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Nov 14, 2023

Xulu XR1 Lite Mini PC "AMD Ryzen 3 5300U" Mini PC Review: Tiny With Style

As Mini PCs gain popularity, more and more manufacturers are showing up with their brand-new designs. Today, we will be talking about Xulu and its Mini PC, the XR1, which started off as a crowd-funded

As Mini PCs gain popularity, more and more manufacturers are showing up with their brand-new designs. Today, we will be talking about Xulu and its Mini PC, the XR1, which started off as a crowd-funded project on Kickstarter and amassed over $100,000 within a few days thanks to its unique design and a more compact offering that still packs a lot of power.

While there are many Mini PCs out in the market right now, what sets Xulu's Mini PC apart is its incredibly compact form factor. You see, there's a class of Mini PCs but then there's a new class emerging as Tiny PCs. These are palm-sized designs and we have seen other manufacturers such as Minisforum also working to get its design out while Xulu's XR1 is already available for sale. The real reason why these PCs have gained so much popularity is due to the more powerful & efficient chips from Intel and AMD.

AMD should be mainly credited for this whole ecosystem of Mini PCs since its APUs offer the right balance of CPU and GPU capabilities in options that make a lot of sense for Mini and Tiny PCs. The company's latest Ryzen 5000, Ryzen 6000 and Ryzen 7000 APUs have been widely adopted within these Mini PCs and there's no stopping this trend. With that said, Xulu sent us out one of its palm-sized Mini PCs, the XR1 Lite which I am personally excited to talk about and see how it performs vs the other Mini PC designs that we have tested over the past few months.

Xulu's XR1 LITE Mini PC comes in the AMD Ryzen 5000 APU flavors which are based on the Lucienne family. The difference in the three categories, Pro/Max/Lite is mainly the CPU which ranges from Ryzen 3 to Ryzen 5 and up to the Ryzen 7 chips. For the review sample which we received, we got the AMD Ryzen 3 5300U. The base model of the LITE comes with 8 GB + 256 GB configuration but we received the 8 GB + 512 GB configuration. This variant costs $319 US (if you pre-order here).

Coming to the specifications, the Xulu XR1 Lite Mini PC rocks the AMD Ryzen 3 5300U CPU which features 4 cores, 8 threads, 6 MB of cache (L3+L2 combined), and a boost clock of up to 3.8 GHz. The CPU has a TDP of 15W which can be configured down to 10W and up to 25W. The CPU cores utilize the Zen 2 architecture that offers great efficiency for the 7nm node they are based upon.

Another primary component of the Xulu XR1 Lite Mini PC is its Vega graphics core. Although the GPU can seem slightly old, it still carries enough performance for basic workloads and lightweight gaming with its 6 compute units offering 384 cores clocked at 1500 MHz. The GPU still supports all FSR (1/2) formats so you can gain some additional performance within games.

Other specs for the Xulu XR1 Lite Mini PC include 8 GB DDR4-(Dual-Channel) memory. This isn't soldered and instead features a SO-DIMM design so users can completely upgrade it as they wish. Storage comes in the form of a single M.2 2280 SSD slot running at Gen 3.0 speeds.

For I/O, you will be getting 3 USB 3.2 Gen2 ports, 1 USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-C port, 1 USB 3.2 Gen 1 port, two USB 2.0 ports, dual HDMI 2.1 ports, a single 2.5GbE LAN port, an audio jack, and a rest button. There's also full support for WiFi 6E & Bluetooth v5.2 functionality. The XR1 Lite Mini PC is powered by a standard 12V DC-In port.

The Xulu XR1 Lite comes in a hard carry case which is very nice. It has a black color with the Xulu logo on it and makes perfect sense for this PC since you'd be moving it around with you given its compact nature.

Lifting the top box cover, you are welcomed by a soft foam internal in which the PC and its various accessories are kept safe and away from harm.

Before talking about the case itself, we have to mention the accessories that come with the XR1. It comes with a Power Adapter, an HDMI cable, a quick guide, and a user manual.

The HDMI cable shipped with the Xulu XR1 Mini PCs is a high-quality and braided design which is very much a welcome sight.

Out of the box, the Xulu XR1 Lite Mini PC lives up to its name of being the most tiny Ryzen PC ever made. Our unit came with the Storm White color scheme but you can select between 7 different color themes which is awesome!

The whole Mini PC measures 96.5 x 89 x 63.5 mm and weighs under 500 grams. The PC comes with several vents on the front, sides, and top to deliver good airflow to the tightly packed internals. The CPU being a U-series doesn't mean that it can't take advantage of better airflow.

The exterior shell of the case is made out of aluminum and is a very solid design. The top cover is plastic & can be removed by unscrewing a few screws.

The front of the Xulu XR1 Lite Mini PC houses a USB 2.0, a USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-A & a Type-C port. There's also a Reset button and a audio jack.

The back of the Xulu XR1 Lite Mini PC features two HDMI 2.1 ports, 2 USB 2.0 ports, two USB 3.2 Gen 1 ports, and a 2.5 GbE LAN port and DC-In.

As stated above, opening the top plastic cover is simple and reveals the cooling solution which has an active fan that blows air out of the chassis. The heatsink itself is made up of copper and features heat pipe implementation. The memory & SSDs are upgradable but you are limited to just one M.2 slot due to the super tiny nature of this machine.

Our test unit came with 8 GB of DDR4-3200 memory and 512 GB of SSD. That's a baseline spec and you can get up to 64 GB of DDR4 and up to 2 TB capacities installed within the PC.

The top-side of the PCB is where the AMD Ryzen 3 5300U sits while the bottom-side is dedicated to the I/O side of things and the DDR4 / M.2 slots.

Another cool feature of the Xulu XR1 Mini PC is that it comes with an integrated LCD which can be used to display some important metrics.

By default, the display shows the time, the fan speed, and the temperature of the APU which is a nice detail that adds some style to this compact PC.

For performance testing, we compared the Xulu XR1 Mini PC to several other Mini PCs that we have previously tested.

For gaming, we tested a couple of the latest and most played esports titles at 1080p resolution. The performance was measured between the AMD Radeon 680M, AMD Vega 8, Vega 7, Vega 6, and Intel Iris Xe-LP integrated graphics.

The Xulu XR1 Lite Mini PC is an extremely efficient design since it is based on the Ryzen U-series chips. Once again, the options in the BIOS will let you unlock its full power or switch it to max efficiency mode. Using the 25 Watts mode, we got to see the following power figures.

As for thermals, the Xulu XR1 Lite Mini PC peaked around 66C which is decent but given that the same chassis is used by the higher-end Ryzen 7 chips, things might get a little bit toasty.

The Xulu XR1 Mini PC lineup indeed is the smallest form factor for AMD's Ryzen CPU lineup. The LITE version which I tested is great and features a very compact design that you can take with you anywhere you want. The hard carry case that the CPU comes with is a perfect addition & one that makes sense too.

In terms of performance, while the AMD Ryzen 3 5300U may seem a bit old given that we have two new generations now, Ryzen 7000 and Ryzen 6000, it still makes a great option for budget office & light-weight workloads. The iGPU side of things is what you'd expect of Vega which has aged now but if eSports is your jam, then you'd find decent performance and still have FSR for games that are going to be a little heavy on this tiny GPU.

The I/O side on the Xulur is also very nice given its small footprint. It offers 7 USB ports including Type-C and upgradable memory/storage options. You can run triple 4K displays on this tiny PC & that's certainly a plus point.

But the main purpose of the Xulu XR1 Mini PCs is not to be extremely powerful, it's to offer the most compact PC design with the Ryzen APUs that are widely accessible. Ryzen 6000 and Ryzen 7000 CPUs come in at a huge premium so utilizing Ryzen 5000 APUs and offering them in a setup that costs less than $300 US makes for a great choice for users who are assembling full tower PCs with similar computing capabilities. As a start, the XR1 series is a great Mini PC effort from Xulu & we can't wait to see what they have in the stores for us in the future, especially the Phoenix APUs since they will mark a huge upgrade in similar form factors!

Purchase the Xulu XR1 Lite Mini PC directly from the main store over here!