Fred C.
Lets be clear, I knew pretty much what I was ordering when I purchased this. Its a great price point if you are just a touch tech savvy hand have and TV or monitor with an HDMI port. It does what it is meant to do. I can stream music and movies with little or no hesitation, Facebook, play Facebook-style games with no real problem. Note: THIS IS NOT a high CPU/GPU combo for running Call of Duty or high input/output type games. It IS a bit slow (both in wireless and hard wired Ethernet configurations). Ive paired it with a (newly purchased) 24" touch screen monitor, added a wireless mini-keyboard and a Blue Tooth mouse to cover our needs. It came with and is running (with updates) Windows 10 with no discernible issue. Thus, I have a Windows desktop for my style of PC usage, and my wife has hers. She reports no problems other than a slight slowness when compared to other devices in our household. All in all, it works. works at an affordable price, and if left with plenty of open air-flow runs for long periods of time without over heating. I took one star away (and frankly this problem is industry wide) for their use of either a less-than-sturdy mini-USB plug (which is hard wired to the power adapter) or a less-than-sturdy Mini-USB port on the device itself. I have some devices which use the same specification USB where I plug and unplug the device daily for charging. Ive plugged in and unplugged this device less than a dozen times (and yes I use "kid-gloves" - Im big, but gentle) and the power connection fails on a regular basis. Im not going to bother with doing a return unless it goes toes-up completely as I can fashion a method of holding the USB plug/port secure with items I have around. When purchasing, be aware - this IS NOT up to being moved around or relocated much. For the price? It works. Just keep your expectations reasonable and youll be happy. Ive taken away another star as of 08/25/2017. Any reasonable attempt to keep the power plug affixed has been defeated by (I believe) the expansion of the ports contacts due to heat build-up. After running for a couple of hours (I havent timed it or done any rigorous testing) the USB plug loses contact - the unit shuts down (i.e.: power connect indicator light goes out). The concept behind the device is sound and its "okay" for some quick or fairly light use. One of the reasons I held off on reviewing this item was because I wondered how this would continue to perform over time. Sadly, I cant give this a generally good recommendation. This is NOT an item for the general computing public who expects to plug and go with no problems. Coming up with a better power connector MIGHT make this a better buy for nearly anyone. However, until that issue is resolved. My recommendation to the average buyer is to spend the extra money and get a device that is more mainstream like a tablet, low end notebook, or internet media streaming device. Do not buy this with the expectation of problem free use.
