Monday, December 23rd 2024
Minisforum V3 SE 3-in-1 Tablet Goes on Sale with Ryzen 7 APU
Minisforum is a consumer hardware brand that is well known for its impressive lineup of SFF/Mini PCs. However, what might not be as well-known, might be the fact that the brand also makes a plethora of other computing hardware and accessories. The company had recently announced the V3 and the more affordable V3 SE 3-in-1 tablet PCs with a design that is reminiscent of the Microsoft Surface. The V3 SE is now available to purchase, starting at $799.
At its heart, the Minisforum V3 SE is powered by the 28 W Ryzen 7735U "Rembrandt R" APU based on the Zen 3+ microarchitecture paired with 16 GB of LPDDR5-6400 memory. The APU is a decently powerful one, with multicore performance that is roughly in the same league as the Core Ultra 7 258V "Lunar Lake" processor. Unsurprisingly, any kind of discrete graphics is absent from the PC tablet, thereby making it rely solely on the 12-CU Radeon 680M iGPU for graphically demanding tasks. Storage is taken care of by its 1 TB M.2 SSD, which is housed in a 2280 slot.
The display specifications appear serviceable on paper, although its 1080p resolution may feel somewhat dated on its 14-inch touchscreen by 2024 standards. There is support for a detachable keyboard, which, fortunately, is included with the system. In terms of connectivity, the V3 SE sports dual USB4 ports, a USB-C port with DP, an SD card slot (UHS-II), and lastly a 3.5 mm audio jack. At just 9.8 mm thin, the V3 SE tips the scales at just under a kilogram (2.05 lbs). A 50.82 Wh battery is also present that can be juiced up with 65 W, as well as a 5 MP front-facing camera with Windows Hello.
Sources:
Notebookcheck DE, Minisforum
At its heart, the Minisforum V3 SE is powered by the 28 W Ryzen 7735U "Rembrandt R" APU based on the Zen 3+ microarchitecture paired with 16 GB of LPDDR5-6400 memory. The APU is a decently powerful one, with multicore performance that is roughly in the same league as the Core Ultra 7 258V "Lunar Lake" processor. Unsurprisingly, any kind of discrete graphics is absent from the PC tablet, thereby making it rely solely on the 12-CU Radeon 680M iGPU for graphically demanding tasks. Storage is taken care of by its 1 TB M.2 SSD, which is housed in a 2280 slot.
13 Comments on Minisforum V3 SE 3-in-1 Tablet Goes on Sale with Ryzen 7 APU
I mean I know why, the 7735U is probably cheaper than the 8640U but still...
1200p is imo OK to save on, but 60Hz is such a weird downgrade.
16GB of RAM as well compared to 32GB on the 8840U variant...
And all that for 200$ savings?
Imo that's not a good deal at all. They should've changed it to a 7535U and charged 550$ or something.
800$ for this is a farce.
If anything it looks like they're trying to upsell you to the non SE variant.
EDIT: It's non-replaceable because you actually have to go through the screen (glued on) to get to the internals. Its unfortunately not an external M.2 slot like the Surface Pro.Exactly. They should've not made this variant in the first place, or at least sell it at $500 to $550 max since the normal V3 can be had now at around $950.
The picture shows the text "massive storage" with "1TB" SSD. Massive Storage would be 20TB nvme.
I consider 1TB entry level. 256GB / 512GB NVME as budget options when you want to spend less.
I would not consider "16GB DDR5" as storage. (wrong units used also. I do not see the mainboard. but i assuem ti will be soldered on dram, than it may be some low power dram which should be mentioned also)
64GiB DRAM is quite common. 32Gib DRAM is standard. In context to the picture "16GB DDR5" is not massive.
1. Battery is quite poor (both physically small and high idle power) and non-replaceable. Look at the pic Cheeseball posted and there's a huge empty space below the battery, ie, they could easily put a 60-65Whr battery in and gain +20-25% battery life right there.
2. If I'm going to be spending £1,000 on a tablet with non-upgradable (but full size 2280) SSD, then for the sake of another £50, I really want the option of a 2TB version of this, even if it means buying it "barebones" (minus a Windows license).
3. 16GB RAM isn't enough for a high-end APU. Play a game that uses 8GB VRAM and you're down to 8GB usable RAM shared between Windows 11, the game, any web browsers open, etc.
4. 1080p is a big downgrade from 2560x1600. Fine for a 14" laptop but you tend to hold tablets a lot closer to the face, at which point it'll look as rough as a 1280x800 9.5-10" tablet...
They really needed to go the other way, ie, offer a "Plus" version with bigger battery, better built-in kickstand, improved idle power and double the storage.
Right now I am experimenting with alternative OSes, because Win11 is just not an option for my future daily driver.
I have the V3 with the 8840U/32GB RAM.
The stylus seems to be standard compatible, my wife got a Surface Go and it just worked with this device too without any setup.
I got the stylus because i want to use the tablet for 3D modelling (for 3d printing) while liing on the couch. Havent tried that yet because i am still struggling to get linux UI to behave like i want. But since for me its just a more precise way (compared to my fingers) to use the touchscreen, i expect it to work fine for my usecase.
I've owned pretty much every other Surface Pro since the Pro 2, and now I have the Pro 11. It's a great machine, especially the performance and battery life for my use cases, but I still would have rather had the V3 because of the graphics.
Hopefully when I'm due for an upgrade in the next 2-3 years, a V4 will be out that gets it right with the kickstand.