Review on MINIX Z83-4 Plus/MAX 4GB/128GB Fanless Mini PC: Intel Cherry Trail Windows 10 Pro, Dual-Band Wi-Fi, Gigabit Ethernet, 4K Output, BT - Buy from MINIX by Onsommoshit Mathews

has been running for several weeks with no problems. Solidly made, of course, there is nothing to complain about in terms of quality. There were no viruses or other malware installed on my device, so there are no complaints. This device runs a simplified version of Windows 10 Pro. This OS choice can be a positive depending on your needs, but the bad news is that you get stuck with regular forced Windows updates. They appear frequently and take forever to install. In fact, I spent the first 2 days that I had this device waiting for the many Windows updates required to bring it up to the current version level. The frequency and duration of updates can affect your use case, so this needs to be considered. Overall, this is a good little computer that can do basic things like web browsing, email, and light text editing. There are several use cases on this list, some of which I agree with and some of which I don't. It can certainly be used for digital signage, POS (depending on the POS software and how you use it) and thin client (although this client is not very thin with Windows 10 Pro). Note that the number of browser pages open at the same time is limited. The processor is too weak and the eMMC storage is slow. This will work, but point performance will quickly decrease if you have multiple things open at the same time. It comes with a VESA mount that attaches to the back of any VESA-compliant monitor, which is a plus when space is tight. Windows 10 Pro occupies more than half of the 57 GB RAM, my system only has 27 GB free. You can add a microSD card to provide additional file storage. I had no issues with a 64GB uSDXC card and had nothing left to test on this unit. I don't think there's a way to increase storage or storage beyond that, but I didn't take the device apart to find out. HDMI works well up to 4K and also supports Full HD (1080P) and UQHD (3440x1440). DisplayPort supports 1080P but not UQHD. I couldn't test 4K as I don't have a 4K display with DisplayPort input. As for the multimedia device, the news is mixed. While the Wi-Fi works great, I ran my tests using a wired Ethernet connection. I tested with a reliable 1GB fiber internet connection. I get my Chromebook to use the fastest with this connection and get download and upload speeds of 850 Mbps. With MINIX I get about 250Mbps. On top of that, unless I have a bad device, the CPU just can't handle the network traffic. However, 250 Mbit/s is more than enough for video streaming. When testing on a 4K TV, my experience wasn't very good. Streaming services like Netflix, YouTube, YouTube TV, and Revain were all able to stream movies and videos, although there were noticeable frame drops even at 1080P. But the real problem is with the menu. Scrolling in the menu is slow, the screen is redrawn depending on what images are in the browser. It was frustrating to use any of these apps, so I don't recommend them for internet video streaming. But streaming from a local SD card was better. I tested AVI, MK5, standard definition files, video and sound were excellent! MP4 1080P with AAC audio is not so good. The video was choppy and the audio track was out of sync with the video making the experience unacceptable. The 2160P video (as MKV) was choppy and the audio track was out of sync with the video. I tested both 1080P and 2160P on internal eMMC, performance was no better. Given the storage limitations, I think it's better to use SD video anyway, but it's a tradeoff between better resolution and some performance loss. There is no remote control for this device (at least not included) so you will need a keyboard and mouse to operate all controls. That might be okay for some, but I fought. I've been playing light games using items in the Microsoft App Store. Games like solitaire are great. I wouldn't recommend using this to run even low resolution graphics applications. In summary, this device was designed to support a highly specialized market. Digital signage would be ideal. If you're interested in a personal productivity or gaming device, look elsewhere.