[Device Reviews and Information] Jupit3r:
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The good:

Compact design and great build quality

Licensed Windows 11 Pro.

Dual Ethernet jacks.

Decent performance.

Amazing power efficiency.

The bad:

The M.2 interface is only compatible with SATA3 SSDs.

WiFi 5 and Bluetooth 4.0.

The latest Intel Jasper Lake Celeron and Pentium processors are so good that, for most people’s daily computing, a budget-friendly mini PC can fully replace a bulky desktop PC nowadays. I tested quite a few low-power systems with the Jasper Lake Celeron and Pentium chips and were constantly amazed by the efficiency they could bring to the table. The recently released Beelink U59 Pro is an upgrade from last year’s U59. In many ways, it is the best budget mini PC in the market right now.

Main specs of the Beelink U59 Pro

Processor: Intel Jasper Lake Celeron N5105, TDP 15W

CPU: 4 cores, 4 threads, 2.0-2.9GHz

GPU: Intel UHD Graphics 605

Process Technique: 10nm

OS: Windows 11 Pro 64bit

RAM: 8GB/16GB DDR4 2933MHz, dual-channel

Storage: 512GB (expandable up to 4TB)

Network: WiFi 5 + BT 4.0 / dual gigabit ethernet jacks

Ports: 3x USB 3.0 Type-A / 1x USB Type-C / 2x HDMI 2.0/ 1x 3.5mm Audio jack / 2x RJ45 Ethernet / 1x DC-in

Accessories: 1x 12V-3A DC adapter/ 2x HDMI Cable (1m & 0.25m) / 1x User Manual / 1x VESA Mount Bracket

Size: 124 mm x 113 mm x 42 mm

Weight: 255 g

Retail Package

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Inside the U59 Pro’s simple but nice-looking packaging, you will find a mini PC, a VESA Mount bracket, a 36-watt power adapter, two HDMI cables, a bag of screws, and a user manual.

Design and build

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The well-ventilated plastic chassis of the Beelink U59 Pro measures 124 mm x 113 mm x 42, making it one of the smallest mini PCs to feature the Intel Celeron N5105 SoC. The matte navy-blue finish isn’t anything we haven’t seen yet, but it does give the machine a simple and professional look. You can find the “Beelink” branding in the center of the top panel, and an “Intel Inside” logo on the bottom-right corner.

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The U59 Pro doesn't require much area on your desktop, you can even place it under a monitor stand or use the included VESA mount bracket to attach it to the back of the display.

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Just like Beelink’s other mini PCs, the U59 Pro is packed with I/O. The front panel sports two USB 3.0 Type-A ports, a multi-function USB-C port, and a 3.5mm audio jack with mic support. The rear side plays host to two additional USB 3.0 Type-A ports, two Gigabyte Ethernet jacks, two HDMI 2.0 port and a DC-in port. The multi-function type-C port and the two HDMI 2.0 ports all support video output of up to 4K@60Hz, so you can connect the U59 Pro three 4K monitors at the same time. As there are to Ethernet jacks, you can also easily turn the U59 Pro into a soft router.

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After removing the four screws on the bottom panel, you will get access to the internals of this mini PC. The U59 Pro comes with two memory sticks, which will handily boost the performance of the integrated GPU. The M.2 interface is only compatible with M.2 2280 SATA3 SSDs, NVMe SSDs won’t work here. There’s also a SATA3 interface for an additional 2.5-inch SSD/HDD.

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The build quality of the U59 Pro is simply superb for a budget system. All the components on the motherboard are neatly arranged, and you won’t find any ugly mold lines on the surface of the chassis.

Operating system

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Just like Beelink’s other mini PCs, the U59 Pro ships with licensed Windows 11 Pro. Compared to the Home Edition of Windows, the Pro variant offers quite a number of extra features such as being able to join a domain, Hyper-V for virtualization, etc. If you are more into open-source operating systems, you can also choose to install Ubuntu, Debian, Android, CentOS, or any other X86-compatible OS on the U59 Pro.

Performance

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The U59 Pro is powered by an Intel Celeron N5105 chip, which is built on 10nm process, with typical Thermal Design Power of 10W. Beelink has made some alterations to the electrics of this SoC, elevating its TDP to 15W. This chipset incorporates 4 CPU cores, 4 processing threads working at 2.0-2.9 GHz, and an Intel UHD 605 iGPU. Compared to the U59’s Celeron N5095 chip, the Celeron N5105 chip offers 50% more graphics execution units, and higher GPU burst frequency. As a result, N5105 powered mini PCs will generally do better in graphics-intensive tasks. Celeron-based systems are often associated with low performance, but the U59 Pro is really anything but, and can be a game changer for the mini PC category.

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In the cross-platform Geekbench 5 test, the Beelink U59 Pro scored 510 in CPU single core, 1942 in multi core, and 3203 in OpenCL. As you can see in the chart, the U59 Pro was slightly edged out by the U59, which employs a Celeron N5095 chip.

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In the Cinebench R20 CPU-crunching test, the U59 Pro snatched 214 in single core, and 774 in multi-core. It handily beat the Core i3-8109U powered Beelink SEI8 in multi-core performance.

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While the CPU performance of the Celeron N5105 chip may have caught up with older Intel Core and AMD Ryzen processors, the GPU performance obviously has not. In 3DMark, the U59 Pro scored in 2866 Sky Diver, 675 in Fire Strike, and 345 in Time Spy, falling far behind the Beelink SEI8, which employs a beefier Iris Plus 655 iGPU to take care of gaming and other graphics-intensive tasks. Still, the U59 Pro did better in all subtests than the U59.

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PCMark 10 simulates different real-world productivity and content-creation workflows. We often use it to assess the overall system performance of a PC. The U59 Pro scored 2539 in this test, much better than models featuring older Celeron and Pentium processors.

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Beelink doesn’t offer a barebone version of the U59 Pro, all units will be sold with an M.2 SATA3 SSD inside. The 512GB SSD in my review unit has decent sequential read and write speed, by the SATA3 standard. You must be wondering why Beelink hasn’t made the M.2 interface compatible with faster NVMe SSDs. Unlike Intel Core processors, Celeron processors has very limited number of PCle lanes. An NVMe SSD will need 4 lanes to reach its top speed, but the Celeron processor simply could only distribute 1 or 2 lanes to the NVMe SSD, resulting in read/write speeds similar to SATA3 SSDs.

Daily computing

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I had tested a handful of N5095 powered systems before, so I had great expectations for the U59 Pro, since it comes with a more expensive CPU. Mainstream computing duties like web-browsing, social-networking, Microsoft Office tasks and media playback definitely put no pressure on this mini PC. Thanks to the 16GB dual-channel DDR4 memory inside, the U59 Pro is also capable of a fair amount of multi-tasking. I could open a dozen image-heavy webpages in Chrome, play an 8K video clip, and edit a few documents at the same time without experiencing any hiccups or delays.

It obviously makes no sense to use the U59 Pro, or any budget mini PC, for heavy creativity tasks such as 4K video editing or complex artwork design, but you can expect it to do well in lightweight content creation. I did not notice any lags or delays when cutting and merging 4K video footages in Power Director, but adding complex filters or colorations to the clips on the U59 Pro could take a lot more time than on the Beelink GTR5.

Gaming

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It’s not impossible to play games on the U59 Pro, but you should keep your expectations modest. Simpler games like Minecraft, Angry Birds 2, Plant vs Zombies, and everything installed from Microsoft Store could run smoothly on this mini PC, but with heavier titles, you will need to turn down the resolution and quality settings to ensure a smooth ride.

For example, League of Legends was playable at 1080P and medium settings. With 40 fps on average, I only experienced noticeable frameskips in some of the intensive battle scenes. After turning the resolution down to 720P, the average frame rate of the game improved to 69 fps. More demanding titles such as Genshin Impact and Spell Break are simply not meant to be played on mini PCs like the U59 Pro, even at 720P and low quality settings, the average frame rate were below 20 fps.

HTPC

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According to DXVA checker, the Intel UHD iGPU can decode most video formats to 4K and above, making the U59 Pro an ideal HTPC or media center for your home entertainment. I played quite a number of video clips on this mini PC, and all of them were extremely smooth. Because the U59 Pro was always utilizing hardware video decoding, the CPU usage was never too high.

Streaming videos online was a similar story. When I was playing 4K/60FPS YouTube videos in Chrome, neither the CPU nor the GPU was stressed too much. However, streaming 8K/60fps YouTube videos may result in frequent frameskips and stutters, but as the U59 Pro doesn’t really output 8K, there’s no point in trying that anyway.

Power consumption and noise

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Power consumption of the U59 Pro is at only 8.5 watts idle and 22.7 watts on max load, and the machine stayed quiet most of the time. I did hear some noise from the cooling fan when running benchmark tests and games, but the sound was always so gentle that I easily ignored it.

The fan does an excellent job of keeping this mini PC cool and stable. The surface of this mini PC never gets hot, and in the 3DMark Time Spy Stress Test, the U59 Pro scored an excellent 99.3%.

Verdict

Priced at $209 for the 8GB & 500GB version, and $229 for the 16GB & 500GB version on Beelink’s official website, the U59 Pro is an affordable mini PC which checks all the right boxes. It has a compact and attractive design, decent internal hardware, plenty of I/Os, and licensed Windows 11 Pro. Besides basic office workflows and media playback, you can even use this mini PC for lightweight creativity tasks and a fair amount of gaming. For those who are looking for a decent but inexpensive mini PC, the Beelink U59 Pro may just be your best bet.