Acemagic AD15 Mini-PC review: On par with AMD Ryzen 5 6600U thanks to 6-core Intel Core i5-11500B

The Acemagic AD15 is mostly made of black plastic. There is not much to complain about in terms of workmanship. We couldn't find any noticeable gaps or sharp edges. Nevertheless, due to the choice of materials, the device does not look very high-quality. The Blackview MP200 also only has a simple plastic casing, but it has a much more premium feel, and the Morefine M600 chassis is even mostly made of aluminum.

Due to its design, the Acemagic AD15 requires slightly less desk space than most other mini PCs. However, the AD15 is not extremely small, and at 772 grams, our test sample is also one of the heaviest devices in the current comparison.

As the Acemagic AD15 is always sold with RAM and SSD, it is generally not necessary to disassemble the device. Nevertheless, the right-hand side seen from the front can be easily dismantled. To do this, two small screws must be removed from the underside, which hold the side panel in place. The RAM and the pre-installed mass storage are then concealed under the side cover. As is easy to see, a second storage drive can also be accommodated. The WLAN module can also be replaced, but the Acemagic AD15 has to be dismantled further for this. With a little skill, however, this is not a major obstacle. Even the complete removal of the circuit board is possible and does not require any special tools. This also allows dust to be removed from the small CPU fan.

We carried out all performance tests with the maximum power plan. We did not change the performance of the SoC and left it in the delivery state according to the BIOS settings. Energy-saving plans were only used for the power consumption measurements and the noise measurements according to our Test criteria.

The Acemagic AD15 is equipped with an Intel Core i5-11500B. However, the SoC is no longer one of the latest and is still based on the Tiger Lake architecture. In the performance comparison, however, our test sample ranks where we had already assumed it would: directly ahead of the Blackview MP200 with the Intel Core i5-11400H. With its 6 cores and 12 threads, the SoC delivers solid multi-core performance. The two 8-cores cannot really stand out in the average performance comparison. The Intel Core i7-11800H and the AMD Ryzen 7 5800H can only prevail in individual tests. In the AIDA64 tests, our test device is in the midfield. Here, the Geekom A5 can clearly set itself apart.

According to Intel, the power limit of the Intel Core i5-11500B is 65 watts. Acemagic adheres to this specification, although this value is only used for the short-term Turbo mode. Under continuous load, the power consumption is then reduced to 45 watts.

For further comparisons and benchmarks, please refer to our CPU comparison table.

In the synthetic benchmarks in terms of system performance, our test sample ranks in the lower midfield. Basically, the Acemagic AD15 based on the Intel Core i5-11500B does not deliver much less performance than its supposedly faster counterpart with the Intel Core i7-11800H.

In the synthetic benchmarks, the Acemagic AD15 has a somewhat harder time asserting itself. The mini PC lacks 3D performance in PCMark10, which is why the two devices with AMD processors take the first two places here. In Crossmark, too, it is only enough for third place, although the gap to the Morefine M600 is much smaller here. We see the RAM configuration of the Acemagic AD15 as a weak point. The manufacturer uses two modules, which is basically a good thing. However, these only clock at 2,666 MT/s, which means that our test device is only in the lower midfield in the RAM tests. The use of RAM with a clock rate of 3,200 MT/s would be more optimal.