Lenovo Announces a $130 Windows PC in a Stick

http://techcrunch.com/2015/06/24/lenovo-announces-a-130-windows-pc-in-a-stick/

by indoindo • 11 years ago

58 78 11 years ago

ZenoArrow5• 11 years ago

Is this just a rebranded Intel Compute Stick? http://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/compute-stick/intel-c...

ddebruler2• 11 years ago

It has the same processor, memory, and peripherals mentioned in the compute stick announcement, so it appears to be the Compute Stick with whatever exterior decorations and software Lenovo wants to add. I think we can expect to see a few more similar announcements as various other OEMs continue to rebrand the same device.

GFischer• 11 years ago

It has the same processor and specs.

Also, that was one of the lowest-content and worst-thought-out TechCrunch writeups I've seen ("If you’ve ever wanted to plug a Windows machine into your TV for a little hot and heavy Excel slinging, you’re in luck"... really? I've done so with Laptops for the last decade).

And they even acknowledge "These single-stick computers are nothing new " (heck, we've got some Intel Compute Sticks at my work). I guess it's not fun having to write up these things.

mariusmg• 11 years ago

Really? You don't appreciate the effort of coming up with the phrase "hot and heavy slinging" in a article about TV dongles ? :)

beefsack• 11 years ago

It appears Intel might be white-labelling it.

thefreeman• 11 years ago

Don't be hasty! Lenovo probably "upgraded" it with performance improvements like failing to validate SSL certificates.

morganvachon2• 11 years ago

Came here to say this. No thanks, Lenovo, I can get the same performance and form factor directly from Intel with no "added value" spyware, and I can even get it with Linux preinstalled if I want.

eloisant• 11 years ago

Basically to make a computer that small and cheap, you need a small and cheap CPU. That's pretty much it.

That's why Chinese no-brand maker have been making those since the Intel Baytrail was released:

http://www.geekbuying.com/category/Windows-Mini-PCs-1655/

It's nice to see a device from a well-known brand that stays close to the anonymous Chinese manufacturers, but at the end of the day the innovation that makes it possible comes from the chip makers.

jbb555• 11 years ago

How fast are the CPUs in these compared to say a modern i3, i5, i7 CPU? I know they will be a lot slower just interested in how much slower?

fotcorn• 11 years ago

Here are some benchmarks againt a Mobile i3 and i5:

http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=article&item=compulab-...

The CPU on this one is the same as on the Intel Compute Stick, a Z3735F.

tjbiddle• 11 years ago

For a $17 processor - That thing really isn't all that bad!

josefresco• 11 years ago

http://cpuboss.com/cpus/Intel-Core-i3-4158U-vs-Intel-Atom-Z3...

fizgig• 11 years ago

If the stick has enough power to play the majority of MAME games, this might be a nice addition to the home entertainment rig. I bought an Ouya a couple of years ago for this purpose, but I just didn't like it. Running a TinyXP installation on this stick with MAME32/MESS32 with a Bluetooth keyboard w/ touchpad from my comfy chair would be pretty sweet.

fit2rule• 11 years ago

I have an Intel Compute Stick and can confirm that it plays MAME very well. But then again the Rikomagic mk802 plays MAME just as well ..

GordonS2• 11 years ago

How is this thing powered?

ddebruler2• 11 years ago

Looks like it has a micro USB power port on the side.

milankragujevic• 11 years ago

Probably with a cable to be plugged in to the microUSB port.

GordonS2• 11 years ago

if this is a rebranded Intel device (looks like it), Intel says:

"5V, 2A wall-mount AC-DC power adapter"

So I need to have cables trailing around. They don't show that in the pretty pictures do they? :/

teekert• 11 years ago

Too bad it makes me have to move my flat tv 10 cm of the wall. An HDMI connector at an angle would have been nice (or I could buy an extension HDMI cable of course.).

ianlevesque• 11 years ago

Yeah for that reason the Apple TV or Fire TV form factor is better.

dublinben• 11 years ago

The HDMI stick form factor works for the majority of TVs which have their ports facing to the side.

jdietrich3• 11 years ago

Devices like this usually come with a very short HDMI extension for exactly this reason.

eli5• 11 years ago

The forthcoming Google Chromebit has a clever design that pivots so you can choose if you want the connector straight at the end or at a 90 degree angle to the rest of the stick.

emsy• 11 years ago

Many flatscreens nowadays have ports that are facing to the sides, so those people would've had a problem with an angled connector. I'd rather have power over HDMI to get rid of that annoying powercord to the stick :)

gbl08ma• 11 years ago

I own a Windows tablet (Voyo A1 Mini) with exactly the same CPU and amount of memory and storage, which I have been using as 7" keyboard-less laptop replacement, so I thought it would be interesting to share my opinion.

The CPU is fast enough for moderate web browsing, using Office, playing videos and music, etc. In other words, the casual tasks of an "average user". Of course, it wasn't made to compile software or run complex simulations, and it has some thermal throttling (my tablet has no fans and this stick doesn't appear to have any, either), so if you use the four cores to the maximum for some time, the speed will start decreasing from 1.56 GHz (I have made the max go as low as 0.96 GHz due to throttling). This is the kind of thing that doesn't show in all benchmarks, so beware. (To be fair, spec sheets also don't say that when cores are not fully used, turboboost kicks in and a single core can be working at 1.8 GHz for quite some time).

The integrated Intel graphics are (as usual) good for media playing, web browsing and dealing with Windows UI animations, but forget any kind of gaming that demands more than a smartphone game.

The biggest problem, for me at least, is the lack of RAM: 2 GB of RAM are filled quite fast with 6-8 Chrome tabs and some background software open. It also doesn't take much to fill the whole 4 GB of commit space, and of course, bringing pages in and out of the pagefile is quite slow (the storage is flash, but not quite a SSD). It is easy to make Windows show a "system running low on memory" message just by opening 20 Chrome tabs, some with heavy sites. If all you want to do is run Microsoft Office, I found it to actually be much lighter on memory use than I previously thought (I never saw OneNote, Excel or Word go beyond 90 MB).

Storage gets quite full very easily, mine is always with ~1 GB free (Windows and Office installed on C:, most other things installed on the SD card), and this is using things like NTFS compression. If this stick is like my tablet, it will have 6 GB of storage "wasted" on a recovery partition. Also, the trick Microsoft recommends OEMs use for fitting Windows on systems with as few as 16 GB of storage, which consists on using WIM images for storing the system files, works only while the install is fresh: as more and more system updates are installed, the altered files seem to be stored out of the image, which means there's effectively more space used with Windows files than with a normal install. I have "reserved" the Windows 10 update and I'm eager to see how it will deal with background-downloading the (possibly gigabytes) of files into a system with only 1 GB free.

I once thought of installing Visual Studio just to see how slow it would run, but gave up once I understood most components must be installed to C: (it appears that installing VS effectively equates to "extending Windows" with developer tools).

I am still quite happy with the purchase (it was about $150) since it allows for doing things Android tablets don't do, like running the full MS Office or using proper desktop versions of browsers and other software. I imagine this stick opens the same kind of possibilities.

rilut• 11 years ago

Thanks. Can it play a 720p H.265 video?

mirimir4• 11 years ago

I wonder if any hosting providers are offering such micro PCs, or planning to. They would be a great alternative to VPS, arguably with better security. I've seen some Raspberry Pi hosting, but its USB NIC is too slow.

I'll update this if I find anything.

thisishugo• 11 years ago

You could take a look at Scaleway[0]. They provide ARM-based dedicated servers (with caveats).

[0] http://www.scaleway.com

mirimir4• 11 years ago

So these C1 ARM servers are built in house, I gather. Their features page says "true dedicated hardware", but I wonder how well those 18 servers on each board are isolated. IPMI could be a disaster.

But thanks.

ZenoArrow5• 11 years ago

The Odroid C1 would be a better match for this than a Raspberry Pi 2. They both cost $35, but the Odroid C1 has Gigabit Ethernet plus a faster CPU (based on these tests at least... http://www.androidauthority.com/raspberry-pi-2-vs-odroid-c1-... ).

mirimir4• 11 years ago

Thanks!

Now only if someone were providing hosting for them ...

Maybe Raspberry Hosting[0] would be interested ;)

[0] https://raspberry-hosting.com/en

revelation• 11 years ago

OVH offers dedicated servers using Intel Atom N2180 processors, which have a proper NIC (but no SSD).

lorenzhs3• 11 years ago

They do! See http://www.kimsufi.com/ (which belongs to OVH). The SSD box is terrible value though. I have a KS-1 for ~6€/month (incl VAT) and while it isn't a particularly fast machine, it fulfils all my server needs. It's also incredibly cheap for a dedicated server.

Someone1234• 11 years ago

If the price point gets too low, the IPv4 address might become the bottleneck. Bandwidth is cheap, power is cheap for a device like this, and the space could be very low. So you might get close enough to the sun to hit the IPv4 cost limit.

Keep in mind you can buy a much more powerful machine than this from Amazon or Microsoft for around $10 all in (yes, running Windows). So they'd have to be looking around $5 and IPv4 addresses can cost $1.5-2/each.

jdietrich3• 11 years ago

If you're wondering about the target market for these devices, the main answer is digital signage. Those LCD signs in train stations and shopping malls constitute a huge market for small, low-powered and fanless computers. There are at least a dozen SaaS startups in this space, targeting a wide variety of hardware and OSes.

ZenoArrow5• 11 years ago

I doubt that this particular Lenovo mini PC is targetting that niche. You wouldn't need 32GB of storage for something as basic as digital signage, and there are Android-based alternatives for 3x cheaper... http://www.laptopmag.com/reviews/mini-pcs/mk808-android-mini...

eli5• 11 years ago

I wish the MK808 was a plug and play digital sign, but it's actually kind of a pain to set up and use. I've got one sitting in a drawer.

If someone came out with a stick computer that simply connects to wifi and displays a webpage in a relatively modern browser at 1080 (or at least 720) and makes it easy, I would buy several of them at a nice premium over whatever the hardware normally costs.

I actually think an Android hacker or RaspberryPI hobbyist could make some money selling something like that.

jdietrich3• 11 years ago

A significant proportion of digital signage and kiosk systems run Windows, for a variety of reasons. Things like departure boards and PoS are often based on proprietary client software that is integrated into unrefactorable legacy backends. Fitting a Win7/8 install into less than 32gb is possible, but it just isn't worth the effort when hardware is so cheap.

unklefolk• 11 years ago

I don't understand why they have added a tiny speaker to this gadget. It wouldn't imagine it is very loud and in most cases would be stuck around the back of your TV. Could someone enlighten me to when a speaker would be useful?

basch• 11 years ago

beep beep error error

TazeTSchnitzel• 11 years ago

Diagnosing faults

kev61683• 11 years ago

Just the other day I was thinking it would be nice if a cell phone can fire up multiple normal OSs (i.e., desktop Linux/Windows/OSX), so at hotel/library/friend's home/etc., one can pull it out of pocket, connect to a display and hack away.

I wonder when we can have that level of power and convenience in our regular phones.

reddotX• 11 years ago

this year, bq + ubuntu will launch a phone that does just that http://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2015/06/first-ubuntu-phone-with-c...

pjc50• 11 years ago

That's not so much a computing power limitation but a limitation imposed by the manufacturers on what you can run. The Nokia N900 had Linux running on it in 2010.

If you're one of the lucky few with an Ubuntu phone, you can do this as well.

rbanffy• 11 years ago

The Nokia N900 had Linux running on it in 2010

True, but it depends on what you want to do with it. I can run Linux on an Intel Edison board (did some Python and C++ programming on one last weekend), but I wouldn't dare to try to write code on anything heavier than vim.

kev61683• 11 years ago

I am not familiar with the specs of these phones. Does the Ubuntu phone (or its near future upgrades) has the capacity to _comfortably_ run, say, IntelliJ IDEA and make writing/compiling code a tolerable experience? That would be very nice.

eli5• 11 years ago

Wouldn't you need a keyboard too? Might as well just bring an Air at that point

artmageddon4• 11 years ago

Different strokes/folks. You would need a keyboard, but if it had/has bluetooth support, you could just get one of those fold-able keyboards. It'd take less space and be extremely cheap in comparison to the Air, which might be a huge factor for some people.

kev61683• 11 years ago

When everyone's cell phone has that amount of power and can function as a PC, it's likely many places (hotels, airport, cafe, offices) will try to accommodate them by providing lots of display/keyboard sets.

hbharadwaj• 11 years ago

Continuum as well by Microsoft

Reference: http://www.theverge.com/2015/5/6/8560195/microsoft-continuum...

thrillgore• 11 years ago

It looks like a product not particularly solving any solution. The Chromecast solves a problem. This does not.

mindslight• 11 years ago

Yeah, Google's problem of how to spread their proprietary locked down experience to televisions.

WorldWideWayne6• 11 years ago

Every single TV in my house as a Windows device plugged into it. We've tried Roku, Chromecast and others - but you can't beat Windows if flexibility is what you want.

Having just a Chromecast sucks because you need a whole other smart device to actually do things. The Roku is a little better, but honestly it's too slow to navigate.

With Windows, I can do whatever the heck I want. We can play classic game emulators with Xbox controllers, watch ripped exercise DVDs with VLC media player (my wife does this), we run Netflix for Windows or Kodi to watch movies/TV and then of course we can do anything that a Chromecast does by simply opening Chrome (with adblock). It's awesome.

artmageddon4• 11 years ago

When you say device, can you give an example of what you're referring to? My wife got a me a Chromecast for Christmas, a great friend of mine got me a FireTV stick for my birthday loaded with emulators on it, but I'd really like to be able to carry a full-fledged PC around if that were possible.

WorldWideWayne6• 11 years ago

Sorry, nothing really portable - we have a couple of Zotac ZBOX "nano PCs" (http://www.amazon.com/Zotac-ZBOX-CI320NANO-U-W2-nano-Plus-Wi...) and the others are an old laptop (Dell XPS L502X) and an old Shuttle SH67H3 barebones PC. Each site except the laptop also has a Logitech K400/r wireless keyboard/touchpad which is great except when it occasionally loses signal.

twiceaday4• 11 years ago

If you are in the Apple ecosystem you really can't beat Apple TV. Bring up the content on your phone then Airplay to the TV and use the phone as an awesome media remote. Random internet videos? Bring up on the phone = on the TV. Netflix, YouTube, Twitch? Awesome phone apps = on the TV. Your own video files? I use Air Video Server HD on PC with companion iPhone app; every video file I own = on the TV. Its just perfect.

WorldWideWayne6• 11 years ago

Sure, it's perfect if you're content to live in the confines of Apple's prison yard. I just can't stand Apple the company or their dumbed-down products though. They are the the king of "streamlined but extremely limited", so there's no way that a person like me who values ultimate flexibility is going to belong to the Apple ecosystem.

Can you look at funny memepics on the web while Pandora is playing in the background on Apple TV? Shop for a new game on Steam while playing a YouTube video? Connect an Xbox 360 controller to play games? We do all of these things. I haven't used an Apple TV, but somehow I doubt that it excels at multi-tasking or interoperating with the non-Apple universe.

bitL• 11 years ago

Can you install Linux on it, i.e. is the boot loader unlocked? If so, it can be a great air-gapped stick for generating and storing keys and certificates on the go.

johnchristopher• 11 years ago

How would the Baytrail Z3735F CPU that it is equipped with compare with a 6 year-old ATOM n280 ?

neotokyo• 11 years ago

Can these Baytrail processors handle HEVC / h.265 at HD well?

Lenovo Announces a $130 Windows PC in a Stick

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