Lenovo M700 Tiny, Core i5-6500T, 8GB, 256GB SSD, Black/Silver

The Lenovo M700 Tiny is a refurbished mini PC with a Core i5-6500T, 8GB RAM, and a 256GB SSD. It's small, cheap, and fine for basic office tasks, but the RAM and CPU are near the bottom of our database. At 254 CAD with Windows 10 Pro included, it's a decent single-purpose machine. Just don't expect it to handle heavy multitasking or anything resembling gaming.

Let's talk about that Core i5-6500T. It sits in the 9th percentile for CPUs in our database, which is a polite way of saying this chip is near the bottom of what we track these days. It's a 35W part designed for small form factors, so it sips power and stays quiet, but it's not going to blow through heavy multitasking. Four cores at 2.5GHz with no turbo headroom to speak of means you'll feel the age when you open a dozen browser tabs or try to run anything beyond basic productivity apps.

The 8GB of RAM is also in the 9th percentile, and that's the real bottleneck for modern use. Windows 10 Pro plus a browser plus a couple of Office apps will eat through 8GB faster than you'd expect. The 256GB SSD lands in the 13th percentile for storage, which is small but at least it's an SSD. You'll get quick boot times and responsive app launches, but you'll also be managing disk space if you store much locally. The integrated GPU is in the 8th percentile, so forget gaming entirely. Our gaming score for this machine is a brutal 4 out of 100. This is not a machine for play, unless your idea of play is solitaire.

Stacked against the HP OmniDesk M03-0054 and Dell ECT ECT1250, the Lenovo M700 Tiny holds its own in the size department but falls behind on raw capability. The HP and Dell are both newer machines with better CPU and RAM options, though they're also larger and typically pricier. If you need a traditional desktop with room to grow, those are better picks. The Lenovo wins on footprint and simplicity, but that's about it.

Then you've got the Minisforum DeskMini UM880 Plus and ASUS NUC 14 Pro, which are in a completely different league. Those are modern mini PCs with current-gen processors, faster integrated graphics, and support for way more RAM and storage. They cost more, sometimes a lot more, but the performance gap is enormous. The MSI Cubi NUC AI 1UMG-015US is another step up, aimed at AI workloads and heavier multitasking. If you're comparing the M700 Tiny to any of these, you're really comparing a budget refurb to a new machine, and the Lenovo only wins on price.

Pricing here is a bit of a moving target. We're seeing one listing at 254 CAD, which for a refurbished mini PC with Windows 10 Pro included is not outrageous. But you have to weigh that against what else is out there. The Minisforum DeskMini UM880 Plus and ASUS NUC 14 Pro are both in the competitor list, and while they cost more, they're also dramatically faster and more modern. You're not comparing apples to apples when you put a 2016 refurb against a 2024 mini PC.

The value proposition really comes down to your needs. If you need a basic Windows machine for a single task, like running a point-of-sale system or a reception desk, 254 CAD is a reasonable ask. The SSD alone makes it feel less ancient than a spinning hard drive would. But if you plan to use this as a daily driver for anything beyond light office work, you'll hit the RAM and CPU limits quickly, and at that point the savings start to feel like a false economy.

The Lenovo M700 Tiny is one of those machines that makes you do a double take. It's a full Windows 10 Pro desktop squeezed into a box small enough to hide behind a monitor or tuck under a desk without anyone noticing. We're talking about a refurbished unit here, so the pitch is simple: get a capable little office PC for not much money, assuming you don't need to do anything fancy with it.

Inside, you're looking at an Intel Core i5-6500T, a 4-core chip from the Skylake era running at 2.5GHz. It's paired with 8GB of DDR4 and a 256GB SSD. That's a very 2016 spec sheet, but for the right person, it still works. The SSD is the saving grace here. It keeps Windows 10 Pro feeling snappy during boot and app launches, which matters more than raw CPU muscle for everyday office tasks.

Who is this for? Honestly, it's for someone running a small business on a budget, setting up a front desk machine, or just needing a second PC for email, spreadsheets, and web browsing. Our database puts its business score at 35.5 out of 100 and compact score at 33.3. Those aren't impressive numbers in a vacuum, but they reflect the reality of buying a refurbished machine from 2016 in a market full of newer, faster mini PCs. You're not buying performance here. You're buying cheap, small, and good enough.

If you're a gamer, just walk away. The gaming score of 4 out of 100 tells you everything. The integrated GPU from 2016 can't handle anything beyond 2D games, and even older titles will struggle. You'd be better off with a used gaming laptop or a budget desktop with a discrete GPU.

Also skip this if you're a heavy multitasker. Anyone who keeps 20 browser tabs open, runs multiple Office apps, and expects instant responsiveness will hit the 8GB RAM wall immediately. The same goes for anyone doing photo or video editing, or running virtual machines. For those use cases, look at the Minisforum DeskMini UM880 Plus or ASUS NUC 14 Pro. They cost more, but they won't make you want to throw the machine out a window.

For a single-purpose office machine, the Lenovo M700 Tiny is fine. Set it up at a front desk, plug in a monitor and keyboard, and let it run a browser, email, and maybe a lightweight POS app. It'll do that without complaint, and the small size means it won't clutter up the workspace. The Windows 10 Pro license is a nice bonus, especially for small businesses that need domain join or BitLocker.

But if you're buying this as your main computer, think twice. The 8GB RAM ceiling and aging CPU will frustrate you within a year, and the limited ports mean you'll be reaching for dongles and hubs. For a home office machine that needs to handle video calls, multiple tabs, and the occasional heavy spreadsheet, you'd be better off saving up for something like the ASUS NUC 14 Pro or even a newer refurb with 16GB of RAM. The M700 Tiny is a tool for a specific job, not a general-purpose workhorse.