Intel NUC 13 Pro Kit aka Arena Canyon review: Modern mini-PC with Intel Core i7-1360P for demanding applications

The Arena Canyon NUC looks very similar to its Wall Street Canyon counterpart. The slim variant we are reviewing is fairly thin at 37 mm (1.46") and occupies 11.7 x 11.2 cm (4.6 x 4.4") of desk space. If this sounds familiar, it is because the Intel NUC 12 Pro Kit has the exact same physical dimensions. The Intel NUC mini-PCs are considerably more compact than some of the other devices in our comparison.

The device has quite an unassuming appearance, and you'll also have to put up with its plastic construction. Nevertheless, there is a robust metal frame inside the Intel NUC 13 Pro Kit that significantly enhances the unit's overall sturdiness. That said, we do hope that Intel would switch to using an all-metal chassis in future. One more thing to mention is that you can attach the Intel NUC 13 Pro Kit to the back of a monitor using the included VESA mount.

Intel has equipped the NUC 13 Pro Kit with the same Wi-Fi 6E AX211 module found on the NUC 12 Pro Kit. In our testing, we saw excellent and stable data transfer rates when the device was connected to a 6GHz network. Our measurements show that the device delivers low transfer speeds if you only have access to a 5GHz connection for technical reasons. That said, the speeds we measured are still very stable and good enough for everyday use. This Wi-Fi test was carried with our reference router, the ASUS ROG Rapture GT-AXE11000.

Inside the box, you'll find a 120-watt power supply and a VESA mount plate alongside the mini-PC itself.

All performance-related tests were carried out in "Balanced" power mode. We didn't make any modifications to the SoC's performance and left it in the default Auto mode in the BIOS settings.

Although the Core i7-1360P in the NUC 13 Pro Kit is a cutting-edge SoC, its improvements over the Core i7-1260P are pretty modest. Essentially, the new CPU's base clock has been increased by 100MHz to 1.6GHz. The processor is nonetheless capable of boosting up to 5.0GHz, which corresponds to a gain of 300MHz. There are no major changes to the architecture in terms of its cache. Consequently, whilst we did see great benchmark results similar to those from the Core i7-1260P, the gap in overall performance rating is minuscule at just 3%. Power management likewise hasn't changed at all; the Core i7-1360P has a max short-term power draw of 64 watts (PL2) and a long-term power draw of 40 watts (PL1) – just like its predecessor.

The Intel NUC 13 Pro Kit performed somewhat better than its predecessor as well as the other devices in our comparison. But it also goes to show how close these competing devices are to each other. An example to illustrate this point would be the comparison with the Minisforum Neptune Series NAD9, which features a Core i9-12900H (14 native cores and 20 thread) and came in second in our performance ranking.

Please refer to our CPU comparison table for more information and benchmarks.

In system performance-related synthetic benchmarks, the Intel NUC 13 Pro Kit was able to keep up the good performance seen during CPU benchmarks. That said, it didn't manage to come in first in some of the tests. The Minisforum Neptune NAD9 and Morefine M600 achieved better results in some cases. The latter has a significant edge in AIDA64 benchmarks thanks to its faster DDR5 memory. Nevertheless, the Intel NUC 13 Pro Kit is still a very respectable piece of hardware that showed great performance in our testing and is capable of handling day-to-day tasks.