The Chuwi HiBox Hero is a compact mini PC that’s designed to be used as a compact home theatre PC or office PC. It’s powered … Read more
The Beelink BT7 is the latest Windows mini pc from the company. Featuring the faster quadcore Intel X7-X7300, the Beelink BT7 runs Windows 10 and boasts 4GB of RAM and up to 320GB of storage.
Is the Beelink BT7 any good? Read my review to find out.
Read moreBeelink BT7 Windows PC Review: A Step Above The Rest
The Cenovo Mini PC 2 is the latest Windows PC from the company. Sporting the quadcore Intel X5-Z8300 SoC, 2GB of RAM, 32GB of storage (or 4GB RAM/64GB storage in the second variant), 2.4GHz wireless and Bluetooth in a stylish case, is this one a winner? Read my Cenovo Mini PC 2 review to find out.
The MeLE Star Cloud PCG60 Plus is a new Windows PC powered by the quadcore Intel X5-Z8300 Cherry Trail SoC and features a VGA port. How good is it? Read my MeLE Star Cloud PCG60 Plus review to find out.
I want to say thanks to MeLE for sending me a sample to review.
Check Price at AliExpress
Inside the box, you get:
The MeLE PCG60 Plus is a stocky device. It’s taller than most Windows mini PCs but this allows it to have a more compact footprint than it’s competitors.
It’s case is metal and uses a stylish grey and black color scheme that blends in with your other electronic equipment.
The unit is also incredibly solid. I’ve never felt a mini PC that’s so heavy. It feels really substantial and won’t move an inch – even when all your cables are plugged into it.
In terms of ports, the right side houses a micro SD card slot (with an blank installed to keep dust out – a nice touch).
The remainder of the ports are located on the rear of the device. You’ve got a USB 2.0 port, VGA port, power button, 3.5mm headphone jack, Kensington lock port, 2 USB 3.0 ports, Ethernet, HDMI output and DC in.
I really like the MeLE Star Clou PCG60 Plus’ design but I wish it at least had one front facing USB port to make it easy to plug in a HDD. A USB extender would be a handy addition.
The unit boots up by holding down the power button for a second. A cold boot takes around 30 seconds with a keyboard and mouse connected, it takes around 30 seconds to boot. Resuming from standby is pretty much instant.
The MeLE Star Cloud PCG60 Plus ships with the latest version of Windows 10. It’s activated out of the box and is completely stock. The single C:\ drive has 17.3GB out of 28GB free out of the box.
Performance was identical to other Intel X5-Z8300 devices, with the unit handling Microsoft’s OS well. Mulltitasking performance was great. I was able to open a few browser windows and watch a video without the unit missing a beat.
There’s also the option to use both the VGA and HDMI ports for a dual monitor setup for power users. It’s not a common feature on these mini PCs so it’s great to see and adds legitimacy for using the device as a traditional PC.
I installed the latest version of Kodi (Kodi 16.1 at the time of writing) to test out media playback.
| Codec | Video Performance (Kodi 16.1) |
|---|---|
| 1080p 3D SBS H.264 | OK |
| 1080p 3D ABL H.264 | OK |
| 1080p24 H.264 | OK |
| 1080p High Bitrate H.264 | OK |
| 1080p60 H.264 | OK |
| 720p50 H.264 | OK |
| 1080i25 H.264 | OK |
| 4K 30FPS H.264 | OK |
| 4K 60FPS H.264 | Audio Lags Behind Video |
| 1080p24 HEVC | OK |
| 4K 30FPS 8-bit HEVC | OK |
| 1080p 10-bit HEVC | Decoding Issues |
| 1080p30 VP8 | OK |
| 720p Hi10p | OK |
| 1080p Hi10p | OK (Software Decoding) |
| 1080p MPEG2 | OK |
| 1080p VC1 | OK |
| Unencrypted Bluray ISO (Sintel) | OK |
Media playback on the MeLE Star Cloud PCG60 Plus was solid as we’ve seen with other Cherry Trail PCs. The most common codecs played back well and even some of the more demanding codecs were able to be decoded via software (i.e. 1080p Hi10p).
Deinterlacing performance was good and automatic framerate switching is supported for correct playback of videos once enabled in Kodi’s settings.
Dolby Digital 5.1 passthrough via HDMI worked fine via Kodi 16.1
Netflix plays back in HD via the native Windows 10 app.
Playing back movies from my 2.5″ USB-powered HDD and USB flash drive worked perfectly.
To test gaming performance, I installed 2 games,1 2D and 1 3D title:
Gaming performance on the MeLE PCG61 was great, handling both Jetpack Joyride and Beach Buggy Racing well, even on maximum settings.
My Gamesir G3 was able to be hooked up wireless via USB to play Beach Buggy Racing.
Connecting up my Bluetooth keyboard also worked flawlessly.
| Benchmark | Score |
| 3DMark Ice Storm Unlimited | 17952 |
| 3DMark Ice Storm Extreme | 12781 |
| 3DMark Cloud Gate | 1535 |
| GeekBench 3 Single Core | 774 |
| GeekBench 3 Multi Core | 2150 |
The MeLE Star Cloud PCG60 Plus’s thermal performance was excellent. Despite stress testing it for over 30 minutes using using HeavyLoad, the unit didn’t throttle according to HWiNFO. This isn’t particularly surprising given MeLE traditionally have excellent heat dissipation in their designs.
| Off | Standby | Idle | 1080p24 Video | Under Load |
| 0W | 0.2W | 6.5W | 8.2W | 12.7W |
The MeLE Star Cloud PCG60 Plus is another excellent Windows 10 PC from MeLE. It looks great, is incredibly well-built and has the performance to match.
Though it’s a little pricier than some of the competition, the MeLE Star Cloud PCG60 Plus really does show you that you get what you pay for.
You can get the MeLE Star Cloud PCG60 Plus from MeLE’s official store on AliExpress for around $200. There’s currently a sale on for 25% off, bringing it down to only $150 which is great given the quality of the unit.
Check Price at AliExpress
The Nexbox T11 is a new Windows PC powered by the quadcore Intel X5-Z8300 Cherry Trail SoC and features a VGA port and 2.5″ HDD bay. How good is it? Read my Nexbox T11 review to find out.
I want to say thanks to Nexbox for sending me a sample to review.
Check Price at GeekBuyingUse coupon “OCCEWBKS” to get $10 off at GeekBuying
Inside the box, you get:
The Nexbox T11 is fairly typical looking Windows PC, using a typical black square design.
The front of the unit is bare, with all the ports located on the sides and rear. The right side features a power button and two USB ports.
The left side has another USB 2.0 port, a USB 3.0 port and a micro SD card.
Most of the ports are located on the rear, as you’d expect. Going from left to right, we have a VGA port, 3.5mm audio output, ethernet, HDMI out, micro USB OTG and DC In.
Underneath the unit are keyhole mounts for mounting the unit to the back of a monitor and the 2.5″ hard drive bay.
Holding down the power button boots the unit. With a keyboard and mouse connected, it takes around 30 seconds to boot. Resuming from standby is essentially instant.
The Nexbox T11 ships with the latest version of Windows 10 and is activated out of the box. Windows is stock, without any tweaks or customisation.
Performance was on par with other devices powered by the Intel X5-Z8300. Everything felt great to use and basic multitasking was fine, with several browser Windows and video playback proving no issue for the Nexbox T11.
Installing an additional HDD via the 2.5″ HDD bay is as easy as opening up the bay and sliding in the new HDD into the SATA port. It was readily recognised as an additional drive once initialised via Windows’ Disk Management program.
Those wanting to use two monitors are covered as Nexbox states that you can use both the VGA and HDMI ports simultaneously for a dual monitor setup.
I installed the latest version of Kodi (Kodi 16.1 at the time of writing) to test out media playback.
| Codec | Video Performance (Kodi 16.1) |
|---|---|
| 1080p 3D SBS H.264 | OK |
| 1080p 3D ABL H.264 | OK |
| 1080p24 H.264 | OK |
| 1080p High Bitrate H.264 | OK |
| 1080p60 H.264 | OK |
| 720p50 H.264 | OK |
| 1080i25 H.264 | OK |
| 4K 30FPS H.264 | OK |
| 4K 60FPS H.264 | Audio Lags Behind Video |
| 1080p24 HEVC | OK |
| 4K 30FPS 8-bit HEVC | OK |
| 1080p 10-bit HEVC | Decoding Issues |
| 1080p30 VP8 | OK |
| 720p Hi10p | OK |
| 1080p Hi10p | OK (Software Decoding) |
| 1080p MPEG2 | OK |
| 1080p VC1 | OK |
| Unencrypted Bluray ISO (Sintel) | OK |
Media playback on the Nexbox T11 was generally excellent, on par with other Cherry Trail-powered Windows mini PCs.
All the most common codecs played back well and even my 1080p Hi10p samples were able to be played via software decoding.
Deinterlacing performance was good and automatic framerate switching is supported for correct playback of videos once enabled in Kodi’s settings.
Dolby Digital 5.1 passthrough via HDMI worked fine via Kodi 16.1
Netflix plays back in HD via the native Windows 10 app, offering a superior experience to the web version.
Playing back movies from my 2.5″ USB-powered HDD and USB flash drive worked perfectly.
To test gaming performance, I installed 2 games,1 2D and 1 3D title:
I was initially worried about the gaming performance as my first boot showed low frame rates during gaming. However, after a reboot, everything seemed to be stable so it’s possible Windows was still configuring.
Gaming performance was good. The relatively simple Jetpack Joyride played smoothly and I didn’t have any issues maintaining a good framerate in Beach Buggy Racing, even at maximum settings.
I was able to hook up my Gamesir G3 using the USB dongle to have it detected as an Xbox 360 controller.
Pairing up a Bluetooth keyboard was easy and worked well without any issues.
Networking performance was tested using Wifi performance was tested using Wifi Speed Test, conducting 3 tests and averaging the results. My router is approximately 5m away, with a single wall between the router and the device. WiFi performance is heavily impacted by a number of factors so your performance may vary.
Wireless performance was decent on the Nexbox T11, with upload and download speeds of 23.3 Mbps and 38.1 Mbps respectively on the 2.4GHz band.
Real world performance was good, streaming 1080p and 4K H.264 videos from my NFS share without buffering.
Ethernet performance was reasonable, with upload and download speeds of 87.1 Mbps and 86.1 Mbps respectively.
| Benchmark | Score |
| PCMark Home Conventional | 1046 |
| PCMark Work Conventional | 1406 |
| 3DMark Ice Storm Unlimited | 17485 |
| 3DMark Ice Storm Extreme | 10446 |
| 3DMark Cloud Gate | 1486 |
| GeekBench 3 Single Core | 741 |
| GeekBench 3 Multi Core | 2233 |
The Nexbox T11’s thermal performance seems to be decent. After stressing the Nexbox T11 using HeavyLoad, HWiNFO reported that the SoC temperature capped out at 82°C. HWiNFO didn’t report any throttling however the CPU speed did periodically drop to 480Mhz so I’m not sure what’s occurred. Ambient temperature was 19.6°C.
| Off | Standby | Idle | 1080p24 Video | Under Load |
| 0W | 3.5W | 5.0W | 6.3W | 9.5W |
The Nexbox T11 is another decent Windows 10 PC powered by Intel’s X5-Z8300. Performance was comparable with other Cherry Trail boxes whilst the ability to use dual monitors without adapters and add another HDD via the 2.5″ bay will undoubtedly be a benefit for power users.
It’s not the flashiest of boxes, but it held up well during testing and extra features such as the VGA port and SATA bay make it a winner for power users.
You can get the Nexbox T11 from Geekbuying, GearBest and Amazon for around $130.
Use our exclusive coupon “OCCEWBKS” to get $10 off at GeekBuying!
Check Price at GeekBuying
The Nexbox T11 is a Windows 10 mini PC powered by the quadcore Intel X5-Z8300 Cherry Trail processor. It also features 2GB of RAM, 32GB of storage, VGA output and a 2.5″ HDD bay.
I want to say thanks to Nexbox for sending me a sample to review
Check Price at GeekBuying
Inside the box, you get:
The Nexbox T11 is fairly typical looking Windows PC, using a typical black square design.
The front of the unit is bare, with all the ports located on the sides and rear. The right side features a power button and two USB ports.
The left side has another USB 2.0 port, a USB 3.0 port and a micro SD card.
Most of the ports are located on the rear, as you’d expect. Going from left to right, we have a VGA port, 3.5mm audio output, ethernet, HDMI out, micro USB OTG and DC In.
Underneath the unit are keyhole mounts for mounting the unit to the back of a monitor and the 2.5″ hard drive bay.
Holding down the power button boots the unit. With a keyboard and mouse connected, it takes under 30 seconds to boot. Resuming from standby is essentially instant.
The Nexbox T11 ships with the latest version of Windows 10 and is activated out of the box. Windows is stock, without any tweaks or customisation.
Everything felt as fast as other Intel Cherry Trail PCs which is good. I did experience two blue screens during usage which seemed to be due Intel’s graphics driver. I’ll be seeing if there’s a new driver available that may fix the issue.
A quick media playback test with Kodi 16.1 showed the Nexbox T11’s performance is on par with other Cherry Trail devices.
Playback of 1080p24 H.264 and H.265 samples worked perfectly. Automatic Framerate switching also worked as expected once enabled in Kodi’s settings.
Wireless performance seems to be good, having no issues streaming 4K H.264 samples from my server’s NFS share.
Gaming performance is good, as you’d expect from the added GPU grunt offered by Cherry Trail over its Bay Trail processors. I had no issues maxing out Beach Buggy Racing’s graphics and still maintaining good frame rates.
So far, the Nexbox T11 seems promising. Performance is on par with other Cherry Trail boxes whilst the ability to use dual monitors without adapters and mount larger hard drives will undoubtedly be a benefit for power users.
Keep posted for my full review in the coming days.
The Nexbox T11 is available from GeekBuying, Amazon and eBay.
Check Price at GeekBuying
The Beelink Pocket P1 is pocket-sized Windows PC powered by the quadcore Intel Z3735F SoC. Also featuring 2GB RAM and 32GB of onboard storage, the Beelink Pocket P1 crams an impressive amount of functionality into a truly pocketable form factor.
Thanks to GearBest for providing me a sample to review. Click here to view the latest price.
The Beelink Pocket P1 is a pocket-sized Windows mini PC powered by a quadcore Intel processor. It’s great for a tiny HTPC or desktop thanks to its fanless design, impressively small form factor and low power requirements.
[GB-BP1-Deal]
Beelink have provided a solid set of inclusions. Inside the box, you get:
It’s great to see that Beelink have included the micro HDMI to HDMI cable in the box. We’ve had a few products neglect to include one which is always frustrating.
I’ll admit I was skeptical when Beelink called this device the Pocket P1. Few devices that have claimed to fit in your pocket have come remotely close. Compared to its closest competitor, the Ainol Mini PC, the Beelink Pocket P1 makes it look like the former look huge in comparison. It really is impressive just how small and thin the Beelink Pocket P1 actually is. At just 15.23×8.3cm and an impressive 1.14 cm thick, it’s definitely pocketable.
The device feels well-made, with an all metal case and hefty weight which makes the Beelink Pocket P1 feel solid. I’d be comfortable chucking it into a bag as a portable HTPC.
Using a stylish charcoal and black color scheme, the case is predominately Most of the device is blank, except for the Beelink branding on the top and the ports at the back. This minimalism makes the device look incredibly modern. I had many people struggle to believe there was a Windows PC hidden inside.
All the ports are located on the back of the device. From left to right, we have 2 full size USB, micro USB for power, Micro HDMI, 3.5mm audio and the power button. A small red power LED is hidden between the 2 USB ports.
As impressed as I am, I would have still liked to see an extra USB port or so, as two feels so limiting these days. A cheap USB hub will solve the problem however.
Lastly, it does get a little cramped in the back. With everything plugged in, it can be a challenge to plug/unplug USB devices and I couldn’t use my HDMI to micro HDMI adapter was useless as it would hit the power cable. It’s clear portability required some sacrifices, but when you’re packing a quadcore Windows PC in your pocket, I think the tight fit can be forgiven.
To boot the device, you need to hold the Power button for several seconds until the power LED turns on. Boot times are reasonably fast, taking 14 seconds to boot into Windows from a cold start. Resuming from standby is more-or-less instant.
The Beelink Pocket P1 runs Windows 8.1 with Bing Operating System and comes activated. Navigating through Windows felt great and everything ran well, even during multitasking. I had no issues browsing the web and watching a video for example.
Video playback was tested using Kodi 14.2 due to its excellent codec support and HTPC frontend:
| Video Codec | Video Performance (Kodi 14.2) |
|---|---|
| 1080p 3D SBS H.264 | OK |
| 1080p 3D ABL H.264 | OK |
| 1080p30 H.264 | OK |
| 1080p High Bitrate H.264 | OK |
| 1080p60 H.264 | OK |
| 720p50 H.264 | OK |
| 1080i50 H.264 | OK |
| 4K H.264 | OK |
| 1080p HEVC | Unwatchable (Too many skipped frames) |
| 4K HEVC | Unwatchable (Too many skipped frames) |
| 1080p VP8 | Watchable (Some Dropped Frames) (Software Decode) |
| 720p Hi10p | Watchable (Some Dropped Frames) (Software Decode) |
| 1080p Hi10p | Watchable (Some Dropped Frames) (Software Decode) |
| 1080p MPEG2 | OK |
| 720P RMVB | Watchable (Some Dropped Frames) (Software Decode) |
| 1080p VC1 | OK |
The Beelink Pocket P1 did an excellent job during the video tests. As experienced on other Windows mini PCs powered by the Intel Z3735F, only the more demanding codecs caused issues – often due to their need to use software decoding. Automatic framerate switching worked as expected.
To test gaming performance, I installed 3 games from the Windows store – 1 2D and 2 3D titles:
Gaming performance was fairly good. The Beelink Pocket didn’t break a sweat when running Jetpack Joyride, with gameplay remaining smooth throughout. Beach Buggy Blitz maintained an solid framerate on maximum settings with only the occasional hitch and Asphalt 8 was playable, albiet at sub-30fps. However, I blame Gameloft’s recent update for the reduced performance I’ve seen with Asphalt 8 on Windows.
I connected my iPazzPort Bluetooth Keyboard over Bluetooth without any issue. My Tronsmart Mars G01 was recognized as a Xbox 360 controller and I was able to use it in both Beach Buggy Racing and Asphalt 8.
The Beelink Pocket P1 is Wifi only, as its tiny case can’t fit an Ethernet port. Those looking to add Ethernet should consider purchasing a USB to Ethernet dongle.
To test out WiFi performance, I used iperf (iperf –t 60 -c SERVER_IP -r) to test networking bandwidth in both directions.
WiFi performance was good, with upload and download speeds of 30.2 Mbps and 32.0 Mbps respectively. Web browsing and watching YouTube videos over WiFi was fast and I didn’t experience any buffering when streaming 1080p and 4K H.264 video from an NFS share via WiFi.
At approximately 5m from the router and through one wall, WiFi reception was registering 3-4 bars in Windows.
Thermal performance of the Beelink Pocket P1 was excellent, keeping up with the excellent Ainol Mini PC despite its smaller case thanks to a design which effectively uses the metal case as a heatsink.
Thermal performance was tested by using Prime95‘s Small FFT’s test which is designed to generate maximum heat. After running for approximately 30 minutes, the Beelink Pocket P1’s SoC temperatures maxed out at 55°C and there was no thermal throttling according to HWiNFO.
At this temperature, there is plenty more thermal headroom before thermal throttling will take over and limit performance, which is excellent.
Case temperatures were measured using an IR thermometer, with temperatures of 39.5°C and 40.1°C recorded on the top and bottom respectively. Ambient temperature was 21.3°C.
| Powered Off | Charging | Standby | Idle | Load |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 0 W | 10 W | 3.3 W | 4.8 W | 8.5 W |
I received my Beelink Pocket P1 from GearBest. You can purchase your Beelink Pocket P1 from them here.
Alternatively, it’s available from Amazon, GeekBuying and AliExpress.
[GB-BP1-Deal]