Microsoft Unveils Windows 8.1 PC the Size of a Dongle; Has HDMI, USB, MicroSD

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Ducman69

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Microsoft Unveils Windows 8.1 PC the Size of a Dongle, Has HDMI, USB, and microSD Ports:
http://news.softpedia.com/news/Micr...e-Has-HDMI-USB-and-microSD-Ports-476086.shtml

Similar to Intel's Compute Stick, but not the same hardware:

-Daewoo Lucoms
-South Korea
-Release by end of May
-Intel Atom(Bay Trail)
-1GB/2GB memory
-16GB/32GB hard drive
-USB 2.0, MicroHDMI, MicroSD, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 4.0
-~$150

Source: Press release from Microsoft Korea in March 17

Seems so much better than the Chromecast dongles and the like IMO.
 
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Higher cost makes it incomparable to a $30 Chromecast and it's not even Cherry Trail. For ~$150 I'd rather get a portable Windows tablet with touch screen display that's more practical. Once they get the price down to ~$70 then it'll be more interesting. I'll even pay a little more for 4GB DRAM with Cherry Trail.

Link broken btw.
 
mi7chy said:
Higher cost makes it incomparable to a $30 Chromecast and it's not even Cherry Trail. For ~$150 I'd rather get a portable Windows tablet with touch screen display that's more practical.
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Practical for what though? ;)

Sorry about the link, I had sent it to Steve to see if it would make frontpage news and copy+pasta'ed from my PM.

What can you DO with a chromecast though? Very very little.

What can you do with the latest Intel Atom quad-core chip with 2GB of RAM, 32GB internal storage, and a 64GB MicroSD card for additional storage, with a USB and HDMI port running a full on Windows operating system (with free upgrade to Windows 10 when available)? A hell of a lot!

The most obvious use would be as a HTPC. Most TVs have always powered USB ports, so you'd just use the short HDMI cable and voila. It has H264 hardware decoding. The USB port on it means you can use a standard Logitech universal receiver for a mouse and keyboard or whatever control device for it. Heck, even my wireless keyboard and gyrometer mouse/remote control would work great, since it just needs a regular single USB2 input for both.

I can also see this being great for any light-duty use, such as say a kitchen computer or computer for your parents where it can be really sleek cable management with the computer built into the monitor and wireless keyboard/mouse. Now granted, there are "all in one" options available like Apple does, but this way you can use ANY screen giving you a lot more options. :)
 
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It's pretty much an expensive tablet minus touch display and battery. You can get the equivalent in tablet form factor for $120. For $150 I'd expect more and the sweet spot is Cherry Trail and 4GB DRAM.
 
mi7chy said:
It's pretty much an expensive tablet minus touch display and battery. You can get the equivalent in tablet form factor for $120. For $150 I'd expect more and the sweet spot is Cherry Trail and 4GB DRAM.
Click to expand...

I agree that there isn't really any functional difference between this and a Windows Bay Trail tablet with HDMI out and the pricing is very similar. But the stick form factor would be better for something that's permanently attached to a TV.

For this type of device 2 GB should be plenty but Cherry Trail should be a nice upgrade.
 
mi7chy said:
It's pretty much an expensive tablet minus touch display and battery. You can get the equivalent in tablet form factor for $120. For $150 I'd expect more and the sweet spot is Cherry Trail and 4GB DRAM.
Click to expand...
Ah good point, that would still be small enough to hide out of site attached to the back of a TV, didn't realize they were that cheap and essentially has all the same functionality.

That said, if its $150 MSRP, we'll have to see what such a device in "stick" format without the unnecessary camera, LCD, and battery would cost at Microcenter when it becomes available. In theory it should be cheaper and more purpose built for the task.

Actually, I just checked Amazon and they have such a device, but I'm concerned about my thoughts on HTPC usage as one reviewer is saying its just not powerful enough:
http://www.amazon.com/MeegoPad-T01-...d=1426960222&sr=1-12&keywords=windows+8+stick

That one is $126 on Amazon.

So perhaps better to wait for Cherry Trail as heatless says, still a neat form factor to watch out for though for those out of the loop.
 
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Here's a pretty good alternative Bay Trail Atom Z3735F mini PC with 64GB storage and built-in battery for $114 but the only issue is every thing I've read sounds iffy if it's capable of playing 1080p content without issue. If limitation is true then it's worse than $30 Chromecast which plays pretty much any 1080p content fine. Hoping Cherry Trail is closer to Core M 5Y10 which is also fine plus some.
 
I have a Z3735F Atom based Toshiba Encore 2 Write tablet that I've tested as an HTPC solution and it's pretty terrific for streaming content up to 1080P that I've tried. Kodi will play back Windows Media Center recorded shows perfectly over WiFi though I've never actually have tried running Media Center directly on an a Bay Trail device. Record probably would be a problem especially trying to use a CableCard setup.

But as far a streaming 1080P it's almost perfect. The only exception is Amazon video streaming using Silverlight. When playing HD video in IE with the SL extension, there's a little stuttering, here and there but nothing that's so bad as to be very distracting in my testing. Chrome or Firefox might be better, I've not tested SL streaming there.

Overall it's pretty cool. Music, video, web browsing with any browser, office apps, even casual gaming is possible.
 
^ it's the same way on a Venu pro. Netflix streams just fine on the same device. Bay Trail will supposedly do 4K but I doubt you'd want to
 
Can you play 1080p YouTube and Twitch.tv fullscreen set to source quality in Chrome without issue and without jumping through hoops like playing through VLC? Reading through comments and on YouTube people mentioned being limited to 720p YouTube even with IE11.
 
Keep in mind with a ChromeCast you are tied to another device to mirror to your TV unlike this system.

Also, while I can't see a reason for 1080p content to not play well (could be a memory issues, not a CPU issue) you always have systems like Plex that can help out.
 
I think these are great ideas, I'm really interested to see how these, or the Compute Stick, work out.
 
Trimlock said:
Keep in mind with a ChromeCast you are tied to another device to mirror to your TV unlike this system.

Also, while I can't see a reason for 1080p content to not play well (could be a memory issues, not a CPU issue) you always have systems like Plex that can help out.
Click to expand...

Actually, Chromecast can stream content directly from itself or mirrored from another device. It's even more versatile than the PC stick because I can use my existing Windows tablet for surfing, productivity, etc. while mirroring a movie to Chromecast at the same time. Chromecast now even support being controlled from a CEC capable TV remote to play and pause instead of using phone. And, unlike the PC stick I can make use of the tablet when on the road.

Plex isn't appealing since there's a high capex and opex for server, storage and electricity. Prefer streaming with option of playing from local device/LAN using Videostream Chrome extension and Chromecast only consumes 2 watt at most.
 
mi7chy said:
Actually, Chromecast can stream content directly from itself or mirrored from another device. It's even more versatile than the PC stick because I can use my existing Windows tablet for surfing, productivity, etc. while mirroring a movie to Chromecast at the same time. Chromecast now even support being controlled from a CEC capable TV remote to play and pause instead of using phone. And, unlike the PC stick I can make use of the tablet when on the road.

Plex isn't appealing since there's a high capex and opex for server, storage and electricity. Prefer streaming with option of playing from local device/LAN using Videostream Chrome extension and Chromecast only consumes 2 watt at most.
Click to expand...

Except the chromecast can't initiate a stream on it's own like the compute stick can.
You still have to have some kind of device nearby, be it a computer w/ chrome, an android device or whatever.
 
That thing is going to overheat...there is a reason the true intel solution is bigger and has a fan.
 
Kaos_Drem said:
That thing is going to overheat...there is a reason the true intel solution is bigger and has a fan.
Click to expand...

Says who? I've got a tablet that's 100% fanless and doesn't overheat with a Core M. (Venue 11 Pro)
Dell also has some 8 inch Venue tablets with atom chips in them. They don't overheat. If Dell can do it then Intel can to.
 
I have one of the iView CyberPC version of this I purchased from Newegg recently. I've wiped the drive on it and upgraded it to Win 10 Technical Preview. It runs better in Win 10 than in Win 8.1 IMHO. Finding the drivers is a small pain though as Win 10 don't detect most of the hardware drivers needed by default. You need to find the Realtek RTL8723BS driver for wifi and bluetooth and the Intel Atom Z3700 series driver. I'm installing everything I add to the stick onto a spare 64GB class-10 micro SD card I put into it and using that as a data drive. 32GB on the system drive really doesn't afford you to install anything on it.

I'm typing this message using it.
 
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Kaos_Drem said:
That thing is going to overheat...there is a reason the true intel solution is bigger and has a fan.
Click to expand...

It's 5V 2A and I'm powering mine with an iPad charger plug at the moment. Not exactly a powerhouse to overheat. It runs off of USB power source.

I'm wanting to see how manufacturers adapt cherry trail to this form factor, hopefully using the Atom x5 Z8500 and not the Z8300. The Z8300 has little advantage over the Z3735F other than the improved GPU. The Z8500 can have up to 8GB of system memory unlike the Z8300 and Z3735F capped at 2GB.
 
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BHawthorne said:
32GB on the system drive really doesn't afford you to install anything on it.

I'm typing this message using it.
Click to expand...

Set it up as WIMBoot and you should have 25GB+ of usable space. Windows 10 WIMBoot is only ~5GB.
 
Microsoft should stop handicapping the HDMI-on-stick platform and make Windows 8 free on these devices.
 
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