ASUS Mini PC Flaunting A Ryzen 9 6900HX Rembrandt APU Shows Up At Retail
ASUS is preparing a new round of mini PCs based on AMD's latest generation Ryzen 6000 series of mobile silicon, culminating in a model powered by a Ryzen 9 6900HX. Otherwise known as Rembrandt, these APUs pack a potent punch by pairing refined Zen 3+ CPU cores manufactured on a 6-nanometer node with integrated graphics based on AMD's RDNA 2 architecture.
Up to this point, we've mostly seen Rembrandt stuffed into laptops. ASUS was one of the first to employ the Ryzen 6000 series in its laptop lineup, such as the Zenbook S 13 OLED we reviewed in May. We also reviewed the ROG Zephyrus G14 gaming laptop with a Rembrandt APU inside (Ryzen 9 6900HS). Now it looks to be one of the first to the Ryzen 6000 series for the mini PC category.
That's the good news. The not-so-thrilling news is that initial pricing is on the high side, assuming the spattering of retail listings are accurate and not just using placeholders. It stands to reason that these mini PCs would command a premium, though—not only are they rocking AMD's fastest mobile silicon, but you may also recall that Rembrandt only works with DDR5 memory, which is generally more expensive than DDR4.
Credit goes to Reddit user eyeoncomputers for spotting AMD's upcoming PN53 mini PC models at multiple retailers, all with similar (though not exactly the same) price points. Shown above is a breakdown of pricing at Samtek. It shows six different models, half of which are barebone setups and the other half coming preinstalled with RAM and storage.
Here's how pricing breaks down...
- ASUS Vivo PN53 w/ Ryzen 5 6600H (barebones): €657.48 (~$658)
- ASUS Vivo PN53 w/ Ryzen 7 6800H (barebones): €778.83 (~$780)
- ASUS Vivo PN53 w/ Ryzen 9 6900HX (barebones): €839.50 (~$840)
- ASUS Vivo PN53 w/ Ryzen 5 6600H, 8GB DDR5, 256GB SSD: €850.27 (~$851)
- ASUS Vivo PN53 w/ Ryzen 7 6800H, 16GB DDR5, 512GB SSD: €1,008.02 (~$1,009)
- ASUS Vivo PN53 w/ Ryzen 9 6900HX, 16GB DDR5, 512GB SSD: €1,139.03 (~$1,140)
Actual retail pricing does not always convert so neatly from one territory to another. That said, the Euro and US dollar are roughly equal currently.
Pricing is a little cheaper at Beat-It, an e-commerce platform in the Netherlands. It lists the top model with a Ryzen 9 6900HX, 16GB of DDR5 memory, and a 512GB SSD for €1,100, followed by the Ryzen 7 6800H config for €947 and the Ryzen 5 6600H model for €821. At present, it only lists the fully configured setups, and not any barebones options.
All of these models feature a pair of SO-DIMM slots supporting up to 64GB of memory, M.2 and SATA connectors (one each), and various I/O options, including USB 3.2 Gen 2 (Type-A and Type-C). Additionally, they all support Wi-Fi 6E connectivity.
