Minisforum V3 3-in-1 review: the first ever Windows tablet with AMD's Hawk Point APU aka the AMD Ryzen 7 8840U

[Redaktion]

Minisforum's V3 represents entirely new ground for the Chinese system manufacturer, which released a wide range of mini PCs in the recent past. The V3 tablet is the first ever Windows tablet to feature AMD's Hawk Point APU. The V3 tablet is not just a simple Windows tablet. The device can also be used as an external display if required. Our detailed review will reveal how well the device performs in everyday use and what performance can be teased out of the AMD Ryzen 7 8840U.

https://www.notebookcheck.net/Minisforum-V3-3-in-1-review-the-first-ever-Windows-tablet-with-AMD-s-Hawk-Point-APU-aka-the-AMD-Ryzen-7-8840U.829081.0.html

[wannaLaptop]

Congratulations for the this great device, I really wish they could make a 14"laptop using the same hardware and bumping battery capacity over 80wh.

[123]

should either be cheaper or better for the price unfortunately.. cool device but the regular price is insane.. the introductory price is even high.. they cheaped out on battery and ssd size (if you could upgrade wouldn't be as bad)..  if it had oled, max size battery (99WHr) and a 2tb ssd the price would be better.

[RandoRando]

The review methodology seems flawed. Why only comparing it against 2-in-1s w/ 2+ gen old CPUs or other hardware?

There's a wealth of thin and light devices w/ Intel 13th gen & AMD Phoenix chips, many with touchscreens too. That would make a much fairer comparison. And the SSD perf looks disappointing.

[Andy On]

Too heavy, and now the battery performance is only running for 6 hours WiFi, will skip this.  The weight with the keyboard case is 1.6kg, something that's not mentioned in many reviews.

[Darth]

What a waste for tablet form factor. Way too big and heavy to hold with hands for long periods of time via tablet mode. Also, speakers on bottom left and right side where you usually hold the tablet will muffle any audio

[dudulab]

It is based on the Hawk Point series which runs with Zen 4 and Zen 4c cores together. With four computing cores each

Nope, 8840u does not have 4c cores, it's 8x big Zen 4.

There are only two Hawk Point chips:

178mm²=8x Zen4 + 780M + Ryzen AI, could cut down to 6 cores with 760M
137mm²=2x Zen4 + 4x Zen4c + 740M

[heffeque]

Bit on the heavy side, and definitely needs work on the power consumption part.

I'm assuming that the power consumption part can/will be fixed with bios/driver updates in the future, and if so, it would be nice to have it retested, as power consumption plays a big role on this device's potential users.

If they don't fix it... Less than 10 hours of wifi usage should be a "no go" for most potential 2-in-1 users.

Other than that, it seems like a great device.

[Trevor Bayliss]

should either be cheaper or better for the price unfortunately.. cool device but the regular price is insane.. the introductory price is even high.. they cheaped out on battery and ssd size (if you could upgrade wouldn't be as bad)..  if it had oled, max size battery (99WHr) and a 2tb ssd the price would be better.

Do you really have an idea of what things cost?

Current price for the V3, a good quality processor, 32GB RAM, 1 Tb SSD, iGPU that is substantially better than any Xe from Intel and comes with a keyboard and stylus included for $1199 (plus sales tax), as opposed to double that for an SP9 at $2380 (plus sales tax)?

[Trevor Bayliss]

Bit on the heavy side, and definitely needs work on the power consumption part.

I'm assuming that the power consumption part can/will be fixed with bios/driver updates in the future, and if so, it would be nice to have it retested, as power consumption plays a big role on this device's potential users.

If they don't fix it... Less than 10 hours of wifi usage should be a "no go" for most potential 2-in-1 users.

Other than that, it seems like a great device.

There will always be a few tweaks available, undervolting, restricting the power consumption via the BIOS, currently you get 15W - 22W - 28W as a standard. Then again it's not an Intel U grade processor and doesn't market itself as such. Even though efficient, powerful and efficient is still going to eat power, just less per core, per process.

Maybe, as and when the consumer version of the consumer SP10 with the ARM processor comes out, it will be able to run faster, better, longer. We wait with bated breath.....

[Yas]

I think this device is going to unfairly get a lot of hate. This is a really unique take compared to what's offered out there and you don't really get tablet PC's that can also game at a decent price, except for maybe the Surface Pros, and the asus z13, both priced waaaay above this and with other drawbacks.

I think this form factor is the way of the future, especially if you considering what the 'all-in-one' device might look like. Tablet for note taking/drawing/media consumption, laptop for portable productivity, usb-c connection for home office multi-screen work + egpu for hardcore gaming.

It then can replace your tablet, laptop and desktop in one go, and the amd processor is efficient enough to last 6 hours (more than surface pros), and powerful enough to do most things without egpu, which you can add with USB4.

Software I guess is the tricky part, as windows isn't quite tablet friendly, and android doesnt really give you access to the full breadth of windows apps/options.

One thing I am most curious is about the pen experience, but i imagine 'fine' is going to be the standard answer there.

I hope to see more competition in this space, I was hoping/expecting that lenovo might wade in, Apple already has the m1 processor in their tablets but chasing the money with different products (also no headphone jack which is a pet peeve of mine for tablets in general).

[oh]

The lack of a built-in kickstand is really disappointing.

[markiz]

Why this abnormally huge idle power draw?

[YUKI93]

I think there should be a cheaper variant with a Ryzen 5 8640U CPU. After all, both USB4 ports can take eGPU, so the Ryzen 5 should have no problem handling it.

[Aleck Fedorkiw]

If you look at the specs and form factor it's really a laptop that can act as a tablet. Yes, it can be a bit heavy but with a kickstand on the lap with no keyboard is more than fine. Assume some of the ide defects and some others will be fixed in a driver/Bios update. You can also go to the AMD website which has drive detection software similar to Intels. It updated some drivers for me.

The main reason to buy this is for the portability and price. If you compare the specs to other laptops with AMD specs like this one.it will be 1.5 to 3 times the price. It runs any creator's software or AI software with more than appropriate performance compared to the listed laptops. If you read reviews of others on YouTube most flaws are some gaming drawbacks but rendering an object or editing a 4K video is more than fine. If you need more just add an external GPU external USB 4 hub and external m2 SSD you have a desktop