen Embedded V1202B, 2C/4T @ 2.3 / 3.2GHz, TDP: 12W-25W Advanced – AMD Ryzen Embedded V1605B, 4C/8T @ 2.3 / 3.6GHz, TDP: […]

Teclast F5 Laptop Features 11.6″ Fully Rotating Display, Celeron N4100 Processor, 8GB RAM, 128GB SSD

360 hinge gemini lake laptop

Teclast F5 is another Gemini Lake laptop based on Intel Celeron N4100 processor, with this model including a  11.6″ full HD display that can fully rotate thanks to a 360° hinge, and coming with 8GB RAM and 128GB SSD. Teclast F5 laptop is now up for pre-order on GearBest for $369.99 with free worldwide shipping. The presale ends on August 12th, and as I understand shipping starts the next day. Teclast F5 specifications: SoC – Intel Celeron N4100 quad core Gemini Lake processor @ 1.10 GHz / 2.40 GHz (Turbo) with Intel UHD graphics 600 ; 6W TDP System Memory – 8GB DDR4 Storage – 128GB M.2 2242 SSD (expandable), micro SD card slot Display – 11.6″ FHD (1920×1080) IPS touchscreen display Video Output – Micro HDMI port Audio – Stereo speaker, microphone, 3.5mm audio jack, digital audio output via HDMI Connectivity – Dual band 802.11 b/g/n/ac WiFi and Bluetooth […]