GPD WIN Mini Review – Clamshell 7840U portable gaming with Oculink support

The GPD WIN Mini is possibly one of this year’s most eagerly anticipated handhelds from GPD to be released. We have a pre-mass production sample handheld gaming PC to take a closer look at. This is not a final GPD WIN Mini review, but more of an overview to see it in action.

GPD WIN Mini Review Video

What’s inside the box?

As always we the GPD WIN 4 review with the unboxing. First we have the user manual which is in Chinese and English. Next is the GPD WIN Mini portable gaming PC itself, we will take a closer look at it in a moment.

Underneath is a charger we will include the correct adapter for your country. There is also a hand strap which you can attach to the Mini. Followed by a USB Type-C charge cable. And last but not least a Type-C to Type-A USB adapter.

GPD WIN Mini Overview

The GPD WIN Mini measures around 6.6 x 4.29 x 0.98 inches (16.8 x 10.9 x 2.5 cm) and weighs 520g.

The lid opens to reveal a nicely proportioned 7 inch LTPS touch screen which has a resolution of 1920×1080, supporting 60 and 120Hz refresh rates. You will most likely be using 60Hz for newer games, but for older games that support it, 120Hz will look very smooth.

On the lower half of the Mini are your gaming controls on either side of the touchpad. Just below are the select, menu, start, L4 and R4 shortcut buttons. The control layout is a little different to the usual vertical orientation of the sticks in relation to the d-pad and buttons. It doesn’t take long to get used to them and feels comfortable to play on.

The backlit keyboard is a bit larger than the GPD WIN 4 mobile gaming PC and is easier to type on. While it is larger, it is not quite large enough for fast typing or writing longer documents. But it’s definitely comfortable enough for quick messages etc.

Across the back we have two USB ports, a switch to change between gamepad and mouse modes, and a 3.5mm audio combo jack. Next we have the Oculink port which you can connect the GPD G1 eGPU docking station to, and there is a micro SD card reader just above it.

GPD WIN Mini Grips

We also have the GPD WIN Mini Grips which are available for purchase separately. They screw into the back of the WIN Mini and provide an improved grip when holding the device.

It does add some extra thickness, so it’s not quite pocketable as before, but it does mean holding it for longer gaming sessions is far more comfortable. With it being screws to hold it in place, it provides excellent stability, but it means you can’t remove them as fast as say a slide in or clickable pieces. It is there as an option if you want a GPD, and maybe we will see third party 3D prints for other styles of grips.

GPD WIN Mini Technical Specifications

	RYZEN 7 7840U	RYZEN 5 7640U
CPU	AMD Ryzen 7 7840U with 8 cores & 16 threads up to 5.1GHz	AMD Ryzen 5 7640U with 6 cores 12 threads up to 4.9GHz
GPU	AMD Radeon 780M, 12 CU, up to 2700MHz	AMD Radeon 760M, 8 CU, up to 2600MHz
RAM	32GB LPDDR5 6400 MT/s	16GB LPDDR5 6400 MT/s
STORAGE	Up to 2TB PCIe 4.0 x 4, NVMe 1.3/1.4	512GB PCIe 4.0 x 4, NVMe 1.3/1.4

And the general technical specifications for both GPD WIN Mini models.

DISPLAY	7″ LTPS High-Refresh Display Supports 60Hz & 120Hz Refresh Rates AF+AR Coating, 500nit Brightness 1080P Resolution, 314 PPI
GAME CONTROLS	Dual Hall Effect Joystick, Infinite, Ultra-Linear, No Dead Zone, Recessed Design, Supports L3/R3 When Pressed Down. Linear Analog Trigger L2 and R2 Buttons. Classic D-Pad and gaming buttons with Menu button. L4 and R4 programmable macro buttons
KEYBOARD	QWERTY Full Keyboard, Scissor-Switch Keys, Backlit Design
TOUCHPAD	Precision Touchpad (PTP Mode), Supports Up To 4-Finger Gestures
MULTIMEDIA SUPPORT	2 Built-In Hyper-Linear Speakers, Both Headphones And Speakers Support DTS: X Ultra Sound Effects, Which Can Simulate The Sound Effects Of A Physical 7.1 Channel. Built-in Microphone
NETWORK SUPPORT	Wi-Fi 6 IEEE 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac/ax, Support 2.4G/5G Dual Frequency Band, Dual Channel Maximum Transmission Rate 2402Mbps. Bluetooth 5.2
I/O INTERFACES	USB4 (40Gbps) × 1, USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-C (10Gbps) × 1, Oculink (SFF-8612) × 1
OCULINK	Direct PCIe Gen4 x 4 Connection 63Gbps Effective Bandwidth Supports GPD G1 Mobile Docking Station
MICRO SD SLOT	SD 3.0 Protocol, Bus interface: UHS-I, Video Speed Class: V30, I/O Performance: A2, Theoretical Speed: Read 160MB/s, Write 120MB/s, Compatible: microSDHC / microSDXC / microSDUC
BATTERY	44.24Wh Lithium Polymer Battery. Heavy Use For 3 Hours, Moderate Use For 6-8 Hours, Light Use For 14 Hours, Depending On The Specific Usage Environment
SIZE	6.6 x 4.2 x 1.02 in / 16.8×10.9×2.6 cm
WEIGHT	520g
SHELL DESIGN	Rust Tint colour clamshell design Aluminium Alloy material

Now to address the elephant in the room. Much has been made of the temperatures on the Win Mini. The actual temperature is just fine, reaching around 50 or so degrees. However, in the beta samples there is a buildup of heat around the game controls area which is not ideal as this is where your fingers are placed on the portable gaming computer.

This issue is already being addressed by GPD and will be fixed by the time the GPD WIN Mini is released to the public. Again, this is a beta sample unit and the design will change for the final model. We will update this GPD WIN Mini review with our thoughts on the final model which customers will receive.

System & Gaming Benchmarks

As part of our GPD WIN Mini review we are running some system and gaming benchmarks. We are using the official AMD 28.3.2 drivers. They have fairly similar performance to the GPD supplied drivers we used on their GPD Win 4 2023 and GPD WIN MAX 2 2023 models. We will have a new video soon comparing all the handhelds with the same drivers.

3DMark

We start the benchmarks with 3DMark and its Time Spy, Fire Strike and Night Raid tests.

The scores were overall lower than other 7840U models, but as you will see in other tests they do get more comparable.

Cinebench

Cinebench tests the CPU performance with single-core and multi-core benchmarks. We got 1658 on single-core and 12491 on multi-core. 

The scores are a little lower than the other 7840U models. Again we will retest these with the same drivers and setup in the future for a proper comparison.

Forza Horizon 5

For Forza Horizon 5 we are running at 1080P across 11, 20 and 28W TDP on the Very Low graphics settings.

We get decent FPS results for 1080P, they were a touch lower than the GPD WIN 4 2023, but we know the different drivers do affect performance a bit on various games

Shadow of the Tomb Raider

For Shadow of the Tomb Raider we are running at 1080P across 11, 20 and 28W TDP on the Lowest graphics settings.

We got noticeably better scores than the GPD WIN 4 2023 compact gaming PC. So our thoughts on the driver performance differences are confirmed. We double checked by installing a newer driver on another device and got lower performance. AMD please sort your drivers out!

Cyberpunk 2077

Next on the GPD WIN Mini review we have Cyberpunk 2077 running at 1080P on the Low graphics settings with no FSR enabled.

We got very good scores across the different TDPs, around the same as the GPD WIN 4 2023 which was good to see.

Benchmark Summary

As mentioned we will not directly compare the benchmark results in our GPD WIN Mini review with other 7840U based handheld gaming computer’s as they are all using different drivers. But if you check out our reviews of these models you can find their benchmark results to very roughly compare.

Overall, the benchmark scores are similar to the GPD Win 4 2023 which we tested at 1080P resolution and the same TDPs. There are some games that have higher and lower scores but that’s the nature of different driver versions. 

We did not experience any performance issues with the GPD WIN Mini, everything was roughly on par with the other 7840U handhelds. Keep an eye for our video where we benchmark all the different models for comparison!

Final Thoughts

Time to sum up our thoughts as part of this GPD WIN Mini review. The GPD WIN Mini has been for many ‘in the scene’ the most eagerly anticipated mobile gaming PC to be released this year. It was however spoiled a bit by the external temperature issues identified in what is a beta sample of the device. Personally I think the public’s reaction is overblown and the result was the usual everyone jumping on the internet drama bandwagon. 

These are sample models of unfinished hardware, made 2-3 months before they will start manufacturing and shipping. GPD were already working on fixing this before it was known to the public and the issues, of which this external temperature is not the only one, will be fixed beforehand. So wait for the final hardware reviews if this is a concern for you. Rant over 🙂 Let me know in the comments what you think!

The GPD WIN Mini has a just right mix of portability, found in the WIN 4 compact gaming PC’s and functionality, found in the WIN MAX 2 series. One of my complaints with the Win 4 was the display was occasionally a little small to see some text, and with the MAX 2 it could be a bit uncomfortable to hold for longer gameplay sessions.

The WIN Mini manages to address both these issues with a great balance of a larger display in a smaller more comfortable form factor. Use the hand grips for the best comfort and it feels excellent to play on. The controls horizontal  orientation takes minimal getting used to, and the keyboard, while larger than the GPD Win 4, is still a little too small to use as a standard keyboard.

We can’t wait to get our hands on the final GPD WIN Mini portable gaming PC for a full GPD WIN Mini review and be able to compare it to the 7640U handheld gaming computer to see the performance differences. We expect this to be closer to launch in November, so don’t forget to subscribe and you won’t miss out.

You can learn more and buy your GPD WIN Mini here. Use the discount code WINMINI5OFF for a 5% discount. Please note the discount code will expire in one month, and can not be used during store sales or promotions.

That wraps up our GPD WIN Mini review, what do you think of it? Let us know in the comments.