Acemagic F2A review: AI mini-PC gets Intel's Meteor Lake Core Ultra 7 155H processor along with 32 GB of DDR5 RAM and Wi-Fi 7
The F2A series is a new addition to Acemagic’s product range. The company has equipped these devices with Intel's brand-new Meteor Lake processors. You can choose between a Core Ultra 5 125H and a Core Ultra 7 155H, with the latter adding €100 (US$100) to the overall price tag. You’ll currently still need to fork out €1,099 (US$1,099) for the entry-level model. Our review unit is priced at €1,199 (US$1,199). Both models come with 32 GB of RAM and a 1 TB SSD. The Acemagic F2A is thus not a bargain, considering that the current batch of mini-PCs with similarly good specs can be had for much less than €1,000 (around US$1,084).
In this review, we’ll be taking a look at how well the Acemagic F2A stacks up against familiar competitors that we’ve already put through our gauntlet of tests. The overview table below gives you a list of devices featured in our comparison.
Comparison with possible competitors
Rating | Date | Model | Memory | Weight | Height |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 83.4 % v7 (old) | 04 / 2024 | Acemagic F2A Ultra 7 155H, Arc 8-Core | 32768 MB | 768 g | 57 mm |
| 87.3 % v7 (old) | 11 / 2023 | Minisforum EliteMini UM780 XTX R7 7840HS, Radeon 780M | 32768 MB | 750 g | 52.3 mm |
| 82.8 % v7 (old) | 07 / 2023 | Minisforum Venus Series UM790 Pro R9 7940HS, Radeon 780M | 16384 MB | 666 g | 52.3 mm |
| 82.6 % v7 (old) | 03 / 2024 | Geekom A7 R9 7940HS, Radeon 780M | 32768 MB | 417 g | 38 mm |
| 82.8 % v7 (old) | 07 / 2023 | Geekom AS 6, R9 6900HX R9 6900HX, Radeon 680M | 32768 MB | 753 g | 58 mm |
| 83.1 % v7 (old) | 08 / 2023 | Intel NUC 13 Pro Desk Edition Kit i7-1360P, Iris Xe G7 96EUs | 32768 MB | 558 g | 37 mm |
| 82 % v7 (old) | 06 / 2023 | ACEMagician Ace Magician AM08 Pro R9 6900HX, Radeon 680M | 32768 MB | 874 g | 188.5 mm |
| 78.8 % v7 (old) | 08 / 2023 | Khadas Mind i7-1360P, Iris Xe G7 96EUs | 32768 MB | 438 g | 20 mm |
Detailed look at the Acemagic F2A with Intel Core Ultra 7 155H
Cases - A slightly larger plastic shell
The Acemagic F2A is one of the devices with the largest footprint in this comparison. In number terms, the product measures 14.6 cm (5.7 in) in both width and depth. With a height of 5.7 cm (2.2 in), the F2A is not a thin device as well. Acemagic has given the F2A a mostly plastic construction. Given the asking price, we had expected the company to use more premium materials on the mini-PC, like what Geekom has done with the A7. You'll find a coloured border and the company’s logo on the top to spice up the appearance, and grooves around the base to provide some texture.
The Acemagic F2A can be attached directly to a monitor using a VESA mount. Mounting hardware is included in the box.
Specifications - Solid standard, but no USB4
The Acemagic F2A only has basic standard I/Os and doesn’t offer what you would expect from a device in this price bracket. Four USB-A ports and one USB-C port are definitely more than enough for most users. That said, a modern device should have at least one or even two USB4 ports. Monitors can be connected to the mini-PC via the two HDMI outputs on the back.
The pre-installed operating system is included with the configuration. Due to recent cases of malware-infected devices, we closely examined the review unit but couldn’t find anything out of the ordinary with it. Those who want to play it safe should do a clean reinstall of the operating system.
Connectivity
Wireless connectivity is handled by an Intel Wi-Fi 7 BE200 network adapter in the Acemagic F2A. This module is able to operate in the 2.4, 5 and 6GHz bands and supports the latest Wi-Fi 7 standard. In our comparison, however, our review sample struggled to outperform the competitors in the 5GHz band. The Acemagic F2A only delivered good results when it's in the 6GHz band. Because we use the Asus ROG Rapture GT-AXE11000 router for our Wi-Fi tests, we are still unable to provide any results for Wi-Fi 7. Once our test equipment is updated, we will do this test again and then give you the results.
Accessories
Not a whole lot is included with the F2A. Besides the mini-PC itself, you’ll find a 120-watt power adapter, a VESA mount adapter with installation hardware, and a HDMI cable.
Maintenance
The Acemagic F2A is only sold as a preconfigured system. User-serviceability is thus limited only to cleaning and upgrading existing components. The bottom cover can be removed relatively easily after you undo the four screws. Unlike what we often see, the screws aren’t hidden beneath glued-on rubber feet, but instead the rubber feet themselves are the screws. As a result, the bottom cover can be taken off without any tools. To access the CPU fan, you’ll need to take the device apart further. The entire circuit board along with the cooling unit must be disassembled before you can get to the CPU fan. Nonetheless, you should proceed with caution to avoid damaging the delicate connection cables.
Performance - Intel Core Ultra 7 155H with 16 cores and 22 threads
The Intel Core Ultra 7 155H can consistently deliver a high level of performance and keep pace with AMD’s latest Ryzen 7 processors. The iGPU on the new Meteor Lake chips has been completely revamped. The Arc-based iGPU now offers considerably more performance than the timeworn Xe iGPUs. Owing to its specs, the Acemagic F2A is also good enough for much more power-intensive applications, such as photo and video editing. The 32 GB of DDR5 RAM and 1 TB SSD provide a good foundation for this.
Test conditions
We enabled the “Balanced” power profile on this laptop for all performance-related tests. The only exceptions here are the power usage and noise level measurements, which were conducted according to our test criteria.
Processor
The Intel Core Ultra 7 155H is part of the Meteor Lake H lineup and offers 16 cores with 22 threads. The SoC, which feature a chiplet design, also contains a separate neural processing unit (NPU) that can perform special AI computation. Intel has once again combined P- and E-cores, just like what we’ve seen in previous generations. The CPU falls just shy of beating the AMD Ryzen models. In particular, the difference in Performance Rating is very small. This means you won’t feel a noticeable difference when using the Intel Core Ultra 7 as opposed to the AMD Ryzen 7 7840H in the Minisforum EliteMini UM780 XTX.
In terms of power consumption, the Acemagic F2A allocates a maximum of 90 watts to the Intel Core Ultra 7. Under sustained load, at least 65 watts of power is available to the SoC. That said, we didn’t hit the 90-watt peak draw during our testing. The highest level we recorded was around 77 watts. The CPU used 63 watts of power on average, which is very close to the specified PL1. The power limits can be manually adjusted in the BIOS. But we don't recommended increasing the power usage further since the cooling unit is already pushed to its limit at the default settings, with temps hovering around 80°C (176°F).
For more information and benchmark results, you can refer to our CPU comparison table.
| Performance Rating - Percent | |
| Minisforum EliteMini UM780 XTX | |
| Minisforum Venus Series UM790 Pro | |
| Geekom A7 | |
| Acemagic F2A | |
| ACEMagician Ace Magician AM08 Pro | |
| Khadas Mind | |
| Geekom AS 6, R9 6900HX | |
| Geekom Mini IT12 | |
| Blender - v2.79 BMW27 CPU | |
| Khadas Mind | |
| Geekom Mini IT12 | |
| Geekom AS 6, R9 6900HX | |
| ACEMagician Ace Magician AM08 Pro | |
| Geekom A7 | |
| Minisforum EliteMini UM780 XTX | |
| Minisforum Venus Series UM790 Pro | |
| Acemagic F2A | |
| WinRAR - Result | |
| Acemagic F2A | |
| Minisforum EliteMini UM780 XTX | |
| Geekom A7 | |
| Minisforum Venus Series UM790 Pro | |
| Geekom AS 6, R9 6900HX | |
| ACEMagician Ace Magician AM08 Pro | |
| Geekom Mini IT12 | |
| Khadas Mind | |
| R Benchmark 2.5 - Overall mean | |
| ACEMagician Ace Magician AM08 Pro | |
| Geekom AS 6, R9 6900HX | |
| Geekom Mini IT12 | |
| Acemagic F2A | |
| Khadas Mind | |
| Minisforum EliteMini UM780 XTX | |
| Geekom A7 | |
| Minisforum Venus Series UM790 Pro | |
| WebXPRT 3 - Overall | |
| Geekom A7 | |
| Minisforum EliteMini UM780 XTX | |
| Khadas Mind | |
| Minisforum Venus Series UM790 Pro | |
| Geekom Mini IT12 | |
| ACEMagician Ace Magician AM08 Pro | |
| Acemagic F2A | |
| Geekom AS 6, R9 6900HX | |
| Mozilla Kraken 1.1 - Total | |
| ACEMagician Ace Magician AM08 Pro | |
| Geekom AS 6, R9 6900HX | |
| Geekom Mini IT12 | |
| Acemagic F2A | |
| Minisforum EliteMini UM780 XTX | |
| Geekom A7 | |
| Khadas Mind | |
| Minisforum Venus Series UM790 Pro | |
* ... smaller is better
AIDA64: FP32 Ray-Trace | FPU Julia | CPU SHA3 | CPU Queen | FPU SinJulia | FPU Mandel | CPU AES | CPU ZLib | FP64 Ray-Trace | CPU PhotoWorxx
* ... smaller is better
Acemagic F2A vs. Cinebench R15 Multi loop
When running Cinebench R15 in a loop, our Acemagic F2A unit managed to achieve a good multi-core score and keep its performance relatively stable, thus earning it the top spot in our comparison.
System performance
The Acemagic F2A was able to keep up with its competitors in our system performance tests. The performance differentials are marginal and not noticeable in normal use. Overall, the system ran quickly and reliably during the test period.
* ... smaller is better
NPU performance
The Intel Core Ultra 7 155H boasts a neural processing unit, which is a separate section on the SoC capable of handling AI-related tasks with exceptional efficiency. We examined its performance more closely using the UL Procyon AI Inference Benchmark. Despite having the same SoC, the Acemagic F2A delivered a better result than the Acer Swift Go, but was clearly beaten by the desktop graphics cards. The Intel Arc 8 nonetheless still performed admirably in comparison with the Intel Arc desktop GPUs.
| UL Procyon for Windows | |
| Overall Score Integer NPU | |
| Acemagic F2A | |
| Acer Swift Go 14 SFG14-72 | |
| Overall Score Integer GPU | |
| Acer Predator BiFrost Arc A770 OC, 16GB GDDR6 | |
| Acer Predator BiFrost Arc A750 OC | |
| Acemagic F2A | |
| Minisforum Neptune Series HN2673 | |
| Acer Swift Go 14 SFG14-72 | |
DPC latency
The Acemagic F2A was able to effortlessly handle keeping several tabs open in Microsoft Edge. But shortly after our 4K test video started playing, we noticed a significant jump in latency. The iGPU usage was nearly 60% during the process.
| DPC Latencies / LatencyMon - interrupt to process latency (max), Web, Youtube, Prime95 | |
| Acemagic F2A | |
| Geekom A7 | |
| Geekom AS 6, R9 6900HX | |
| ACEMagician Ace Magician AM08 Pro | |
| Minisforum EliteMini UM780 XTX | |
| Intel NUC 13 Pro Desk Edition Kit | |
| Minisforum Venus Series UM790 Pro | |
| Khadas Mind | |
* ... smaller is better
Mass storage
Inside the Acemagic F2A is an SSD made by Kingston. The drive delivered great results in both our testing and everyday use. However, heat turned out to be a problem, which ultimately caused performance to be unstable. Although the manufacturer has placed an active cooling system at the bottom of the device, performance drops were still inevitable under sustained load. The mini-PC can accommodate a total of two M.2 SSDs. That said, adding one more drive isn’t going to make the thermal issue any better because of the extra heat generated.
You can head over to our storage drive comparison table for more information and benchmark results.
