Mini PCs have been all the rage over the last few years seemingly getting smaller and smaller yet more powerful and viable as an everyday driver, and never has that been truer than with the Geekom A7.
The Geekom A7 is crazily tiny looking more like an Apple TV than any other Mini PC that I’ve used before. It comes in at 112mm wide, 112mm deep and just 37mm tall weighing just 450g. The build quality is really great and the aluminium shell is super stylish.
Part of the reason why the body is able to be as small as it is is because of the fact that the 120w charger includes an external power brick. It’s a tiny one at at that, but I do kind of wish that they just made the actual body of the unit a little bit bigger if it meant including a power supply inside the unit.
When it comes to ports, you’ve got more than you could ever need on a mini PC and everything is clearly labelled as well. On the front, you’ve got dual USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type A ports, as well as a 3.5mm headphone jack and the power button.
On the back you’ve got your DC power port, 2x HDMI 2.0 ports, a USB 2.0 Type-A port, a USB 3.2 Type-A port, an ethernet port and you’ve also got a USB 4 Gen3 Type-C port that’s capable of speeds of 40 GBPS and can be used for an external GPU as well a USB 3.2 Type-C port, both which can be used for video as well as data and power.
You’ve also got an SD card reader on the side of the unit, and I can’t see a situation where anyone would need more ports on a mini PC, and there wouldn’t be a place to put them even if you did. Geekom is to be commended for packing it to the brim with a great mix of ports. The only slight criticism would be maybe a USB-C port on the front would have been great as well, but I won’t complain.
As far as the internals, go this is the most powerful mini PC that I’m aware of. The model that I was provided has 32GB of memory (64GB maximum) as well as a 2TB SSD (the maximum) and is packed with either an AMD Ryzen Ryzen 9 7940HS (model tested) or a Ryzen 7-7840HS processor. You’ve got also Wi-Fi 6E and Bluetooth 5.2 compatibility for the fastest speeds. You’re able to connect the A7 up to four 4K monitors or 1 8K monitor which is a testament to the performance of this little device.
The Geekom A7 was able to handle absolutely everything that I threw of it day to day including the likes of web browsing or watching 4K videos, but also Photoshop work and editing 4K footage. I was super impressed with how quiet it was able to stay with the Geekcool 4.0 cooling tech and it didn’t seem to get too hot.
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If you’re a big gamer, the A7 can pretty much handle any indie games as well as emulation. Like other mini PCs on the market, it’s a big of a mixed bag using the integrated GPU in the A7.
You’ll be able to play the likes of Fortnite and Call Of Duty Warzone at decent frame rates, but after testing the likes of Cyberpunk 2077 and Horizon Forbidden West, you can expect to pop everything on low at a maximum of 1080p and with the beauty of AMD FSR, you’ll at least get steady frame rates between 30-60FPS depending on the game and how much horsepower is needed.
It’s definitely a capable little machine for gaming, but as long as you go in with the expectation that you’re not going to be able to play newer AAA games at 4K/60FPS, you’ll be pretty impressed with how much power is packed into this little unit. Utilising that USB 4 Gen3 Type C port, you can also use an external GPU as well.
At $1,499 AUD, it’s the Geekom A7 is by no means cheap, but with a fantastic Ryzen 9 processor, a 2TB SSD as well as 32GB of DDR5 memory, it’s an extremely capable unit that represents a wonderful little mini PC that also packs a bunch of power, and for most people, this will be more than enough. Windows 11 Pro comes pre-installed in the unit and this makes the setup and ease of use a breeze as well.
