Geekom A5 Review: The 2026 Standard?

2026 isn’t going to be the best when it comes to pricing PC’s, thanks to the increased prices for RAM and Storage. N100 class mini PC’s are back above $200, and if you want something that’s sitting with a Ryzen 5, you’re looking at least $300 for a 5500U. With that in mind, what can you get that’s worth your money?

Well, Geekom is looking to answer that question with the A5 2026 Mini PC. Rocking 6 cores and Vega graphics for 2026, the Geekom brings an interesting mix to the table, and my run of tests is going to help figure out if the value is there for you.

Geekom A5 Specs

Starting at $369 for 512GB of storage, or jumping to $419 if you want 1TB, the Geekom A5 offers a good bit for the price in 2026 terms, but only the full specs can tell the story.

CPU: Ryzen 5 7430U (6 Core/12 Thread 2.3-4.3ghz, Zen 3)
GPU: AMD Radeon RX Vega 7 (1800mhz)
Power: 15 watt TDP + 65 watt Power Brick
RAM: 16GB DDR4 (Dual Channel)
Storage: 512GB/1TB M.2 2280 SSD, 1x M.2 2242 Slot, 1x 2.5” SSD Bay
I/O: 3x USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type A, 2x USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-C, 1x USB 2.0 Type A, 1x 3.5mm Jack, 1x 2.5gb Ethernet, 1x SD Card Reader
Connectivity: Wi-Fi 6 + Bluetooth 5.2
Dimensions: 117 x 112 x 50mm
Weight: 658 grams

Geekom A5 2026 (R5 7430U/Base) | Amazon Geekom A5 2026 (R5 7430U/Base) | Direct

RHGEEKOMA5 for 6% off through Geekom US

Build Quality

Normally, not something I’d want to comment on unless it’s especially good or bad, but in the past year, I’ve looked at a half dozen mini pc’s on the Retro Handhelds website, and I’ve handled about a dozen more in my personal time. And of the batch, the Geekom A5 feels especially well built.

On their website, they advertise having an all-metal midframe and bottom cover, and that is especially apparent. Despite being plastic on the outside, unlike the competition, there’s minimal flex or give to the body. Small touches like this and the added weight from the metal interior aren’t something you’re going to notice day to day, but it’s a nice add-on.

Opening It Up

Another gold star for Geekom comes from getting into the Mini PC for any upgrades or added storage. This is the first one I’ve looked at in a long while where you don’t have to peel away any glued-on feet. The rubber feet have the screws built right in, and they won’t fall out and away once unscrewed.

Getting inside, you’re met with one ribbon cable to connect to the 2.5” Drive bay, but everything else is inside and easily accessible. The RAM is dual-channel, so upgrading means you’ll have to swap out entirely, but for performance now, that’ll help the AMD APU inside.

Performance

Synthetics

When it comes to synthetics, the Ryzen 5 7430U puts up a good showing despite its age. All things being equal, this chip is considered to be a rebrand of the Ryzen 5 5625U, but it shows there’s still some life in it.

Matching the 5800H in single and multi-core scores, while falling behind the i9-11900H by around 18%. In Geekbench GPU, the Vega 7 graphics understandably land below the Vega 8 in the 5800H, but easily push over the UHD 11th gen graphics in the 11900H by around 40%.

Interestingly, the UHD graphics beat the RX Vega 7 in 3DMark in everything but Time Spy, where the Vega 7 takes back over by around 40% again.

Noise

Another small touch, but the A5 was pretty quiet for the duration of my testing. Throughout all of the benchmarks, I could not hear the A5 from a normal seated position from the front to the back of my testing desk.

What that stems from is a combination of “Iceblast 2.0” cooling, which they really want to advertise on the website, but more than likely, the 15-watt TDP this chip runs at. By not running hot, it doesn’t take a lot to cool it. And I don’t mind that. Plus, they likely picked a good fan to use.

Gaming

Because synthetics don’t tell the whole story, I’ve put the Geekom A5 through a few tests that are meant to be just a bit too challenging for a lot of lower-end integrated graphics. Because of that, you’ll see lower numbers than you might expect. Tuning things to either low graphics or 900p will end up giving you much better performance in the long run.

Throughout the duration of my tests, the Vega 7 graphics would trade blows with something like the UHD 11th-generation graphics. Coming ahead in games like Strange Brigade and Tomb Raider, while tying or falling behind in games like Forza Horizon 5 and Dirt 3.

As a whole, if you’re happy tuning your games or dropping the resolution to 720 or 900p, you’ll find a solid gaming experience while everyone attempts to figure out how not to spend $500 on RAM this year.

Emulation

As for emulation, if you have a spare 2.5” drive lying around, you can toss it in the A5 2026 and boot into something like Batocera and have a good experience with everything up through PlayStation 2 and GameCube. That being said, during my testing, I chose to stay inside Windows for simplicity’s sake.

But getting a chance again to play games like Sonic Riders and Luigi’s Mansion for GameCube was always a pleasant experience. So if you want a decent under the TV console, and don’t want to build it yourself, or spend that money, this is a good way to do so without breaking the bank.

Geekom A5: Final Thoughts

$369 is not an insignificant amount of money. $369 is also about $80 more than what the A5 2025 cost for a similar setup at the beginning of last year. That being said, it’s still not a bad value in terms of 2026’s landscape.

With a casual browse through Amazon, Mini PC’s around the $200-$250 mark are all N95’s, N100’s and Ryzen 4300U’s. $250-$300 is mostly Ryzen 5500U’s now. Even the Acemagic M1, 11900H, is now sitting at $500 on Amazon, which the Geekom A5 was lining up pretty closely to during my tests.

For $369 brand new, the Geekom A5 is a well-built, quiet, and decently performant machine for 2026. There may be better deals for a used one, or through an alternative store on Amazon or AliExpress. But if you want something easy to get with a decent warranty and brand to back it up. This is probably the one I’d recommend for now. At least until something better pops up.