Beelink L55, a mini PC with an i3-5005U processor

Not long ago, Beelink released another new product: a compact computer with a Core i3 processor. Though, in my opinion, it’s hard to call a fifth-generation processor new, since it was developed quite a while ago.
Still, this computer turned out to be pretty good in its own way. But you can read all about it in the review, which covers the inspection, teardown, tests, and conclusions, along with a summary table.


I’ve already reviewed a similar computer, the Beelink Gemini X45, but that one had a weaker processor and less RAM, among other differences. At first glance, though, they might look like the same machine.

The box is made of sturdy cardboard; even our postal service couldn’t do much to it, apart from denting one corner a little. The back lists the technical specifications and has QR codes linking to the product description, manufacturer information, and the manufacturer’s website.
There’s foam inside for extra protection, including underneath the computer, where the manual is also stored. The accessories are tightly packed in a separate box. No complaints so far; we can tick the box for being ready to survive postal delivery :)


Computer specifications:
System: Windows 10
Processor: Intel Core i3 5005U, 2.0 GHz
Graphics: Intel® HD Graphics 5500
Memory: 8GB DDR3 RAM + 256GB SSD + SATA
LAN: 2x Gigabit LAN
Wi-Fi: 2.4/5 GHz
Bluetooth 4.0
Display: HDMI + DisplayPort
External interfaces: 4x USB 3.0 + 2x USB 2.0
Audio output: 3.5 mm jack
Dimensions: 128 x 126 x 46
Weight: 300 g

The description on the back of the box shows that two other versions are available, differing only in SSD capacity. Mine is the basic version, with a 256GB SSD.

One difference from most similar computers is already apparent: it has two wired network interfaces, both of them Gigabit.


The store’s website has a short promotional video


At first glance, it looks like there’s a lot in the box. That’s typical of Beelink, though:
1. Beelink L55 mini PC
2. Power supply
3. Interchangeable plug for the power supply
4. VESA mount
5. Mounting hardware
6. Long HDMI cable
7. Short HDMI cable
8. Cable kit for connecting a SATA drive
9. Manuals and other paperwork.

In fact, the box contains only the essentials, with the possible exception of the short HDMI cable.


1. A brief manual in English, with illustrations.
2. HDMI cables: a standard one about a meter long and a short one, about 20 cm, for setups where the computer is mounted behind the monitor.
3. A short SATA cable and adapter for connecting a SATA hard drive or SSD.
4. A VESA mount and mounting hardware for both the mount itself and a hard drive.
5, 6. This is probably one of the major differences from the previous package versions: the power supply. The earlier models came with a 12 V, 2–2.5 A power supply, which was just barely enough, let alone enough to power anything reasonably demanding over USB. This one comes with a 19 V, 3 A power supply, or almost 60 W, compared with 24–30 W for the previous models.


The computer’s design is nothing unusual: a dark gray little box with a soft-touch coating on all sides. It looks neat.


Compared with the Gemini X45, it’s a little bigger—just a couple of centimeters wider on each side and a few millimeters taller.


The front panel has:
Power button
Power indicator
3.5 mm audio input/output jack
USB 3.0 port with support for charging mobile devices
Standard USB 3.0 port
Reset button hole.

Another difference from the previous computers is a USB port that supports charging mobile devices. It’s intended not only to power various devices, but also to charge them using different charging protocols. I tried to check this feature with a USB tester and even got a notification that some protocols were supported. But when I started the QC test, power to the port briefly cut out and the tester rebooted, starting the test over.
When I tried connecting a smartphone, it did charge at 1.5 A, compared with 0.5 A when connected to a regular port. The port's output voltage was 4.86 V.


All the other ports are on the back:
Power input
Two USB 3.0 ports
Two gigabit Ethernet ports
HDMI
DisplayPort
Two USB 2.0 ports

You can also see the grille at the top, where hot air from the cooling system is expelled.


There are also large air intake grilles on the sides, covered by additional mesh.
The computer and processor manufacturers' logos are on top; underneath, there are just four rubber feet.


There are small screws inside the rubber feet. Remove them to access the internals. Disassembly is a standard procedure here, since the user is expected to be able to install an additional hard drive. Credit to the manufacturer for two things: the feet aren't glued on, just held in place by screws, and the bottom cover has no clips. It all comes apart beautifully.

There are a couple of protrusions on the bottom cover where the hard drive is meant to be mounted. Everything you need is included.


I wouldn't call the layout cramped; there are some empty spaces. The RAM module and SSD are positioned so they have a little extra

One thing I found inconvenient was that the Wi-Fi antenna cable connectors are covered in some kind of compound, so I didn't disconnect them. There wasn't anything interesting under there anyway.
I also didn't remove the cooling fan. In my opinion, there's no point in doing so here, since the only thing underneath it is the processor. Besides, the fan is partially glued down near the hot air exhaust vents.


Unlike the Beelink Gemini X45, the RAM here isn't soldered to the board; it's installed in a standard slot. The same goes for the SSD. Unfortunately, though, this doesn't offer much of an advantage. The SSD is fine—you can install a larger module—but the RAM is more complicated. The installed 8 GB module can only be replaced with... another 8 GB module, since there's only one slot. Also, as far as I remember, this processor supports up to 8 GB per slot. But even if it supported more, you'd be hard-pressed to find a DDR3 module larger than 8 GB.


The M.2 SSD slot supports only one drive size: 2280. Otherwise, you'd have to look for some kind of adapter. The SATA and hard drive power connectors are next to it.


The RAM and SSD are unbranded, with only OEM stickers. The memory module is double-sided, with 8 chips on each side.
The SSD is built around an SM2258XT controller and has two 128 GB chips. There's room on the board for two more chips; I think the 320 GB and 512 GB versions of the computer simply have one or two extra chips, respectively. The underside of the board is bare.


The board with the RAM and SSD modules removed.


What's unusual is the presence of protection components on both the HDMI and USB lines. That would be standard for branded devices from companies like Intel, HP, or Asus, of course, but for Chinese computers it's more the exception than the rule.


The power input connector, switching circuit, and fuse. The fuse is a bit odd, by the way: it's marked M, and as far as I understand, that's a current rating of just 750 mA.
There's also a buzzer nearby, which is quite unusual for a mini PC, at least a Chinese one. I don't remember seeing one before. It makes a short beep when powered on.


Both the wired interfaces and Wi-Fi are about as conventional as they come: Realtek chips for wired networking and an Intel module for Wi-Fi.


The front-panel connectors; the power switching key is visible next to the right-hand connector.


Everything is neat here too: the 3.5 mm jack and LED are additionally covered with foam pads.


The battery is glued to the back of the board and connected via a connector. The cooling fan is next to it. The heatsink looks like copper, and the fan runs quietly. It has automatic speed control, but because the heatsink is lightweight, the fan keeps switching on and off, which can be annoying if the computer is sitting next to you.


The front ports are also protected. There is also some kind of chip next to the left port, presumably responsible for managing the charging protocols, since this is the port that supports this feature.
By the way, the ports are installed "upside down" in the computer, which isn't always convenient. For example, with these ports my USB tester ends up with its screen facing down.


1. Audio codec - ALC289
2. BIOS firmware memory chip - Winbond 25Q64JVS1Q
3. Ethernet chips
4. Components for the standard front-panel USB port.
5. Components for the port with fast charging support
6. Power transistors in the power supply circuit
7. IT8528
8. Some kind of power controller
9. Protection components for the HDMI/DP outputs.


That seems to cover the external and internal inspection, so we can move on to the software, starting, of course, with the BIOS settings.
Unlike the computers I've had recently, this one exposes a lot of settings—I’d even say too many. Changing some of them can "brick" your device, so it's best not to mess around in here at all.
I took a lot of screenshots of the menus, but only posted the main ones. I especially like that there's an automatic power-on setting, which manufacturers have been actively "cutting" lately. Though it's not clear why.


On startup, we see the familiar Beelink logo, followed by the lengthy first-time Windows setup. I even had to create a Microsoft account, otherwise it wouldn't let me continue. But there's one important difference: both the initial setup and the subsequent system startup are entirely in Russian. There was no need to "Russify" this computer.


Windows here has no extras at all; it's completely stock. It booted at 1024x768 by default because the monitor was connected through an HDMI-to-VGA adapter. I then simply set the resolution to Full HD.


Windows 10 Home is preinstalled. Since the internet connection was active from the start, activation happened automatically.


Drive partitions. The user has 220 GB of free space available. Of course, updates will take up some of it later, but in my opinion that's more than enough for home use, especially since there's no point installing games anyway.


Information from CPU-Z.
The manufacturer didn't even provide information about the motherboard, but it does show details about the installed memory module and graphics core.
I also ran some initial tests using two versions of CPU-Z, 1.88 and 1.77. The result from the latter is included in the summary table.


SSD-Z shows a drive with the strange name AZW-256G installed. Apparently, it's yet another generic Chinese drive.


CrystalDisk shows that the drive has been powered on 15 times and has run for 12 hours. In fact, this information was recorded after a number of tests and power cycles. The temperature sensor always displays 40 degrees.


The speed of the installed SSD with 32 GB and 1 GB files, as well as the speed of an external SSD connected via USB 3.0.


HD Tune showed roughly the same results in its read test. Chinese SSDs usually have no issues with read speeds, though.


I was more interested in the write-speed test and the amount of data written before the speed drops.
The test showed that 27 GB were written at about 430 MB/s, after which the speed dropped to 50 MB/s. The first result is perfectly fine, but 50 MB/s is rather low—I expected at least around 100. In everyday use, though, this is barely noticeable.


I ran the Cinebench test using three software versions. I can only add results from the old version to my table, but I also wanted to try the newer ones.


PassMark version 8



And version 9


The classic 3DMark 2006, again, just to add it to the summary table. I also checked the CPU temperature and was more than satisfied: a maximum of 60 degrees.


A newer version of 3DMark.


Geekbench CPU and graphics tests.


Someone once asked me to test a computer with UserBenchmark, so I decided to run the test here too. You can see the results at this link.


Next came the thermal tests. As usual, LinX was first: after 17 minutes, the CPU reached 67 degrees. Its highest performance was on the 17th cycle, not at the start. This indicates that the CPU isn't overheating; otherwise, performance would have dropped as the test progressed. It also shows that this CPU has no turbo mode, since the first cycle's results are not much different from the rest.


Next, I ran OCCT several times, with each run lasting an hour. First was the CPU-OCCT test; after almost an hour, the maximum temperature was 70 degrees.


Then I ran the Power Supply test twice. This test should produce the most heat with this CPU, but after two hours the temperature had only reached 69 degrees.


Measuring power consumption answered the question of why it wasn't getting hotter.
1. Computer off
2. Desktop: consumption fluctuates between 8 and 11 W.
3. CPU-OCCT test: about 20–21 W
4. Power Supply test
5. The same test, but just 10–20 seconds later, the system automatically reduced performance to keep power consumption below 20 W. And there's the answer: that's why both tests reached the same temperature.
6. Playing 4K video with a bitrate above 100 Mbps.


The network interface settings window, showing both gigabit network cards.


The settings menu items for the wired network cards and WiFi module.


Next, as usual, I launched WiFiInfo. Intel modules aren't generally known for their great sensitivity, but just 18 access points seems low even for them. What's surprising is that the computer can easily see my 5 GHz access point, even though its signal barely reaches my desk and it's often not visible at all.


But the data transfer speed test showed results similar to those of other computers with the same kind of WiFi module.
On 2.4 GHz WiFi, speeds were about 20–30 Mbps within the large room, reaching 60–70 Mbps one meter from the router. When connected to the 5 GHz access point from 2–3 meters away, speeds were around 150–170 Mbps.


But no matter how fast this computer's WiFi is, a direct cable connection is still faster, at around 800 Mbps.


A few words about multimedia.
As for games, everything is pretty clear: nothing serious is possible here. The graphics are integrated, although older games should run just fine. I’ve read that even “World of Tanks” runs without any problems, but I’m not a gamer, so it’s hard for me to answer that question.
Video playback, on the other hand, is no problem. To start with, I tried a 4K video with a 100 Mbps bitrate, and it played smoothly without a hitch.


Then I decided to try another video, and got a message saying there was no suitable codec and asking if I wanted to download one. I thought, great, they’ve finally made it so you don’t have to hunt for all this stuff somewhere else. I agreed, only to be offered the option to buy support for that codec for a dollar. It’s not a lot of money, of course, but a dollar here, a dollar there, reinstall the system and pay again... Anyway, I gave up and will download the codecs separately later.


The “Ducks” video with a bitrate of 245 Mbps also played without any problems.


For some reason, YouTube offers a maximum of Full HD at 60 fps even for 4K 60 fps videos. Most likely it’s a browser issue, since my desktop PC with the same monitor offers 2160p.


Here’s a comparison table. The computer under review is highlighted in yellow, and mine, with an i3-5010U processor, is highlighted in orange.


Now for the conclusions, which, as always, are mixed.
The build quality, cooling, number of different ports, fast charging for connected USB devices, 5 GHz Wi-Fi, preinstalled Windows, 8 GB of RAM and a 256 GB SSD are all good. I was especially pleased that the computer doesn’t overheat: even under peak load, the temperature stays below 70 degrees. It’s also nice that they made room for an additional hard drive and included two gigabit Ethernet ports, as well as keeping the auto-start function when power is applied. And the power supply: finally, a decent one is included, capable of powering not only the computer but also peripherals, with power to spare.

But, as always, there are a few “caveats.” For example, the processor is quite old and, as is often the case, it’s a mobile processor whose performance is reduced to lower power consumption and, consequently, heat. On the other hand, I personally use a computer with a slightly more powerful i3-5010U processor, which is essentially just clocked a little higher: 2.1 GHz versus 2.0 GHz here. I’ve been using it for almost three years, and it’s my main computer.
Worse still, for some reason the manufacturer “held back” the second RAM slot. There’s room for it, and it would have allowed the memory to be upgraded to 16 GB, not to mention simply making upgrades possible. As it is, the slot is there, but it’s no use. :(

Otherwise, it’s just a computer like any other, perfectly adequate for home or office use. It’s not too noisy, doesn’t get very hot, has plenty of ports, comes with a power supply with power to spare, and lets you install a hard drive.

At first I wanted to title the review something like “Beelink L55 charger, now with a Core i3 processor,” but then for some reason I changed my mind :)

The store offered a small discount. With the coupon GBCNL5501, the price is 262.99

That’s all from me. I hope you found the information useful.