This MINIX Z83-4 Pro is a mini marvel that I’ve loved using as the main piece to my home cinema set up. If you don’t want to read this entire review, long story short it’s an excellent piece of kit, it’s small form excels in what I use it for and for me personally I think that it’s the best Mini PC available to buy currently.

 

What’s Included:

 

x 1 MINIX NEO Z83-4 Pro

x 1 VESA Mount with Screws

x 1 Dual-Band Wifi Antenna

x 1 12V Power Adapter

x 1 HDMI Cable

x 1 Multi-Language Setup Guide

 

Firstly the design. It’s a very compact square-shaped design that is black all over with the MINIX logo etched on the top. There’s nothing outlandish about it which is the way I think Mini-PCs should be and it inconspicuously fits into any area – or would be hidden behind a monitor or any other VESA mountable device. Overall the design is sleek and modern.

 

It has an inputs/outputs for 3.5mm jack, Mini Displayport, HDMI 1.4, Gigabit Ethernet, a TF card slot (Micro-SD), 3x USB 2.0 and 1x USB 3.0. Overall it’s got a massive range of IO, 3 USBs for plugging in any devices, a USB 3.0 for any fast transfer speeds that would be needed by a storage device, 2 video outputs for a very impressive dual display support, Gigabit Ethernet for the often faster-wired internet connection and the TF slot is another way to expand the limited 32Gb storage included. A very impressive range that I wouldn’t really expect from such a small device.

 

Specs wise it has an Intel X5-Z8350 (64 Bit) chip, 4GB of DDR3L RAM and 32GB if eMMC (5.0) storage. This probably doesn’t mean a lot but in its real world use I’ve found it to be fast and snappy. able to smoothly play 4K and could handle Microsoft Office Applications with ease as well as standard internet browsing. Its 4K capabilities was especially important to me as I use it as a Media player but for such a small size its performance was great .It’s also completely fanless making it pretty much silent and it handles heat very well, the casing never gets hot. Things to note is that the 32GB storage will have to be expanded, via the USB port, TF Card Slot or you could store all your files online, and also this is obviously not a gaming device.

 

The setup was very easy too, with WIndows 10 Pro already being pre-installed it really is as simple as turning it on and following the step by step instructions and won’t take 15 minutes at most. Everything worked straight away for me and I would recommend first checking for any updates.

 

Overall I have been really impressed with this MINIX Mini-PC, It’s fast, powerful enough for my tasks, fits into a small area (12.7cm x 12.7cm x 4cm) and most importantly for me is a reasonable price in terms of what I need. I use mine as a KODI Media Player Centre and it along with some software plays everything I throw at it – including 4K content. Couldn’t recommend a better Mini-PC than this one!