Hey everyone, welcome to another in-depth Mini PC review. This time I review the cheaper yet capable Beelink Mini S12 Pro Mini PC. A palm-sized full-fledged PC packing Intel's 12th Gen Alder Lake-N100 (6MB Smart Cache, up to 3.40 GHz) processor, with 10nm lithography technology, combined with Intel UHD Graphics. A cold boot takes 20 seconds to a fully loaded desktop ("loading circle-free" mouse icon). Rebooting takes 35 seconds and a full shutdown takes a mere 4 seconds or less. I ran the stopwatch only after installing various benchmarking software, VLC media player, and Microsoft Office. See detailed specifications below.



Specifications
*CPU: Intel® Alder Lake-N100 Processor (12th Gen); 4 Cores, 4 Threads, Base: 0.8GHz, Max Turbo Frequency: 3.4Ghz, 6MB Intel® Smart Cache; Turbo Power: 25W.
*GPU: Intel® Arc & Iris® Xe Graphics Supported; Max Dynamic Frequency: 750MHz, Dual 4KUHD@60Hz Monitors. HDR Supported too.
*RAM: Crucial Single Channel 16GB DDR4 3200MHz; Supports up to 16GB.
*Sound: Senary Audio (Audio, Voice, Speech) with Windows Sonic for Headphones support.
*Storage: 512GB PCIe 3.0 x4 M.2 NVMe SSD Preinstalled; Supports additional 2.5" 7mm HDD/SDD up to 2TB; Maximum read/write speed of 3500MB/s.
*Operating System: Genuine Microsoft Windows 11 Pro 64 Bit; Version: 22H2; Build: 22621.1702
*Wireless Connections: Intel Wi-Fi 6 AX101; Bluetooth 5.2
*Cooling: Heat Sink & Fan
*Dimensions (HxWxD): 39mm X 115mm X 102mm
*Weight: 280g
*Ports
***4x USB Type-A 3.2
***1x CLR CMOS or RTC Key
***1x 3.5mm Audio (HP & Mic)
***1x Power (Output 12V 3A)
***1x 1Gbps Ethernet
***2x HDMI V2.0; Max Res: 4K@60Hz per port.
*Box Contents
***2x HDMI Cables (Average length and a short one for Monitor mounting)
***1X 36W Power Adapter (EU/US/UK/JP)
***1x Multilingual User Manual
***1x Vesa Mounting Bracket & Screws



Build Quality
The Mini S12 Pro's exterior is made primarily from differently textured lightweight ABS plastic. We've got high gloss, acrylic lenses, and even a laser faceted bit on the top giving it a "more expensive" look. In typical Beelink fashion, you still have 4 rubber stops, one at each edge to prevent sliding around on even the sleekest table surface. You'll also have the silicone puller tab that helps pull the bottom plate off, no prying tool leaving marks needed.

Box & Hardware Images

English Manual

Before we move on to some benchmark scores, here are the System default information, some installed updates, and build information. The last image is where I'm fully updated.

System Default, Updates, & Build Information

Basically, it shipped with Windows 11 Pro V21H2, Build 22000.918 and I updated it to V22H2 Build 22621.1702. OOTB, we had 437GB of usable SSD storage which got reduced to 424GB after all Windows updates and some key software are installed. No games. Did a bit of spring cleaning and got bumped up to 441GB. But then increasing storage shouldn't be an issue as you can install an additional 2.5" 7mm HDD/SDD up to 2TB.

Some default BIOS Settings [Tweak with caution]

Now some Benchmarking numbers; SSD Information, R/W Speeds. All this time the SEi12 Pro is connected via HDMI to a single Lenovo L32p-30 4K Monitor and runs at 4K@60Hz resolution. I'm all about real-world experience and so left the Power Mode set to "Balanced" which is the typical setting most users would run it on as opposed to the benchmark-loving "Best Performance" mode. So if you like what you see, expect it to fare even better unshackled.

Crystal Disk Info

Cinebench R23 Single & Multi-Core

UNIGINE: Superposition

Web Browser Performance (Microsoft Edge)

SSD Speeds
Crystal Disk Mark Software; Image 1 is NVMe SSD Test Peak Performance while the second image tests NVMe Real World Performance.

File Transfer Speeds (Samsung Fit USB3.0 Flash Drive Connected)

LAN & Internet Speedtest
The Beelink Mini S12 Pro is rated for up to 1Gbps via Ethernet and is Wi-Fi 6 capable. My internet connection is even worse at a paltry 100/20 Mbps.

Media Playback
The Mini S12 Pro with its hardware accelerated AV1 decoding support (important for transcoding too..Plex Server users rejoice!) handled all my test files with ease, right up to the 1.4GB 4K UHD 400Mbps Level 6.1 Main10 HEVC Jellyfish video bitrate test file. It smoothly played this while I continued web browsing & simultaneously played a 4K video on YouTube. Switching fine between the windowed and fullscreen modes.

Conclusion
I was pleasantly surprised by the performance of this "lightweight" 12th gen Intel Alder Lake-N processor. The MINI S12 Pro could effortlessly handle mainstream computing duties like web browsing, social networking, Microsoft Office tasks, and media playback. I could open dozens of image-heavy webpages in Microsoft Edge, play an 8K video clip, and open a few other applications at the same time without experiencing any hiccups or delays. With improved GPU performance, it’s now possible to play more graphics-intensive games on these low-power mini PCs, but you still need to turn down the resolution and settings to ensure a smooth ride. This time around I purposefully omitted gameplay performance due to that expectation. Lastly, this is what it looks like placed beside my Logitech M720 Triathlon mouse. Very compact yet capable ...Definitely a step up from some earlier Mini PCs I've reviewed that struggled with multiple high-bitrate files playback.

Official Product Page

Purchase Links
Official Beelink Website (Ships Worldwide)

SocMed URLs
Twitter
Facebook

For more information, please pay attention to this space. I'd like to thank Beelink for providing this review unit. They are viewing the results at the same time as you are. As usual, fellow forummers, do feel free to comment below should you require further specific information or a test done on the Beelink SE12 Pro Mini PC. I'll be glad to assist.

This post has been edited by voncrane: May 14 2023, 08:15 PM

is licensed win11 OS come together when bought direct from official website?

waiting for beelink GTR 7 pro.

Hi Vexus, Yes Beelink Mini PCs ship with genuine Windows licenses. In this case, Microsoft Windows 11 Pro 64 Bit.

Ah, the recently launched GTR7 7840HS and GTR7 Pro 7940HS..Yeah, those appear quite beasty indeed. Apparently, Beelink managed to pack in a novel fancy cooling system (Vapor Chamber), and a magnetic power connector. 65W TDP + Hardware ray tracing..Looking forward to pushing that rig to its limits. Hope you haven't ordered one yet, cuz here are some special vouchers to make em cheaper when pushed directly off Beelink.

Pre-Sale Coupon: $100 discount
Pre-Sale Period: 24th,May,2023 to 6th, June,2023
Coupon codes: GTR7100 for GTR7; GTR7PRO100 for GTR7 Pro

GTR7 Pre-sale non-affliated link
GTR7 PRO Pre-sale non-affliated link



This post has been edited by voncrane: Jun 3 2023, 04:04 PM

How to claim warranty when we have problems?

Mainly depends where you purchased from. If directly off Beelink website, you can email them for returns. If off their official AliExpress store, you can chat em up. Worst case, can always contact them via their official social media accounts or PM me while I've still got their ear.

I wanted to buy this to replace all agin Intel G620 system in my office. How legit is their OS though? I read on Reddit that the Windows authenticity on Beelink is very very questionable.

Hey Andre, I can vouch their Windows license is 100% genuine. I'm currently far away from my setup to double check if it's a retail or volume license. Nevertheless, I've experienced zero issues downloading updates, running MS Office, etc.

If still overly concerned, you can always buy a barebones unit or swap out the M.2 SSD for yours.. Perform a clean Windows installation using your own license. IIRC, the license that ships with Beelink Mini PC is stored on the Motherboard. Logging into your Microsoft account should allow saving it to the cloud, saved for a later reinstall. Naturally, you'll need to log back into the same account during the installation process. License will be imported & activated again.

Nice. Thinking to buy also

Can anyone comment how is this unit compared to U59 Pro?

Are you referring to the Beelink U59 Pro? If yes, this Mini S12 Pro is the better option.

*Wi-Fi 6 vs Wi-Fi 5
*Bluetooth 5.2 vs 4.0
*Faster CPU .....3.4Ghz vs 2.9Ghz...etc

Just bought a T9Plus instead of Beelink due to the price different and also form factor. Pleasantly surprised with the performance. It also comes with DDR5 instead of DDR4. Just the WiFi card is a bit slow with Realtek 8821CE.

Yeah, depending on your max internet speeds.. Can be a downfall.. Nevertheless is you still okay.. then all good. Some new news though, they'll be launching an EQ13 next month.. Will see how that goes.

Its good enough for internet... just a bit slow when you wanna do file transfer.

EQ13? Actually I dont need extra speed... the N100 is more than enough for me plus Im really impressed with the power draw from it. Whole day consume less than 1kWh. The only thing I felt slow with it is when windows is running updates... it does felt a bit slow then. This is also one of the reason why I still havent replace all the office pc with it. We are still rocking athlon x2 and Intel G620 to date with Windows 7.

my previous old beelink unable to install UnifiTV apps. it detect as rooted. the same as Netflix, not certified.

now new hardware/software, anyone can test this installation?

Yep, low power draw. One of the major reasons I tell when ppl ask me why should I replace my regular size desktop with a mini PC. That footprint simply can't be matched. And like most decent phones nowadays. Unless one is a competitive gamer or power user, hard to justify (bragging rights aside) going Ultra Pro Max.......but Windows 7... Aduii.. Much security risk fam. You is not ATM, please up to Windows 10 at least..

Hmmm.. Haven't fired up my GS-King X in a bit. Might give that a go in the coming weeks. tried custom ROMs? Unfortunately, I've always preferred running Netflix off my TV's native app.. As that can process UHD, DA, DV/HDR, etc smoothly.

Lazy wanna upgrade... beside security is not really a massive deal for me anyway. Only using to type d/o and invoices. Even online banking they lazy to do thus not much else to worry about.

The reason why I think about upgrading is purely because I heard that they might start migrating to cloud for e-invoice but nothing concrete yet.

I thought T9Plus is already small, this gmktec g5 blew everything away.


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So very compact!!.. guessing it's primarily because they built upwards rather than sideways. Nice to see em pushing the form factor, fine by me as long as temp controls are under control & it's quiet. Speaking of something new that's properly temp-controlled and uber quiet....The Beelink EQ13..been using it these past 2 weeks and dropping the review tonight.