Another day, another tiny PC. A Chinese company called Hongpad is selling a box powered an Intel Atom Bay Trail-T processor with a wholesale price of $70 to $80.
While the Hongpad Intel Box is being sold as a TV box, it’s capable of running either Google Android or Windows 8.1, so there’s nothing stopping you from using it as a small, inexpensive, low-power desktop computer.
Well, almost nothing.
There are a growing number of tiny TV box/PC devices with Intel Bay Trail chips, but this one manages to stand out thanks to a super-slim design, much like the Egreat i5 and Guleak i8.
Despite its slim design, the Hongpad Intel Box has room for three full-sized USB ports, a micro USB port, micro HDMI port, and microSD card slot as well as a headphone jack.
The Hongpad Intel Box features 2GB of RAM and 16GB of storage and according to a listing at Alibaba it supports Windows 8.1 or Google Android. But that doesn’t mean it’ll ship with Windows pre-installed an activated.
Some device makers have opted to save money by loading only a trial version of Windows on similar devices.
That said, you could always install Windows 10 or another operating system. Microsoft’s preview version of its upcoming operating system is free to use until the end of the preview period.
You could also pay for a Windows license… but that would likely double the cost of the Hongpad Intel Box.
thanks @RiotingSpectre!
Why the fascination with how slim a desktop is when it’s clear that the tech is mobile and tablets do all this with a battery and display?
Why would anyone install anything else but Linux or Android on it is beyond me. And XBMC. Little things go far. 😉
be nice is chromeos could easily run on these.
there’s already tons of android tv box (and on most of them you can install linux)
ugh.. Landfills are going to be full of these things..
10.00 more and they could easily double the ram and add an ethernet port.
You can always just pick this one up. More ports but thicker.
https://www.geekbuying.com/item/PIPO-X7-Windows-8-1-Smart-Mini-PC-TV-Box-Media-Player-2G-RAM-32G-ROM-Intel-3736F-2-16GHz-Quad-Core—Black-340056.html?utm_source=EMS&utm_medium=EMSHP_Product_Link&utm_campaign=EMSHP_Feed_340056
Are these actually shipping? Are there any reviews?
they are shipping. some folks have received them on slickdeals. its a good place to get honest customer reviews:
https://slickdeals.net/f/7569214-pipo-x7-windows-8-1-smart-mini-pc-w-1-year-office-365-98-free-shipping?v=1&p=73806392#post73806392
Hongpad Intel Box = VOYO Mini PC with only 16GB storage. Worst pairing ever.
so ethernet/wifi/audio would be thru usb? Brad, what kind of device is this?
Good question. Where is the network connection?
Wifi.
Does anyone imagine with Windows 10 Microsoft might repeat the offer they made with Windows 8 where users of the preview version could buy a copy for $40?
That would be great. With all these sub $100 machines, Microsoft really needs to reconsider their pricing plans to something that doesn’t cost more than the computers themselves.
I don’t the $40 was for preview version. Only from Win 7 to 8 was $40.
They’re really going all out to get people to upgrade to Windows 10. With it being free for people who are on Win 7/8, i can honestly see it being $40 for every non-business user, but thats just my personal theory, they haven’t offered any concrete pricing details beyond the free deal.