CONCLUSION

   After spending almost, a full month with the AMR5 by Ace Magician I have to admit that Mini PCs have come a long way since I last had any contact with one. Yes, you can’t expect them to compete with a full sized PC but they can dish out similar performance to a laptop (minus the graphics performance of course, at least for now) while using less than 1/3^rd the size. Size is clearly the strongest selling point of Mini PCs since you can place most inside a small bag and carry them around with you. Granted, in certain scenarios a laptop might be the better choice but it’s more accurate to say that both solutions have their very own target audiences. The AMR5 does very well in regards to power consumption and noise levels as well and so I expect those to also appeal to potential buyers. As for looks, well, not much to say here, Ace Magician has clearly designed one of the best looking Mini PCs in the market today. Again, the control software is not extremely easy to find and download (I do hope Ace Magician places a download section in their website like they say on the bundled paper) and it doesn’t work that well but the default rainbow effect is the best so no need to even bother with it. As for the mode dial, if you plan on using the AMR5 for office and internet browsing then using the silent or auto modes pay be better (less noise and power consumption) than using performance like I did for my tests.

   As I type these lines the AMR5 Mini PC (Ryzen 5600U/16GB/512GB) my Ace Magician retails for USD399.99 inside the USA (Acemagic.com) and for 499Euros inside the EU (Acemagic.eu) a price tag which is just a tad over the top on this side of the Atlantic (and I do hope Ace Magician takes this into consideration). Price aside however the AMR5 Mini PC delivers on pretty much everything I’d look for in one (minus graphics performance which may take a few years to get where I’d like it to) from overall performance, to size, looks and power consumption and for that it gets the Golden Award.

PROS

- Design (RGB Illumination)
- Overall Performance
- Compact Size
- 3 Modes (Silent/Auto/Performance)
- 2 M.2 Slots (Up To 2TB Each)
- 2 SODIMM DDR4 Slots (Up To 64GB)
- Magnetic Side Panel
- HDMI v2.0 & DP v1.2 Ports
- WiFi6/BT 5.0
- 5 USB Ports (4xUSB 3.2 Gen1 / 1xUSB 3.2 Gen2 Type C)

CONS

- Price (For Some)
- RGB Software