Lenovo ThinkCentre 625, AMD A4-9120C, 16GB, 256GB SSD, Black

The Lenovo ThinkCentre M625 is a fanless 1-liter mini PC with 16GB of RAM and Windows 11 Pro, but its AMD A4-9120C processor is the slowest CPU we've tracked in this category. It's fine for a single lightweight task in a quiet environment, but most buyers should look elsewhere. At $290 it's borderline, but European prices of EUR 638-729 make it a hard pass.

Let's talk numbers. The AMD A4-9120C runs at 1.6GHz base with a 2.4GHz max turbo. That's a dual-core, dual-thread chip from the Stoney Ridge family, and it sits at the 0th percentile in our CPU rankings. In plain English: it's the slowest processor we've seen in this product class. The integrated Radeon R4 graphics land at the 8th percentile for GPU performance, so don't expect anything beyond basic display output.

The 16GB of DDR4 RAM is actually the bright spot here, though it ranks at the 32nd percentile, which is mediocre for this category. The 256GB SSD is a weak spot at the 13th percentile. Boot times will be fine, but storage capacity is tight for anything beyond a thin client workload. Port selection is also underwhelming at the 38th percentile. You get DisplayPort, six USB-A ports split between 3.1 and 2.0, and Ethernet. No USB-C, no HDMI without an adapter.

For reading PDFs, checking email, or running a single lightweight app, this thing will technically work. But "work" is doing a lot of heavy lifting. Multiple browser tabs and background Windows updates will bring it to its knees. The fanless design means zero noise, which is nice, but it also means the chip has no thermal headroom to stretch its legs.

Stacked against the competition, the ThinkCentre M625 has a rough time. The Minisforum DeskMini UM880 Plus runs circles around it with a modern Ryzen processor and far better GPU performance, all in a similarly compact footprint. The ASUS NUC 14 Pro is another strong alternative with better port selection, including USB-C and Thunderbolt support, plus a much faster CPU. Even the HP OmniDesk M03-0054 and Dell Tower Desktop ECT1250, while larger, offer significantly more processing power for similar or lower prices in most regions.

The one area where the M625 holds its own is the fanless design. None of those competitors are completely silent out of the box. If you need a zero-noise machine for a library, medical office, or recording studio, the M625 has a niche. But you're giving up a massive amount of performance to get it. The MSI Cubi NUC AI 1UMG-015US is another compact option that trades silence for actual speed, and it's worth a look if you can tolerate a fan.

Value is tricky here because the price depends entirely on where you live. At $290 in the US, the ThinkCentre M625 is cheap enough that you could almost forgive its flaws as a basic thin client. But European buyers are looking at EUR 638 to EUR 729 depending on the vendor, and that spread is hard to justify. The best deal in Europe appears to be at the lower end of that range, around EUR 638, but even that feels steep for a 2017-era dual-core chip. At GBP 412 in the UK, it's similarly hard to recommend. For comparison, competitors like the Minisforum DeskMini UM880 Plus or ASUS NUC 14 Pro offer dramatically better performance for not much more money in most markets. If you're buying this, you're paying for the ThinkCentre name and the fanless chassis, not the internals.

The Lenovo ThinkCentre M625 is a 1-liter mini PC aimed at business and thin client use cases. It runs Windows 11 Pro on an AMD A4-9120C processor with 16GB of DDR4 RAM and a 256GB SSD. Pricing is all over the map depending on where you shop, from $290 in the US to EUR 638-729 across European listings and GBP 412 in the UK.

So is the ThinkCentre M625 good for office work? On paper, the 16GB of RAM and fanless design sound promising for quiet, space-constrained setups. But the CPU is a dual-core AMD A4-9120C from 2017, and our database puts it dead last among mini PCs we've tracked. That's not a typo. It's the worst CPU score we have on record for this category.

People searching for a compact business desktop or thin client will find the M625's size genuinely impressive. It's 96% smaller than a traditional tower and can mount behind a monitor or under a desk. But size isn't everything, and the internals here tell a very different story than the marketing copy suggests.

Skip the ThinkCentre M625 if you need to run anything beyond a single lightweight application. It's not for multitaskers, spreadsheet warriors, or anyone who keeps more than a few browser tabs open. Gamers should look elsewhere immediately, and so should anyone who needs USB-C, HDMI, or fast storage. If you're in Europe and facing EUR 638 or more, the value proposition collapses entirely. Instead, check out the Minisforum DeskMini UM880 Plus or ASUS NUC 14 Pro for dramatically better performance in a similar footprint. The only people who should consider this are those who absolutely need a fanless, silent machine for a single task and can find it at the US price point.

Should you buy the Lenovo ThinkCentre M625? For most people, no. The CPU is genuinely bad, the storage is small, and the customer rating of 2.5 out of 5 stars tells you everything you need to know about real-world satisfaction. The 16GB of RAM and fanless design are nice touches, but they can't make up for a processor that struggles with basic multitasking.

There's a narrow use case here: a silent thin client for a single, lightweight task in a dusty or temperature-extreme environment. If that's you, and you can find it at the US price of $290, it might make sense. But for anyone else, especially European buyers facing EUR 638 or more, there are far better mini PCs available for the same or less money. The ThinkCentre M625 is a lesson in why specs on paper don't always tell the full story.