GEEKOM MiniAir 11 Hands-on Review

GEEKOM is known for its compact mini PCs, including the recently launched MiniAir 11 and Mini IT11. Today, we will take a look at the former. The MiniAir 11 is a tiny desktop powered by an Intel Celeron N5095.

Let’s see if the power-efficient chip has what it takes to tackle the demands of the typical home user. Since this is a shorter hands-on review, we will take a quick look at the MiniAir 11’s performance, build quality, and our overall impression. We will not attribute a final rating to the MiniAir 11.

The review unit was provided by GEEKOM. Like GEEKOM’s other mini PCs, the MiniAir 11 is well-built. The case is made from a thick plastic that doesn’t bend when depressed.

The sides and bottom have a slightly textured matte finish that hides smudges, but the glossy top readily shoes fingerprints. Its black and gray coloration helps the MiniAir 11 blend into an office aesthetic. GEEKOM includes a VESA mounting plate, so the MiniAir 11 can be attached to the back of compatible monitors.

Port selection is quite good considering the desktop’s compact footprint. The inclusion of two USB 3. 2 Gen 2 (10 Gbps) ports is a nice touch not often seen at this price point, as are the SD card slot and two display hookups (one HDMI 2.

0, one mini DisplayPort 1. 4). The front USB ports are well-spaced, allowing bulky USB accessories to fit.

However, the two USB-A ports on the back don’t have much room for clearance, so thicker drives or connectors may not fit next to each other. Maintenance is a snap. Four retained Phillips Head screws hold the bottom plate on.

Once these are unscrewed, the bottom plate can be pulled out. Users will have access to two DDR4 RAM slots (1. 2 V) and the M.

2 drive. The GEEKOM MiniAir 11 offers good everyday performance without breaking the bank. Thanks to its 11th Gen Celeron CPU, 8 GB of DDR4 RAM, and solid SATA M.

2 drive, the MiniAir can tackle web browsing and office work without much fuss. The Intel Celeron N5095 is one of the latest low-powered CPUs from Intel. The 10 nm chip focuses on reducing the cost while balancing performance against heat output and power consumption.

To that end, the quad-core chip carves out a good position in the budget segment. The 15 Watt Jasper Lake silicon scores above other Celeron CPUs in Cinebench and competes well against the Pentium Silver N6005 in single-core tests. However, the N5095 bests the Pentium Silver N6005 in multi-core benchmarks by about 15%.

As expected, the Celeron N5095 falls far short of mid-range chips like the Ryzen 5 3550H and the Core i5-11400T . The MiniAir 11 offers stable long-term multi-core CPU performance, as evidenced in our Cinebench R15 loop test. Overall system performance is good and is adequate for general home use.

There are a few hiccups across the UI, such as pulling up the Start menu from a cold boot. Loading some programs takes a little bit of time. General web browsing is quick enough that most won’t complain.

Compared to other budget-class mini desktops, the MiniAir 11 offers competitive performance but lags a bit behind competitors in PCMark 10. The MiniAir 11 is not well-suited for real-time audio editing based on how it performs during our LatencyMon test. The included M.

2 SATA SSD offers reasonably quick load times but is nothing special. It can easily be swapped, and the MiniAir 11’s single M. 2 2280 drive slot supports either SATA III or NVMe drives.

While the MiniAir 11 is certainly not a graphical powerhouse, the integrated Jasper Lake UHD Graphics GPU (16 EU) can handle media streaming and simple image editing. However, video editing and mid-range graphical work will push the iGPU to its limits. The MiniAir 11 can handle simple and casual games, but 3D titles are out of reach.

Even older titles like Bioshock Infinite are unplayable on the MiniAir 11. Due to its low-powered chip, the MiniAir 11 handles heat reasonably well. Running Prime95 for an hour sees the silicon hit 72° C while maintaining a boost clock of 2.

8 GHz. The desktop handles stressful graphical loads well also; after running FurMark for an hour, temperatures across the CPU package average 68° C. Running both Prime95 and FurMark keeps the chip at 67° C.

The CPU maintains a clock speed of roughly 2. 5 GHz. During our stress test, the fan spins up but ramps down to an almost imperceptible level.

It can be heard in a quiet environment, but it should be unobtrusive in a standard office setting, even under load. The GEEKOM MiniAir 11 is a solid option for a family PC or a simple office machine. It offers enough power for web browsing and office work and has the chops to handle media streaming and some simple gaming as well.

Its compact size allows it to fit into almost any space, and it can be mounted to the back of a monitor for a clean desk. The MiniAir 11’s strengths lie in its small size, solid port selection, and near-silent operation. However, its compact case limits storage options; space for a cheap 2.

5-inch or 3. 5-inch drive would be a nice addition to handle bulk storage, especially given its target for simple office work. This coupled with limited CPU performance may leave some wanting more.

All said, the GEEKOM MiniAir 11 is a great option for a family PC or offices on a budget in search of a desktop that won’t crowd a desk. At just US$279 (US$239 at the time of publication), it’s a solid choice. The GEEKOM MiniAir 11 is available from GEEKOM for US$279 (US$239 at publication time) and from Amazon for US$279.

99 . Use coupon code 05EG9QNQ and the on-page coupon at Amazon to buy the MiniAir 11 for US$230. 99 through August 22, 2022.

Our review unit was provided by GEEKOM. .