Intel Nuc 13 Pro review: The ultimate portable PC workhorse is now even better
Intel as a company is synonymous with computing these days, controlling nearly 80% of the PC and Laptop market. They manufacture everything from processors and graphics chips to complete machines, and the Intel NUC lineup is a perfect example of the latter - small, portable workhorses that first entered the market in 2012.
We reviewed the previous model, the Intel NUC 12, fairly positively back in February, but the 13th Generation has only improved, featuring an updated i7-1360P processor. The machine will set you back somewhere in the region of £700, depending on where you buy and what extras you choose.
Design and Ports
The unit weighs just 538g, is 37 mm thick (for the slim version we reviewed, there is a thicker variant) and takes up a footprint that is just 11.7 cm x 11.2 cm.
This is an exceptionally small footprint, and is additionally very light, making it easy to carry around from A to B, although it's worth noting that this is an identical footprint to the 12th Generation NUC, albeit around 20g heavier.
It's significantly smaller than a lot of its competitors, with the closest in size probably being the Minisforum MC560, which measures 1.04 cm x 15.3 cm, or the Morefine M600, which measures 1.47 cm x 14.4 cm.
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The ports remain unchanged from the 12th Gen model, with the front sporting two USB-A ports and a headphone slot, and the rear offering 2 HDMI ports, 2 USB-A slots, 2 Thunderbolt ports, and an ethernet port.
The NUC 13 Pro is powered by a barreled power supply and not a USB-C like some competitor models, however, this is unlikely to be a dealbreaker for a lot of people since a power supply is included in the box.
The case is essentially just a square black brick, with air vents on the left and right of the unit. It's possible Intel has missed a trick here, with the potential definitely being there to make some kind of flashy or striking case.
The case also opens very easily, four screws allow the bottom panel to be removed, revealing the motherboard inside. This makes for easy expansion and maintenance, with RAM and SSD slots easily accessible.
These tiny PCs are great for offices, or for kids' bedrooms, and anywhere where space is limited (Intel)Specifications and Performance
The Intel NUC 13 Pro features an improved Intel Core i7-1360P, an Iris XE Graphics G7 96EUs, and a 512 GB M.2 drive, namely the Samsung PM9A1 MZVL2512HCJQ.
It performs slightly better than the 12th Generation, although the leap isn't as big as it was between the 11th and 12th.
The processor is, to put it bluntly, a 12-Core i7 processor boasting 16 threads capable of hitting speeds of 5.0 GHz. It features an 18MB L3 cache and power consumption of around 28 W.
In terms of CPU benching, the Intel NUC 13 Pro did really well - we tested it on Cinebench R20, and it scored 746 on Single Core, and 4901 on Multi Core.
This vastly outperforms the benchmarks for the CPU alone, signalling some good design and efficiency for the device overall. It's also important to note that these benchmarks seem to outperform most competitors in Mult Core, and all competitors in Single Core.
When it came to graphics benchmarks, it's a story of two parts. Comparatively speaking, the NUC 13 Pro is probably the third fastest mini-PC on the market, managing 5,337 points on the 3DMark 1920x1080 Fire Strike graphics test.
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This seems to be around 7% faster than the NUC 12th Generation and is only really surpassed in any meaningful way by the Morefine M600, 6900HX, which performs around 30% faster in benchmarks.
When it comes to gaming, it's only really possible on some of the lowest settings.
The NUC 13 Pro makes an excellent portable desktop (Intel)I managed to get the Witcher 3 to over 100 fps, but only by setting it to 1024x768, and turning everything to low. If you increase the resolution to 1920x1080, the system doesn't manage much more than 50fps however it's very variable, dropping down as low as 30fps in some circumstances.
The same was true of most games I tried, with 1024x768 resolution and the lowest settings achieved around 52 fps on Borderlands 3, 110 fps on GTA V, and 44 fps on F1 2023. Some games were unplayable no matter what - God of War didn't go over 24 fps no matter what I did, and Shadow of the Tomb Raider maxed out at about 35 fps in the best-case scenario.
The more technically minded audience will manage to connect this to a graphics card externally one way or another, and some research seems to indicate this is reasonably effective - I found someone online who was showing the NUC 13 Pro connected to an RTX 3060 externally achieving 80-100 fps on most games in ultra settings.
The mini-PC comes with 32GB of DDR4 RAM, which coupled with the processor means it performs well in most scenarios outside of gaming. Photo and video editing is a breeze, as is web browsing, and even audio mixing in professional DAWs.
It will be more than competent for most professionals - people like photographers and music producers spring to mind, but really I can't see any profession besides game design that will struggle with the specifications of this device.
Connectivity and Features
The key draw of a device like the Intel NUC is its portability. You can unplug it from one device and plug it into another with relative ease.
It's worth bearing in mind that it doesn't come with a mouse and keyboard, meaning that if you don't have multiple setups (such as at home and in the office) that you can switch between, you need to carry these with you.
That being said, I carried it in a backpack with a 60% keyboard, a wireless mouse, and a 6-inch HDMI to carry out some on-location music recording, and found this effortless - I also managed to unplug it from my home setup and carry it to someone else's office, meaning all I had to do was plug in the Keyboard, Mouse, and Monitor, and I was good to go.
You can even plug in a webcam and turn any room with a television or monitor into a meeting room, provided you have a mouse and keyboard accessible.
It has an ethernet port in the back, as well as in-built Wi-Fi, both of which perform excellently. It also offers Bluetooth 5.3, which has decent connectivity despite the internal antennas.
Intel Nuc 13 Pro Verdict: 4/5
When it comes to uses, the Intel NUC 13 pro is really limited only by your imagination. It's most likely going to find a home for businesses, perhaps running a smart advert board, or being used as a workhouse that can easily be moved from office to home and back again.
That said, it houses an awesome amount of computing power and is also perfect for creatives or professionals who need a device to take on the go but don't think a full-scale laptop would suit them.
You can game on it, but it's not exactly pleasant for newer games - older games run fine though, since the processor is robust and benchmarks well compared to machines that these games were running on back in the day.
The Intel NUC 13 Pro blows the majority of its competition out of the water, the only real sticking point is whether or not you need graphical processing - if you do, you're better off with something that has a dedicated graphics card, such as the Minisforum HX99G.
The Intel NUC 13 Pro is available from 3rd party sellers, although you'll need to be fast, as Intel is now discontinuing the model!
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