The Geekom Air12 2026 Edition is a solid entry-level mini PC – if you can bag a good bargain on one

Geekom is among a cohort of increasingly prominent Chinese manufacturers building a diverse collection of snug and supercharged miniature computers that threaten to replace conventional desktop machines. The manufacturer's AMD-based mini PCs have excelled under scrutiny, including the outstanding Geekom A7 Max, while ITPro also described the Geekom A5 2025 Edition as the best mini PC on the market at the time of our review.

Both these machines are aimed at users with higher demands, but the Geekom Air12 2026 Edition is more in line with the Beelink Mini S13 or Acemagic Vista Mini V1. These are relatively stripped-back mini PCs and aren't suitable for the intensive or graphics-based workloads their weightier cousins are; rather, they're largely for day-to-day performance. With a basic Intel Pentium chipset alongside 8GB RAM, and an attractive £299 price tag (if you can find the device on sale), can this compact and affordable mini PC turn heads for those seeking an entry-level option?

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Geekom Air12 2026 Edition: Design

Fewer PCs out there are more compact than the Geekom Air12 2026 Edition, with the manufacturer claiming it's the thinnest mini PC ever. That's due to its incredible slenderness, with dimensions measuring 117 x 112 x 34.2mm. Whether or not this is accurate depends on your parameters, however. For instance, the Acemagic Vista Mini V1 boasts a depth of just 32mm – but it isn't currently available.

Its 460g weight is also slightly below average, but it's twice as heavy as the Beelink (275g) and the Acemagic (245g). Nonetheless, this pocket-sized device is delightfully compact and impressively robust, with the chassis able to withstand up to 200kg of pressure. The weight isn't a huge problem at all, given it's light enough to begin with.

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The two-toned gray and black chassis gives the device some character, while the four rubber feet handily let it rest on any surface without causing marks or scratches, and subtly rounded corners take the edge off. The look, similar to that of the A5 2025 Edition, is certainly a lot more subtle than a handful of devices out there. The Lenovo ThinkCentre M70q, for instance, is much louder.

There's a decent array of connectivity options with this device, too. The wireless compatibility standards of Wi-Fi 6 and Bluetooth 5.2 – entirely standard for this power class – won't offer that much future-proofing. Otherwise, you'll benefit from a slew of options front and back. On the face of the device is one USB-C port and one USB-A 3.2 Gen 2 port, as well as a 3.5mm headphone jack and a power button (with a useful LED indicator). On the rear is a DC in, mini DP 1.4, Ethernet port, two USB-A 3.2 Gen 2 ports, HDMI 2.0 port, and a USB-C port with DP 1.4 Alt Mode. On the left-hand side is an SD card slot, and on the right a lock slot. It makes for a very strong collection of ports and connectivity options.

Geekom Air12 2026 Edition: Specs and performance

Fitted into the Geekom Air12 2026 Edition is a five-year-old Tiger Lake-U processor created initially for budget notebooks. The Intel Pentium Gold 7505 CPU is as entry-level as you can get, with the 10nm chip featuring two cores with a base frequency of 2GHz and a turbo capacity of 3.5GHz. Geekom has paired this with an Intel UHD Graphics chip, 8GB DDR4 SDRAM, and a 256GB PCIe Gen 3 SSD. By today's standards, you shouldn't ever consider a configuration weaker than this – and even this is hard to justify for anything beyond basic performance, unless you can't stretch your budget beyond £300.

The late-2020 CPU featured in this mini PC has been designed for efficiency and better performance in simple, single-core tasks rather than competence in multi-core processing. This is reflected in our testing with Geekbench 6, with the Geekom Air12 2026 Edition registering a single-core result of 1,460 and a multi-core result of 2,823. Performance is generally in line with Intel Processor N150-fitted mini PCs.

The Beelink Mini S13 Mini PC, for instance, registered 1,242 and 3,029 while the AceMagic Vista Mini V1 scored 1,278 and 3,169. Both these models are a tad cheaper at the time of writing, so evaluating performance depends on how you plan on using these machines. Given they're suited for workloads that utilize just one core, the Geekom Air12 may have the edge with its slightly better single-core performance.

An OpenCL score of 7,807 for GPU performance, meanwhile, is weak – especially when you compare it with the Acemagic Kron Mini K1's result of 9,630 with the same graphics chip. Finally, we should note the pretty poor SSD speeds of 557MB/s for reads and 480MB/s for writes. This is in line with what we saw from the Beelink's 510MB/s and 480MB/s, but considerably less than speeds of at least 3,000MB/s and 2,000MB/s for reads and writes in mid-range and higher-end mini PCs (that, admittedly, cost double the price).

Geekom Air12 2026 Edition: Is it worth it?

Price is king with entry-level mini PCs, and whether the Geekom Air12 2026 Edition is worth it depends on how good a deal you can get. We simply wouldn't consider anything higher than £299 – which is even slightly pricier than the Beelink Mini S13 Mini PC and the Acemagic Vista Mini V1. But its form factor is delightfully miniature and robust, its single-core performance is marginally better thanks to the Intel Pentium Gold CPU, and you can take advantage of a useful selection of ports for all contexts.

The simple fact is that your money will only get you so far in this power class. Increasing your budget by even just £100-£200 suddenly opens the door to modern hardware, better SSD speeds, and higher hardware standards. But if you're operating under a strict and limited budget, the Geekom Air12 2026 Edition is a solid entry-level mini PC, especially if you can bag a good bargain on one.

Geekom Air12 2026 Edition specifications