Beelink U59 In-Depth Review - A Budget Mini PC Powered by 11th Gen Processor N5095

Beelink's mini PCs cover all segments of this market segment, from entry-level products with Atom processors to high-end models with Intel Core i7 and AMD Ryzen 7. The newly released Beelink U59 is a low-power Mini PC focusing on office and audio and video. It is equipped with the latest Intel 11th generation Celeron N5095 quad-core and four-thread processor, 8/16GB dual-channel memory, and 256/512GB memory. SSD. How will it perform? This review will tell you the answer.

Unboxing

Beelink has recently updated the packaging design of its products across the board. This time, the retail box of Beelink U59 also adopts a simple but modern design style.

The accessories in the box include: Beelink U59 mini PC, a monitor back mount, a 36W power adapter, two HDMI cables (0.2m+1m), a bag of screws, and an instruction manual.

Design

The body of the Beelink U59 is very small, with a size of only 124*113*42mm, which is not much larger than an ordinary set-top box and will not take up too much desktop space. Of course, you can also choose to use the back mount bracket to fix it on the back of the monitor, turning it into an all-in-one machine in seconds.

As a mid-to-low-end Mini PC, the U59's design is naturally not as strong as the SER that I reviewed last month. The top of the fuselage is made of acrylic material, which has a certain mirror effect, and the appearance is quite high when it is clean. However, the disadvantage is that it is extremely easy to get fingerprints, and it is also easy to scratch. A few Mini scratches have been collected in my month of use. The side of the fuselage is made of plastic material, but because it has been painted with metallic texture, it does not look cheap.

Beelink U59 is equipped with a very rich interface. There are two USB3.0 ports on the front, a multi-function Type-C port, and a 3.5mm headphone jack (supports a microphone). There is also a CMOS reset interface and a power button with LED lights.

On the back of the fuselage are two other USB3.0 ports, a Gigabit Ethernet cable port, two HDMI 2.0 ports, and a power port. It is a pity that U59 is not equipped with SD or TF card slot, which is probably due to the recent skyrocketing cost of card readers.

The Beelink U59 has a built-in active cooling fan, so there are large-area cooling holes on three sides.

There are four rubber feet on the bottom of the fuselage, which can prevent the U59 from shifting on the desktop.

Although this mini pc is very small, it still has some expansion capabilities. You can not only upgrade the installed dual-channel memory and m2. SATA3 solid state drive, but also install an additional 2.5-inch hard drive with a capacity of 1T.

The weight of the Beelink U59 is only 330g, which is not much heavier than some large-screen mobile phones. Whether it is to move the placement at home, or carry it when traveling, it will not be a big burden. The workmanship is also in line with the consistently high level of Beelink products. The body is solid and firm, and the joints are also tightly seamed, with a certain ability to be abused.

Hardware Performance & Benchmarks

This Beelink U59 Mini PC is equipped with Intel's eleventh-generation Celeron N5095 processor with a TDP of 15W. It is based on a 10nm process technology and uses a four-core four-thread CPU architecture. The basic operating frequency is 2.0GHz, but the turbo frequency can be up to 2.9GHz. In terms of graphics card, it integrates the 11th-generation UHD Graphics core display. From the perspective of performance release, the Celeron processor, which is the main entry-level model, naturally cannot compete with the same generation Intel Core or AMD Ryzen. The daily office, social networking and audio and video are completely out of the question. At the same time, the Beelink U59 I received also has a built-in 16GB dual-channel memory. For a lightweight Mini PC, such a memory configuration can be considered very luxurious.

In the latest Cinebench R23 test, the Beelink U59 scored 629 single-core and 1544 multi-core. Compared with the GK mini using Celeron J4125 (single core: 444, multi-core: 1431), it is significantly improved. In particular, the single-core score has been directly improved by 40%.

In order to compare with more low-end and mid-range mini PC I have tested before, I also ran Cinebench R20 on the U59, and I can see that the U59's multi-core score far exceeds the NUC 7 with the Core i3-7100.

In the cross-platform Geekbench 5 test, the U59's CPU scored 608 for single-core, 2009 for multi-core, and 2125 for OpenCL. The CPU multi-core score is almost the same as the NUC7, but the single-core score is still much worse.

In the chess benchmark test, the U59 scored 7975, slightly higher than the NUC 7 and nearly 50% higher than the GK mini.

In the PCMark 10 standard test that simulates daily office flow, the U59 scored 2358, which is 30% higher than the GK mini (1791).

Running 3DMark, which primarily tests computer graphics performance, the U59 scored 2495, 657, and 210 in the Sky Diver, Fire Strike, and Time Spy tests, respectively.

Beelink U59 Mini PC is equipped with an m2.2280 SATA solid-state drive, which is naturally not as fast as the NVMe commonly used on high-end models such as Zeroke's own Turbo, GTR, and SER. However, as a solid state drive, the read and write speed is still much stronger than that of a mechanical hard drive or eMMc.

In daily life, using the Beelink U59 to browse web pages, play audio and video, and handle daily office work is very smooth. Even when opening a dozen web pages in the browser and running several other programs at the same time, it does not become stuttered.

Editing some evaluation data graphs in PPT is also smooth, and the efficiency is no different from that of my main laptop, the Lenovo Xiaoxin 15.

Even for tasks such as video editing that require high hardware performance, the pressure on the Beelink U59 is limited. At the same time, the multi-layer video is rendered, and the U59 has no obvious lag and delay. Of course, the U59 does take longer to render the video than my workhorse desktop.

Playing 4K/60fps online video in Microsoft Edge is very smooth, but if the resolution and frame rate go up, there will be obvious frame drops, and when it reaches 8K/60fps, it will feel very stuck.

This Beelink U59 Mini PC integrates the 11th-generation Intel UHD Graphics core display, and it is naturally powerless to run large-scale 3D games. "War Intent" (Conqueror's Blade) 720P, low quality, the average frame rate is only 9fps. And "War Frame" (War Frame) 1080P, low quality, the average frame rate is only 14fps.

However, League of Legends, which has relatively good support for nuclear graphics, can run smoothly, at 1080P, it can reach 41fps in low quality, and in most scenes, the frame rate is above 50fps. Only in relatively intense teamfight scenes, there will be obvious frame drops. And any game installed in the Microsoft Store runs smoothly on the U59.

Windows 11 Pro OS

Although very Mini, the Beelink U59 is still a computer, so just connect to a power source and a mouse and keyboard to get started. After the first boot, you need to perform some Windows system enable settings, but that is about 5 minutes.

The Beelink U59 is equipped with the genuine Windows 10 Professional operating system from the factory, but the machine has a built-in TPM2.0 chip, which also meets all the requirements for Windows 11 installation. After I got the machine, I immediately upgraded to Windows 11 Pro directly through Microsoft's official channels. In addition to the full functions of the Home Edition, Windows 11 Professional also adds some security and office functions.

For example, it allows users to use remote browsing services, group policies, website domain name connections, Bitlocker-driven data encryption and other functions. In terms of market price, the Windows Professional Edition is also nearly 900 yuan more expensive than the Windows Home Edition. Of course, in addition to Windows systems, you can also choose to install Ununtu, UOS and any other systems compatible with X86 architecture processors.

Temperature

The Beelink U59 has a built-in high-speed cooling fan, and I can hear the sound of the fan when running large applications, but the sound is generally Mini and easily drowned out by any background sound. The stability of this PC is also good, passing the 3DMark Fire Strike stress test.

Multi-Screen but No WiFi6

As a low-end Mini computer, Beelink U59 naturally does not support the most advanced WiFi6, but the difference between 2.4GHz/5GHz dual-band WiFi5 and WiFi6 in most home or office broadband environments is actually very Mini. The built-in bluetooth module of U59 can wirelessly connect bluetooth earphones, speakers or keyboard and mouse.

The fuselage has two HDMI2.0 ports and a Type-C port compatible with DP1.2, which can connect three monitors at the same time, and all support 4K@60Hz output, which is convenient for us to work more efficiently. However, for a low-power PC, this output configuration is somewhat overkill.

Conclusion

At present, Beelink U59 has been sold on major e-commerce platforms, and the price of each e-commerce is different. Among them, on the minixpc.com, the 8GB+256GB version is priced at $259, and the 16GB+512GB version is priced at $319. For a Mini PC with genuine Win 11 Pro operating system, exquisite and compact design, rich interfaces, and not bad performance, the cost performance of U59 is very high. If you need a Mini PC that is easy to use and not expensive, Beelink U59 is definitely a product worth considering.

Pros:

• Small and compact body, elegant and attractive design
• Dual-channel memory
• Excellent performance, no pressure for audio-visual office
• Genuine Windows 11 professional operating system
• Rich interfaces, which can connect three monitors

Cons:

• There is no memory card slot
• No Wifi6 Support
• The acrylic material on the top of the fuselage is prone to scratches and fingerprints