Windows 10 Category - Page 92 of 107 - CNX Software

July 11, 2016July 11, 2016 by Karl Johnson - 11 Comments

Morefine M1+ Review – A Dual Boot Windows and Android TV Stick

Karl here and I will be reviewing the Morefine M1+. It is an Intel based stick PC with an Intel Atom x5-Z8300 processor with 2GB RAM and 64 GB of storage. It dual boots Windows 10 Home 32 bit and Android 5.1. In this review, I won’t be doing many benchmarks because they have been done a lot in the past. Be careful when researching this product because there are 2 devices with same name with different specs. The other one has an Intel Atom z3735 and only 32GB storage and Android 4.4. The box came expertly wrapped and I have never seen a package delivered and protected so well. In the box was the stick, short HDMI extension, power cable, and instruction manual. No micro USB OTG cable is included. I didn’t find this an issue because I had several already. Specs OS Version: OS Windows 10 (Trial Version) […]

July 5, 2016 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 8 Comments

Allwinner and Qualcomm Partner on Android and Windows 10 LTE Tablets

Allwinner, a leading tablet SoC vendor, and Qualcomm have decided to collaborate, and introduced three new LTE tablet reference designs based on Qualcomm Snapdragon 425, 430, and 435 available to Chinese OEMs, on top of Snapdragon 210, 212 and 410 designs released last year. The full technical technical details about the reference designs are only available to OEMS who signed an NDA, but the key specifications are as follows: SoC – Qualcomm Snapdragon 420, 430, 435 application processors System Memory – 2G DRAM Storage – 32GB internal memory Connectivity – CAT 6 LTE band The tablet will run Android, but Windows 10 is also being worked on. The agreement only covers tablets, so Allwinner will not be involved in LTE smartphones. Since both Allwinner and Qualcomm are silicon vendors, and competitors, you may wonder why they’ve partnered. Allwinner only provides WiFi and Bluetooth tablets with their own processors, so partnering with Qualcomm allows then to […]

July 4, 2016July 4, 2016 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 39 Comments

Have US Customs Declared War on TV Boxes (and mini PCs)?

Customs are useful to make sure illegal or dangerous goods don’t reach customers, and they also “protect jobs” or “special interests” by applying tariffs to imports. If you’ve ever purchased goods out of your country or economic zone, the experience can range from flawless (no duties), to annoying (paying some taxes), up to really frustrating and depressing, if customs decide to have a closer look to your imported item. Most the time I don’t have any problems, especially since I try to be careful to stay below the limit (~$30 here) sometimes splitting my orders, a few times I have to pay custom duties and VAT, and once I got a call from UPS telling me my $100 mini PC was kept by customs (not sure why), and that the total cost to it get was unknown, but it will be at least $150 for handling and taxes, and sending […]

July 4, 2016July 4, 2016 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 12 Comments

Compulab Fitlet-RM is a Rugged Wide Temperature Fanless mini PC based on AMD A10 Micro-6700T Processor

Among the many Intel Cherry Trail and Braswell mini PCs, it’s nice to see an alternative with AMD processor, and after their Fitlet-H and Fitlet-iA10 mini PCs powered by AMD A10 Micro-6700T quad core processor, Compulab is back with two rugged models based on the processor, and supporting a wide temperature range, with namely Fitlet-RM-iA10 and Fitlet-RM-XA10 LAN mini PCs. Fitlet-RM specifications: SoC – AMD A10 Micro-6700T 64 bit quad-core processor up to 2.2 GHz with AMD Radeon R6 Graphics (4.5 W TDP) System Memory – Up to 8 GB DDR3-1333 (1x SODIMM) Storage – mSATA up to 1 TB (SATA 3.0 6 Gbps); micro SD/SDXC slot up to 25 MB/s Display – 2x HDMI 1.4a ports Audio – S/PDIF 7.1+2 channels in/out + stereo line-out/line-in/mic + HDMI audio Connectivity Fitlet-RM-XA10 LAN – 4x Gigabit Ethernet ports (Intel I211), 802.11 b/g/n WiFi Fitlet-RM-iA10 – 2x Gigabit Ethernet ports, 802.11 b/g/n/ac […]

July 2, 2016 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 40 Comments

Review of Vorke V1 mini PC Powered by Intel Celeron J3160 Processor

After checking out Vorke V1 mini PC hardware in the first part of the review, it’s now time to publish the review starting with system information, benchmarks, and user testing. The device competes with similarly priced devices based on Intel Atom x7 processor such as Voyo V3 and Beelink BT7, so I’ll also include some comparisons to those in the review. Setup and System Information I connected USB keyboard and mouse, an Ethernet cable, HDMI and VGA cables to check dual display support, as well as the power supply. I did not connect my USB 3.0 hard drive since, I’ve already fitted the mini PC with an internal 1TB hard drive. Pressing on the large power button on the top of the device will boot it, and after a few seconds, you’ll get to go through Windows 10 setup by first accepting the EULA. The next steps are Custom or […]

July 1, 2016July 2, 2016 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 5 Comments

Stress Testing Windows mini PCs with OCCT Overclock Checking Tool

I’m mostly a Linux user, but the marketplace has chosen Windows 10 as its preferred operating systems for mini PCs, so I’ve been reviewing fanless (or not) mini PCs running Windows 10 for around two years since Intel decided to provide low cost and low power processors. I normally run some benchmarks such as PCMark 8 or 3DMark, as well as typical user tasks, while monitoring CPU temperature and throttling using HWInfo64 utility, but those benchmarks are not really pushing the device to its limits. However, I’ve just learned out about OCCT “Overclock Checking Tool” that’s just doing that, and installed OCCT 4.4.2 on Vorke V1 to check it out. The tool has four taps: CPU: OCCT, CPU: Linpack, GPU: 3D, and Power Supply to stress test different part of the system. I just let it run for over 3 hours after pressing the ON buttons, and you can see […]

July 1, 2016July 1, 2016 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 9 Comments

PGS Portable Game Console Runs Windows 10 & Android 6.0 on Intel Atom X7-Z8750 Processor (Crowdfunding)

GPD HD Win portable game console is getting some competition, albeit in a slightly different form factor, with PGS portable game console based on Intel Atom x7-Z8750 quad core processor, running Windows 10 and Android 6.0, and featuring D-Pad, buttons, and a touch pad, replacing the QWERTY keyboard in GPD device. Two models are available, namely PGS Lite and PGS Hardcore, with the following specifications: SoC – Intel Atom x7-Z8750 quad-core “Cherry Trail” processor @ 1.44/2.56 GHz (Burst) with 16EU Intel HD Gen8 graphics @ up to 600MHz System Memory Lite – 4GB LPDDR3-1600 Hardcore – 8GB LPDDR3-1600 Storage Lite – 64GB eMMC flash Hardcore – 128 GB SSD Display Lite – 5.5″ capacitive touch IPS screen; 1280×720 resolution Hardcore – 5.7″ capacitive touch AMOLED screen; 2560×1440 resolution Video Output – 1x micro HDMI port Audio micro HDMI, 3.5mm earphone jack Lite – Stereo speakers Hardcore – 5.0 speakers Connectivity […]

June 29, 2016 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 16 Comments

Improve YouTube Video Playback on Low Power Intel mini PCs by Disabling VP9 Support in Chrome or Firefox

I’ve been reviewing several Intel Bay Trail, Cherry Trail, and Braswell mini PCs in the last year or so, and I always end up recommending Microsoft Edge browser over Firefox or Chrome for people wanting to watch YouTube videos, as the last two browsers always drop many frames with the video stuttering regularly. However I noticed that while Edge is playing MP4/AVC (H.264) video, the other two browser would normally stream WebM/VP9 videos, and it could be the cause of the problem as H.264 can be hardware accelerated, but VP9 not, and the low power processor might not quite powerful enough to handle 1080p VP9 video decoding smoothly. So I investigated the issues with Vorke V1 mini PC powered by an Intel Celeron J3160 processor (6W TDP) with the three browsers by first checking enabled codecs in YouTube HTML5 page. Microsoft Edge has both VP8 and VP9 disabled When I […]