New products tested by our experts

Geekom AX8 Pro

Light touch

MINI PC | £749 from Geekom www.snipca.com/55131

The Geekom AX8 Pro is even smaller than your average mini PC. Compared with our current favourite (the GMKtec NucBox K11, £700 from www.snipca.com/54341, reviewed in Issue 707) it shaves a significant 2cm off the height and depth, and another 1cm off the width.

It’s certainly thin and light enough to easily attach to the back of a monitor with the included VESA mounting bracket, while its cool, blue-toned metal finish give it a classy feel.

A tiny PC that’s great for Windows work and web browsing, but is a bit pricey

To get the case this small (38.5x117x 111mm, HxWxD), Geekom has used a less powerful processor – the AMD Ryzen 7 8845HS – that doesn’t require as much space for cooling as the K11’s Ryzen 9 8945HS, which has more cores and is better suited to heavier workloads. The AX8 Pro does have fans inside the case, but you’ll need to really push it to its limits to hear them kick in.

That said, the AX8 remains a very capable PC. In our benchmark tests it ran only a couple of per cent slower than the K11. However, this dropped further in graphical tests, so we wouldn’t recommend this – or any other mini PC – if your main focus is on gaming or editing videos.

The processor is supported by 32GB of RAM and a 1TB SSD, which are easily enough to run the preinstalled copy of Windows 11 Pro, particularly if it’s mostly going to be used for web browsing and office work.

There are plenty of ports dotted around the device, including two USB-C(one is USB 4.0-compatible, the other runs at USB 3.2 Gen 2x2 speed), three standard USB 3.2 and one USB 2.0 port. It would have been nice to have one of the USB-C ports on the front panel, rather than both being on the rear, but that’s more of an inconvenience than a serious problem. There is also a 2.5Gb Ethernet port and two HDMI sockets, which make it easy to connect to a wired network and a couple of monitors.

While the AX8’s port selection is generous enough, it’s trumped again by the K11’s connections, which include two USB 4.0 ports (one of which is on the front) and an OCuLink port that can be used to connect an external graphics card to upgrade the device’s graphics capabilities.

The biggest problem with the AX8 Pro is that it costs £49 more than the K11, despite being slightly less powerful and lacking some of its more useful features. Overall then, the NucBox K11, provides more power and potential for expansion at a lower price.

SPECIFICATIONS

Eight-core AMD Ryzen 7 8845HS processor • 32GB RAM • AMD Radeon 780M graphics • 1TB SSD • Wi-Fi 6E • Bluetooth 5.2 • 1x 2.5Gb Ethernet port • 2x HDMI ports • 2x USB-C ports (1x USB 4.0, 1x USB 3.2 Gen 2) • 3x USB 3.2 Gen 2 ports • 1x USB 2.0 port • Windows 11 Pro • 38.5x117x111mm (HxWxD) • 558g • Three-year warranty www.snipca. com/55131

VERDICT

A small, capable mini PC, that performs basic tasks well, but can’t beat our favourite

★★★★★

ALTERNATIVE

GMKtec NucBox K11 £700 This is larger but cheaper, and its powerful processor means it can handle more demanding tasks

Microsoft Surface Pro 12in

Stay in touch

TABLET | £799 from Microsoft www.snipca.com/55142

The last three versions of Microsoft’s Surface tablet have cost over £1,000, and were designed to rival Apple’s iPad Pro range, which starts at £999. Microsoft has dropped the price of this latest version to £799, bringing it in line with the 128GB version of Apple’s cheaper iPad Air. For anyone looking for a tablet with Windows 11 rather than iPadOS or Android, it now represents much better value.

A Windows 11 tablet that’s cheaper and easier to use, but you may still need a keyboard

At its heart is an eight-core Qualcomm Snapdragon X Plus processor, along with 16GB of RAM and a 256GB SSD. Windows performance is smooth when you consider a tablet is not the operating system’s natural habitat. It worked particularly well with multiple apps open at the same time – even if using a touchscreen to switch between them takes a little getting used to when you normally use a keyboard and mouse.

However, this feels like an effort worth making and you’ll soon be running most tasks and actions via the touchscreen thanks to large, easy-to-tap icons and buttons. Note, this uses an ARM-based processor, which has its own version of Windows, so you need to check the software you’d want to run on it will work properly. Qualcomm has a list of compatible software at www.snipca. com/54033, or you can search the database at https://windowsonarm.org to check specific titles.