Blackview MP20 Mini PC
pros and cons
- A genuinely whisper-quiet Windows 11 Pro mini PC.
- Comes with a three-year warranty, beating the competition that mostly offers a year.
- Easy to upgrade the RAM and M.2 storage drive.
- No USB-C ports limit external expansion possibilities.
- Only single RAM and M.2 slots, so any upgrading means having to throw away whatever is already in the system.
on Google.
I know dozens of people for whom the Mac Mini was the gateway gadget that made them switch from big, clunky Windows systems to a small box that you could tuck in the corner of a desk or hide behind a monitor (or, as was more often the case, behind a pile of wiring).
All you needed was a display, a keyboard, and a mouse, and you were ready to experience computing without needing a giant beige box in your life.
Also: I replaced my full-sized desktop with a mini Windows PC, and it’s somehow just as capable
But things have moved on, and now you can get Windows PCs that dwarf even the Mac Mini. These PCs are mostly spinoffs of the Intel NUC (Next Unit of Computing) systems, but they’ve now taken on a life of their own thanks to several makers jumping on the bandwagon.
Blackview, a company better known for its rugged smartphones, has also been making some impressive mini PCs lately, and the new, updated MP20 mini PC
Decent tech, albeit a few years old now inside the Blackview MP20.
Adrian Kingsley-Hughes/ZDNET
On the front are a pair of USB-A 3.2 (10Gbps) ports, a 3.5 mm audio jack, and the on/off button; on the back are a pair of USB-A 2.0 ports, an HDMI 2.0 and DisplayPort for hooking up displays (you can attach each of these to separate 4K@60Hz displays), a gigabit Ethernet port, a Kensington lock slot, and a DC input port for power.
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That’s right, no USB-C ports. Some might feel this is a letdown, but I don’t see these mini PCs as the kind of device you connect to a bunch of peripherals. It sort of defeats the purpose of having a PC that you can tuck behind a display.
In the box is a metal plate that allows the MP20 to be attached to the VESA screw points on the back of a display or TV, or that can be used to secure the mini PC to a wall or desk.
Old tech inside, but it does the job
On the inside of the MP20 is an energy-conscious quad-core AMD Ryzen 3 3300U processor that can hum along at 2.1 GHz and boost to 3.5 GHz when needed. Tucked inside the processor package is an integrated Radeon Vega 6 GPU, which means there’s no need for a separate graphics card.
The silicon package, which dates back to 2019, isn’t going to win any benchmark bragging rights or run AAA games or high-end video editing software, but it’s perfect for everyday tasks such as web browsing, media playback, or use as a media center.
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The CPU/GPU package includes 16GB of DDR4 RAM (expandable to 32GB) and 512GB of storage on an M.2 drive (upgradable to 2TB). To upgrade the system, all you have to do is pop the rubber feet off the bottom of the unit, unscrew the four screws (leave the label alone — there are no screws hidden under it), and then carefully pry off the top.
After that, remove the plastic “copper” bit, and you’re into the system.
Only one RAM and M.2 slot limits upgrading to swapping out parts.
Adrian Kingsley-Hughes/ZDNET
But, again, that’s by design because you can’t cram a massive CPU into a small package without running into all sorts of thermal issues. With this system, Blackview has managed to get away with a single cooling fan to keep the system at peak performance temperature, and the fan never becomes noticeable. According to the spec sheet, this fan never gets above 35 dB, which is about as quiet as a library or a soft whisper.
What can you do with a mini PC like this?
So, what can you do with this tiny PC? You could use it as a general-purpose home/office system. It makes a great media center using software like Kodi or Plex (both of which run great on this system). You can attach it to a projector in a conference room, or — and this is what I chose to do — set it up as a personal cloud storage system using the community version of ownCloud, a move that takes me one step closer to breaking free of the tyranny of iCloud and Dropbox.
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And that’s the point of these mini PCs. They’re a bit like Raspberry Pi computers is a solid mini PC, as long as you’re aware of the limitations of small-form-factor systems. You’re not going to get the bestest, fastest processors and GPUs; instead, you’re going to get a system that’s built to run cool and quiet and handle basic tasks. And this is what you get here.
The base configuration is fine for most applications, but it’d be nice to be able to upgrade the RAM and storage in a meaningful way. The only downside here is that there’s only one RAM and M.2 slot, so any upgrades involve throwing away whatever’s already in the PC.
The mini PC also comes attached to a 12V/2.5A power supply, which is a setup I like a lot because I find that mini PCs with built-in power supplies suffer a lot from heat buildup, and that is a failure point. Here, the power supply is downstream, and if it does fail (or you just need a spare for whatever reason), you can pick one up for about $10