GEEKOM MiniAir 11 Review: An Almost Perfect Budget Mini PC

[jupiter2012]

The good:
Compact design and great build quality.
Licensed Windows 11 Pro.
Dual-channel memory.
Decent performance.
Amazing power efficiency.

The bad:
No room for another SSD/HDD.

The latest generation of Intel Celeron and Pentium processors are becoming so good that, for most people’s daily computing, a budget mini PC can fully replace a large desktop PC nowadays. I tested quite a few low-power systems with the Jasper Lake Celeron and Pentium chips and were constantly amazed by the capability they had to offer. The recently released GEEKOM MiniAir 11 is an SFF PC powered by the Celeron N5095 quad-core processor, and it is in many ways the best budget mini PC I have ever tested.


Main specs of the GEEKOM MiniAir 11
Processor: Intel Jasper Lake Celeron N5095, TDP 15W
CPU: 4 Cores, 4 Threads, 2.0-2.9GHz
GPU: Intel UHD Graphics 605
Process Technique: 10nm
OS: Windows 11 Pro 64bit
RAM: 8GB DDR4 2400MHz
Storage: 256GB
Network: WiFi 5 / BT 4.2 / Ethernet Gigabit
Ports: 3x USB Type-A / 2x USB Type-C / 1x HDMI / 1x Mini DisplayPort / 1x 3.5mm Audio jack / 1x RJ45 Ethernet / 1x SDXC Card Reader
Accessories: 1x 19V-3.42A DC adapter / 1x HDMI Cable / 1x MiniDP to HDMI Converter / 1x User Manual / 1x VESA Mount Bracket
Size: 117 mm x 112 mm x 34.2 mm
Weight: 500 g


Retail Package



The GEEKOM MiniAir 11 comes with a very simple packaging box. You can find the branding and the model name on top, and the illustration of the product on the front.



Inside the box you will find a mini PC, a VESA Mount bracket, a 65-watt power adapter, two HDMI cables, a Mini DP to HDMI converter, a bag of screws, and a user manual. There’s also an envelope with a “Thank You” card inside. It’s GEEKOM showing its appreciation for the buyers.


Design and build



The well-ventilated ABS chassis of the GEEKOM MiniAir 11 measures 117 mm x 112 mm x 34.2mm, making it one of the smallest mini PCs to feature the Intel Celeron N5095 SoC. The matte black finish on top and muted blue finish on the other sides aren’t anything we haven’t seen yet, but it does give the machine a simple and professional look. You can find the “GEEKOM” branding in the center of the top panel, and an “Intel Inside” logo on the top-right corner.





The MiniAir 11 is packed with IO. The front panel sports one USB 3.2 Gen2 Type-A port, a USB-C port, and a 3.5mm audio jack with mic support. The rear side plays host to two USB 3.2 Gen1 ports, a full-size ethernet jack, one HDMI port, a Mini DisplayPort and a DC-in port. Neither one of the two Type-C ports supports video output, but you can connect the MiniAir 11 to two displays with HDMI and Mini DisplayPort. To make things easier for you, GEEKOM has included a Mini DP to HDMI converter in the retail package.



There’s also an SDXC card reader on the left panel, and a Kensington lock on the right side.



After unscrewing the four screws on the bottom panel, you can get access to the internals of this mini PC. The MiniAir 11 comes with two memory slots, which mean we can have dual-channel memory to boost the performance the of iGPU. There’s a single M.2 2280 interface which supports SSDs of both SATA3 and NVMe protocols, but the fact you are not able to install another drive is somewhat disappointing.



You will be amazed by the build quality of GEEKOM products. Like the Mini IT8 I reviewed last month, the MiniAir 11 also employs a high-quality metal frame inside to protect the internal components from outside impacts. There's also a cooling pad on the inside of the bottom panel to keep the SSD from overheating. Everything on the motherboard is so well-placed that you forget how affordable this machine is.


Operating system



Most SFF PCs and laptops run on the Home Edition of Windows OS, but the GEEKOM Mini Air 11 ships with licensed Windows 11 Pro, which offers quite a number of extra features such as being able to join a domain, Hyper-V for virtualization, etc. If you are more into open-source operating systems, you can also choose to install Ubuntu, Debian, Android X86 or CentOS.

[jupiter2012]

Performance



The MiniAir 11 is powered by an Intel Celeron N5095 chip, which is built on 10nm process, with typical Thermal Design Power of 15W. This SOC incorporates 4 CPU cores, 4 processing threads working at 2.0-2.9 GHz, and an Intel UHD 605 iGPU working at 650MHz. Celeron processors are often associated with low performance, but the N5095 chip is really anything but, and can be a game changer for the mini PC category.


Benchmarks



In the cross-platform Geekbench 5 test, the MiniAir 11 scored 660 in CPU single core, 2144 in multi core, and 2121 in OpenCL. Those were typical numbers for the N5095 processor, but the MiniAir 11 did a little better than the Beelink Mini S, which features the same SOC.



In the Cinebench R20 CPU-crunching test, the MiniAir 11 snatched 236 in single core, and 792 in multi-core. As you can see in the charts above, the MiniAir 11 handily beat the Core i3-8109U powered Beelink SEI8 in multi-core performance.



While the CPU performance of the N5095 chip may have caught up with older Intel Core and AMD Ryzen processors, the GPU performance obviously has not. In 3DMark, the GEEKOM MiniAir 11 scored in 2448 Sky Diver, 645 in Fire Strike, and 205 in Time Spy, falling far behind the Beelink SEI8, which employs a beefier Iris Plus 655 iGPU to take care of graphics-intensive tasks.



PCMark 10 simulates different real-world productivity and content-creation workflows. We often use it to assess the overall system performance of a PC. The GEEKOM MiniAir 11 scored 2287 in this test, much better than models featuring older Celeron and Pentium processors.



GEEKOM doesn’t offer a barebone version of the MiniAir 11, all units will be sold with an SSD inside. The 256GB SATA3 SSD in my review unit has decent sequential read and write speed, and you can upgrade the storage to an M.2 PCIe 3.0 NVMe SSD whenever you need to. But unlike higher-end Intel Core SoCs, the Celeron N5095 processor only has a very limited number of PCIe channels, so you should not expect any significant increase in speed.


Daily computing



I had tested a handful of N5095 powered systems before the MiniAir 11, so I wasn’t really surprised by how capable this machine could be. Mainstream computing duties like web-browsing, social-networking, Microsoft Office tasks and media playback definitely put no pressure on the MiniAir 11. Thanks to the sufficient DDR4 memory inside, you can also expect the MiniAir 11 to handle a fair amount of multi-tasking. I could open a dozen image-heavy webpages in Chrome, play an 8K video clip, and edit a few documents at the same time without experiencing any hiccup or delay.

It obviously makes no sense to use the MiniAir 11, or any budget mini PC, for heavy creativity tasks such as 4K video editing or complex artwork design, but you can expect it to do well in lightweight content creation. I did not notice any lags or delays when adding filters and colorations to a couple of 1080P video footages in Power Director.


Gaming



It’s not impossible to play games on the MiniAir 11, but you should keep your expectations modest. Simpler games like Minecraft, Angry Birds 2 and Plant vs Zombies could run smoothly on this mini PC, but with heavier titles, you will need to tune down the resolution and settings to ensure a smooth run.

For example, League of Legends was playable at 1080P and medium settings. With 57 fps on average, I only experienced a few minor frameskips in those intense battle scenes. After turning the resolution down to 720P, the average frame rate of the game was improved to 77 fps.

Genshin Impact has proven to be too challenging for the MiniAir 11, even at 720P and low settings, the average frame rate was only 11 fps, and graphics generally felt sluggish and slow during the entire session, making you want to quit the game as soon as possible.


HTPC



According to DXVA checker, the Intel UHD 605 iGPU can decode most video formats to 4K and above, making the MiniAir11 an ideal HTPC or media center for your home entertainment. I played quite a number of video clips on this mini PC, and all of them were extremely smooth. Because the MiniAir 11 always utilizes hardware video decoding, the CPU usage is never too high. However, there is a drawback. Since the MiniAir 11 only supports one M.2 SSD as internal storage, you will probably need external storage devices for your local media files.



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 MiniAir 11, 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.


Power consumption and noise



Power consumption of the MiniAir 11 is at only 6.8 watts idle and 22.5 watts on max load, and the machine stayed quiet most of the time. I did hear some noise from the cooling fan when running benchmark tests and games, but the sound was always so gentle that I easily ignored it.



The fan does an excellent job of keeping this mini PC cool and stable. The surface of this mini PC never gets hot, and in the 3DMark Time Spy Stress Test, the MiniAir 11 scored a decent 97.6%.


Verdict

If you’re looking for a compact system to deal with basic home or business computing tasks, this machine is an easy recommendation. The lack of another internal storage interface can be a deal-breaker for some, but with great build quality, plenty of I/O, licensed Windows 11 Pro, and a sensible price tag, the GEEKOM MiniAir 11 is still one of the best bang-for-the-buck mini PCs out there.