Acemagic Vista Mini V1 Mini PC review: A tiny but capable mini PC

The Vista V1 Mini PC is the second mini PC ITPro has tested built around Intel's new N150 CPU. Like the Beelink S13, it's an ultra-compact device designed for lightweight general use or with embedded systems, or as a NAS device or a home theatre PC. Again like the Beelink S13, it comes preloaded with a legit version of Windows 11 Pro and is available from Amazon.

Acemagic may not be a name overly familiar in Europe. Still, alongside Beelink, Chuwi, Geekom, and GMKTek it's one of an increasing number of Chinese OEMs who are carving out an ever-increasing slice of the mini PC market.

The Vista V1 is available in three versions, the cheapest comes with 8GB of DDR4 RAM and a 256GB SSD and an RRP of £229.99 including VAT, next comes a model with 16GB of RAM and a 512GB SSD for £259.99 while at the top of the tree sits a 16GB / 1TB model which costs £279.99. Inside the box along with the PC itself, you get a VESA mourning bracket and screwns and an HDMI cable.

Before we get into the review proper one further issue needs to be addressed. It only takes a quick internet search to discover that Shenzhen Shanminheng Technology Co. Ltd. the company that owns several different brands including Acemagic, Kamrui, NiPoGi, and CTONE has had issues in the past with malware being found on some of its Windows PCs. With this in mind, we thoroughly scanned our review sample and found nothing untoward and have no reason to believe that this is still an issue with Acemagic PCs.

Acemagic Vista V1: Design

Tiny, miniscule, petite, diminutive. All these words can be used to describe the Acermagic Vista V1 because boy, it is small. At 100 x 100 x 32mm and weighing just 245g it's smaller and lighter than both the Beelink S13 and the GMKtec NucBox G1. If there's a smaller Windows mini PC on the market we have yet to stumble across it.

All parts of the external case are made from plastic but it feels solid and sturdy and the silver paint finish makes it look and feel like a more expensive bit of kit than it actually is.

The range and positioning of the ports are typical for the breed with two USB-A ports on the front along with a power button and 3.5 audio jack while around the back you'll find two more USB-A ports, HDMI 2.0 and DisplayPort 1.4 – both capable of 4K 60fs – video outputs, an RJ-45 Gigabit LAN port, a Kensington lock, and the DC-in port.

The differences between the Vista V1 and Beelink S13 are small but worth mentioning. The S13 features two HDMI ports but no DisplayPort while all four of the Beelink's USB-A ports are 3.2 Gen 2 or 10Gbit/s specification while the two rear ports on the Vista V1 are USB 2.0 spec.

Given that the rear data ports are likely to be used to attach a keyboard and mouse their data speed to arguably irrelevant so the Vista V1's inclusion of a DisplayPort socket makes it the more versatile of the two machines in our opinion. Wireless communications are managed by the Realtek RTL8821CE card which supports Wi-Fi 6 over the 2.4 and 5Ghz wavelengths and Bluetooth 5.2.

The RTL8821CE has a reputation for not playing nice with some Linux distros, unlike the Intel AX101 card in the Beelink box, however, when we booted the Vista V1 into Ubuntu 21.10 everything worked perfectly including both the Wi-Fi and Bluetooth radios.

Taking the Vista V1 apart involves prising off the four glued-on rubber feet to access the four Philips screws that hold the chassis and case together. The screws are at the bottom of a long, thin hole so you will need a correspondingly long, thin screwdriver to get at them.

Once you've removed the screws and slid the base unit out of the case you can easily access the M.2 2280 SSD mount and SODIMM slot. Given that there's only one of each opening up the Vista V1 is arguably pointless unless you've bought the cheapest model and feel the need to upgrade either the memory or storage cards.

The Beelink S13 offers no better expansion option when it comes to memory – the N150 chipset only supports single-channel RAM – but you can fit it with a second SSD.

Acemagic Vista V1: Specs and performance

The new Intel N150 processor, commonly known as Twin Lake is based on the Alder Lake design but with minor clock speed improvements. The N150 is a four-core four-thread processor with a base TDP of 6W, a maximum turbo clock of 3.6GHz, and an integrated GPU with 24 execution units and a 1Ghz clock. It's intended for low-power and low-cost implementations.

Though the Vista V1 shares a nearly identical basic specification to the Beelink S13 it proved faster in some of our benchtests. In ITPro's in-house multi-media test, the Vista V1 scored 65 points to the Beelink's 50.5, a surprising 30% advantage, while in the PCMark 10 productivity benchmark, the Vista V1 again beat the Beelink machine, scoring 3,252 to the S13's 2,984.

Looking at the results from the Geekbench 6 and Cinebench R23 tests there's little to choose between the Vista V1 and S13 in terms of CPU performance, the Vista V1 scoring 2,750 and 2,740 in the respective multi-core tests, the S13 scoring 3,029 and 2,890. In the Geekbench 6 Open CL test though the Vista V1 is the winner scoring 4,267 to the S13's 3,293.

That suggests that it's in the GPU department that the Vista V1 has the edge, something borne out by the GFXBench benchmark. In the Car Chase and Manhatten off-screen tests, the Vista V1 scored 32.9 and 69.1fs while the S13 scored 25.6 and 56.6fs.

Strangely the GPU memory clock is higher in the S13 at 1,596MHz to the Vista V1's 1,330MHz which suggests the S13 should be faster rather than the other way around.

Of course, none of these different scores means much in the real world: Both the Vista V1 and the S13 deliver the sort of performance you could expect from a 2017-vintage dual-core Intel Core i5-7500U processor and will be all at sea when faced with anything other than low-power tasks.

You'll also see higher scores from any mini PC built around Intel's 15W TDP N95 or 12W N97 processors. Still, the fact remains that for reasons we can't nail down the Vista V1 is the more potent of the two.

Like the S13 the Vista V1 can happily run for prolonged periods with both the CPU and GPU maxed out without any thermal issues. The Vista V1 is actively cooled but unless you checked the specification sheet you'd never know: Even under heavy stress, the fan is completely silent.

One feature shared by both the Beelink S13 and Acemagic Vista V1 is a glacially slow SSD. The Vista V1's SATA 3 drive – made by Rayson – recorded average sequential read and write speeds of just 509MB/s and 465MB/s respectively: Dismal, but within a margin of error no worse than the Beelink S13 which packs an equally pedestrian drive.

Acemagic Vista V1: Is it worth it?

Taken on its merits the Vista V1 is an easy piece of kit to recommend. The size, weight, and presence of a DisplayPort video output give it an advantage over the Beelink S13 if you want a very small mini PC to carry around with you on your travels with the widest range of video connectivity options.

The Beelink S13 counters that with the option to add a second SSD and by being – at the time of writing at least – cheaper in the UK though as with most of these Chinese products the price can vary dramatically depending on when and where you look. At the end of the day, they are both decent little units that do their intended jobs without drama and both represent good value for money.

Acemagic Vista V1 specifications