Beelink SER9 Pro review: Great performance in a small and affordable package, with support for a clever dock

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Beelink has released an updated SER9 Pro mini PC. This new version features a powerful AMD Ryzen 7 H 255 processor and Radeon 780M graphics, all packed into a small, well-built case. It’s designed to deliver strong performance without overheating or becoming noisy, and it remains an affordable option with a good selection of ports.

I’ve been daily driving the Beelink SER9 Pro for the last month, and this is my full review.

Price and availability

As a researcher, I’ve been looking into the Beelink SER9 Pro, which features an AMD Ryzen 7 H 255 processor. You can purchase it directly from Beelink or on Amazon. Typically, it’s priced around $639, but I found it’s currently on sale on the Beelink website for $519.

The SER9 Pro comes with one standard configuration: an AMD Ryzen 7 H 255 processor, 32GB of RAM, and a 1TB SSD. You can choose between Silver and Space Grey colors. While the RAM isn’t upgradable (it’s soldered in), you can add more storage yourself after you buy it.

Beelink offers a $99 accessory called the Mate Mini, which expands the SER9 Pro’s connectivity with extra ports and allows you to add two more SSDs. It’s designed to seamlessly connect to the SER9 Pro, feeling like a built-in part of the mini PC.

Design and ports

The Beelink SER9 Pro has a sleek design and feels well-built, just like other Beelink computers. It features a solid metal case that stays cool, and you can choose between silver and space grey – we prefer the silver finish. It’s roughly the same size as a Mac mini M4, measuring 135 x 135 x 44.7 mm, but just a bit larger.

On the front of the device, you’ll find the power button, a 3.5mm headphone jack, a USB-C port, and a USB-A port. There are also four small holes along the top edge, which house the built-in microphone. We’ll discuss the microphone’s sound quality later.

The back panel offers a wide variety of ports, including three additional USB-A ports, another USB-C port, a headphone jack, a fast 2.5 Gigabit Ethernet port, HDMI 2.1, and DisplayPort 1.4. You’ll also find the fan and heat vents on the back, so make sure to leave plenty of space for good airflow and cooling.

Features and dock

I’ve been checking out the Beelink SER9 Pro, and what really caught my attention is how well it’s built for the current AI boom. Beelink is really pushing its ability to handle AI chatbots like ChatGPT, and it makes sense – they’ve included a fantastic omni-directional microphone. Apparently, it’s designed to pick up *your* voice clearly, even if you’re in a noisy room. That’s a huge plus for anyone who’s doing a lot of voice commands or chatting with AI!

As a researcher, I’ve been testing this microphone and I’m impressed with its range. It can clearly pick up my voice from up to 5 meters away – which is perfect for a typical desktop setup. Even with music playing, AI applications had no problem understanding my speech, demonstrating its strong clarity for a built-in microphone.

If you place your mini PC behind or under your desk, its microphone might not pick up your voice as clearly. I noticed that when mine was underneath my desk, some voice-activated apps had trouble understanding my commands and would make mistakes. This wasn’t always an issue, but it happened often enough to mention.

I was pleasantly surprised to find built-in speakers in this mini PC! It’s super convenient if you don’t have external speakers or a monitor with sound. They aren’t amazing – don’t expect booming bass or anything – but they definitely get the job done for things like video calls or casual listening. They’re clear enough for everyday use, which is all I really need in a pinch.

Another great feature of Beelink mini PCs is how easy they are to upgrade. With the SER9 Pro, you can quickly add more RAM or storage – it only takes removing a few screws to open the bottom and access the components inside.

As a PC enthusiast, I was really happy to see this mini PC has two M.2 slots for super-fast SSDs! It actually comes with one SSD already installed, but you can easily add a second one. That gives you a ton of options – you could set up a RAID for extra speed and redundancy, use the second drive for backups, or just add more storage. It’s awesome to have that flexibility!

Beelink has released a new accessory called the Mate Mini dock for its SER9 Pro. This compact and flat dock easily connects to the SER9 Pro, adding extra ports and blending seamlessly with its design. You can even position it on top or underneath the SER9 Pro for a clean, integrated look.

The dock connects to the back of the SER9 Pro with a USB-C cable. It includes a special adapter to help you easily line it up. Once connected, it adds several extra ports: two USB-A ports, another Ethernet port, a headphone jack, and an additional USB-C port. Plus, there’s a full-size SD card reader on the side for easy file transfers!

What really sets the Mate Mini apart is its internal storage capacity. It adds two extra slots for M.2 SSDs, letting you significantly expand the storage connected to your SER9 Pro. Each slot can hold up to 4TB, meaning you could potentially have 8TB inside the Mate Dock and another 8TB inside the SER9 Pro – a total of 16TB! That’s a huge amount of storage for such a small computer.

Performance

The Beelink SER9 Pro uses an AMD Ryzen 7 255H processor, which is similar to the Ryzen 7 8745H. Because it’s based on an older ‘Zen 4’ processor design, it doesn’t offer the same performance boosts as newer processors with the ‘Zen 5’ architecture, especially in graphics and processing speed. It also lacks a dedicated AI processing unit (NPU), meaning it won’t fully support Windows AI features like Copilot+.

Despite some considerations, this machine still performs very well. It achieved scores of 2,495 in single-core and 12,129 in multi-core on the Geekbench 6 test, which is comparable to the Ryzen 7940HS and 8945HS processors. In Cinebench 2024, it scored 100 for single-core performance and 836 for multi-core. It also received a score of 1,806 in the CrossMark benchmark.

The AMD Radeon 780M is a decent graphics chip built into some computers, and it can handle gaming surprisingly well. It’s not top-of-the-line, but it’s good for playing less demanding games on a small computer. For example, it averaged about 35 frames per second when playing Cyberpunk 2077 on high settings at 1080p resolution, which is a smooth enough experience for many players.

Shadow of the Tomb Raider and DOOM: The Dark Ages both averaged about 27 frames per second with high graphics at 1080p. However, lowering the graphics to medium settings would likely boost performance to over 40fps in most current games. For older titles, this 780M graphics card really shines – I consistently got a smooth 60fps on the highest settings in GTA V.

The SER9 Pro isn’t really designed for gaming, but it can handle it if you need to play something. Its 780M graphics card is much better for tasks like photo editing and video rendering, speeding up creative projects significantly compared to standard built-in graphics. If you do plan on gaming, I suggest setting the device to 65W performance mode.

The SER9 Pro remains relatively quiet even when working hard. You can hear the fan, but it’s not overly loud – it’s the normal sound you’d expect when the processor and graphics card are being fully utilized.

Conclusion

The Beelink SER9 Pro features a new AMD Ryzen 7 H 255 processor, but its performance is comparable to top-tier processors from a couple of years ago. It’s not groundbreaking, but that’s due to the nature of the processor itself. The H 255 is essentially a more affordable version of AMD’s Zen 4 CPU.

Considering its specs, the SER9 Pro is surprisingly affordable. You can often find it on sale for around $500, which is a great price given its powerful graphics card, 32GB of RAM, and 1TB of storage. It’s a capable machine that can easily handle work, creative projects, and even some gaming.

I’m really happy with the SER9 Pro’s size, and the new Mate Mini dock is fantastic. It makes it incredibly simple to transform this device into a powerful home server or storage solution.

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2025-10-06 14:12