Hi, guys!
I decided to make a video for
Since I have seen very few reviews for this
Especially for interested buyers like me, here in the Philippines
So, for those that want to head straight to the
unboxing, quick teardown, windows setup, and gaming benchmarks
You can skip parts of this video
because it is pretty long :)
I will put a timestamp in the description
For those interested to know how I bought it
Please keep watching
I have been wanting to get my hands on the MN25
But the only site I found selling them are
Banggood.com
Geekbuying.com
Since I don't have a lot of experience buying from overseas stores
aside from Lazada or Shopee
I was hesitant because it might not arrive
Or it might get stuck in customs
I always check in Lazada or Shopee
to see if it's available and one day...
They started showing up
And as you can see, there's already a bunch of sellers of MN25
The only question now is, who is the legit seller
It's hard to tell because there are no reviews
at the time of recording this video
others sell it higher than the SRP
although others sell it cheaper
and that's where I started my inquiry
I saw a seller that offered it at Php14k ($290 US)
I thought to myself: "Nice! much cheaper!"
then I checked the seller rating right away
WARNING
Be careful of sellers that have LOW or NO rating!
It's okay if sometimes the product doesn't have a review
because maybe the item is still new in the market
what's important, is
seller's rating is OKAY
just like the "saying"...
"Teambest" is the seller
Hmm...
76% rating
slightly low
BUT 100% chat response
so I tried to inquire
I started a chat with the seller
and got an auto-reply message
I asked, "Is this the 8GB version?"
He responsed
8GB DDR4 and 256GB (Storage)
and added
Yes, dear
This is what I have noticed with Chinese sellers
they use "dear" as their term of endearment towards their customers
not sure if it's just "lost in translation"
Anyway, I said...
"Why there are..."
"Why there are three different..."
"models but only difference is the plug?"
"why others are plug version so expensive?"
I'm sorry for the broken english
eh, i'm just trying to blend in :D
he responded...
"Yes, dear. Different plug get different price"
Huh?
That does not make sense
OKAY, let's just say that there is a additional production cost
for the type of plugs
but 3 thousand ($60 US) pesos difference?
I don't think so...
so I said...
"that does not make sense"
"why a different plug cost more?"
the seller responded
"why cannot make sense?"
I stop responding
But after a few minutes...
when I checked their page again
they changed their price
all of them are now as expensive!
I said to myself
this is not cool
maybe they are scammers
so I stopped talking to this seller and gave up on my search
so I found another seller :)
he's selling the product for PHP15k ($308 US)
Awdew?
'Odoo?
Oh! whatever
Although there's also a difference
in their prices for other plug types
the seller rating is better!
at 81%
so I decided to inquire (again)
similar questions
and their reason for the price difference is
different plugs is from different sellers
OKAY...
so said to myself "fine..."
"i'll take the risk"
"since they accept  COD (cash on delivery)
so I pulled the trigger and checked out
shipping just took longer than expected
and it got stuck under customs in HongKong
I don't know why
I thought it will no longer arrive...
finally...
the package has arrived!
the delivery guy didn't want me to open it
I don't know why
so I am still nervous
if the item inside is correct
and here we are!
the packaging is simple
they didn't even put bubble wrap
they just wrapped in a thin styro
but it looks like the item is safe inside
because the box is sturdy
and it's plastic sealed
looks like it was never opened
let's start removing the plastic
and here it is!
there's a soft plastic cover
and...
it feels heavy
compared to my other mini pc - J45
and it's a little bigger too
on the front we have a power button
headphone jack
microphone jack
and two USB 3.0 ports
on this side
nothing
on the other side
also nothing
and at the back
we can see the 19volts DC in power jack
gigabit LAN port
two USB 2.0 ports
one HDMI port
and according to the spec sheet
version 2.0
so that means, it can do 4K at 60FPS
one display port
and two more USB 3.0 ports
so let's see what else we have
let's see what we have in the accessories box
so aside from that, not much else
only thing left is the styro
OKAY, so in the accessories box
we have the power cord
which is the EU plug
This is the reason why this version is cheaper that the other plug types
Next!
Oh!
it comes with a SATA adapter
so if we want to add
a 2.5inch drive storage
lastly, the power brick
standard DC power barrel plug
and for power output
we see 19volts at 3.42amps
if my mental math is right,
it's about 65watts for the power delivery
what else...
user manual...
this is for the windows basic setup
And.....
that's it
Few other possible CONs for others
is it doesn't come with a VESA bracket
and it also doesn't come with screws
for those that want to install a 2.5inch drive
so, next thing we need to do is
quick teardown
to check if they really installed the specs as specified in their page
it caught some cat hairs :D
looks like...
looks like it has rubber feet
which looks to be glued using a double sided tape
let's just remove it carefully
why did you remove it!?!
Why are you removing it?!?!
I need to uhh... check...
what's inside
... that's brand new and you're breaking it!...
...you're wasting money!...
...other people are starving during this pandemic...
ayaya...OKAY
Next!
let's start unscrewing the screws
cat hairs easily sticks to the surface
now... how do I remove this?
the buttom cover appears to be tightly fit
let me just do a timelapse so you can see my struggle :D
Oh!
looks like the top cover can be removed
after removing the screws at the bottom
OKAY, let's check this out first
here we have two WIFI antennas
the other review I saw
only has one WIFI antenna
so, this looks like an updated revision
or maybe there's a difference between the retail and the review version of the product
and for the cooling fan
looks like they installed a gaming laptop cooler
which I think is good
now let's replace it back
and break...
Oops, I mean
try to open the bottom cover again
Timelapse again!
OKAY, we finally have a small opening
just a little more...
At last! it's finally opened!
it just need a little more prying
and here it is guys
so we can see here we have two dual slots
for SODIMM RAMs
Which means this is configured to run in Dual Channel
we also have an NVME slot
which uses a 2280 M.2 drive
And... CMOS battery
so, in case you need to reset the BIOS
you can unplug it
and plug it back
Up next! let's try to add a 2.5inc drive
in the storage compartment
we'll install it here
and we also need the SATA adapter
that will be plugged in the main board
now let's go ahead and try to install the SSD drive
for this one, i'll be using my extra
my 240GB Sandisk SSD
although, you probably need to do some guesswork
on orientation since it didn't come with instructions
but the plugging of SATA adapter looks straighforward
as mentioned awhile ago, they did not include screws
to install the 2.5inch drive
I just got lucky I have some spare screws
from my other PC
after screwing the drive in
don't forget to Flip the Flap!
Before...
you insert the flex cable
we need to be careful with the ribbon cable since it looks easy to bend
we don't want to risk damaging the pins on the ribbon cable
afterwards, just replace the cover
make sure the orientation of the cover is correct
before you fully close it
and then replace the screws
Next! let's boot up Windows...
okay, as we can see here
their Windows10 is preinstalled and preconfigured
Since we did not go through the initial setup
and they already created a user account for T-BAO!
I'm sure this is also not okay for other users
so, if you want, you can reinstall Windows
I don't know if resetting Windows to factory settings will work in this version
Maybe we can test this later
But Windows boot up was pretty fast
let's go ahead and check the Task Manager
the specs appear correct so far
We have AMD Ryzen 5
2500U
for memory, 8GB
and it says "2 of 2"
which means, it is really running in dual channel mode
let's check the version of Windows 10 installed
okay, so looks like this is Windows 10 Home
thing is, it's still build 1803
so expect to download a lot of updates
before it reaches the latest build version
I also tried to reset the mini pc to factory setting
hoping to make it personalized
apparently, it does not work and gives this error
looks like the only solution is to reinstall Windows
they (OEM) said the serial, or the license
is in the BIOS, but
when I checked, I did not find it
next, let's check what's in the BIOS
looks like the BIOS is fully unlocked
which is very good!
especially for those that know how
and like to tinker with the settings
let's check out "Advanced" (tab)
AMD CBS
Ohh!
it has GFX Configuration
I think this is one of the important settings here
you can manually set, to allocate
one or two gigabyte of system RAM
to VEGA 8
