A mini-PC the size of a smartphone has been released – it works without power from an outlet

Minisforum has released the S100 pocket PC, announced at CES 2024. The compact computer can even go without being connected to an outlet because it supports PoE.

With dimensions of 152 × 58 × 19.5 mm, the Minisforum S100 is comparable in size to a telephone. It is powered by the Intel N100 processor (Alder Lake-N) – a 6W quad-core chip without HyperThreading support, and its clock speed is up to 3.4 GHz. There’s also 8GB of LPDDR5-4800 memory in a single-channel configuration. The cooling system is a small fan attached to the radiator – at idle it produces a noise level of 24 dB, and at full load it can reach 43 dB.

Due to its compact size, it will not be possible to replace the built-in drive and you will have to be content with 256 GB on UFS 2.1 – this means speeds of up to 850 MB/s and 260 MB/s for sequential reading and writing, respectively, which is much lower than SSD PCIe 3.0. For power, you can use the USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-C or Ethernet port (2.5 Gbps), since Power over Ethernet (PoE) is supported. The case also has one HDMI 2.0 port, two USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-A ports, and a reset button to return the device to its default settings.

Wireless standards supported are Wi-Fi 6 and Bluetooth 5.2. The Minisforum S100 can connect up to two screens simultaneously via HDMI 2.0 and USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-C – the latter can also supply power to the display, as it supports up to 65W of power. A computer with Windows 11 pre-installed comes with an adapter and power cable, an HDMI cable, and an instruction manual. In Japan, the Minisforum S100 sells for 29,980 yen ($193), and that’s after a discount of 7,000 yen ($45).