Intel Compute Stick Review: The Little Pc That Nearly Could

Aus Vokipedia
Wechseln zu: Navigation, Suche


It plugs into a show's HDMI port, and -- when connected to Wi-Fi and peripherals -- affords the complete Windows eight expertise. But having the full Windows expertise doesn't necessarily imply you will have the perfect experience. The Stick houses a lightweight Atom processor that is usually found in Intel-based mostly tablets, so don't count on to do any heavy picture modifying or excessive-finish gaming. The Compute Stick needs to be plugged in to energy always -- there's no battery -- through its Micro-USB port, Flixy streaming and Bluetooth performance is finicky at greatest. But that is however a exciting little experiment from Intel, because the Stick offers an amazing HD streaming expertise you can slot in your pocket. You don't want it as a main Pc in your house, but don't too quick to dismiss it. Hobbyists and tinkerers particularly might find the Compute Stick effectively worth the value; these with much less patience ought to go for one thing like the HP Stream eleven laptop computer, which presents a more polished, self-contained bargain Windows experience for just a bit extra money.



There is not all that a lot to the Compute Stick. It's slightly bigger than a Chromecast, and Flixy TV Stick plugs right into a Tv or monitor through an HDMI port. The Stick can't draw power over HDMI and there isn't any battery, so you're going to wish to keep it plugged in, too: there is a Micro-USB charging port on the facet. The Stick is powered by a quad-core 1.3GHz Intel Atom Z3735F processor paired with 2GB of RAM, and has 32GB of storage space. A microSD card slot on the aspect can help up to 128GB playing cards. There is a USB port on the side so you'll be able to plug in external devices or a USB key, and Wi-Fi b/g/n connectivity is constructed-in. Bluetooth 4.0 is also out there, however it's woefully unreliable -- we'll get to that in a bit. The Stick runs Windows 8.1 with Bing. Don't be alarmed: it's a full model of Windows that Microsoft gives to machine manufacturers at a deep discount.



Bing is the default search engine system-vast once you first run it, but there's nothing stopping you from changing that when you are up and working. As it is a full Windows Pc, there's nothing (save efficiency limitations) stopping you from installing whatever you would like, together with Windows 10 . There's also a mannequin that runs Ubuntu Linux, which is slightly cheaper at about $110. The competitors isn't too stiff within the Pc-on-a-stick house, but the Asus Chromebit recently caught our eye. It's a bit cheaper at $100 (about £70 or AU$130), but additionally runs Chrome OS as a substitute of Windows, with all the requisite drawbacks you will discover from the browser-centric operating system. It does provide a hinged design that'll make it a bit simpler to suit into tighter spaces, which I like: I discovered I wanted to use an HDMI extender cable on many of the displays and televisions I plugged the Compute Stick. The Compute Stick also is not fanless, but the low hum was pretty much inaudible unless I got very close.



Intel is pitching the Compute Stick as a cheap technique to cram a Pc into a tight area, however there's solely so much you possibly can count on out of pill hardware. The Pc never felt sluggish whereas I used it, and issues never took an interminable amount of time to load. Flixy streaming 1080p over sites like YouTube and Netflix works flawlessly, as did taking part in local HD media. I'd think about the Compute Stick could be happiest because the streaming end of your media server, getting the content on different devices on your property community to play on any Tv or monitor in your home utilizing something like Plex. But I went into this with managed expectations: you can typically rule out gaming or advanced duties like picture enhancing on this Atom processor. For our efficiency tests, we pitted the Compute Stick towards the $200 Intel Celeron-powered HP Stream eleven and the $500 Microsoft Surface 3 , Flixy TV Stick which is working on an Intel Atom processor.

Meine Werkzeuge
Namensräume

Varianten
Aktionen
Navigation
Werkzeuge