Monday, February 17th 2025
Intel Core Ultra 7 255H-Powered Khadas Mind 2s Launched With $1,599 Price Tag
Khadas is a relatively well-known name in realm of mini PCs, offering quite a unique approach. Unlike other mini PCs which rely on eGPUs and docks for expansion, the Khadas utilizes a base compute unit, aptly named the "Mind", which can dock with expansion units and eGPUs utilizing the 'Mind Link' interface, offering up to eight PCIe 5.0 lanes - or, in other words, a maximum bandwidth of 256 GT/s. That said, the Mind 2s was announced at CES, and is now available for purchase at a hefty price of $1,599. There exists only a single variant for now, and it is unclear as of this writing whether higher- and lower-tier variants will ever see the light of day.
That said, the Mind 2s is no slouch - the system packs the decently performant Core Ultra 7 255H Arrow Lake-H CPU paired with 64 GB of LPDDR5X memory. Clearly, the memory is not upgradeable, although the storage very much is, courtesy of the M.2 2230 slot. The ports on the Mind 2s 'brain' are far from plenty for a desktop system, featuring a single Thunderbolt 4, USB4, HDMI 2.1, and dual USB 3.2 ports. As mentioned previously, the system can be expanded using the Mind Link interface. For instance, the Khadas Mind Dock offers a plethora of additional I/O, and the Khadas Mind Graphics eGPU offers a massive boost to graphics performance. Another module, dubbed the Mind xPlay is also in the works, which will function as a portable external display for the Mind unit. The Mind 2s also features a 5.55 Wh built-in battery, allowing the system to go to sleep instead of completely dying on its user in the case of a power cut.
Source:
Khadas
That said, the Mind 2s is no slouch - the system packs the decently performant Core Ultra 7 255H Arrow Lake-H CPU paired with 64 GB of LPDDR5X memory. Clearly, the memory is not upgradeable, although the storage very much is, courtesy of the M.2 2230 slot. The ports on the Mind 2s 'brain' are far from plenty for a desktop system, featuring a single Thunderbolt 4, USB4, HDMI 2.1, and dual USB 3.2 ports. As mentioned previously, the system can be expanded using the Mind Link interface. For instance, the Khadas Mind Dock offers a plethora of additional I/O, and the Khadas Mind Graphics eGPU offers a massive boost to graphics performance. Another module, dubbed the Mind xPlay is also in the works, which will function as a portable external display for the Mind unit. The Mind 2s also features a 5.55 Wh built-in battery, allowing the system to go to sleep instead of completely dying on its user in the case of a power cut.
13 Comments on Intel Core Ultra 7 255H-Powered Khadas Mind 2s Launched With $1,599 Price Tag
A) No ports on the front...√
B Soldered/limited ram, unless they will have other (more expensive) models with more...√
C) Need to purchase additional (& likely expensive) parts to make it really useful for anything beyond office/general everyday use...√
D) Limited storage capacity, due to 2230 slot instead of 2280...√
E) Outrageously high price...√
Seems like a D.O.A. box to me √
But hey, at least it's aesthetically pleasing, so I'll give 'em credit for that :D
I also get that this particular form factor might be beneficial for such people.
I get that the limited I/O and the limited RAM/capacity might not be an issue for some (I'd be fine with 32GB+1TB and also the I/O given).
But what I do not even remotely get is why the hell I should get invested into something marketed to be expandable by a non-standard "Mind Link" connector, that - while open and "collaborative" according to Mind - purely relies on the hope that the - open and "collaborative" - eco system will actually be a thing, WHILE truly open, truly standardised solutions already exist. Mind->blown();