With the current global pandemic cancelling all important gatherings one-by-one, everything moves (just) online, including new product announcements.

Which means sites like MiniPCDB will have a bit more content coming our way and have to step up (I know, it's been quiet here lately).

Minix announced their plans for the the next 6 months, and the most interesting device is MINIX NEO WL5U-T, the most powerful Wintel Mini PC Minix ever announced (and yes, the most expensive also, see below).

Powered by i3-8145U, an 8th Generation Intel® Core™ i3 Processor , the WL5U-T Mini PC will give 15W TDP, will have a decent sized built-in SSD and decent amount of RAM (after upgrades), making it perfect for a desktop replacement and attractive for a home-lab device.
You can also connect it to all kinds of monitors (even 3 at the same time), make use of the dual-gigabit Ethernet or the COM port (if you use the COM port, please reach out, I'd like to hear about your use case).

All recent Minix Wintel MIni PC's are expandable and so will the NEO WL5U-T.
Unlike the previous models, WL5U-T comes with a 240 GB SSD ROM, so you won't have to spend more to get better results (previous models had a slower eMMC and the SSD was optional).
In theory, the i3-8145U can support up to 64 GB of RAM, so this device can be the perfect upgrade for a home lab, fitting a few VM's for the geek in you.
The dual Gigabit Ethernet connection will also help for this Proxmox/VMware scenario, but there are a lot more use cases for this device, both for home and business use.
There's also the COM port we've seen on quite a few Wintel devices lately.

MINIX NEO WL5U-T full specs

• CPU: Intel® i3-8145U (2.10 GHz base, 3.90 GHz burst). 4MB cache, 15W TDP
• GPU: Intel® UHD Graphics 620 (300 MHz base, 1000 MHz max)
• RAM: 4GB DDR4 2400MHz. Two SODIMM slots, dual channel support, up to 64GB (*)
• ROM: 240GB SSD
• WiFi: 802.11ac Dual-Band Wi-Fi
• LAN: 2 x 10/100/1000
• USB: 4 x USB 3.0, 1 X USB type-C
• Audio/Video: HDMI 2.0, Mini DisplayPort and USB-C – all up to 4K @ 60Hz; Optical S/PDIF
• Other: 1 x COM port, 1 x Micro SD card reader, 3.5mm headset jack
• OS: Windows 10 Pro

This will NOT be available right away, as it's scheduled for release in September.
There could be changes until then, so please do check back for updates.

Pricing?
Here's where things are getting less appealing - the manufacturer suggested retail price is 499€ in Europe (or 499$ in the rest of the world), making the device pretty much the most expensive Minix device we announced here.
Did you notice that all our devices are getting more expensive every year? As in this year's top iPhone is more expensive as last year's and even more expensive as the one announced two years ago.
Granted, the TDP the NEO WL5U-T comes with, the quality behind every Minix device and the upgrade possibilities might sweeten the deal, but it's still a hard pill to swallow.
In this price range you can look at a HPE ProLiant MicroServer Gen10 Plus, wich we hope to review later this year. Or quite a few other possibilities.

If you have any questions, please get in touch.