Beelink Mini S review: a budget mini PC that does everything

[jupiter2012]

The good:
Neat and compact design.
Licensed Windows 11 Pro.
Upgradable memory and storage.
Decent performance.
Excellent power efficiency.

The bad:
The M.2 interface is only compatible with SATA3 SSDs.
Single-channel memory.
No SD card reader.

As mobile chips evolve, some form factor PCs are getting so good that they can even rival mainstream desktop PCs in terms of performance. However, only a small fraction of PC costumers are content creators or passionate gamers who need that much horsepower, most people’s daily computing only consists of a variety of simpler tasks, and that’s where budget mini PCs come in.

With an Intel Celeron N5095 quad-core processor, upgradable memory and storage, alongside the ability to drive three 4K displays, the Beelink U59 released last year is one of the best budget mini PCs I have ever tested, and now it has a younger brother: the Beelink Mini S. This new small computer packs identical specs in an even smaller chassis. It is bound to be a strong contender in the market.

Main specs of the Beelink Mini S
Processor: Intel Jasper Lake Celeron N5095
CPU: 4 cores, 4 threads, 2.0-2.9GHz
GPU: Intel UHD Graphics
Process technique: 10nm
OS: Windows 11 Pro 64bit
RAM: 8GB/16GB DDR4 2400MHz
Storage: 256GB/512GB
Network: WiFi5 + BT 4.0 / Ethernet Gigabit
Ports: 4x USB 3.0 / 2x HDMI 2.0 / 3.5mm audio jack
Accessories: 12V-3A DC adapter/ 2x HDMI Cable (1m & 0.25m) / User Manual
Size: 115 mm x 102 mm x 41 mm
Weight: 280g


Retail Package



The packaging of the Mini S is nice and simple. Inside the box you will find a mini PC, a VESA Mount bracket, a 36-watt power adapter, two HDMI cables, a bag of screws, and a user manual.


Design



The Beelink Mini S employs a well-ventilated plastic chassis measuring 115 mm x 102 mm x 41 mm to house the Intel Celeron N5095 SoC. and other internal components. The matte dark blue finish on top isn’t anything new or refreshing, but it does give the machine a fairly professional look. You can find the “Beelink” branding in the center of the top panel, and an “Intel Inside” logo on the lower-right corner.





The front panel sports a Clear CMOS pinhole, two USB 3.0 ports, a 3.5mm audio jack with mic support, a power button, and a status LED. The rear side plays host to two more USB 3.0 ports, a full-size Ethernet, two HDMI 2.0 ports, and a DC-in port. Compared to the U59, the only difference here is the absence of a multi-function Type-C port. As a result, the Mini S won’t drive three 4K displays like the U59 does. But for most people, having two 4K displays for multi-tasking is good enough.



After removing the four screws on the bottom panel, you can get access to the internals of this mini PC. The good news is that the DDR4-2400 memory stick is not soldered on the motherboard, so it is upgradable, but the bad news is that there’s only one memory slot, so you won’t have dual-channel memory to boost the performance of this mini PC. You can find an M.2 2280 interface, as well as a 2.5-inch HDD/SSD interface on the motherboard, both support drives of up to 2TB, so you can have a maximum of 4TB internal storage under the hood. Unfortunately, the M.2 2280 interface is only compatible with SATA3 standard SSDs, faster NVMe SSDs won’t work here.



The Mini S weighs only 280g, lighter than an Apple iPad mini (293g), the inlcuded power adapter won't add much weight to your carry, either. Moving it around in the house or taking it on your daily commute shouldn’t be much of an effort. The Mini PC feels robust and sturdy in the hands, and looks like it will survive a fair amount of office abuse, and maybe even some occasional falls.


System & Apps



Most SFF PCs and laptops run on the Home Edition of Windows OS, but the Beelink Mini S ships with licensed Windows 11 Pro, which offers quite a few extra features for professionals. The Windows 11 here is completely clean, with no bloatware or 3rd-party applications. Besides Windows, you can also install any X86 compatible operating systems on the Mini S, including Ubuntu, Debian, Android and CentOS. You might even find ways to run MAC OS on it, although I would not encourage anyone to do so.

[jupiter2012]

Performance



The Mini S rocks an Intel Celeron N5095 chip, which is built on 10nm process, with typical Thermal Design Power of 15 W. This chipset has 4 CPU cores, 4 processing threads working at 2 GHz (Turbo 2.9 GHz), and an integrated UHD GPU working at 650MHz. The N5095 SoC. is featured in lots of mini PCs and entry-level laptops. It is definitely not a powerhouse, but should be capable enough for most people’s everyday computing duties. My review unit comes with 8GB memory, as well as a 256GB SATA3 SSD, but Beelink does offer other configurations for you to choose from.

Benchmarks



In the cross-platform Geekbench 5, the Mini S scored 645 in CPU single core, 2017 in multi core, and 2117 in OpenCL. Those are typical numbers for the N5095 processor.



In the Cinebench R20 CPU-crunching test, the Mini S got 234 in single core, and 787 in multi-core.



Running it through PCMark10, my review unit got 2,339 points. This is actually on the higher end of the performance rating, compared to other budget mini PCs I’ve tested.



Beelink doesn’t sell the Mini S in barebone, so all units will come with an SSD. The speed of the 256GB SSD in my unit is pretty standard for an M.2 SATA3 SSD, nothing exciting here. Still, it is fast enough to guarantee that booting into Windows 11 takes only a few seconds.


Daily computing



The Mini S was fairly capable for dealing with mainstream daily computing tasks. I could open a dozen content-heavy webpages in Microsoft Edge, play a 4K video, and edit my presentation in PowerPoint at the same time, without noticing any hiccups or delays.

Obviously, there are occasions where the Mini S wouldn’t make sense, like editing 4K footages from your professional DSLR, or designing complex artwork, but for lightweight creativity tasks such as editing photos in Photoshop and making a short video in for your TikTok channel, this would work great.


HTPC



This mini PC could also make a perfect HTPC or media center. According to DXVA checker, the UHD Graphics GPU is able to decode most video formats up to 4K, some even up to 8K. I’ve played many UHD Blu-Ray movies on the Mini S and enjoyed perfectly smooth playback.

Streaming videos online was a similar story. When I was playing an 4K/60FPS YouTube video in Chrome, neither the CPU nor the GPU was stressed too much. Streaming 8K/60FPS videos could be challenging for the Mini S, as I noticed frequent frameskip during the playback, since this mini PC doesn't really support 8K output, there's no point in doing that anyway.


Gaming



One of the areas where the Mini S didn’t do very well was gaming, as the integrated Intel UHD GPU isn’t really designed for graphics-intensive duties, and single-channel memory sort of made things worse. In 3DMark, the Mini S scored 2356 in Sky Diver, 606 in Fire Strike and 206 in Time Spy, falling behind the Beelink’s very own U59, which features the same processor, but has dual-channel memory.



LOL, which was quite smooth on the Beelink U59 at 1080P and medium settings, was just playable on the Mini S. The average frame rate was 44 fps, and I noticed some frameskip in intense battle scenes. Turning the resolution down to 720P could improve the average frame rate to 79 fps, but some of the fine details could become just a little too blurry on a large desktop monitor.

If you only play simpler, more casual games like Angry Birds, Plant vs Zombies, or games installed from Microsoft Store, then you obviously have nothing to worry about.


Power consumption and noise



This mini PC is very energy-efficient, as power consumption is at only 10 watts idle and 24 watts on max load. The Mini S stayed quiet most of the time, I could watch online videos for hours without hearing any noise from it. The cooling fan did spin up when the Mini S was under heavy workloads, but it was neither too loud nor too annoying.



The Mini S was also very stable. In the AIDA64 stability test, the temperature of the four CPU cores stayed below 90 degrees in 1 hour of running at full load.


Verdict

The Beelink Mini S is priced at $199 for the 8GB/256GB configuration on Beelink’s official website. Given the performance and expandability, alongside its very affordable price tag, if you’re looking for a small form factor desktop PC that is adequate for basic home or business computing tasks, you can’t go wrong here. If you want to bring better performance out of the N5095 chipset and don’t mind the slightly larger footprint, then I would still recommend that you go with the Beelink U59 instead.

[johny76239]

That's quite interesting. Gotta find a mini monitor that does everything so that I can be mobile and efficient at any time . For real though, the price is what sells it to me. Instead of buying a mid-tier laptop, it's way better to buy this thing to cover all my needs. Thanks for the review!

[jupiter2012]

That's quite interesting. Gotta find a mini monitor that does everything so that I can be mobile and efficient at any time . For real though, the price is what sells it to me. Instead of buying a mid-tier laptop, it's way better to buy this thing to cover all my needs. Thanks for the review!

Thanks for reading it.