Geekom A5 2025 Edition review: style meets substance on a budget

The Geekom A5 2025 Edition is a refreshed but more affordable version of the original A5 that shows just how capable budget mini PCs have become.

Often available for less than $300, this rose gold-colored mini PC doesn’t skimp on style or ports. The chrome edge along the top and the lined airflow cutouts give the Geekom A5 2025 Edition a more premium look, and you’ll find full-sized ports around every corner of this mini PC.

While this refreshed version of the A5 has a slightly less powerful processor than its predecessor, it more than makes up for that in upgradability. The case opens easily, allowing you to add more storage in the extra M.2 SSD slot or even the 2.5-inch drive bay. Likewise, while it uses older DDR4 memory, you can easily swap out the included 16GB of RAM and go all the way up to 64GB.

My Geekom A5 2025 Edition review will help you decide if this small, budget-friendly desktop computer is the best mini PC for you or if it’s worth spending slightly more for something more powerful.

Geekom A5 2025 Edition: Cheat Sheet

• What is it? A small, budget-friendly mini PC that’s well suited for browsing the web, office work and even some very light gaming.
• Who is it for? Those who want a capable but very affordable mini PC to replace an old desktop or laptop.
• What does it cost? The Geekom A5 2025 Edition has a starting price of $399, but is frequently on sale for much less. Right now, you can get it for just $299 on Geekom’s site or for $320 on Amazon, but it has dropped as low as $265 during big sales events.
• What do we like? It’s unique, rose gold chassis, the wide selection of front and rear ports, that it’s easy to open and upgrade, and that it isn’t overly loud during normal usage.
• What don’t we like? The new processor in the A5 2025 Edition has fewer cores than the one in the original A5, and it uses USB-C 3.2 Gen 2 ports instead of faster USB4 or Thunderbolt 4.

Geekom A5 2025 Edition: Specs

Geekom A5 2025 Edition: The ups

From its unique colorway to its wide selection of front and rear ports, the Geekom A5 2025 Edition certainly has a lot going for it. However, this refreshed model’s more affordable price is what makes it truly shine.

Sleek, shiny and rosy

Compared to other mini PCs, which typically come in silver or black, the Geekom A5 2025 Edition is a breath of fresh air with its rose gold case. This unique colorway adds just a pop of color that isn’t overly distracting or garish.

Geekom took things a step further with this mini PC’s design by using a pattern of lined cutouts for ventilation on its sides, along with a reflective chrome edge around the top. Likewise, the sides have a matte feeling to them, while the top of the A5 2025 Edition is smooth to the touch.

All in all, this makes for a mini PC you’ll want to display prominently on your desk instead of tucking it away. For those who prefer a cleaner look, Geekom also provides a VESA mounting plate to hide it behind a monitor.

The A5’s rose gold colored case certainly won’t be for everyone, but it’s nice to see a mini PC maker mix things up for a change.

Ports around every corner

Downsizing to a mini PC often means sacrificing ports, but that definitely isn’t the case here. Like its more powerful sibling, the Geekom A6, the A5 2025 Edition features ports at the front, back and even on the sides.

Up front, you get two USB-A ports and a headphone jack next to the power button. While I would have liked to see at least one USB-C port here, this isn’t a dealbreaker, especially at this price.

Around back, the A5 2025 Edition has more ports than you’ll find on most other mini PCs. In addition to two more USB-A ports, you get two USB-C 3.2 Gen 2 ones, which are capable of video out, two HDMI 2.0 ports and surprisingly, a 2.5 gigabit per second (Gbps) Ethernet port.

One of the most useful additions to the A5 2025 Edition is the SD card reader slot on the left side. It’s great for quickly getting photos off my camera, and its placement made it very easy to reach with this mini PC on my desk.

Budget means business

I spent about a month using the Geekom A5 2025 Edition as my daily driver. Despite its budget price, it held up surprisingly well against my demanding workload, which typically consists of having three Chrome windows with multiple tabs open across two monitors.

I did notice the occasional slowdown if I had too many tabs open at once. However, given how easy Geekom made it to open this mini PC’s case to add more RAM, this is the type of problem that could be easily rectified. Likewise, if the included 512GB SSD isn’t enough, you can also add another M.2 SSD as well as a 2.5-inch HDD or SSD.

Although you might think you need a larger computer or a powerful graphics card for a multiple monitor setup, the A5 2025 Edition is actually capable of driving four monitors simultaneously.

During the majority of my testing, I had it connected to my ultrawide monitor up top via HDMI and to a portable monitor underneath it using one of the USB-C ports at the back. The flexibility of having dual HDMI ports is a huge plus, as not every display has a USB-C connection but all of the best monitors have at least one HDMI port.

Geekom A5 2025 Edition: The downs

The Geekom A5 2025 Edition gets a lot right, especially at this price. However, it’s not without its downsides, which include a slightly weaker processor compared to the one in the original A5 and the fact that the A6 isn’t that much more expensive if you don’t pick this mini PC up on sale.

Refreshed but not a full revamp

As I mentioned earlier, the Geekom A5 2025 Edition isn’t a brand-new mini PC. Instead, it’s a refreshed version of the original A5 that uses the same case and has an identical port array. The big difference between the two is that while the A5 came with either an AMD Ryzen 7 5800H or Ryzen 7 5825U CPU, the A5 2025 Edition sports an AMD Ryzen 5 7430U processor.

Newer isn’t always better, and that’s the case here. While this new processor is more power efficient, it has fewer CPU cores (6 vs 8) and fewer threads (12 vs 16). Both processors are built on the same Zen 3 architecture, but for multi-threaded workloads like heavy multitasking or video rendering, the original A5 is the better bet.

Still, this refreshed model is slightly cheaper than the original, and it frequently goes on sale, which makes it even more affordable.

An easy step up

While you can often find the Geekom A5 2025 Edition for $300 or less, its full retail price is actually $399. If you’re paying full price, you might want to consider going up a tier to the Geekom A6, which is slightly smaller and significantly faster.

In our lab test results, you can see the benefit of doing so, especially for more demanding workloads. For instance, in Geekbench’s multi-core benchmark, the A5 2025 Edition had a score of 6,492 while the A6 scored a lot higher at 10,547.

While the A5 and A6 aren’t gaming-focused mini PCs, the extra power in the A6’s AMD Ryzen 7 6800H processor with Radeon 680M graphics provided a big boost in the one game we tested across both devices. While the A5 2025 Edition managed to hit just over 26 fps in Sid Meier’s Civilization VI: Gathering Storm, the A6 was a lot closer to the sweet spot of 60 fps.

The other main reason you might want to opt for the A6 over the A5 is due to the fact that the former uses faster DDR5 RAM. It also comes with 32GB of memory pre-installed, while the A5 only has 16GB.

Sure, you can upgrade the RAM on either model and DDR4 memory has really come down in price, but if you don’t want to mess around with opening up your new mini PC and prefer a more standard silver colorway over rose gold, then the A6 could be the better option. That is, if you don’t find the A5 on sale.

Geekom A5 2025 Edition: Verdict

The Geekom A5 2025 Edition definitely punches above its weight for a budget-friendly mini PC. It comes with a full array of front and rear ports, with quad-monitor support, and it’s very easy to upgrade. The rose gold color may not be for everyone, but the other tweaks Geekom has made to its case definitely give this mini PC a more premium look and feel overall.

If you can find the A5 2025 Edition on sale at $300 or even lower, this mini PC is an absolute steal and easy to recommend to those on a budget. However, if you want to tackle more demanding workloads, it’s worth paying a bit more for the A6.