The Geekom M16 proves that a good 16in laptop needn't break the bank – if only it were more widely available

Geekom's new M16 shares one key feature with the impressive X14 Pro we reviewed earlier this year. Namely, even if you want one, you won't be able to buy one unless you live in or are visiting the USA or Germany, because those are the only two markets where Geekom currently sells its laptop range. That means it's not just a matter of laying hands on one, but having to live with a keyboard tailored to the USA or German market.

We here at ITPro think that's a bit of a shame, because like the X14 Pro, the new M16 offers rather more for the money than you might expect. At the time of writing, the M16 is on sale for $799 or €799, including a $/€100 launch discount.

As usual, Geekom has advised us of a discount code for 8%, which should work on Geekom's US selling page and the US Amazon page. The code (IPGBM168) should be valid until the last day of 2026.

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Geekom M16: Design

A smart and solid aluminium alloy affair, the M16 looks and feels like it should cost considerably more than it does. Available only in silver, the M16 is perhaps a rather anonymous design, but the anodised finish is very good at resisting fingerprints, which is more important than aesthetics.

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The hinge assembly that joins the lid to the body feels well-engineered, and you can easily open the lid with one finger. That lid is surprisingly stiff despite not having a laminated glass screen glued to it to add rigidity.

At 1.73Kg and 355 x 250 x 13.9mm, the M16 is par for the full-sized 16-inch laptop course. Slipping it into a backpack and carrying it around all day is no hardship. The bundled one-piece 100W USB-C charger is impressively petite.

It's impossible to complain about the M16's I/O port selection. On the left side, you'll find two USB-C ports, one USB-C 4.0 spec and one USB-C 3.2 Gen 2 spec (so that's 40Gbps and 10Gbps data speeds respectively).

Both USB-C ports support charging from the bundled 100W charger and DPAltMode video output. Between the two Type-C ports sits an HDMI 2.1 video port. We're fans of Geekom's decision to put a decent gap between the two Type-C ports; it makes accessing the second one when the other is occupied much easier.

On the right side, there are two USB-C ports, both 3.2 Gen 1 or 5Gbps spec, and a 3.5mm audio jack. That's a pretty comprehensive selection, and the USB-C 4.0 port was unlooked for at the price point.

Usefully, Geekom bundles a USB-C dock which adds an RJ-45 Ethernet connector, two USB-A ports and a second HDMI output to the party. Wireless communications are handled by a MediaTek MT7922 card, which supports 6GHz Wi-Fi 6E and Bluetooth 5.4.

Getting inside the M16 is straightforward, and the base panel comes away easily once you've removed the nine Torx screws that secure it in place. The M16 has two SSD slots, one occupied by a 2280 format drive and one empty and ready for a 2230 drive. The RAM and WLAN are fixed in place.

Geekom M16: Keyboard, touchpad, and webcam

No part of the M16's user interface is going to win an award for innovation, but that's not to say that everything doesn't work well. It does.

The keyboard is well laid out, the keycap graphics are clear, and the four-stage white backlight has you covered no matter what ambient light you find yourself working in.

Deserving of particular plaudits is Geekom's decision to make the keypad and arrow keys the same size as the rest of the keys. Too many laptop makers reduce the size of those keys even when there's clearly room for full-sized alternatives.

We also like the way the power button-cum-fingerprint scanner sits above and separate from the keyboard proper, removed from the likelihood of accidental presses.

The typing action is light but crisp, and the end-stop is well damped. The central part of the keyboard is a little more bouncy than we'd like, though, with a fair amount of flex apparent if you press down hard around the T-H-M diagonal.

At 135 x 90mm, the Mylar touchpad is more than large enough to accommodate multi-fingered gestures, and it reacts reliably and consistently to taps and swipes. The mechanical click-action is precise and not overly loud.

The 1080p webcam is another solid performer. It's not the most colourful when it comes to image capture, but it does well in low-light environments. Thanks to the flacid NPU, you have to do without Microsoft's Studio webcam enhancements. There's no support for Windows Hello facial recognition, but there is a manual privacy shutter above the lens.

Geekom M16: Specs and performance

Inside the M16, you'll find the same Intel Core Ultra 9 185H Meteor Lake CPU that Geekom puts in the X14 Pro. The last word in modernity it is not, having now been superseded both by Intel's second-generation Arrow Lake and third-generation Panther Lake processors.

That's not to say it lacks vim, though. With 16 cores, 6 of which are deemed Performance, and with a boost from Geekom's Dynamic Tuning Technology, which means it can run at a sustained 55W TDP, it's a more than decent performer.

In the GeekBench 6 CPU benchmark test, the CPU scored 2,426 single-core and 12,262 multi-core, while in our 4K multimedia benchmark, which is built around Handbrake, it scored 370 points.

Those numbers indicate a base level of performance way beyond what you'd usually expect from a laptop in this price bracket. The MSI Prestige 16 AI we tested recently scored 238 in the 4K multimedia test, while Lenovo's ThinkPad T14s scored 255.

The integrated Intel Arc GPU is of the older Alchemist type, so despite having 8 Xe cores, it can't match the performance of the 140T Arc iGPU that comes paired with Intel's Arrow Lake CPUs.

The GeekBench 6 OpenGL benchtest score of 30,285 and 25,449 in the 3DMark Nightraid benchmark proves the point: both are quite unremarkable.

That said, it doesn't do badly in the real world, grinding through the SPECviewperf 3dsmax 3D modelling benchmark at 19fps and easily running the 2018 Doom reboot at an average of 50fps at FullHD.

It is worth mentioning that initially, the M16 refused to run several graphics tests and crashed Windows. Downloading Microsoft's 'OpenCL, OpenGL, and Vulkan Compatibility Pack' fixed this problem in a trice.

While the chipset does have a dedicated NPU, it's only rated at 11 TOPS, which limits its ability to run local Windows AI jobs that demand a more potent NPU. This includes Windows Studio webcam filters and effects.

Despite Geekom's fettling, the chipset didn't misbehave under stress, nor did it tax the cooling of the system. After an hour of stress testing, the CPU and GPU settled down to 82% and 100% utilisation, respectively, and while the fans could certainly be heard, the noise wasn't what we could describe as intrusive.

The 512GB Kingston SSD proved usefully sprightly, returning sequential read and write speeds of 4,865MB/s and 3,555MB/s, respectively.

The M16 arrives pre-loaded with Windows 11 Pro, but Geekom boasts of full Linux support. Booting into Ubuntu 26.04 proved that it's no idle brag, with everything working from the get-go.

Geekom M16: Display and speakers

Laptops in this sort of price range often come with screens which only offer 45% NTSC gamut coverage (around 65% sRGB), but the M16's 16in 1,920 x 1,200 IPS panel covers 70% NTSC, or 100% sRGB.

That makes for nicely colorful images that don't look as dreary or washed-out as they do on many budget laptop displays with an even narrower gamut.

Maximum brightness measured at 298cd/m2, which is fine for indoor use but can leave you wanting more when you're outdoors in sunlight.

The contrast ratio of 1,113:1 is more of a product of the rather lowly maximum brightness than the black luminance level, which was a perfectly respectable 0.27cd/m2. Obviously, there's no support for HDR content.

The matte finish on the display does a good job of keeping reflections in check, but it can only do so much. Viewing angles are robust with no sign of chromatic shift at extremes.

Moving away from colourimeter results, we watched a selection of upcoming movie trailers on the M16, and they looked nicely vivid and colorful. Some budget laptops make poor multimedia machines, but watching YouTube and Netflix on the M16 is a pleasant experience.

Color accuracy was reasonable with an average Delta E of 2.9 vs the sRGB profile. Over-saturated blues seemed to be at fault, but that shouldn't be an issue for anyone who's not professionally concerned with color accuracy, and the M16 is not really targeted at such people.

The speaker system, however, is another matter. The sound from the two-speaker setup is most impressive. Not only is there plenty of volume, 78.6 dBA as measured against a pink noise source at a 1m distance, but the soundscape is wide, detailed, distortion-free, and sonorous.

Impressive though the speakers are, battery life is the strongest card in the M16's hand. Given that the 185H is hardly a byword for efficiency by modern standards, we were not expecting much, but thanks to a capacious 99.9Wh battery the M16 ran for 24 hours and 13 minutes in our video loop test.

That means the M16 has the latest MacBook Pro beaten by nearly five hours and the new Snapdragon X2-powered Asus Zenbook A16 by nearly 7 hours. That is no small achievement given how much more expensive both of those machines are.

Geekom M16: Is it worth it?

For the money, the Geekom M16 has a lot going for it. Pride of place goes to the long battery life and tuneful speaker system, though special mention must also be made of the 40Gbps USB-C port and free space for a second SSD.

The CPU may not be the latest thing, but it's more potent than what you generally find in cheaper laptops, and the display is also a step above the bargain-basement components typical at this price level.

Geekom is really missing a trick by not making the M16 more widely available. If it were available in the UK for £800 or less, we'd describe it as the best value 16in laptop in Blighty, and by some margin.

Geekom M16 specifications