Minisforum’s long-delayed M2 Pro is still missing, but a cheaper Panther Lake mini PC quietly arrives with surprising compromises | Daily Reports Online
- Minisforum still has no release date for its long-promised M2 Pro mini PC
- The cheaper M2 mini PC sacrifices flagship graphics power for lower entry pricing
- A tiny 520-gram desktop now handles local AI models without relying entirely on cloud processing
At CES 2026, Minisforum unveiled the M2 Pro mini PC, a device that promises to be a flagship device for high-end users, powered by an Intel Core Ultra X9 388H processor coupled with a discrete-class Intel Arc B390 integrated graphics.
However, five months after the launch, the promised M2 Pro has yet to be shipped, to the disappointment of potential buyers.
Instead, Minisforum has now released a standard M2 version for budget-conscious buyers.
Minisforum released an entry-level M2 mini PC
The Minisforum M2 measures 130 x 127 x 50 mm, meaning it can fit in your palm, and includes a 120W power adapter.
It weighs only 520 grams and supports a VESA mount, which means it can be attached to the rear of a monitor.
Under the hood, it comes with two SODIMM slots that support up to 128GB of DDR5-5600 RAM modules, and also hosts two M.2 2280 slots, supports PCIe 4.0 x4 storage for fast data access, and can hold up to 8TB of NVMe storage.
There is also an additional M.2 2230 slot that houses an Intel BE200 wireless card with Wi-Fi 7. This card provides Bluetooth 5.4 connectivity for wireless peripherals and headphones.
For physical connectivity, this device uses one USB4 Type-C port operating at 40 Gbps for fast data transfers.
It supports three USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-A ports that deliver 10 Gbps each for connecting external devices.
A single USB 2.0 Type-A port provides 480 Mbps for legacy accessories like keyboards or mice.
Video output options consist of one HDMI 2.1 port and one DisplayPort 1.4 port. Two 2.5 GbE Ethernet ports use the RTL8125D controller for wired networking reliability.
There is a 3.5mm audio jack, which completes the connectivity suite for headphone or speaker use.
To tackle heating, which is a common problem for small-sized devices, the M2 comes with dual heat pipes alongside a single cooling fan.
Minisforum claims that with this configuration, at full load, the CPU hits 78 degrees Celsius with only 42.5dB of noise.
Built for AI
Minisforum markets the M2 for AI tasks using its combined 90 TOPS of processing power (50 from the NPU and 40 from the GPU),
This allows users to run open-source models like GPT-OSS 20B and Gemma-4-26B-A4B locally, a useful feature for testing AI tools without relying on cloud services.
The Minisforum M2 starts at $575 for a barebones model without any memory or storage.
However, a pre-configured version with 32GB of RAM and a 1TB SSD costs $1,039.
A budget-conscious user might reasonably question whether a system that more than doubles in price after basic configuration truly serves their needs.
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