Khadas Mind Power Consumption and Noise
Khadas bundles the Mind with a 65W USB PD power adapter.
Between the small power adapter and the USB-C power cable, this felt more Apple-like than a small mini PC vendor, except for one major difference: the Mac Mini has an internal power supply. Still, Khadas has a very small adapter.
When we first were testing the Khadas mind, it was hard to get excited about from a noise perspective. Idle was in the 9.0W range and load was closer to 35W with noise levels in the 38-39dba range. There is certainly a good amount of CPU throttling going on, and that might be why we saw some interesting performance results in Windows.
Since we are talking power, we should also discuss the 5.5Wh internal battery. 5.5Wh is very small, as one can imagine, given the size of the system. That battery is designed to help keep the unit powered while moving between docks in standby mode. A power outage will keep the system up long enough to quickly save and shut it down, but it is not a longer-duration battery backup. Again, the two use cases seem to be pulling the system off the dock to change power sources and to use it in a mobile standby mode. These are two cases where a laptop would probably be a better option with a bigger battery, screen, keyboard, and trackpad.
Key Lessons Learned
Khadas makes expensive systems. Current pricing for the Khadas Mind V2 32GB / 1TB that we have is $1099. Realistically, we would expect most users also to purchase a Mind Dock with this. At $179 for the dock, this is a $1280 solution. There is a $999 option to get a NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 Ti 8GB which is a sub $400 desktop card with a slick enclosure. Even at that price, one still gets Windows 11 Home, not Pro.
Just as a sanity check, we found a Lenovo Thinkbook 16 Ultra 7 155H notebook that is about as direct of a comparison as we can get. (Amazon Affiliate Link) The same CPU, 32GB of memory, a 1TB NVMe SSD, and Thunderbolt are built-in. Port-wise, it comes with a similar set, except the SD card reader is built in. That system is over $120 less, and comes with a 16″ 1920×1200 screen, a bigger battery that can power the entire setup instead of just keep the system in standby mode, and has Windows 11 Pro.
For many mini PC’s the point is that they are not notebooks. They have things like 1-2 wired 2.5GbE ports. They lack the internal battery that can be a service item. They have a unique amount of expansion as we saw with the recent Minisforum UM890 Pro review, and that UM890 Pro is only $649 in its 32GB/ 1TB configuration. Unlike the Minisfourm, and more like a laptop, the Khadas Mind V1/ V2 have limited I/O ports built-in until one adds a dock. By the time you add the $179 dock, you get better I/O, but you are then in a price range closer to the UM890 Pro in this generation, plus a future unit. That UM890 Pro also came with Windows 11 Pro.
As much as I absolutely love the quality of the Khadas Mind, and the small size, it just feels like it is priced off of what we would expect given other systems in the market.
Final Words
Given the Key Lessons Learned, you might think that I am completely against the Khadas Mind 2. That is false. As someone who often flies upwards of 150K miles per year with a Macbook, the Khadas Mind 2 is the only system we have reviewed recently that I would want to stick into my bag as a Windows or Linux PC. Being small, and having a nice metal case means a lot. It is a lot smaller than my iPad, notebook, or other mini PCs we test.
The new I/O layout is much improved generationally along with the GPU IP. At the same time, if this was priced more in-line with other mini PCs with a smaller premium, I think it would be a home-run product from a form factor perspective. Right now, having Windows Home, an additional $179 dock, and being priced higher than a notebook with similar specs feels like a tough one to justify. Khadas has the ability to change the pricing of its hardware and bundling. It has a great product, it just needs to adjust pricing expectations if it wants to see broad success.
Where to Buy
If you want to check current pricing, here are the relevant Amazon affiliate links:
- Silicon Power 1TB M.2 2230 30mm SSD
- Khadas Mind 2 Intel Core Ultra 7 155H
- Khadas Mind (V1) i5-1340P
- Khadas Mind (V1) Premium i7-1360P
- Mind Dock
- Mind GPU
Note: We may earn a small commission if you purchase through these links.
Well, this seems pretty useless… I just bought a UM790 Pro last week for $399. That’s like less than half the price of this thing, it’s about 10% faster, and it’s quieter.
Your KLL section is right. They’re pricing this way too high for what it is. I don’t get the battery for standby portability unless they’re going after a microscopic market
On the Geekbench graphs, could you put a V1 and V2 on the labels? It is really confusing the have both called Khadas Mind.
As someone who uses mini PC’s as small servers, I would love to see little batteries like this one become common – it’s a built-in UPS that is cheaper, much more efficient, and compact than external UPS’s.