CHUWI GBOX Pro Review – Intel Atom x7-E3950 mini PC Tested with Windows 10 & Ubuntu 18.04

CHUWI Gbox Pro Review

CHUWI has released a new mini PC called the GBox Pro. This is a passively cooled mini PC that uses the slightly older Apollo Lake Intel Atom x7-E3950 CPU which is a quad core 4-thread 1.60 GHz processor boosting to 2.00 GHz with Intel’s HD Graphics 505. The GBox Pro is somewhat physically larger than typical recent mini PCs and consists of a 189 x 139 x 39 mm (7.44 x 5.47 x 1.54 inches) rectangular case with a front panel that includes the power button, micro SD slot, a couple of USB 3.0 ports and a Type-C USB port and then on the rear, a headphone jack, two USB 2.0 ports, a Gigabit ethernet port, an HDMI (2.0) port and a VGA interface. The full specifications include: The GBox Pro comes with 64GB of eMMC with pre-installed Windows 10 Home (version 1809 OS build 17763.316) together with 4GB of […]

MINIX Unveils NEO G41V-4 Fanless Windows 10 Pro Mini PC

MINIX NEO G41V-4

MINIX has launched several Intel-based mini PCs in recent years, but while their lower-end models such as MINIX NEO Z83-4U were fanless, their Apollo Lake (NEO N42C-4) and Gemini Lake (NEO J50C-4) mini PCs all came with a fan, albeit a pretty quiet one. But the company demonstrated a new fanless Gemini Lake mini PC at IFA 2018 with a new approach to thermal cooling compared to their previous fanless design. MINIX NEO G41V-4 mini PC is powered by an Intel Celeron N4100 quad-core processor coupled with 4GB DDR4 RAM, 64GB eMMC flash, and an easy to access M.2 SSD expansion slot. MINIX NEO G41V-4 specifications: SoC – Intel Celeron N4100 quad-core Gemini Lake processor @ with Intel UHD Graphics 600 System Memory – 4GB DDR4 RAM @ 2400 MHz (soldered) Storage – 64GB eMMC 5.1 flash (soldered), M.2 2280 SATA 3.0 slot, MicroSD card slot Video Output HDMI 2.0a […]

Habanero Qualcomm IPQ4019/IPQ4029 SoM Brings 802.11ac Wave2 WiFi to Linux Gateways and Routers

IPQ4019 Development Kit

Last April, we first wrote about Qualcomm IPQ4019 quad-core Cortex-A7 processor with built-in 802.11ac Wave 2 WiFi, as it was found in Qualcomm Mesh Networking DevKit with support for Amazon Alexa. A few months later, we discovered router boards powered by either IPQ4019 or IPQ4029 processor such as Dakota DR40X9 or MikroTik RB450Gx4. The latter does not come with WiFi at all and instead leverages the hardware IPSec encryption built-into the processor. Habanero System-on-Module Today, we’ve come across the first IPQ4019 / IPQ4029 system-on-module we’ve countered so far, courtesy of 8devices with their Habanero and Habanero-I 802.11ac Wave 2 modules based on the respective processors. Habanero(-I) specifications: SoC – Qualcomm IPQ4019/IPQ4029 quad-core Arm Cortex-A7 processor @ 717 MHz with NEON, FPU, hardware-based NAT engine, and crypto accelerator System Memory – 512 MB DDR3L RAM Storage – 32MB NOR flash; up to 1 GB NAND flash on baseboard Connectivity QCA8075C 5-port […]

Fairphone 3 Gets a Perfect 10 in iFixit Repairability Score

Fairphone 3 Teardown

Launched just a few weeks ago, Fairphone 3 is a socially responsible phone that aims to be modular, easy to repair, and manufactured in a way that’s kind to mother nature and worker as much as possible. In terms of ease of repair, there’s very little competition, as most phones manufacturers don’t design their phone with that goal in mind, and iFixit, a wiki-based site that teaches people how to fix almost anything, often ranks phones from mediocre (iPhone X: 6/10) to really poor (Samsung Galaxy 10 Note+ 5G: 3/10) in their repairability score. Fairphone 3 is supposed to be very easy to repair, but it’s always good to have a third party verify such claims, and iFixit got hold a sample to tear it down. They only have to use four tools to completely disassemble the phone as shown in the photo above: T5 Torx and Philips screwdrivers, their […]

Congatec conga-SMX8-Mini is a SMARC 2.0 Module based on NXP i.MX 8M Mini Processor

SMARC 2.0 i.MX 8M Mini SoM

NXP i.MX 8M Mini is the first i.MX processor from the company to be manufactured using a 14nm process, which enabled a higher 2.0 GHz frequency for the Cortex-A53 cores.  While it was announced in 2018, the first systems-on-module were launched earlier this with products such as iWave System’ iW-RainboW-G34M-SM, TechNexion Axon Flex modules, F&S Elektronik Systems PicoCore-MX8MM, or CompuLab UCM-iMX8M-Mini among many others. So far, we had no covered any SMARC 2.0 compatible system-on-module based on the new NXP processor, but some companies had already launched such modules including Embedian and Avnet. Congatec has now joined them with the launch of conga-SMX8-Mini SMARC 2.0 system-on-module which builds on the company’s earlier conga-SMX8 i.MX 8 module. conga-SMX8-Mini SoM specifications: SoC (one or the other) NXP i.MX 8M Mini Quad with 4x Arm Cortex-A53 @ 1.8 GHz, 1x Arm Cortex-M4 @ 400MHz, GC NanoUltra 3D GPU, GC328 2D Graphics NXP i.MX […]

Rock Pi X Intel Cherry Trail Board to Sell for as low as $39

Rock Pi X 1.0

Most low cost (sub $100) single board computers are based on Arm processors because Intel processors are normally more expensive, but there are some exceptions with AAEON Up Board and Atomic Pi both powered by an Intel Atom x5-Z8350 processor and selling for $99 and $35 respectively. The former follows Raspberry Pi form factor and is easy to use, but the latter requires some more work to wire power supply unless you buy an extra baseboard. There should however soon be a third option for low-cost Intel SBCs with Radxa Rock Pi X board powered by an Intel Atom x5-Z8300 Cherry Trail processor and is expected to sell for as little as $39. Rock Pi X just showed up in Hackerboards database, and there will be two models, namely Rock Pi X model A and Rock Pi X model B with the following specifications: SoC – Intel Atom x5-Z8300 “Cherry […]

SKA100 Power Bank Supports 220/110V AC, 12V, and USB PD 3.0 / QC Outputs

SKA100 portable 100W power bank

Power banks are normally comprised of a battery that you can charge from the mains, and then delivers power over USB when you connect it to your smartphone, tablet or camera while on the go. Some devices like laptops, TVs, or fans are usually powered directly by the mains, or a power brick connected to the mains, and if you’d like to charge your devices on the go, you could do so with a portable AC power station. Those are often fairly bulky, but recently I’ve seen Arun showcase an AC 100 watt portable power station at IFA 2019 that looks fairly compact. It’s not available yet through, and there are few technical details. There are however several such power banks on Aliexpress including Sungzu SKA100 power bank that offers DC outputs and one 220V/110V AC output delivering up to 100 watts. SKA100 power bank specifications: Input Voltage Range – […]

Signet High-Capacity Thumbdrive Supports 2FA, Password & Secure Data Storage (Crowdfunding)

Signet HC Crowdfunding Started The latest version of the Signet thumbdrive is the Signet HC. The HC has a number of enhanced features and a lower price point, making it an attractive alternative to other high-security flash drives.  The drive is high capacity storage, with secure storage technology, 2 Factor Authentication (2FA) token and encryption.  It also has a password manager and enhanced database features.  The company has started its crowdfunding campaign and there are several device quantity options and peripherals.  Features of the Signet HC The Nth Dimension has announced the Signet HC recently, bringing to the forefront of its latest device, the all-in-one aspects of the drive’s capabilities. The  Signet HC is certainly positioned to be one of the top featured, encrypted password protected, and 2FA storage devices of its size. The data on the drive is encrypted, and password protected and can be accessed through cross-platform […]

UP 7000 x86 SBC