That looks absolutely fantastic! I am worried the price tag will be astronomical. I have a Surface pro and love it but the pricing is incredibly painful. Competition in this space is welcome.
I doubt it'll be too crazy priced. My guess is $999 with it going on sale regularly for probably $899 or maybe with free accessories (not sure if the keyboard and/or stylus are included).
Robo & Kala is selling a Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 powered Windows 11 tablet with an AMOLED display for $799 and it goes on sale pretty regularly.
The "3" is not because of the 3 input methods, but actually because of the uses: as a laptop, as a tablet... and as an external screen (it has video-in, so you can plug in a Nintendo Switch for example).
Actually the V3 is a reference to this being a spiritual successor to the EVE V2 which one (or more?) of the minisforum employees previously worked on.
SnapDragon 8 is less than half the TDP, and system interfaces (UFS for storage instead of PCIe) are lesser, so not sure that's a good price benchmark. The closest I can think of is the Lenovo X1 tablet. That's on the high side, since it was built as a corporate PC.
It's not a known company. No one will buy this over a Lenovo IdeaPad if it's equally priced. And those are around 1100€ with an i7. If they price it at 990, itmay have a future
That looks pretty cool. I wonder what the battery life will be like. My guess is ~5 hours under light workloads and <2 under a heavier workload.
I wonder if it can be charged via the "V-Link" port? If not, perhaps they can swap it with one of the USB4 ports so that it can be charged from either side.
minisforum makes some nice hardware. I got several UM790 Pro and use them for highly parallel, cpu intensive workloads. That worked out really well in terms of cost, physical space and energy use (compared to a bigger machine).
This tablet looks nice as well and seem like good competition for the Surface Pro line. I wonder if that V-Link port can be used as a regular USB port for data and/or charging? Personally I wish these devices just had more regular Type-C ports (4 would be nice).
I also have a single UM790 Pro. I'm curious to know how you connect them in parallel CPU intensive loads. For video editing in BlackMagic's DaVinci Resolve the single UM790 Pro seems sufficient for editing.
I also intend to get the V3 and am curious as well about multfunction on the V-link (USB-C) port but am quite happy to see it just double as a secondary support screen to my desktop or notebook PC.
I use them as build machines for Github's local action runners. The distribution is pretty much out of the box here - just install the Github action runner client on the various machines and it will distribute things nicely.
Compare the "Minisforum V3" to the "Be Quiet! Dark Rock Pro 5" and I think laughably bad corporate identity and cumbersome product names pretty much speak for themselves. Minisforum has a meaningful presence in western markets and I've not heard anyone else overly concerned with the company name. It certainly is better than the EK cooler branding that had a highly racist name tied to the product stack for years.
haha - Yeah I mean I guess I consider the 8-core Ryzen chips as being pretty high-end, with their 16-core ones (and Intel's 24-core chips) being in like the ultra enthusiast area of $2500+ laptops.
The only thing I'm not too thrilled about is the 8840U. Asus Flow Z13 manages to cram a i9-13900H and RTX 4050 into a similar size, so it seems like a 7840HS/8840HS might have been thermally possible.
"The only thing I'm not too thrilled about is the 8840U." Its nearly the exact same CPU isnt it? Same cores, same specs, same 4nm process, lower voltage spec on the U. The performance difference would really only play out depending on heat and load which is more dependant on htecolling solution.
Yeah, they are the same. The difference is in binning, clockspeed, and max sustained TDP. If the cooling is sufficient the U series should behave like an HS series. The question I have is "how close?"
The rest of their products are very fairly priced. I just bought a UM780 last week and am loving it. Was worried about the (to me) unknown brand but this little thing is a beast.
I'm personally hoping they go the other direction with a $400 N100 tablet. A well-made board (efficiency-wise), battery, and screen selection could make for the first meaningful iPad competitor in years.
Awesome I am super excited about this, although I too am curious about that V-Link hopefully having any other use (charging in particular) and t he pricing.
I bought two of Minisforum's UM773 Lites for my 65-70 year old parents on a super great sale during the summer. They are now living in two houses depending on the season and these are so portable powerful and energy efficient that they no longer need separate computers. I just unplugged the few wires (KB+Mouse+Camera on a USB-C port expander), power and HDMI, and they were even able to get everything set up by themselves when they got to their destination.
Back to the laptop/tablet, this will be a perfect replacement for my aging Acer Swtitch Alpha that for somem reason they only made for a year back in Skylake days. It's perfectly fine for movies/tv/music when traveling or very light gaming (Civ 4) but Windows Updates are going to eventually going to cease. Also love the Switch Alpha when I'm play ing a new game and want notes/FAQ/build guide easily available, which this looks perfect for as well.
I love any Surface Pro killer that doesn't try to drop a dGPU in there and nuke the battery.
I know that Minisforum is trying to stay below that "1kg" limit, but I'd gladly take a few grams over the 1000 g mark if they could increase the battery capacity beyond the 53 Wh it is specified with now. Or maybe have a slightly heavier version as an option with a battery that has about ~ 75 Wh or so. Especially with a versatile design like this, being able to use it all day without needing a recharge would really add to its attractiveness.
Agreed, would totally accept some additional weight to pack a bigger/denser battery. I really like the size, but would definitely consider a model that's like 1" larger diameter and allows for significantly larger battery and perhaps another M.2 and USB port.
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ingwe - Thursday, February 8, 2024 - link
That looks absolutely fantastic! I am worried the price tag will be astronomical. I have a Surface pro and love it but the pricing is incredibly painful. Competition in this space is welcome.darkswordsman17 - Thursday, February 8, 2024 - link
I doubt it'll be too crazy priced. My guess is $999 with it going on sale regularly for probably $899 or maybe with free accessories (not sure if the keyboard and/or stylus are included).Robo & Kala is selling a Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 powered Windows 11 tablet with an AMOLED display for $799 and it goes on sale pretty regularly.
tokyojerry - Thursday, February 8, 2024 - link
My understanding is KB and stylus will be included as a set package. Thus the 'V3'. Not V1 or V2.heffeque - Friday, February 9, 2024 - link
The "3" is not because of the 3 input methods, but actually because of the uses: as a laptop, as a tablet... and as an external screen (it has video-in, so you can plug in a Nintendo Switch for example).Iawlael - Friday, February 9, 2024 - link
Actually the V3 is a reference to this being a spiritual successor to the EVE V2 which one (or more?) of the minisforum employees previously worked on.tokyojerry - Friday, February 9, 2024 - link
I realize 3 references three types of uses: laptop, tablet, ext.display. Perhaps I did not make myself clear.And being also a tablet, stylus naturally will be included along with the keyboard (laptop function).
(fortunately, it is not an Apple product)
https://videocardz.com/press-release/minisforum-v3...
ThusSpokeJoe - Monday, February 12, 2024 - link
SnapDragon 8 is less than half the TDP, and system interfaces (UFS for storage instead of PCIe) are lesser, so not sure that's a good price benchmark. The closest I can think of is the Lenovo X1 tablet. That's on the high side, since it was built as a corporate PC.ogremic - Thursday, February 29, 2024 - link
It's not a known company. No one will buy this over a Lenovo IdeaPad if it's equally priced. And those are around 1100€ with an i7. If they price it at 990, itmay have a futurenfriedly - Thursday, February 8, 2024 - link
That looks pretty cool. I wonder what the battery life will be like. My guess is ~5 hours under light workloads and <2 under a heavier workload.I wonder if it can be charged via the "V-Link" port? If not, perhaps they can swap it with one of the USB4 ports so that it can be charged from either side.
dan82 - Thursday, February 8, 2024 - link
minisforum makes some nice hardware. I got several UM790 Pro and use them for highly parallel, cpu intensive workloads. That worked out really well in terms of cost, physical space and energy use (compared to a bigger machine).This tablet looks nice as well and seem like good competition for the Surface Pro line. I wonder if that V-Link port can be used as a regular USB port for data and/or charging? Personally I wish these devices just had more regular Type-C ports (4 would be nice).
tokyojerry - Thursday, February 8, 2024 - link
I also have a single UM790 Pro. I'm curious to know how you connect them in parallel CPU intensive loads. For video editing in BlackMagic's DaVinci Resolve the single UM790 Pro seems sufficient for editing.I also intend to get the V3 and am curious as well about multfunction on the V-link (USB-C) port but am quite happy to see it just double as a secondary support screen to my desktop or notebook PC.
dan82 - Friday, February 9, 2024 - link
I use them as build machines for Github's local action runners. The distribution is pretty much out of the box here - just install the Github action runner client on the various machines and it will distribute things nicely.kn00tcn - Thursday, February 8, 2024 - link
can vlink be captured?name99 - Thursday, February 8, 2024 - link
Not sure that's the greatest brand name.I first read it as "misinformation" and I STILL keep seeing it as such, even though I know it's not!
tokyojerry - Thursday, February 8, 2024 - link
Maybe not in the west and anglo-saxon countries but in Asia it is quite well, growing in popularity and variety of offerings as well.PeachNCream - Thursday, February 8, 2024 - link
Compare the "Minisforum V3" to the "Be Quiet! Dark Rock Pro 5" and I think laughably bad corporate identity and cumbersome product names pretty much speak for themselves. Minisforum has a meaningful presence in western markets and I've not heard anyone else overly concerned with the company name. It certainly is better than the EK cooler branding that had a highly racist name tied to the product stack for years.meacupla - Friday, February 9, 2024 - link
It's just you.Everyone else says it as "mini S forum"
And that's in the English speaking community.
In fact, you are the first person I have met that said this.
tokyojerry - Friday, February 9, 2024 - link
Try, a forum for multiple (= plural vs singular) mini PCs. Or, Minis forum.1_rick - Thursday, February 8, 2024 - link
"As the machine packs an eight-core CPU, it may offer the performance of some mid-range laptops."Well, I would certainly hope so.
NextGen_Gamer - Friday, February 9, 2024 - link
haha - Yeah I mean I guess I consider the 8-core Ryzen chips as being pretty high-end, with their 16-core ones (and Intel's 24-core chips) being in like the ultra enthusiast area of $2500+ laptops.meacupla - Friday, February 9, 2024 - link
The only thing I'm not too thrilled about is the 8840U.Asus Flow Z13 manages to cram a i9-13900H and RTX 4050 into a similar size, so it seems like a 7840HS/8840HS might have been thermally possible.
Still, it would be nice to see how it performs.
goatfajitas - Friday, February 9, 2024 - link
"The only thing I'm not too thrilled about is the 8840U."Its nearly the exact same CPU isnt it? Same cores, same specs, same 4nm process, lower voltage spec on the U. The performance difference would really only play out depending on heat and load which is more dependant on htecolling solution.
meacupla - Friday, February 9, 2024 - link
Yeah, they are the same. The difference is in binning, clockspeed, and max sustained TDP.If the cooling is sufficient the U series should behave like an HS series.
The question I have is "how close?"
heffeque - Friday, February 9, 2024 - link
No thank you. This is supposed to be more portable than powerful, so U series is the best fit.That being said, AMD's U-series has an incredible efficiency, especially compared to Intel's offerings.
Can't wait for Notebookcheck to review it!
Though personally right now waiting for a Minisforum MiniPC that has a 7600M XT or even a 7900M dGPU (fingers crossed!)
meacupla - Friday, February 9, 2024 - link
That's the thing though... Flow Z13 still retains portability while packing hotter running hardware.heffeque - Sunday, February 11, 2024 - link
Battery life on the Flow Z13 is not great. No need for HS on this form factor.goatfajitas - Friday, February 9, 2024 - link
The rest of their products are very fairly priced. I just bought a UM780 last week and am loving it. Was worried about the (to me) unknown brand but this little thing is a beast.lmcd - Sunday, February 11, 2024 - link
I'm personally hoping they go the other direction with a $400 N100 tablet. A well-made board (efficiency-wise), battery, and screen selection could make for the first meaningful iPad competitor in years.RogerAndOut - Monday, February 12, 2024 - link
$400 N100 tablet, that end of the market is being serviced by Chuwi with their 13" i5-10210Y based UBook XPro 2023 or 10" N100 based MiniBook XTekCheck - Tuesday, February 13, 2024 - link
Will USB4 ports feature DP 2.1 AltMode at 40 Gbps?Kakti - Sunday, February 18, 2024 - link
Awesome I am super excited about this, although I too am curious about that V-Link hopefully having any other use (charging in particular) and t he pricing.I bought two of Minisforum's UM773 Lites for my 65-70 year old parents on a super great sale during the summer. They are now living in two houses depending on the season and these are so portable powerful and energy efficient that they no longer need separate computers. I just unplugged the few wires (KB+Mouse+Camera on a USB-C port expander), power and HDMI, and they were even able to get everything set up by themselves when they got to their destination.
Back to the laptop/tablet, this will be a perfect replacement for my aging Acer Swtitch Alpha that for somem reason they only made for a year back in Skylake days. It's perfectly fine for movies/tv/music when traveling or very light gaming (Civ 4) but Windows Updates are going to eventually going to cease. Also love the Switch Alpha when I'm play ing a new game and want notes/FAQ/build guide easily available, which this looks perfect for as well.
I love any Surface Pro killer that doesn't try to drop a dGPU in there and nuke the battery.
eastcoast_pete - Monday, February 19, 2024 - link
I know that Minisforum is trying to stay below that "1kg" limit, but I'd gladly take a few grams over the 1000 g mark if they could increase the battery capacity beyond the 53 Wh it is specified with now. Or maybe have a slightly heavier version as an option with a battery that has about ~ 75 Wh or so. Especially with a versatile design like this, being able to use it all day without needing a recharge would really add to its attractiveness.Kakti - Monday, February 19, 2024 - link
Agreed, would totally accept some additional weight to pack a bigger/denser battery. I really like the size, but would definitely consider a model that's like 1" larger diameter and allows for significantly larger battery and perhaps another M.2 and USB port.