Mini PC powered by AMD's Ryzen 7 8745HS APU looks and functions like a Bluetooth speaker

When it comes to case design, mini PC makers have been getting quite creative as of late. Some cases just feature more visual enhancements like RGB lights, certain custom designs etc, but others also try to add extended functions as well. Take for example the new EXR1 from Soayan (or the Chatreey EX1 on AliExpress). This mini PC looks like a portable Bluetooth speaker and it may very well function as one, except it does not have a rechargeable battery, hence it needs to always remain connected to mains.

Besides the actual mini PC hardware, this cylindrical case integrates 10 W stereo speakers, a mini subwoofer and a 24-bit DAC, so users do not actually need to worry about headsets or external speakers. Of course, it wouldn’t be cool without RGB lighting so there is an LED light ring on top, as well.

On the PC hardware side, the actual mini PC is powered by an AMD Ryzen 7 8745HS with 8 Zen 4 cores / 16 threads and a Radeon 780M iGPU. It is supposed to support 2x DDR5 SO-DIMM slots plus 2x M.2 2280 PCIe 4.0 SSD slots, even though a picture of the motherboard provided shows only one RAM slot and one SSD slot (the other two could be on the other side). Apparently this model is not upgrade-friendly, as the manufacturer does not recommend disassembly.

Port selection is fairly robust for how tightly packed the mini PC side is. It includes a USB4 connector, 3x USB-A 10 Gbps, a USB 2.0, HDMI 2.1 + DP 2.1 video outs, audio jack and 2.5 GbE jack. Wireless connectivity is offered through a Wi-Fi 6 + BT 5.0 card. Speaking of tightly packed, the case is 6.6 inches (167 cm) high and 4.4 inches (112 cm) across, but the actual mini PC inside seems to be less than half the width of the case.

As previously stated, this design is selling on AliExpress under two different brands. The Soayan EXR1 appears to be the more affordable option since it costs $479.97 and comes with 32 GB RAM and 1 TB SSD. The same configuration is available from Chatreey with the EX1 model, yet the price is more than doubled for some reason.