MINIX NEO N42C-4 Review – mini PC upgradable to 8GB of RAM

MINIX NEO N42C-4 was announced several months ago, and just recently they have launched these interesting device. Actually this is the first mini PC with Apollo Lake CPU. But of course this is not all from these company because they always introduce some new and advanced features.

So normally most interesting features are possibility to upgrade RAM memory, thanks to SO-DIMM slots. Also you have ability to upgrade storage space using M.2 SSD. We received several days ago NEO N42C-4 thanks to MINIX, and now the review is done.

MINIX NEO N42C-4 Unboxing

As usual it comes in blue box, but these time it comes in larger box than usual. But we are not surprised because this mini PC is larger device than usual. So besides the device you will normally receive HDMI cable, 12V/3A power supply, 6 screws for the VESA mount, and of course user manual.

Design and build quality

Although the case is made from plastic, still it provides premium feeling. So when we speak about design it is very similar to the previous MINIX models except it is much bigger. So normally it has on/off button, three USB 3.0 ports which is really impressive. Also it has Kensington lock, Gigabit Ethernet port, HDMI output, one USB type C, and last CMOS clear pinhole.

So you can see it has all available ports you will need. But as we said earlier it has three USB 3.0 ports which is definitely advantage. Because USB 3.0 ports provide much faster data transfer, and don’t forget USB type C which is for sure novelty because you can connect other devices like smartphones.

Performance and benchmark testing

MINIX NEO N42C-4 is based on quad core CPU Intel Pentium N4200 which is normally working at the speed 1.1 GHz, but it can also work in Turbo mode with speed 2.5 GHz. For graphics activities there is Intel HD Graphics 505 GPU, so overall it sounds very good but of course the story doesn’t end here because when we speak about memory MINIX brings new features. So it has 4 GB of RAM LPDDR3 memory including 32 GB eMMC 5.1 storage space memory.

RAM upgrade including SSD slot

What is most interesting you can upgrade RAM and storage space. Actually when you open the box or the case of the mini PC you will notice that it has the pair of SODIMM slots which support up to 8GB of DDR3L memory each. In other words you can normally replace existing memory with new memory up to 8GB of RAM.

Also it has one 2280 M.2 slot – SATA 6.0Gbps for SSD up to 512GB, so if you need more space than you can easily install SSD. Or you can just use USB flash drive, but it is more convenient to use SSD. Overall we must admit they are very clever when they done this.

Benchmark scores

Operating system

MINIX NEO N42C-4 comes with 64 bit Windows 10 Pro operating system. They are also already activated, so you don’t need to do nothing about that. You only need to configure settings like language, date, connection. After that you can normally start using Windows.

From what we can see there is no difference between these or Windows on every day PC. Everything works just fine, during test we did not encounter any problems. Also what is most important this is the Pro version of the Windows, so you can normally use it in any business place without problems.

Besides every day use we normally tried things like Youtube, watching movies, KODI, playing games, and other stuff. So we can confirm that everything works was just fine, but of course high demanding games like GTA 5 will sometimes have lags.

But this is normal because NEO N42C-4 does not have flag ship hardware, and for $300 you can’t expect it. But in 99% it will work just fine for business purposes, watching Youtube, KODI, playback movies, and similar stuff. Below you can see video examples including screenshots.

Video Playback

Youtube

KODI

Connectivity

For connectivity you have many different possibilities, for the start we can say that it has three USB 3.0 ports, one USB type C, HDMI output, Gigabit Ethernet port, and of course it has Dual Band Wireles, and don’t forget that it has Bluetooth 4.1. So you can see that for connectivity purposes it has all you need. During testing we saw that Wi-Fi has a strong and stable signal.

Price info

If you are curious about the price then we can tell you that at this moment price is around $300 which is a fair price for this kind of mini PC or media player.

Conclusion

So overall we are very satisfied with the MINIX NEO N42C-4 for many reasons. But most important reasons are definitely great build quality, powerful hardware, Windows 10 Pro, but also more possibilities like possibility for upgrading RAM memory including SSD slot.