Xiaomi Mini Host: Xiaomi's first mini-PC debuts with Intel Core i5-1240P and plenty of ports
Xiaomi has presented the Mini Host, a new mini-PC powered by a processor more typically found in a modern ultrabook. Still, the Xiaomi Mini Host should be more powerful than most mini-PCs, other than something like the MINISFORUM Neptune NAG6. For reference, the Xiaomi Mini Host weighs 437 g and measures 112 x 112 x 38 mm, which corresponds to a case volume of 0.44 litres.
At the heart of Xiaomi's first mini-PC is the Core i5-1240P, a 28 W and 12-core processor from Intel's Alder Lake-P series. Effectively one of the weakest Alder Lake-P processors, the Core i5-1240P has 4 performance cores, 8 efficiency cores and 16 threads, plus an Iris Xe Graphics G7 iGPU that contains 80 Execution Units (EUs). Additionally, the Xiaomi Mini Host has 512 GB of PCIe 4.0 storage and 16 GB of DDR4-3200 RAM, despite the Core i5-1240P supporting faster DDR5 RAM.
Modern connectivity standards like Bluetooth 5.3 and WiFi 6 are on board though, as are two Thunderbolt 4 ports. As the image below also shows, Xiaomi has equipped the Mini Host with a 2.5 Gbit Ethernet port too, as well as three USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-A ports, a sole USB 2.0 Type-A port and a pair of HDMI 2.1 ports. However, it is worth noting that the latter peak at 18 Gbps bandwidth, not 48 Gbps like regular HDMI 2.1 ports. Hence, the Xiaomi Mini Host relies on HDMI 2.0 ports, which companies can now market under the HDMI 2.1 standard.
So far, Xiaomi has only announced the Mini Host in China. Xiaomi has not confirmed whether it will release the Mini Host globally either, unlike the Xiaomi 13 and Xiaomi 13 Pro. The Mini Host starts at CNY 3,699 (~US$532) during Xiaomi's pre-sale period but will rise to CNY 3,999 (~US$575) when that period ends on December 25.