We are seriously into our mini-PCs here at Readwrite, and this latest model we are going to take a look at today is another from Geekom. We looked at the outstanding A8 Pro a few months back and found it was spot on for creating our own AI server on our local network. The A6 isn’t powerful enough to repeat that exercise, so we are going to do something a lot more fun with it, while testing out its capabilities in the process. First, let’s look at our new little metal box.
Design and Build Quality
The latest Geekom A6 mini PC embraces the usual minimalist aesthetic, featuring a silver metal chassis that not only enhances durability but also aids in heat dissipation. Despite its compact size – you can hold it in the palm of your hand, the build quality feels as premium as the A8 Pro, with well-placed ventilation to prevent overheating. The A6 provides us with 3×USB 3.2 Gen 2 ports, 1×USB 2.0 port, 2×Type-C ports, 2×HDMI ports, and 1×SD card slot.
Features and Hardware
At the heart of this model of the A6 is a high-performance AMD Ryzen™7 6800H CPU, featuring 8 cores and 16 threads, with a maximum frequency of up to 4.7GHz., paired with ample RAM and fast SSD storage. Depending on the configuration, users can opt for up to 32GB of RAM and 1TB of NVMe storage, making it a capable machine for multitasking, light gaming, and professional workloads. It also supports Wi-Fi 6 and Bluetooth 5.2, ensuring fast wireless connectivity.
Our model also contained an AMD Radeon™ 680M GPU which actually proved very useful for what we wanted to do with it.
One of the standout features is its upgradability—users can swap out storage and RAM to extend the system’s usefulness. This flexibility makes it appealing for those looking to future-proof their setup. For our sake though, with all the ports available you can easily attach external drives and USB devices full of (legal) ROMs to it so you can add all your games on there with minimum fuss.
The PC
Coming with a pre-activated Windows 11 install allowed us to get going from the second we booted the A6. Eventually we will make it dual boot with Bazzite or SteamOS but for the sake of getting this review completed, we decided to stick to Windows and see how it would fare using Launchbox as our gaming front end. The answer, very well indeed. The front end was snappy and playing our collection of favorite retro games on Windows via RetroArch was as good as we expected it to be playing all our favorite retro emulators to a standard we were more than happy with.
Uses
If you are one of those people who always wondered what the actual point of a mini-PC is, especially if you already have a desktop, well beyond reclaiming some of that desktop real estate back, the ability to just through this little beauty in your bag, or even suitcase when you are heading to the office, a friend, or even on vacation is enticing. Without a doubt, this little retro machine will be coming on vacation to Thailand with me later in the year – and the fact that it is more than capable of normal Windows 11 things such as browsing, email, and even photo editing make it even more useful.
I’m looking forward to editing the 360 degree holiday footage from my Insta360 X4 cam and posting it while we are actually away, instead of the overbearing thought of doing it all upon our return. The Geekom A6 will make all of this easily possible.
Conclusion
Geekom are in a really good place right now with their range of mini-PCs. There is a great case for taking a machine like this and putting it to a specific purpose such as this one. At £500 it is considerably cheaper than the best portable PC options out there like the ROG Ally X – of course, it’s not a handheld, but plenty of people are using machines such as their Steam Deck and ROG Ally as desktop PCs now. The Geekom A6 packs in a ton more power than either of those things and can game as well and its portability for such power in your pocket is a real bonus.
If you decide you want to add one to your household, you can get 5% off the asking price on Amazon by using the coupon code readwriteA6.
