Geekom A9 Max (2026) Review: Not Much 'Max' About It

All products featured here are independently selected by our editors and writers. If you buy something through links on our site, Gizmodo may earn an affiliate commission. The Geekom A9 Max is a premium mini PC intended to compete with Apple’s Mac mini. The M4 Mac mini is almost two years old, but I’m mentioning it here for a reason: it’s a compact powerhouse that has stood the test of time, with a mix of size, efficiency, and performance that is hard for Windows mini PCs, even ones pumped out in 2026, to beat. Unfortunately, the Geekom A9 Max doesn’t quite measure up. The 2026 Geekom A9 Max that I reviewed features a Ryzen AI 9 HX 470 CPU, which is not terrible but is certainly pricey for the performance it offers. Inconsistent graphics output, in particular, makes it difficult to justify its $2,299 MSRP. There certainly are reasons to consider the A9 Max over the M4 Mac mini, depending on your needs. But a simple price-to-performance calculation, as well as underwhelming comparisons to last year’s Ryzen AI 300 configuration (which, by the way, Geekom is always discounting these days), lay bare the mini PC’s noteworthy flaws. Uneven performance, but decent value if Windows is a re