Welcome friends to TV Box stop the channel for the
best reviews in TV boxes mini-PCs and accessories.
Today I have another Windows desktop mini-PC from Beelink one of the top brands for mini-PCs
in the industry industry.
This is the Beelink Mini S 11th generation Intel Celeron Windows 11 mini-PC.
So in this video as usual we will take a look at the quality of its hardware and what facilities
are available for expandable memory and storage.
I’ll test its Windows operating system for performance when applied to activities such
as office applications 4K video playback surround sound audio video editing and 3D gaming.
And finally I’ll test it expandable storage facility with alternative operating systems
such as Android x86 and FydeOS and we’ll determine if this mini-PC suits our needs.
So stay tuned that up next.
So in this package contains the new mini S model itself.
One 40 inches HDMI cable.
Another shorter 10 inches HDMI cable.
A 12V 3A DC power adapter.
A bracket and a pack of screws for mounting to the back of your monitor.
And a user manual.
So the body of this mini-PC is made of aluminum and it has two HDMI 2.0 display ports one
RJ-45 gigabit LAN port two USB 3.0 ports its DC power socket a Kensington lock and its
intake vent to rear.
To the front it has two more USB 3.0 ports a headphone jack a clear CMOS pinhole button
and an LED power button.
To both sides it has exhaust vents.
And below this PC you have screw holes for mounting the included bracket four antiskid
rubber feet with screws for removing the bottom panel which gives access to its RAM module
the M.2 SATA SSD and its SATA expandable storage facility.
So before I reassemble the bottom panel I will install a 1 TB Western Digital SATA SSD
into the compartment.
So this mini-PC boots up like any other with the Windows 11 first startup wizard where
you connect to your network and login to your Microsoft account.
So here I’ve successfully logged in to Windows 11 and first let’s take a look at its basic
system and hardware information.
It says here that the CPU is the Intel Celeron N5095 with a base clock speed of 2.0 GHz.
It has 8GB of RAM and it’s a 64bit operating system.
And under product key and activation it shows that this version of Windows 11 is activated.
So for a bit more in-depth information Intel’s CPU information page shows that the N5095
has a base clock speed of 2.0GHz and a boost clock speed of 2.9GHz with 4 cores and 4 threads.
The AIDA64 extreme app shows that it comes with a single 8GB DDR4 2666 SDRAM module and
the product page shows that it can take up to a single 16GB module with a maximum speed
of up to 2933 MHz.
It’s GPU is the Intel UHD graphics 11th generation and it has a maximum resolution
up to 4K 2160p at 60hz.
It has 16 processing units with a base frequency of 450 MHz and a burst frequency of 750 MHz.
For storage its main disk running its operating system is an M.2 NGFF 2280 256GB SATA SSD
with a maximum read speed of 500 MHz.
Here you can also see the Western Digital 1TB SATA SSD I installed into the expandable
storage facility.
And Its Wi-Fi adapter is the Intel Dual Band Wireless AC 3165 that has 5GHz Wi-Fi support
with Bluetooth 5.2 technology.
So that’s its advance system and hardware information let’s now take a look at its
performance benchmarks before I get into some live demonstrations.
First its RAM copy speed and M.2 SATA SSD read and write speeds.
The Novabench app shows that it has a RAM copy speed 9177 MB/s.
Its M.2 SSD has a read speed of 349 MB/s and a write speed of 454 MB/s.
The tests performed on its Wi-Fi bands and Ethernet LAN port based on my network speed
of 250 Mbps.
The 5GHz band and its gigabit LAN port achieved maximum bandwidth the 2.4GHz band achieved
only 20%.
The Geekbench 5 CPU benchmarking app shows that it has a boost clock speed of up to 2.88
GHz which resulted in a score of 642 single-core and 1874 multicore.
To benchmark its GPU the Intel UHD graphics has Vulkan support with open GL ES version
3.4.
And in this test it got a score of 203 in the time spy test.
In the PC Mark 10 comprehensive benchmark it got an overall score of 2065 with a video
editing score of 2052 and a web browsing score of 3466.
These additional scores will be added to the rankings chart and the ice storm extreme and
the cloud gate test will be removed as they are no longer relevant.
The final benchmark is the PC version of the Antutu benchmark.
And in this test it got a score of 209480.
That’s the last of the benchmarks let’s now see where it places on the rankings chart.
So have entered the scores on my rankings chart and the new Beelink Mini S is at position
number 8 in reference to PC Mark 10 benchmark scores which is not too bad but these benchmarks
are just guide for selecting the best hardware.
Let’s now see what we can actually do with this mini-PC.
Also you can view this chart on my blog using the link in the description directly below
this video.
First let’s start with its basic function with office applications.
Here I installed Microsoft office and it works perfectly with apps such as word excel and
PowerPoint.
For display you have up to 4K 2160p at 60hz with HDR.
You also have screen orientation to portrait mode.
If you intend to play 4K HDR videos I recommend that you open the Microsoft store and enter
the search term extension and ensure that the HEVC extension the VP9 video extension
the AV1 video extension and the MPEG 2 video extensions are installed.
This is to ensure that the default movie and TV player can play your 4K HDR videos without
the need for third-party app such as VLC.
So the videos appear to play smoothly but there some slight slipped frames and latency
at the beginning of each video.
If you would like surround sound audio with apps such as Netflix and others or you have
self-hosted videos in surround sound formats.
You will first have to connect it to a 5.1 or 7.1 audio receiver where under speaker
setup you’ll be given the option to select Dolby Atmos or DTS X.
If you don’t connect it to a receiver these options will not be available.
For each option you will have to install the required extension from the Microsoft store
before you can achieve these formats.
So I’ll install the
Dolby Access extension and the DTS sound unbound extension.
So here I have it connected to my Sony 7.1 surround sound receiver and I’ll play my
list of videos with Dolby and DTS formats.
So from this test it shows that the Mini S can’t output Dolby Atmos DTS X DTS HD-MA
Dolby surround from Dolby vision videos and Dolby TrueHD.
While connected to your receiver and configured in 7.1 surround sound speaker configuration
if you open the Netflix app and search for a 4K movie you will be able to watch them
with Dolby Atmos surround sound audio.
The same applies for Amazon prime video.
For video editing I installed Camtasia and loaded a 4K clip from this video and it seems
to be handling the edits with a slight bit of difficulty so I would recommend that you
only edit 720p and 1080p videos.
This mini-PC comes with dual HDMI ports and it also has the ability to cast to a third
display wirelessly all at the same time for extended display which comes in handy for
setting up a mini workstation multitasking or casting to a TV that on the other end of
the room.
As for its gaming performance I wouldn’t recommend it for any high-end gaming because
when I attempt to play high-end games it could only render 12 fps with low graphics as you
can see with Destiny 2 and Apex legends.
However when I installed a lower-end game from the Microsoft store it played smoothly
without issues.
So that’s it for its Windows operating system and as mentioned in my intro I would attempt
to install alternative operating systems using its expandable storage facility and attempt
to convert it into an Android TV box independent of its Windows operating system.
So here successfully installed Android 12 x86 and it’s a fully functional with the
Google play store and play services working with updates.
With Android x86 running on this Windows hardware its CPU is clocked at 2.9 GHz which is its
boost clock speed.
You get 64bit architecture which means it can run 64bit apps and games.
Its GPU is clocked at 750 MHz with open GL ES version 3.2.
Its idle operating temperature is around 28°C.
And it has Dolby Atmos and DTS HD decoders.
And once again you don’t get audio via its HDMI port only true its headphone jack.
Installing Android x86 on these 11th generation Intel SOC’s is not the same as previous
models and require registering EFI keys into the secure boot feature.
I will have to create a new Android x86 installation tutorial video for this new process.
If you are really looking for a more complete solution to running Android on this mini-PC
then I suggest you install the FydeOS operating system.
Here I installed the latest Intel version 14.2 9th to 11th generation version and it
installs by simply disabling the secure boot feature in the bios.
With FydeOS you get its CPU clocked at 2.9 GHz with 64bit ABIs to run 64bit apps and
games.
You get audio via its HDMI drivers directly to your TV or monitor.
You can watch Netflix and other premium movie apps in HD using the chromium browser.
You get full access to the Google play store with Google play services and updates.
And you get a high-performance Android gaming machine.
So with the Mini S you can enjoy your Windows operating system and you can convert it into
a full-fledged Android TV box on expandable storage.
If you would like to learn install these alternative operating system using expandable storage
see links to my tutorial in the description below this video.
In summary the Beelink Mini S is a great all around mini-PC to buy that comes with Windows
11 fully functional out-of-the-box and you have the ability to install alternative operating
systems via its expandable storage facility.
Wi-Fi and Bluetooth work great and you have the option to upgrade your RAM and internal
M.2 SSD.
The only issues I had with this model is that it’s not very good at playing 4K videos
and its gaming performance is not the best but playable when reduced to 1080p medium
grade graphics.
So friends I’ve come to the end of this review.
The Mini S is currently being sold on Amazon where you can get the 256 GB model for $169
with a further $20 coupon and the 128 GB model for $152 with the same $20 coupon.
To take advantage see the link in the description below this video.
So give this video the thumbs up if you think this mini-PC is amazing.
Special thanks to Beelink for their continued support and for sending this mini-PC for review.
If you are viewing for first time be sure to hit that like and subscribe button along
with the notifications bell to be notified when I release new videos or decide to do
a giveaway.
Links in the description are my affiliate links and when you use them to purchase or
just to simply view the product you support this channel in a big way and provides the
means for me to acquire new product review.
So go ahead view the product and thanks in advance for using my links.
Thanks for watching and see you in the next one.